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Cryptocurrency debit card firm Baanx has partnered with Visa to launch stablecoin payment cards tied to self-custodial wallets, starting in the U.S. with Circle’s USDC dollar pegged token, the companies said.The Visa cards enable holders to spend USDC directly from their crypto wallets, using smart contracts to move a stablecoin balance upon card authorization from the consumer to Baanx in real time, with Baanx converting the balance into fiat for payment, according to a press release on Wednesday.Allowing people to manage their money on-chain with the help of major card networks like Visa and Mastercard is a fast growing segment within crypto. Baanx, a firm that specializes in crypto debit cards, is also working with Mastercard on a card linked...

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, the Ethereum protocol reporter on CoinDesk’s Tech team.In this issue:Inside Movement’s Token-Dump Scandal: Secret Contracts, Shadow Advisors and Hidden MiddlemenEthereum Could Supercharge Transaction Speed to 2,000 TPS Thanks to Bold New ProposalBitcoin Debate on Looser Data Limits Brings to Mind the Divisive Ordinals ControversyCoinbase’s Base Network Achieves ‘Stage 1’ Status, Reducing Centralization RiskUnknown block type "divider", specify a component for it in the `components.types` optionNetwork newsMOVEMENT’S TOKEN DUMP SCANDAL: Movement, a buzzy crypto startup supported by Trump’s World Liberty Financial, was rumored to be closing a $100M series B round. Instead, following a CoinDesk investigation, the network is now at the...

What if there were a crypto protocol that specialized in arbitrating on-chain disputes?Imagine if, whenever prediction markets like Polymarket settled in a controversial manner, users had a formal way to appeal through a sort of neutral on-chain court system. Or if decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) could rely on an efficient, knowledgeable third party to help them make decisions. Or if insurance contracts could automatically execute payouts when specific real-world events occurred.That’s essentially what Albert Castellana Lluís and his team are building with GenLayer, a crypto project that markets itself as a decision-making system, or trust infrastructure.“We're using a blockchain that has multiple AIs coordinate and reach agreement on subjective decisions, as if they were a judge," Castellana, co-founder and CEO...

Coinbase (COIN) filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case involving an Internal Revenue Service request for data on hundreds of thousands of its customers back in 2016, arguing the court should "protect Americans' privacy interests in digital information stored by third-party service providers."The U.S. tax agency — in an action during the first administration of President Donald Trump — had been seeking financial records under the stance that the individuals's transaction records should be made available once they'd shared their information with a third party. In this instance, that party was Coinbase. The exchange fought to narrow the request through court battles and eventually was compelled to deliver a much narrower scope of data."The court should intervene to...

The Crypto Council for Innovation is making a case with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that staking is not only a virtue for digital asset markets, but it should be hands-off for the securities regulator.The group — a coalition of staking interests, including Kraken, a16z, Lido, Galaxy, Figment, Polychain and Paradigm — argued in a letter to the agency's crypto task force that the logic behind the SEC staff's recent statement that "proof-of-work" crypto mining isn't a securities transaction under the agency's jurisdiction, should extend to the practice of staking, pulling it out of the securities bucket."Stakers, like PoW miners, are compensated based on protocol-defined outcomes, not managerial actions or profit-sharing arrangements," according to the letter reviewed by CoinDesk.When...