Coindesk

OKX chief legal officer Mauricio Beugelmans has left the cryptocurrency exchange, according to his Linkedin profile.Beugelmans, who has been instrumental in shaping OKX’s global compliance policy, states on his profile that his tenure lasted three years and eight months at the exchange, from August 2021 to March 2025.Just last month, OKX paid over $500 million in penalties and forfeited fees in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice which stated that the company had facilitated more than $5 billion in “suspicious transactions and criminal proceeds.”A source familiar with the matter said Beugelmans’ exit was related to the recent DoJ settlement.The DOJ said in a press release last month that OKX facilitated more than $5 billion in “suspicious transactions and...

Brazil’s top financial policy body banned some pension funds from investing in cryptocurrencies because they are too risky.The National Monetary Council (CMN) forbade closed pension entities known as Entidades Fechadas de Previdência Complementar (EFPCs) from allocating any portion of their guarantee reserves into bitcoin (BTC) or other digital currencies. The EFPCs manage retirement savings for tens of thousands of unionized and company-employed workers and their reserves are typically made up of bonds and equities.“The resolution also prohibits investments in virtual assets, considering their specific investment characteristics and associated risk,” a Ministry of Finance notice circulating among local news outlets reads.The ruling was published last week under under Resolution 5.202/2025 by the National Monetary Council (CMN).In contrast, last year British pension...

Japanese hotel firm Metaplanet (3350) has issued a 2 billion yen ($13.3 million) zero-coupon ordinary bond, with proceeds earmarked for additional bitcoin (BTC) purchases. The bond is scheduled to redeem on Sept. 30.In addition, Metaplanet has been added to the BetaShares Crypto Innovators ETF (CRYP), a fund with over $50 billion in assets under management, according to CEO Simon Gerovich. Metaplanet holds the largest weighting in the ETF at 15.5%, surpassing notable industry names such as Strategy (MSTR) and Coinbase (COIN), which take the second and third spots, respectively. The ETF is traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and offers investors exposure to companies operating at the forefront of the crypto and blockchain sectors. While, the CRYP ETF is...

Hashgraph, the blockchain development firm focusing on the Hedera (HBAR) network, is building a private, permissioned blockchain for enterprises in highly regulated industries with plans to debut in the third quarter of 2025.HashSphere, built with Hedera's technology, aims to bridge private and public distributed ledgers, ensuring compliance with regulations while maintaining interoperability, the company said Monday. Hashgraph is looking to provide services to asset managers, banks and payment providers seeking secure, low-cost cross-border transactions with stablecoins.While public blockchains offer security and transparency, enterprises in industries like finance and payments often face compliance challenges, particularly with know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) requirements. HashSphere addresses this by restricting access to verified participants, enabling firms to develop tokenized assets, AI-powered...

The Strategy (MSTR) bitcoin (BTC) acquisition machine continued to roll on last week.The company added 22,048 BTC for $1.92 billion, or an average price of $86,969 each, per a Monday morning filing. Total holdings are now 528,185 bitcoin purchased for $35.63 billion, or an average price of $67,458 each.At the current price around $82,000, those holdings are worth more than $43 billion.This latest purchase appeared to be funded mostly by additional common share issuance, a total of $1.2 billion worth in the week ended March 30, according to the filing. Strategy also tapped its STRK preferred share ATM for $18.52 million during the week.The company additionally closed on its STRF preferred share offering last week, raising $711.2 million.MSTR is lower...