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The international unit of Alipay owner Ant Group plans to seek stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong and Singapore, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.Ant International will apply for a stablecoin issuer's license once the regulatory regime comes into effect in August, according to the report, citing people familiar with the matter. The firm is also planning to apply for a similar license in its native Singapore, as well as Luxembourg.Hong Kong has been establishing a stablecoin regime since 2023, with the legislation expected to go into effect in August.Stablecoins are tokens pegged to the value of a traditional financial asset, such as a fiat currency, providing a counterweight to the volatility of BTC, ETH and other cryptos. As such they may...

Stablecoin-focused blockchain Plasma raised its deposit cap to $1 billion early Thursday — and hit that limit within 30 minutes.The new cap marks a doubling from the prior $500 million ceiling, which had itself been raised just days earlier following a community-driven outcry over bot activity and rapid sellout times. Plasma said the short-notice announcement was designed to give real users, such as those active in its Discord, a fairer shot at joining. But it’s not a token sale just yet.“Deposits are not the sale itself,” Plasma clarified in a post. “All funds remain fully owned by depositors and will be bridged to Plasma mainnet beta.” Participants earn the right to buy into the eventual $50 million XPL public sale...

Dogecoin DOGE experienced sharp swings over the past 24 hours, initially surging to 20 cents before falling to 19.1 cents, representing a 6.63% range. The meme coin formed a V-shaped recovery pattern late in the session, climbing back to $0.192 with rising volume, though resistance remains firm around just above 20 cents.News BackgroundDogecoin’s latest price action comes amid renewed interest in meme tokens following a series of crypto market shake-ups.Speculation around a possible DOGE ETF has gained traction, with Polymarket data indicating a 51% chance of SEC approval in 2025 — a development that could inject institutional capital into the market.Meanwhile, Dogecoin’s integration with Coinbase’s Base network is adding functional value, introducing wrapped DOGE into DeFi ecosystems for the first...

Wednesday's softer-than-expected U.S. inflation has likely set the stage for accelerated gains in bitcoin BTC, potentially to $200,000 by the end of the year, according to Matt Mena, crypto research strategist at 21Shares."If BTC breaks out of the $105K-$110K range with conviction, we could see a sharp move to $120K and, more importantly, reach our year-end price target of $138.5K by the end of the summer," Mena told CoinDesk in an email. "Today’s CPI print may serve as a bullish catalyst for Bitcoin - and it may be the unlock that brings this target forward by several months. If momentum continues building, a $200K Bitcoin by year-end is now firmly in play," Mena added. 21Shares is one of the world's first...

Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making news in the markets:Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk's Crypto Daybook Americas.As Asia begins its Thursday business day, ETH is trading at $2,770.ETH is up almost 11% this month, according to CoinDesk market data, outperforming BTC, which rose 5%.Part of this could be because of institutional trading demand, and the fact that it's overtaken BTC in derivatives markets as sophisticated investors increasingly bet on ETH’s structural growth and role as a gateway between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi), OKX Chief Commercial Officer Lennix Lai told CoinDesk in...