Coindesk

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)As bitcoin (BTC) and the wider crypto market await the Fed's rate decision on Wednesday, an anomaly has emerged that could weigh heavily on market mood: renewed doubt over the passing of U.S. crypto regulation.Early Tuesday, CoinDesk reported that Senate Democrats are hesitant to push forward landmark stablecoin legislation, citing concerns over President Donald Trump's growing personal gains from his crypto ventures.When Trump took office, many observers felt crypto regulation would proceed smoothly. Looking back, that optimism was probably misplaced. With the president actively involved in digital assets through family-linked projects like WLFI and memecoins, opposition has mounted, potentially slowing the regulatory progress.That might lead investors to reprice regulatory uncertainty just...

Banking giant Citi and SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), the digital assets-focused arm of Switzerland's main stock exchange, are teaming up to tokenize non-publicly traded shares in a move to streamline a $75 billion market that's littered with PDFs and paper documents.Citi will act as a custodian and issuer agent for tokenized versions of late stage, pre-IPO equities on SDX’s regulated blockchain-based Central Securities Depository (CSD) platform, the companies said on Tuesday.Citi said the platform, which is expected to go live in the third quarter, will exclude U.S. investors, but is otherwise global with an initial focus on Switzerland, Singapore and other parts of Asia.Private shares in high-growth, venture-backed companies are a large and appealing subset of an alternative asset class...

Florida has withdrawn two bills related to the creation of a state-level strategic bitcoin (BTC) reserve.House Bill 487 and Senate Bill 550 have been "indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration," according to the state Senate website. The two bills, which were both filed in February, sought to allow investment of public funds in BTC.Florida joins numerous other states, such as Wyoming, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, which have seen bills related to BTC investments fail to clear the legislative process, according to Bitcoin Laws. There are a string of other states with outstanding bills, most of which remain in the initial committee phase. The most advanced state-level process to establishing a BTC reserve was in Arizona, where SB 1025 passed a...

Figment, a major player in blockchain staking services, is actively looking to buy companies in a spree of crypto industry consolidation sparked by renewed optimism over U.S. regulatory clarity.The Toronto-based firm is targeting acquisitions between $100 million and $200 million, with a strong regional presence or within blockchain ecosystems, such as Cosmos and Solana, CEO Lorien Gabel told Bloomberg. He said the firm already has term sheets out for some deals, the report added.Figment helps institutions earn yield by staking, whereby tokens are locked to help secure blockchain networks and validate transactions supported by networks. The company currently manages around $15 billion in staked assets and employs about 150 people, Gabel said.The flurry of crypto deals, which include Kraken’s $1.5...

VIRTUAL, the native cryptocurrency of the Base-based Virtuals Protocol for creating and owning AI agents, has outperformed all major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC), over the past four weeks. This rally is characterized by increased participation from the "smart money" wallets, according to on-chain data tracked by Nansen.VIRTUAL has rallied 207% to $1.66 in 30 days to rank as the best performer among the top 100 tokens by market value, according to data source CoinDesk. Prices have risen 11% in the past seven days. Market leader bitcoin, meanwhile, has gained just 13% in four weeks, with flat performance over the past seven days.VIRTUAL is also the most traded token by smart money—wallets identified by Nansen as owned by institutions, funds, and...