Coindesk

As cryptocurrencies have been battered in a broad-market correction over the past weeks, digital asset investors sought refuge in tokenized U.S. Treasury products.Since late January, the combined market capitalization of Treasury-backed tokens grew $800 million to hit a fresh all-time record of $4.2 billion on Wednesday, data source rwa.xyz shows.Real-world asset platform Ondo Finance's (ONDO) products, the short-term bond-backed OUSG and USDY tokens, climbed to just shy of $1 billion combined, a 53% surge in market value over the past month. BUIDL, the token issued jointly by asset manager BlackRock and tokenization firm Securitize, gained 25% during the same period to surpass $800 million. Asset manager Franklin Templeton's BENJI token expanded to $687 million, a 16% increase, while Superstate's USTB...

Bitcoin's (BTC) role in decentralized finance (DeFi) is growing as the world's largest cryptocurrency evolves from more than just a store of value, Binance Research said in a report Thursday.The Bitcoin network is "evolving into a broader decentralized finance ecosystem with the emergence of Bitcoin DeFi," analyst Moulik Nagesh wrote.This is a sector that "unlocks bitcoin's capital efficiency" with the use of financial applications focused on lending, staking, stablecoins and decentralized exchanges (DEX's), the report said.DeFi is an umbrella term used for lending, trading and other financial activities carried out on a blockchain, without the need for traditional intermediaries.Binance noted that only ~0.8% of the bitcoin supply is currently being used in DeFi, and this presents a large "untapped opportunity."...

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee has advanced the crypto industry's stablecoin regulation bill, a first major step toward getting the effort to President Donald Trump's desk to be signed into law.With its first committee approval, the bill that would regulate U.S. stablecoin issuers at the federal level now needs passage by the overall Senate, and a similar version also awaits approval in the House of Representatives. While a number of hurdles remain, including an eventual melding of the different bills from each chamber, the committee advanced the bill with a 18-6 vote.Many Democrats on the committee acknowledged the need for the bill while also seeking to add a number of amendments to add additional regulatory controls and limits, each of...

Cryptocurrency app MoonPay, has acquired Iron, an API-focused stablecoin infrastructure platform, the company said in a press release Thursday.The acquisition will significantly increase Moonpay's enterprise offerings, the Miami-based company said, and will allow businesses to accept stablecoin payments.No acquisition price was given, but a report said the deal was worth at least $100 million.M&A activity in the crypto space is hotting up. Options exchange Derebit is in talks to be acquired, with a number of potential suitors vying for the company, as reported by CoinDesk last month. Crypto trading platform BitMEX is also looking for a buyer. Stripe agreed to buy stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion in October last year, in the largest crypto acquisition by a major payments...

Memecoins have been in the news lately, primarily driven by the launch of the President’s $Trump coin. Recently, the U.S. SEC clarified that, for the most part, memecoins are not securities as they don’t meet the Howey test. That doesn’t mean clients won’t be asking questions about these assets, though.So in today’s crypto for advisors, Janine Grainger from New Zealand-based Easy Crypto provides a breakdown of what memecoins are, how they work and the risks associated with them.Then, Kieran Mitha, a next-gen investor, answers questions about learning about memecoins in Ask an Expert.– Sarah MortonYou’re reading Crypto for Advisors, CoinDesk’s weekly newsletter that unpacks digital assets for financial advisors. Subscribe here to get it every Thursday.Memecoins: Boom, Bust and Billion-Dollar...