Coindesk

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...

One of the leading U.S. advocates for decentralized finance (DeFi), Miller Whitehouse-Levine, is departing his job as executive director of the DeFi Education Fund, where he'll be replaced by the group's chief legal officer, Amanda Tuminelli.Whitehouse-Levine, a fixture in U.S. crypto circles, will remain on the organization's board, according to a Thursday announcement, and a person familiar with his plans said he'll be taking a not-yet-announced role that keeps him in the industry lobbying space."I have made the difficult decision to leave my current role at DeFi Education Fund to pursue a new opportunity — a decision ultimately made easy knowing that Amanda’s incredibly capable leadership, passion and brilliance will lead DEF to new heights in service of the DeFi...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA-D) recently sounded the alarm over new proposals on stablecoin legislation, claiming they’d give Elon Musk a “clear runway” to control U.S. money and payments. If that sounds overly-dramatic, it’s because it is. Here's what these bills actually do: the GENIUS Act and the STABLE Act aim to create responsible guardrails for stablecoins, ensuring consumer protection and financial stability while encouraging innovation. Far from handing the keys to a single billionaire, they lay out clear standards so that no one — the world’s richest man or otherwise — can dominate payment infrastructure by sidestepping important safeguards.At their core, stablecoins are digital assets designed to maintain a constant value—most commonly tied to the U.S. dollar and backed by a...

A Trump family representative held talks to buy a stake in Binance's U.S. arm, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Thursday. The stake could have been acquired through Trump-family backed crypto project World Liberty Financial, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.Steve Witkoff, a friend of the U.S. president, was involved in the deal talks, the report added.The talks started last year after Binance reached out to Trump's allies offering to reach a deal with the family so as to bring the crypto exchange back to the U.S.Binance U.S. this not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.Source link