South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party proposed a “Digital Asset Basic Act” Wednesday that would establish a legal framework for digital assets, including issuance, trading, custody and supervision.
“Digital assets are emerging as a core medium connecting the real economy and financial markets,” the proposal states. It defines value-linked digital assets, including those tied to fiat currencies or real-world assets, as a category requiring issuer authorization, refund reserves and redemption obligations.
The new proposal comes amid stalled Digital Asset Basic Act negotiations since early this year when regulators clashed over who should be allowed to issue won-pegged stablecoins. The Bank of Korea insisted banks with 51% ownership should be the only ones authorized to issue stablecoins, while the Financial Services Commission warned this could hinder innovation.
The bill also said it aims to “establish a foundation for Korea to lead the global digital financial order.” Under the proposal, entities seeking to issue such assets must obtain approval and meet requirements including capital thresholds, operational capacity and reserve plans.
The legislation would introduce licensing, registration and reporting requirements for digital asset businesses, including trading, brokerage, custody and advisory services.
It would also establish rules on disclosures, internal controls and market conduct, including prohibitions on unfair trading practices such as market manipulation and use of non-public information.
The proposal calls for the creation of a digital asset committee to review and coordinate policy, as well as national basic and implementation plans for the sector.
It also noted that South Korea’s current system remains focused on investor protection and lacks a comprehensive framework covering issuance, disclosure and market structure.
The proposal follows the announcement of new rules Wednesday by the country’s Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service ordering all domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to adopt a single, strict system for delaying withdrawals. The aim is to block a surge in voice phishing scams that rely on speed.
Zcash (ZEC) rallied after President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire deal with Iran, leading gains in a broader relief rally across global risk markets.
Key takeaways:
A 2021-style fractal warns ZEC price could fall 40% toward in the coming weeks.
Over $50 million in long leverage sits below current prices, leaving ZEC exposed to a possible crash.
ZEC/USD vs. XMR/USD and DASH/USD price performance in the past five days. Source: TradingView
ZEC rally risks becoming a 2021-style bull trap
The privacy coin rose over 30% in the past 24 hours to $336.50 on Tuesday, its highest level since January. Its top rivals also climbed, with Monero (XMR) up 3% and Dash (DASH) up 8%.
ZEC’s latest rebound is starting to resemble the setup that followed its 2021 peak. Back then, it entered a prolonged bear cycle after peaking near $392.
During this correction, ZEC underwent multiple sharp bounces after testing its 0.238 Fibonacci retracement line at around $85, only to see its upside momentum weakening underneath a descending trendline resistance.
ZEC/USD weekly chart. Source: TradingView
Zcash’s current setup looks similar. Its 0.236 Fib level near $197 is again acting as strong support, while a descending trendline continues to cap upside attempts.
ZEC/USD weekly chart. Source: TradingView
A continued rebound could lift ZEC toward its 0.5 Fibonacci retracement level near $370, which also lines up with the descending trendline resistance.
But the rally could lose steam if bulls fail to break above the trend line, raising the risk of a pullback toward the $197–$200 support zone. In that case, the current move may start to look like the 2021 bull trap setup.
Related: Zcash devs raise $25M from major VCs months after ECC split
Conversely, a decisive breakout above the trendline may trigger a falling wedge breakout setup, with a measured upside target at around $1,200.
ZEC/USDT weekly price chart. Source: TradingView
In the past, multiple analysts, including BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes and Alphractal CEO and Co-Founder Joao Wedson, have predicted the ZEC price to reach $1,000 or higher.
ZEC liquidation data raises downside risks
Zcash’s liquidation heatmap points to greater downside risk in the coming weeks.
For instance, Binance’s ZEC/USDT contracts may see $3.81 million worth of cumulative short liquidations if the price rallies above $380 in the coming weeks.
In comparison, roughly $50.56 million in cumulative long positions could be wiped out if the price drops below $260.
Markets tend to move toward zones where many leveraged positions are concentrated. In ZEC’s case, the larger concentration sits below the current price, where long liquidations far exceed potential short liquidations above.
The heatmap also highlights $305–$306 as the largest single liquidation pocket, with about $1.76 million in leveraged positions clustered in that range. That makes it an important near-term level to watch.
This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research before making any decisions. Cointelegraph makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information presented, including forward-looking statements, and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from reliance on this content.
A firm issuing stablecoins in the U.S. would have an array of new duties to head off criminals and keep government watchdogs informed about malicious actors, according to rules poised for proposal by the U.S. Department of the Treasury that were reviewed by CoinDesk.
A joint proposal from the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) will outline the deep controls that stablecoin businesses would have to put in place, including abilities to “block, freeze and reject” transactions and internal protections to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act that governs most of the U.S. financial system.
In one of the most significant moves yet to implement last year’s Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act — the first major crypto-sector law for the U.S. — the two arms of the Treasury Department that police illicit finance are setting out a tailored approach for stablecoin firms, which will be opened for a public comment period and potential revisions before it’s finalized. But the agencies are also sending a message of deference to the industry, suggesting the companies understand their own hazards best.
A summary of the joint proposal reviewed by CoinDesk said it’s focused on effectiveness “and that financial institutions are best positioned to identify and evaluate their money laundering, terrorist financing and illicit finance risks.” The department’s effort contends that a firm that’s running appropriate money-laundering preventions is generally safe from enforcement actions unless it’s showing “a significant or systemic failure to maintain that program.”
On that money-laundering front, FinCEN would expect stablecoin issuers’ programs to be able to halt specifically flagged transactions and to know where to devote “more attention and resources toward higher-risk customers and activities.” When the U.S. authorities are pursuing a specific target, the regulated issuers subjected to this proposed rule would have to scour their own records for any activity tied to individuals or entities flagged by FinCEN.
Also, the issuers will be expected to act as allies in the agency’s pursuit of entities identified as “primary money laundering concerns.” As recently as 2023, the agency had sought to tag crypto mixers such as Tornado Cash under that label, though earlier this year, the Treasury Department reversed course to suggest that mixers could serve legitimate and legal privacy uses.
On the sanctions front, OFAC would require stablecoin issuers run risk-based safeguards for stablecoin activity on primary or secondary markets, and the policies must spot and reject transactions “that may violate or would violate U.S. sanctions.” Sanction missteps — including past flagrant violations — have been a critical concern of crypto industry detractors, including recent scrutiny focused on the world’s biggest exchange, Binance.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that his department’s latest efforts “will protect the U.S. financial system from national security threats without hindering American companies’ ability to forge ahead in the payment stablecoin ecosystem.”
The crypto industry and its stablecoin leaders — including Tether, Circle, Ripple and the firm partially owned and controlled by the family of President Donald Trump, World Liberty Financial — have been awaiting regulation that helps further establish their bespoke assets as safe and reliable. Some tensions remain in the wider crypto community, which has had a tumultuous relationship with governments since its beginnings, when its founding principles aimed to keep cryptocurrencies outside of government control.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) sector remains a space that seeks to cut away intermediaries and maintain direct interactions, but the illicit-finance controls for that arena are still unresolved in the ongoing negotiations among the industry, securities sector and lawmakers over the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act in the U.S. Senate. While the Treasury’s stablecoin proposal and others from U.S. financial regulators are beginning to sketch out the guardrails, wide swaths of crypto activity still need to be addressed.
Earlier this year, a third arm of the Treasury — the independent Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that regulates national banks and trusts — proposed its standards and procedures for issuers it’ll watch as the primary federal regulator. This week, its sister regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. did the same with a largely parallel proposal.
The GENIUS Act is meant to go into full effect by 2027. Well before that, firms have been pursuing charters and partnerships to get involved in stablecoins. The Trump-tied World Liberty, for instance, applied for a charter as a trust bank in January and manages the USD1 stablecoin.
The company is under fresh scrutiny this week after reportedly being unaware that its AB DAO partner was involved in a project with potential ties to Cambodia’s Prince Group, the target of major U.S. investigations, sanctioning and the seizure last year of a record $14 billion in bitcoin BTC$71,256.15. Those types of business relationships at stablecoin issuers would be under stringent new industry-managed controls in the Treasury Department’s pending proposal.
Moo Deng (MOODENG) is up more than 6% in the last 24 hours amid news a man was fined for entering the hippo’s quarters.
The token’s jump is outpacing other meme coins as the broader crypto market moves higher.
Nevertheless, the Solana-based MOODENG remains nearly 93% off its all-time high.
The Solana meme coin inspired by viral pygmy hippo Moo Deng (MOODENG) is up 6.5% in the last 24 hours amid news that a man that intruded on the animal’s enclosure has been fined for the act.
The man, who was reportedly fined $300 for unlawfully entering the area, was found guilty by a local Thai court after being arrested in March.
In a video shared following the arrest, a male can be seen hopping a fence at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo when no staff were around Moo Deng’s quarters. He holds what appears to be an iPad or a similar tablet in hand, before approaching Moo Deng while recording a video.
The stunt has led to increased security measures at the zoo according to its director Narongwit Chodchoy, who told AFP that it will “have to train [staff] on what to do if there are any intruders.”
“We learned from this lesson and will not allow it to happen again—not to Moo Deng and not to other animals in the zoo,” he said. The viral pygmy hippo was not harmed during the stunt, but was “slightly startled” according to the report.
Moo Deng rose to popularity in early 2024, quickly becoming a viral sensation on social media for its playful antics. Around that time, a meme coin celebrating the hippo was launched via popular token launchpad Pump.fun, and shortly thereafter gained traction.
In November of that year, the token surged to an all-time high around $0.68, or about a $680 million market cap. While the high was short-lived, the token maintained relevancy for a while longer, ultimately earning listings from all the major centralized exchanges, including Coinbase, which spiked the token price by 80% in December of that year.
Since that time, though, it’s largely been stuck in a downward spiral, recently changing hands around $0.048, or about a $48 million market cap—nearly 93% off its all-time high. Mainstream media attention, like the recent report from the AFP, typically provide a burst of life to meme coins, which are tokens that are often based on popular culture and events and have no real utility.
For example, the price of MOODENG surged around 33% when the zoo announced plans for a first birthday party last July.
However, the token’s latest surge also comes amid improving macroeconomic conditions, highlighted by the late Tuesday conditional ceasefire in Iran, avoiding a potentially massive attack teased by U.S. President Donald Trump. Since that time, all crypto assets have surged, led by Bitcoin and Ethereum jumping 4.2% and 6.3% respectively in the last day.
Meme coins as a whole have underperformed the majors, though, jumping just 3.6% in the last 24 hours according to CoinGecko.
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Bitcoin BTC$71,256.15 has pulled above $70,000 on news of the Iran ceasefire, but the rally is, for now, fairly cautious.
There may be good reasons for that.
One of the more reliable signals for gauging where bitcoin may be headed comes from tracking margin long positions on Bitfinex. These positions, which reflect bullish bets funded with borrowed capital, still remain elevated at 80,057 BTC, around the highest level in more than two years, according to TradingView data.
The data suggests these long positions are not being unwound despite the price being more than 15% higher since bottoming at $60,000 two months ago. This suggests that, in aggregate, market participants may not view the recent rally as sufficient confirmation that risks have fully subsided.
Historically, Bitfinex margin long positions have functioned as a contrarian indicator. They tend to build during periods of market stress and are reduced as prices rise. For example, long positions were sharply reduced near local bottoms during the yen carry trade unwind in August 2024, when bitcoin fell to $49,000, and again in April 2025 amid tariff tensions under President Trump, when bitcoin dropped to $76,000.
Muted U.S. institutional demand
At the same time, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index is fluctuating between a premium and a discount, pointing to a lack of consistent buying pressure from U.S. investors.
The index, which tracks the price difference between bitcoin on Coinbase and the broader global market, is often used as a proxy for institutional demand. Its indecisive positioning suggests that U.S. flows are not strongly supporting the rally, raising questions about the move’s sustainability.
Muted rally for crypto stocks
Underscoring the caution, crypto-related stocks are all firmly in the green on Wednesday, but the gains are rather modest given how far they’ve been punished previously.
Among the names: Coinbase (COIN) is up 1.5%, Circle (CRCL) 0.6%, Galaxy Digital (GLXY) 0.6% and Strategy (MSTR) 3%.
Broader risk markets are showing no such caution: the Nasdaq is higher by 2.5% and S&P 500 by 2%.
Stablecoins have officially transitioned from a niche speculative tool into a cornerstone of global financial infrastructure, according to a comprehensive new industry report from Morph.
Released today, The State of Stablecoins report reveals that the stablecoin market has reached a staggering $312billion market cap, representing a 60-fold increase since 2020. More notably, annual stablecoin transaction volume has surged to $33trillion, formally exceeding the combined throughput of traditional payments giants Visa ($15.7trillion) and Mastercard ($9.8trillion).
Dismantling the crypto-trader myth
Colin Goltra, CEO of Morph
The data presented by Morph, a high-performance settlement layer, actively dismantles the long-standing misconception that stablecoins are primarily utilized for crypto trading. While trading use remains significant, the report highlights that the fastest-growing use cases are now rooted firmly in the “real economy”.
Business-to-business (B2B) flows now account for approximately $226 billion, representing a massive 60 per cent of all identifiable real-economy stablecoin volume. Among firms tracked by crypto analytics platform Artemis, B2B stablecoin payments skyrocketed from under $100million per month in early 2023 to over $6billion per month by mid-2025.
Colin Goltra, CEO of Morph, emphasized the structural shift occurring within corporate finance.
“The data is clear: we are no longer in a pilot phase. Stablecoins are now a structural necessity for modern treasury and procurement,” Goltra stated. “Organizations building stablecoin capabilities in 2026 will hold a structural cost and speed advantage over those tethered to legacy rails.”
The efficiency is already paying dividends. According to the report, 41 per cent of corporate users now report cost savings of at least 10 per cent by utilizing the technology, while 77 per cent of corporate stablecoin adopters cite simple supplier payments as their primary use case.
A transformative roadmap for 2030
Looking ahead, the report outlines eight bold predictions for the next five years. By the end of 2026 alone, Morph predicts that annual stablecoin settlement volume will exceed $50trillion, driven by a massive move toward institutional utility as the majority of Fortune 500 companies assess or pilot stablecoin payments.
The forecast suggests an even more radical financial landscape by 2027, where AI agents are projected to become the largest category of transaction initiators. Consequently, Morph predicts that legacy network SWIFT will be forced to launch its own stablecoin settlement layer or face material volume loss to onchain alternatives.
By 2028, the report predicts that the first emerging market economy will officially adopt a private stablecoin as legal tender alongside its national currency.
Ultimately, by 2030, Morph anticipates the total stablecoin market capitalization will exceed $1.9trillion, with a realistic path to $4trillion. At this scale, stablecoins are expected to intermediate five to ten per cent of all global cross-border payments, fundamentally restructuring the movement of value across the global economy.
Fueling the next wave of adoption
In direct response to this accelerating institutional demand, the Morph Payment Accelerator has launched a $150million commitment backed by the Bitget ecosystem.
With 54 per cent of organizations reportedly planning to deploy stablecoin solutions within the next 12 months, the new initiative is designed to support companies scaling high-volume payment applications by providing production-grade infrastructure, technical integration, and performance-based incentives.
News of a minimum two-week ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran sent risk assets higher in an instant, with the S&P 500 up by more than 2.5% at the open.
WTI crude oil declined to as low as $91 per barrel as oil-supply crisis fears eased and traffic began to resume through the Strait of Hormuz. This came despite reports of an attack on a Saudi oil pipeline.
CFDs on WTI crude oil one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
“The S&P 500 is now set to open above 6,800, trading just 2.9% away from a new record high. The index has added +$1.6 TRILLION today,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter wrote in its latest market coverage on X.
Among Bitcoin market participants, the relief was also palpable.
“I mentioned earlier that a ceasefire would be a clear direction on the markets. It happened,” crypto trader Michaël Van de Poppe wrote in an X response.
“Bitcoin breaks through the crucial $71K level and builds a bullish structure. Oil is down and the Strait is open, which means that there’s a mean reversion play active on Bitcoin.”
BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Michaël Van de Poppe
Van de Poppe described the need to hold support at $69,500 as “crucial.”
“That would strengthen the entire theory of a higher lows, higher highs and continues the momentum upwards and is likely going to fall alongside a new all-time high on the Nasdaq,” he added.
More inflation volatility on the horizon
Trader Daan Crypto Trades meanwhile said that $72,000, a sticking point in recent weeks, needed to be cleared.
Related: Bitcoin RSI ‘nearly perfectly’ copying end of 2022 bear market: Analysis
“Another day another test of the $72K level. Let’s see if the bulls can push through this time around,” he told X followers.
“I want to see a clean break and hold above that area. Ideally for more than 1-2 days this time.”
Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on other traders’ concerns about overall BTC price strength, which argued that Bitcoin bulls “still have a lot of work to do.”
The remainder of the week will see key US inflation releases, these set to show the initial impact of the Iran conflict and spark characteristic risk-asset volatility.
This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research before making any decisions. Cointelegraph makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information presented, including forward-looking statements, and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from reliance on this content.
Pharos Network, a layer 1 blockchain focused on tokenized real-world assets, said it raised $44 million in a Series A round led by a mix of traditional finance and crypto investors.
Backers include Sumitomo Corporation’s venture arm, SNZ Holding, Chainlink and Flow Traders, along with unnamed financial institutions the firm described as “giants in global finance.” The funding comes as interest grows in bringing assets like bonds, energy projects and private credit onto blockchain rails.
Pharos says it is building an “asset-native” network designed to handle regulated financial activity at scale. Its system uses parallel processing to support large volumes of transactions, with compliance features aimed at institutions that need audit trails and identity checks.
The company targets a market it values at $50 trillion. While far from that figure, the tokenization space has been growing, with data showing total real-world assets onchain are now at $24.3 billion. That’s up from $14 billion at the beginning of the year.
Pharos also pointed to activity on its testnet, which it said includes millions of users and unique addresses, and a partnership with energy firm GCL tied to solar-backed assets. These figures, common in pre-launch networks, are often driven by incentives and are hard to verify independently.
The raise follows an earlier seed round where the firm raised $8 million. That round was co-led by Lightspeed Faction and Hack VC. It also comes after a recent investment from GCL New Energy (0451) that valued the firm near $1 billion.
Its mainnet is expected to debut in the near future.
Iran demands Bitcoin payments for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union told the Financial Times.
The toll, about $1 per barrel, must be paid in crypto after tankers submit details of their cargo. Empty vessels are exempt, but all ships will be monitored to prevent weapons smuggling during the two-week ceasefire.
Iran plans to guide ships along the northern route near its coast, and vessels that ignore the rules face warnings of military strikes.
The process is slow, allowing only a few ships per day to transit safely, creating a backlog in the Gulf. Shipping companies like Maersk are taking a cautious approach while terms are clarified.
This is a developing story. Please check back for further updates.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Arkham Intelligence is discontinuing support for the TON blockchain on its platform effective April 8 at 12pm EST.
Arkham Intelligence announced it will remove support for the TON blockchain from its Arkham Intel platform on Wednesday, April 8 at 12pm EST. The decision follows a periodic review of chain integrations, with Arkham citing user demand and the blockchain’s importance to the crypto ecosystem as key evaluation factors.
Arkham regularly evaluates its chain integrations to determine which blockchains warrant continued maintenance and support on the platform. The removal of TON comes as Arkham maintains its intelligence and on-chain analytics services across other major blockchain networks.
Sources: Arkham
This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.
