Coindesk

Lido Finance, Ethereum’s largest liquid staking platform by locked value, has introduced a proposal that grants staked ether (stETH) holders direct voting power alongside existing DAO tokenholders.The upgrade, dubbed Lido Improvement Proposal (LIP) 28, outlines a dual governance system allowing stETH holders — those who stake ETH via Lido and receive a liquid token in return — to participate in a veto mechanism on key protocol decisions. Currently, only holders of LDO, Lido’s governance token, have a say in how the protocol evolves.Under the new system, stETH holders could veto certain proposals approved by LDO tokenholders, though the veto would not enable them to push proposals through unilaterally.The proposed system is framed as a mechanism to increase accountability and decentralization,...

House Republicans unveiled a discussion draft of a market structure bill but all eyes this week were on the Senate, where a largely bipartisan effort to advance stablecoin legislation ran up against a wall.PS: I'll be in Toronto next week for Consensus. In town? Come say hi.You’re reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions.Unstable movementThe narrativeStablecoin and market structure bills are the two big things around crypto that Congress is expected to get to President Donald Trump's desk this year. There was a press conference by crypto and AI czar David Sacks with the chairs of the House and Senate committees. Everyone had this...

Coinbase (COIN) has its own strategy for BTC on the corporate balance sheet, but it's not a bitcoin maximalist play like that of Michael Saylor's Strategy (MSTR).On the company's first quarter 2025 earnings call, CFO Alesia Haas revealed that Coinbase purchased $150 million in crypto, “predominantly bitcoin,” bringing its long-term investment portfolio to $1.3 billion, or 25% of net cash.Haas, however, went out of her way to draw a line between Coinbase and firms that explicitly tie their corporate identity to holding bitcoin on the balance sheet.“To be clear, we're an operating company,” she said. “But we do invest alongside the space.”In other words, Coinbase isn’t betting the company on bitcoin. On a Q&A call with retail investors, Armstrong said...

Bitcoin pushed past the six-figure mark for the first time in over two months, coming within a hair of $104,000 in early Asian hours Saturday, as crypto markets staged a sharp rebound on improving macro sentiment and Ethereum’s latest network upgrade.Dogecoin (DOGE) led altcoin gains with a 10% rally, while ether (ETH) rose 3.5% following the successful implementation of its long-awaited Pectra upgrade, bringing weekly gains over 30%.Other majors including Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), xrp (XRP) and BNB Chain’s BNB rose between 2-6%, driven by a shift in investor sentiment from caution to risk-on.The move follows a string of pro-crypto developments in the U.S. this week. On Wednesday, New Hampshire passed a bill allowing the state to create a strategic...

Tech titan Meta (META) has reportedly been looking into the possibility of a return to the stablecoin market after having spurred a U.S. regulatory backlash from its efforts in years past, and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren told CoinDesk that the pending legislation to govern stablecoins needs to insist that's not possible.A high-stakes crypto bill to set up U.S. rules for stablecoins such as Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC was virtually sailing through the Senate until Democrats — including some who had supported the effort in committee — rose against it in recent days and halted the bill's progress on the Senate floor this week. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act needs to change to prevent...