Trade-offs between local institutions are expected to shape the digital euro’s final form, as debates continue over holding limits and privacy features. The EU Council recently announced that it is backing the European Central Bank’s digital euro design, which includes both online and offline functions. According to Apostolos Thomadakis, head of the financial markets and…
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Crypto privacy entered the spotlight in 2025 as new technology clashed with regulators, a trend that is set to intensify in 2026 with developers pushing the envelope and legal battles approaching a conclusion. In its early days, Bitcoin (BTC) was often viewed as an anonymous payment tool despite its transparency. Since then, the introduction of…
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The Bank of Russia put forward a policy proposal that would allow non-qualified investors to buy certain cryptocurrencies. According to a Tuesday announcement, the central bank’s proposal would allow both qualified and non-qualified investors to buy most crypto, but with limitations. Non-qualified investors would be limited to a yet-to-be-defined set of liquid crypto after passing…
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South Korean payments processor BC Card has completed a pilot project that enabled foreign users to pay local merchants using stablecoins. BC Card’s pilot project was announced Tuesday and was conducted with blockchain company Wavebridge, wallet provider Aaron group and cross-border remittance provider Global Money Express. The companies had foreign users convert their stablecoins held…
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The Council of the European Union (EU) the European Central Bank’s (ECB) digital euro design, A Friday document outlined the council’s position on the digital euro, including alignment with the ECB on launching online and offline variants simultaneously ECB President Christine Lagarde that t rest with EU lawmakers “It’s now for the European Council and…
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The Hong Kong Insurance Authority is reportedly proposing to allow insurance capital allocation to cryptocurrencies and infrastructure projects. Bloomberg reported on Monday that the city’s regulator started reviewing the risk-based capital regime to support the insurance industry and economic development. Crypto allocations would be subject to a 100% risk charge, meaning that the insurer would…
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The European Central Bank plans to allow blockchain-based settlement in central bank money next year and is preparing to issue a digital euro, but its privacy safeguards will ultimately depend on approval from EU lawmakers. ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone said in a Friday statement that the institution will “make it possible to settle…
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The administrator of Terraform Labs’ bankruptcy, Todd Snyder, has filed a lawsuit seeking $4 billion in damages from trading company Jump Trading and multiple executives. According to a Friday Wall Street Journal report, the lawsuit alleges that Jump Trading unlawfully profited from and contributed to the 2022 crash of Terra. Alongside the company, the suit…
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Bitcoin’s hashrate fell by about 10% in a single day on Sunday, with Jianping Kong, former co-chairman of Bitcoin mining hardware producer Canaan, attributing it to mining farms shutting down in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region. In a Monday X post, Kong said Bitcoin’s hashrate dropped by about 100 terahashes per second (TH/s) since Sunday. He…
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Crypto exchange Binance has added new features to its application programming interface (API), indicating that the platform is preparing to introduce stock trading capabilities. Binance’s changelog notes that on Thursday, the exchange introduced three new API endpoints, one of which — with a URL including stock/contract — allows users to “sign [a] TradFi-Perps agreement contract.”…
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