Bitcoin layer-2 infrastructure firm Lightning Labs has released the mainnet alpha of Taproot Assets, a protocol aimed at enabling stablecoins and real-world assets to be issued on the Bitcoin and Lightning Network. The current version, Taproot Assets v0.3, will provide a “feature-complete developer experience” to issue, manage and explore stablecoins and other assets on the Bitcoin…
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A recent panel at the Swan Pacific Bitcoin festival was cleverly titled, “Are halving price cycles bullshit?” Throughout the discussion, host and founder of the Bitcoin Layer Nik Bhatia asked Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel, Swan CIO Ralph Zagury and Swan product manager Andy Edstrom to share their thoughts on whether the Bitcoin halving is…
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The Inspector General’s Office (OIG) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the independent United States government body that provides deposit insurance to commercial and savings banks, has published an evaluation report on the corporation’s crypto asset risk strategy. A redacted version of the report has been released to the public. The FDIC adopted a…
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The governing council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has announced it will begin the ”preparation phase” for the digital euro project following a two-year investigation. In an Oct. 18 notice, the ECB said it plans to “start laying the foundation for the possible issuance of a digital euro” beginning on Nov. 1, adding the…
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Bitcoin (BTC) price continues to show strength this week by hitting an intra-day high at $28,516 even as macroeconomic headwinds in the United States continue to weigh on investor sentiment. It’s possible that a certain degree of BTC’s price stability can be attributed to increasing institutional activity and positive institutional investor interest in Bitcoin. On…
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Senator Elizabeth Warren was the lead author of a letter signed by 28 other senators and 76 members of the House of Representatives about the role of cryptocurrency in financing terrorism. Signers came from both parties and included one independent, although Democrats predominate. The letter, dated Oct. 17, was addressed to Treasury Under Secretary for…
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury has sanctioned a crypto operator allegedly connected to the terrorist group Hamas. In an Oct. 18 notice, OFAC announced sanctions for Hamas operatives and financial facilitators following the organization’s attack on Israel. The entities added to OFAC’s list of specially…
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Bitcoin (BTC) is up over 70% so far in 2023, helped by a banking crisis and hopes about a spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the United States. BTC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView So, will Bitcoin price continue to climb for the rest of 2023? Cointelegraph takes a look at its chances and…
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Ethereum restaking — proposed by middleware protocol EigenLayer — is a controversial innovation over the past year that has some of the brightest minds worried about the potential ramifications. Restaking involves reusing staked or locked-up Ether tokens to earn fees and rewards. The restaked tokens can then help secure and validate other protocols. Proponents believe…
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The Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) Project Atlas report offers yet another indication that the worlds of crypto and traditional finance may be converging. On the surface, this proof-of-concept project backed by some of Europe’s biggest central banks — like German central bank Deutsche Bundesbank and Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche Bank — seems modest…
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