Coindesk

The much-anticipated White House Crypto Summit on Friday ended with a whimper rather than a bang for cryptocurrency traders, sending altcoins like XRP, Cardano’s ADA, and Solana’s SOL into steeper declines than market leader bitcoin (BTC).Investors had pinned high hopes on President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance, expecting bold announcements about a U.S. strategic crypto reserve that would prominently feature major altcoins.Instead, the summit delivered a more subdued outcome: a framework for stablecoin legislation before August and assurances of a lighter regulatory touch—moves that failed to ignite the market as anticipated.Trump said it was "foolish" that the federal government had already sold so much of its seized bitcoin, adding that the country will a colloquial rule of “never sell your bitcoin.”XRP...

Crypto exchange and custodian Gemini has confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The firm, founded by billionaire Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is working with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, the report said, noting that no final decision has been made on the listing.The potential IPO comes after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ended its investigation into Gemini without taking action, according to a February post by Cameron Winklevoss. The company also settled a separate Commodity Futures Trading Commission lawsuit in January for $5 million.Gemini is among several crypto firms lining up to list their companies in the U.S. public market after the SEC has been in a full-scale litigation...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As he walked out of the White House's crypto summit on Friday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said his U.S. exchange is planning to hire a thousand people because of the policy progress the industry seems to be making at the beginning of President Donald Trump's second term."It's only been, what, 50 days or something like that, and it's already created enough of a tailwind that we feel more confident in investing in the United States and growing our business here," Armstrong told CoinDesk. He said the hiring would take place this year.Coinbase, specifically, watched the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission completely abandon its pivotal enforcement action against the leading U.S. crypto platform. The company had been fighting...

Federally regulated banks can engage in a range of cryptocurrency activities without prior approval, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said, in a new interpretive letter and statement.In a new interpretive letter, the OCC clarified that national banks and federal savings associations can legally provide crypto custody, conduct certain stablecoin-related activities, and run nodes. “The OCC expects banks to have the same strong risk management controls in place to support novel bank activities as they do for traditional ones,” said Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney E. Hood. “Today’s action will reduce the burden on banks to engage in crypto-related activities and ensure that these bank activities are treated consistently by the OCC, regardless of the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump assured the crypto sector that it's on new ground in a first-ever summit at the White House on Friday, illustrating what the industry suspected: It's got friends at every level in Washington."I know that many of you have been fighting for years for this, and it's an honor to be with you at the White House," Trump said as the White House meeting got underway.In his brief statement, Trump said he would end his predecessor's “war on crypto,” praised lawmakers' legislative efforts and discussed his new Bitcoin reserve.“Regulators strong armed banks. I mean, they really did – They strong armed banks into closing the accounts of crypto businesses and entrepreneurs, effectively blocking...