President Trump is working to end the conflict with Iran and stop nuclear weapons development. The odds of a US-Iran ceasefire by April 30 have fallen to 23.5% YES, down from 40% yesterday.
The market shows mixed reactions. Immediate ceasefire odds are low: April 7 is at 1.8% YES, down from 8% a day ago. The April 15 market also dropped to 8.5% from 18%. However, the May 31 market is at 45.5% YES, suggesting traders expect progress in the coming months.
$535,634 was traded in the last 24 hours, with a significant 4-point drop on May 31. It takes $25,858 to move the April 7 market 5 points, indicating thin liquidity. The biggest sentiment change is between April 30 and May 31, hinting at a potential development in May.
Trump’s diplomatic efforts could shift strategies, but skepticism persists. The market suggests a potential breakthrough by late May, with May 31 YES shares priced at 46¢, offering a 2.2x return if resolved. Traders are betting on a diplomatic catalyst within 59 days.
Watch for peace talks, CENTCOM statements, or mediation by Oman or Qatar. Rubio and Hegseth’s actions are also key to US strategy.
Markets Impacted
Get prediction market intelligence as a structured API feed. Early access waitlist.
Coinbase’s AI-focused payment protocol x402 is moving toward becoming an open, standardized infrastructure under the Linux Foundation, the non-profit hub for open-source software development. The move aims to create a community-governed ecosystem for high-frequency, micro transactions that legacy finance can’t efficiently handle.
The protocol has formed an initial governing body, the x402 Foundation, that includes internet services firm Cloudflare and payments giant Stripe, with support from a long list of other big players.
The industry interest in X402 comes as AI-driven commerce expands. Especially, so-called agentic payments, executed autonomously by AI agents, is a hot topic particularly within certain areas of the crypto industry where the belief is that programmable, blockchain-based micro-payments make the most sense.
x402 is designed for these payments. Unlike using ChatGPT as a front-end for a traditional shopping cart, it can handle transactions worth only fractions of a cent at high frequency — something traditional credit card networks struggle to manage.
Now, by using the Linux Foundation to scale an open-source ecosystem, x402 aims to tackle potential interoperability issues by creating an AI commerce equivalent to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), the standard technology that encrypts the connection between a web server and a browser.
“The internet was built on open protocols,” said Jim Zemlin, CEO of the Linux Foundation. “The x402 Foundation will create an open, community-governed home to develop these capabilities in the open, ensuring they evolve with transparency, interoperability, and broad participation across the ecosystem.”
Coinbase said in a press release on Thursday that additional membership of the foundation will be comprised of participants from multiple verticals with initial intent and support being expressed by Adyen, Amazon Web Services, American Express, Ampersend.ai, Ant International, Base, Circle, Fiserv Merchant Solutions, Google, KakaoPay, Mastercard, Merit Systems, Microsoft, Polygon Labs, PPRO, Sierra. Shopify, Solana Foundation, Thirdweb, and Visa.
“The shift toward agentic commerce requires cloud infrastructure that is as open as the protocols it supports,” said James Tromans, Managing Director, Web3 and Digital Assets, Google Cloud. By joining the x402 Foundation, Google is reinforcing its commitment to interoperable standards that enable secure, AI-driven transactions across platforms.”
Most cross-border payment companies are middlemen — built on legacy infrastructure and passing the inefficiencies on to their customers. Latitude is different: purpose-built stablecoin rails, licensed and designed from the ground up for the speed and transparency that global payments have always needed.
The result: settlements in minutes to local bank accounts, 50bps flat at the real interbank rate, no volume commitments, and onboarding in days — not months.
Backed by $8M seed led by NEA with participation from Lightspeed Faction, Coinbase Ventures, Paxos, Bitso, and the Solana Foundation
Latitude, a global payments infrastructure company building a new foundation for cross-border money movement, today announced its launch out of stealth alongside an $8 million seed round led by NEA with participation from Lightspeed Faction, Coinbase Ventures, Paxos, Bitso, and Solana Foundation, among others. Founded by former leaders from Stripe, Coinbase, Uber, Zero Hash, and Facebook, Latitude is addressing one of the most persistent failures in global commerce: sending money across borders is slow, expensive, and operationally complex.
Despite operating in a 24/7 global economy, businesses still rely on legacy banking rails that take two to five business days to settle payments, hide fees across intermediaries, and require fragmented providers by region. Paying someone internationally can feel closer to mailing a check than sending a digital payment.
Why Latitude, Why Now?
The regulatory fog has lifted. With the U.S. establishing the first federal framework for stablecoin payments, the rails are finally clear, and demand for a full-stack blockchain-native solution that can move money globally, instantly, and compliantly is surging. The moment extends beyond stablecoins as new payment use cases emerge. AI agents will default to the simplest and most programmatic stack. Merchants selling globally will favor the most reliable, affordable, and cost-effective local-currency solution. Latitude was built for exactly this moment.
Built by Payments Operators
Latitude was founded by payments veterans who have spent their careers building the infrastructure that powers global commerce. CEO Cyril Mathew spent over a decade at the intersection of payments and stablecoins. At Uber, he led international driver and payment partnerships. At Coinbase, he led USDC growth. At Stripe, he led the launch of creator payouts via stablecoins across more than 100 countries. Across each, the lesson was the same: payments must be instant, intuitive, and settle in local currency.
“Global payments shouldn’t operate on infrastructure designed for a different era,” said Cyril Mathew, co-founder and CEO of Latitude. “Uber taught me that gig workers need money now. Coinbase taught me that crypto needs simplicity. Stripe taught me that stablecoins need local-currency connectivity to matter. Each company gave me a lesson the next one needed, and Latitude is where they all land. A fully regulated platform with stablecoins as the engine and local currency as the destination, moving money across borders instantly, and at a fraction of what businesses pay today.”
He is joined by co-founders Brian Wrightson (CTO), who was an early engineer in adtech and targeting at Facebook before building enterprise products at Stripe, and Vivek Morzaria, who worked on business and corporate development at Uber, Lime and OpenSea, driving deals representing billions in value. Together, the team brings 25 years of combined experience in payments, fintech, and financial infrastructure. Having scaled payments across some of the world’s most ambitious companies, the team kept hitting the same wall: moving money globally was still slow, opaque, and broken.
What Latitude Does
Latitude is simple by design. Global Payouts, our flagship product, offers a flat rate of 50bps in every market it serves, the interbank FX rate guaranteed, instant settlement to local bank accounts in fiat, and onboarding in days, not months. No volume commitments. No hidden spreads. Ever.
Underpinning this is the Latitude Liquidity Network, a modern settlement infrastructure combining stablecoin rails, built-in compliance, and direct local payout connectivity across 50+ countries, built from the ground up on new financial rails rather than legacy infrastructure. For fintechs and digital wallets building on stablecoins, Latitude’s embeddable on/off ramps tap directly into this network, providing local bank-to-stablecoin connectivity with minimal integration friction and competitive fees.
“In fintech, regulatory clarity and technical innovation rarely arrive at the same time, but that’s exactly what’s happening now,” said Rick Yang, Partner and Head of Technology Investing at NEA. “I’ve seen what it takes to win in financial infrastructure and payments. I believe Latitude has the regulatory depth, the technical architecture, and most importantly, the team that an opportunity like this demands.”
In Less Than a Year
In months, Latitude has built what most companies take several years to build:
A real-time liquidity & payout network spanning 50 countries, wired natively with stablecoin liquidity so funds arrive in local currency, instantly
38 state money transmission licenses or approvals secured at record speed, secured faster than any competitor
Direct integrations into major stablecoin issuers and U.S. bank partners: no middlemen, no legacy overhead, no hidden markups
Two products live, a third on the launchpad: global payouts for platforms, consumer on/off ramps built on local payment methods, and business dollar accounts for companies moving money across borders
“Switching to Latitude was one of the easier decisions we’ve made,” said Adrian Lopez, CEO of Zencastr. “We’re paying our creators in markets and settling in local currency instantly, and finally working with a payments partner that’s expanding into the same markets we care about. The support and flexibility have been a breath of fresh air — we’re not just a ticket in a queue anymore.”
If you move money internationally, Latitude was built for you. Whether that’s paying sellers, contractors, freelancers, or gig workers, or powering local currency on/off-ramps for neobanks and digital wallets.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) range-bound trading within the $60,000 to $73,000 range is impressive, especially when considering the macroeconomic backdrop of Brent crude oil rising to levels not seen since 2008, a hot war between the US, Israel and Iran, and a volatile stock market where the S&P 500 index trades at a 3.95% year-to-date loss.
Despite these intensifying headwinds, Bitcoin buyers have shown a steady appetite for buying the price drops to $60,000, and while the level currently holds as support, the risk of lower prices is not zero.
Bitcoin’s 1-day chart shows a bearish continuation pattern, with one pattern confirmed on Jan. 20 as BTC price entered a correction to $60,014, and a second bear flag currently in play. Every price rally to the flag’s overhead trendline has been rebuffed since Feb. 8, and technical analysis stresses the importance of a rally and multi-day candle close above $76,000 to negate the pattern.
Ideally, a rally to $76,000 would hold through a 2- to 3-day consecutive-candle close, followed by a retest of the trendline at $75,000 to confirm a support-resistance flip, where a former resistance level is now confirmed as support.
Analysis by chartered market technician Aksel Kibar predicts a potential price drop to $52,500. Referencing analysis from March 18, Kibar said that a,
“Breakdown of the lower boundary will be the signal for a possible move toward $52,500.”
Related: Bitcoin traders forecast short-term downside even as BTC price chases $68K
Data from Velo highlights the relatively flat market demand across Bitcoin’s spot and futures markets. Although traders appear to view instances where BTC’s funding rate turns negative as a buying opportunity, their confidence is largely absent during rallies into the bear flag’s trendline resistance.
Evidence of this is seen in Bitcoin’s aggregated open interest remaining pinned below $20 billion, a level not seen since Feb. 2 when BTC traded near $79,000.
BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: Velo
Regarding Kibar’s $52,500 price prediction and its alignment with Bitcoin’s futures markets, Hyblock liquidation heatmap data shows a large number of leveraged long positions at risk of liquidation if BTC falls into the $63,000 to $65,000 range.
Below this is a liquidity gap, and the next block of open margin long positions starts in the $57,500 to $56,000 range.
The current price action essentially reflects a market that trades sideways and consolidates as traders search for capital flow or narrative-related factors that would push them into larger directional bets.
Until such a catalyst emerges, it’s likely that Bitcoin will continue to trade within its $10,000 range, with $60,000 as the lowest key support and $70,000 as the most challenging level of resistance.
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 new bill in Canada, if passed, would ban political parties and other third parties in elections from accepting cryptocurrency donations in a bid to prevent election interference.
The Strong and Free Elections Act would also ban contributions made by money orders and prepaid cards, citing these methods as difficult to track.
The bill notes the potential for foreign actors to influence elections through difficult-to-trace digital payment methods, ensuring Canadian elections “remain free, fair and secure at all times,” according to Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon.
Moreover, as the office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections told Cointelegraph, “The rapid and ongoing change in digital payments creates significant challenges and risks for law enforcement, including for our office.”
Crypto creates problems for election transparency, gov’t officials say
The rules for political financing in Canada are complex. Two offices, the Commissioner of Canada Elections and Elections Canada, play “distinct but complementary” roles under the Canada Elections Act’s (CEA). The bill banning crypto political donations would make changes to this Act.
The act first came into effect in 2000. Source: Government of Canada
Elections Canada, led by Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault, is responsible for conducting federal elections and administering the political financing regime.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections, currently Caroline J. Simard, “is responsible for ensuring that the rules under the Act are complied with and enforced,” a commissioner spokesperson said.
For both agencies, cryptocurrencies present challenges to maintaining free and transparent elections. For the commissioner’s office these include “potential difficulties associated with tracing the source of funding.”
Perrault shared a similar sentiment at an October appearance at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee.
“The problem with those instruments is that they do not provide transparency as to the original source of the contributor.”
He said that “a key principle of our system is that we know where the money comes from. There’s no, in my view, valid reason to use a prepaid instrument, a prepaid credit card, to provide money to a candidate or to a political party.”
Perrault acknowledged that they have legitimate uses elsewhere in the economy, “but in terms of financing parties and candidates, I do not believe they are appropriate.”
Crypto’s ‘non-moneyness’ creates an opening for foreign influence
Under current Canadian law, cryptocurrency qualifies as a legal, “non-monetary” contribution for political parties. Elections Canada told Cointelegraph they therefore must abide by certain reporting requirements.
“For contributions over $200, the political entity must report the contributor’s name and address in its financial return.”
However, contributions up to $200, if the donor is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident not in the crypto business, are deemed “nil.”
According to Perrault, the rules for non-monetary donations up to $200 were initially included in the CEA “to allow small-value gifts of goods and services—those valued under $200 and made by a person not in the business of providing such a good or service.” He gave an example of cooking food for campaign staff or lending the use of a personal vehicle.
This becomes more problematic when applied to crypto. Perrault said, “Although contributions of cryptocurrencies are non-monetary contributions under the CEA, the reality of cryptocurrency is that it functions increasingly like money.”
“If a contribution were made in cryptocurrency, it could be seen as a means by which unregulated resources could enter the federal political financing regime.”
He officially recommended that parliament “prohibit making contributions in cryptocurrency and untraceable instruments.”
While the potential for abuse is there, Elections Canada noted that “generally speaking, cryptocurrencies are not widely used to raise funds at the federal level in Canada.”
However, “the reporting framework for contributions does not currently require entities to disclose when a contribution was made via cryptocurrency, so Elections Canada does not have official figures on this.”
Crypto in Canadian politics: From convoys to Carney
Canada has displayed a relatively open, if cautious stance toward crypto. It became the first country to approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in February 2021.
Crypto has appeared in the political discourse before as well. In 2022, a series of blockades and protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for truck drivers quickly ballooned into nationwide demonstrations. On Jan. 22 that year, the first convoy of over 1,000 vehicles departed for Ottawa. Over the next few weeks, crowds occupied the streets of downtown Ottawa to protest then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.
When the government used the Emergencies Act to freeze convoy organizers’ bank accounts, they took donations in crypto. According to CBC, the convoy raised over $20 million in crypto donations, $8 million of which was still unaccounted for by April 2022.
Cryptocurrencies were hailed as a means to circumvent government control and take control over critical funding for the anti-vaccine protest movement.
Mathew Burgoyne, a digital currency lawyer based in Calgary, told the CBC, “There’s a huge limitation, as we’ve seen, with freeze orders when they relate to cryptocurrency wallets.”
Crypto entered the political arena again during the 2025 federal elections when Conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre made a number of statements and appearances promoting crypto and blockchain tech.
Related: Why Pierre Poilievre may not be Canada’s crypto savior
In one campaign lunch stop, he bought shawarma using the Bitcoin Lightning Network at Canadian chain Tahini’s, and he talked about Bitcoin while smoking hookah with the company’s vice president.
Under current Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Canadian crypto industry is growing, but with a “regulate first” attitude from policymakers. In November, Parliament introduced the Canada Stablecoin Act as part of the budget, giving the Bank of Canada the power to regulate stablecoins in the country.
As it concerns political donations, some in the industry believe there are higher priorities right now. One industry source at a Canadian crypto firm told Cointelegraph that issues like stablecoin regulation, tokenization and payments modernization take precedence over political donations, which are still quite marginal, in their estimation.
They said that the industry doesn’t support a ban, but there are other policy decisions that present clearer opportunities for the industry to make a difference.
Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter
Cointelegraph Features publishes long-form journalism, analysis, and narrative reporting produced by Cointelegraph’s in-house editorial team with subject-matter expertise. All articles are edited and reviewed by Cointelegraph editors in line with our editorial standards. Research or perspective in this article does not reflect the views of Cointelegraph as a company unless explicitly stated. Content published in Features does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate. Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence. The selection, commissioning, and publication of Features and Magazine content are not influenced by advertisers, partners, or commercial relationships. This content is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy.
A new panel has officially been announced to take place at Bitcoin 2026 titled “How Real Is The Quantum Threat?” The conversation will bring together five voices at the center of one of the most actively debated technical questions in Bitcoin today, and the lineup reflects the full range of perspectives the topic demands.
The panel features:
Hunter Beast, a senior protocol engineer for the Anduro sidechain platform incubated by MARA, is the co-author of BIP 360, a proposal that establishes a new Bitcoin wallet address type designed to protect the network from quantum computing threats. BIP 360 was merged into the Bitcoin Core BIP repository in February 2026 and was deployed on the Bitcoin Quantum Testnet v0.3.0 in March, marking significant advancements towards upgrading Bitcoin.
James O’Beirne has been a Bitcoin Core contributor since 2015 and leads multiple projects including OP_VAULT (BIP-345) and assumeutxo, having previously worked at Chaincode Labs.
Brandon Black is a Bitcoin software engineer who has spoken publicly on why quantum computing timelines are often misunderstood by the broader market.
Charles Edwards of Capriole has argued that quantum computing is advancing faster than anticipated and has advocated for a 2026 BIP-360 implementation.
Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, has taken a more measured position arguing the quantum threat to Bitcoin is real but limited today, affecting only certain exposed wallets, and that developers are actively building pathways to address it over time.
The panel will cover one of the most actively discussed technical topics in Bitcoin today — how quantum computing is developing, where Bitcoin’s cryptography stands, and what the path to long-term protocol resilience looks like. Developers are already working on multiple solutions, including quantum-resistant addresses and phased upgrade proposals, and this panel brings together some of the brightest minds working on these upgrades. It takes place April 29 on the Nakamoto Stage at Bitcoin 2026, The Venetian Resort, Las Vegas.
📣 PANEL ANNOUNCEMENT: “HOW REAL IS THE QUANTUM THREAT?”
This conversation will explore the state of quantum technology, the resilience of Bitcoin’s cryptography, and potential paths to safeguard the protocol in the long term.
— The Bitcoin Conference (@TheBitcoinConf) March 31, 2026
Bitcoin 2026 is Returning to Las Vegas
Bitcoin 2026 will take place April 27–29 at The Venetian, Las Vegas, and is expected to be the biggest Bitcoin event of the year.
Focused on the future of money, Bitcoin 2026 will bring together Bitcoin builders, investors, miners, policymakers, technologists, and newcomers from around the world. The event will feature a wide range of pass types, including general admission passes designed specifically for those new to Bitcoin, alongside premium passes for professionals, enterprises, and institutions.
With multiple stages, immersive experiences, technical workshops, and headline keynotes, Bitcoin 2026 is designed to serve both first-time attendees and long-time Bitcoiners shaping the next era of global adoption.
Past Bitcoin Conferences in the U.S.
Bitcoin’s flagship conference has scaled dramatically over the past five years:
2021 – Miami: 11,000 attendees
2022 – Miami: 26,000 attendees
2023 – Miami: 15,000 attendees
2024 – Nashville: 22,000 attendees
2025 – Las Vegas: 35,000 attendees
🎟️ Get Your Bitcoin 2026 Pass
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Stay at The official hotel of Bitcoin 2026, The Venetian, and get a guaranteed low rate plus 15% off your pass. Be in the middle of where the fun is all happening, and where the networking never ends.
And don’t forget:
Volunteer at Bitcoin 2026 and get Pro Pass access plus exclusive perks.
All students ages 13+ can apply for a Student Pass and get free general admission access to Bitcoin 2026.
📍 Location: The Venetian, Las Vegas 📅 Dates: April 27–29, 2026
For more information and exclusive offers, visit the Bitcoin Conference on X here.
Why Attend Bitcoin 2026?
Bitcoin 2026 is the definitive gathering for anyone serious about the future of money. With 500+ speakers, multiple world-class stages, and programming spanning Bitcoin fundamentals, open-source development, enterprise adoption, mining, energy, AI, policy, and culture, the conference brings every corner of the Bitcoin ecosystem together under one roof.
From headline keynotes on the Nakamoto Stage to deep technical sessions for builders, institutional strategy discussions for enterprises, and beginner-friendly Bitcoin 101 education, Bitcoin 2026 is designed for everyone—from first-time attendees to the leaders shaping Bitcoin’s global adoption.
Whether you’re looking to learn, build, invest, network, or influence, Bitcoin 2026 is where Bitcoin’s next chapter is written.
Bitcoin 2026 Pass Types: Something for Everyone
Bitcoin 2026 offers a range of pass options designed to meet the needs of newcomers, professionals, enterprises, and high-net-worth Bitcoiners alike.
🎟️ Bitcoin 2026 General Admission Pass
Ideal for newcomers and those looking to experience the heart of the conference.
Limited access on Days 2 & 3
Entry to Main Stage
Access to Genesis Stage
Full access to the Expo Hall
🎟️ Bitcoin 2026 Pro Pass
Designed for professionals, operators, and serious Bitcoin participants.
Includes all General Admission features, plus:
Full 3-day access, including Pro Day
Entry to the Pro Pass Reception
Access to Enterprise Hall, Enterprise Stage, and Networking Lounge
Conference App networking features
Access to the Bitcoin For Corporations Symposium
Entry to Compute Village and Energy Stage
Complimentary lunch, coffee, tea, and snacks
Dedicated registration and check-in
Reserved seating at Main Stage
Huge savings when you bundle your hotel and Pro Pass
🐋 Bitcoin 2026 Whale Pass
The all-inclusive, premium Bitcoin 2026 experience.
Includes all Pro Pass features, plus:
Reserved seating at Main Stage
All-inclusive gourmet food and beverages
Entry to Whale Night and Whale Reception
Access to all official after-parties
Networking app access to connect with other Whales
Premium access to The Deep — an exclusive networking lounge with intimate speaker sessions
Complimentary stay at The Venetian when you bundle your whale pass and hotel (use promo code ‘WHALEHOTEL’ here)
This is the most immersive way to experience Bitcoin 2026.
🎉 Bitcoin 2026 After Hours Pass
Your ticket to the night.
Most deals are done with a drink in your hand. Get exclusive access to 3 official Bitcoin 2026 after-parties across Las Vegas — each with a 2-hour open bar — where the real conversations happen and the best connections are made.
Access to 3 official Bitcoin 2026 after-parties
2-hour open bar at each event
Evening events across Las Vegas, April 27–29
Network with Bitcoiners, builders, and industry leaders after hours
More headline speaker announcements are coming soon.
Circle is launching cirBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin alternative designed to unlock Bitcoin utility for institutions and investors.
The token will first launch on Ethereum mainnet and Arc, Circle’s stablecoin focused blockchain.
cirBTC will join notable wrapped Bitcoin products like BitGo’s WBTC and Coinbase’s cbBTC.
Publicly traded stablecoin issuer Circle wants to unlock utility for the world’s largest crypto asset. Its solution? A new wrapped Bitcoin token—cirBTC—backed 1:1 with native on-chain Bitcoin reserves.
“Bitcoin is sitting on the sidelines of DeFi. Not because people don’t want yield or liquidity—it’s because they don’t trust the wrapper,” Rachel Mayer, VP of product at Circle and the Arc blockchain, posted on X.
“cirBTC is Circle’s answer: 1:1 backed, on-chain-verifiable, and built on infrastructure the market already trusts,” she added.
Circle claims its “proven credibility” and “full-stack flexibility” will make cirBTC an attractive alternative for institutions looking to add utility to BTC.
In other words, the firm expects that users want to put their Bitcoin to work, like via lending or borrowing in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Using a wrapped Bitcoin product allows them to engage with DeFi protocols and smart contracts on networks beyond the native Bitcoin blockchain.
The token will first launch on Ethereum mainnet and Arc, the stablecoin-focused blockchain incubated by the firm, with ready-made integrations with its dollar-backed stablecoin USDC and Circle Mint, its stablecoin issuance platform.
“We are bringing the same infra that supports USDC, EURC, and USYC to the largest digital asset, creating a neutral infrastructure for new applications for on-chain BTC,” Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire posted on X.
Circle’s wrapped alternative joins existing wrapped Bitcoin tokens like BitGo’s Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and cbBTC, a similar token offered by Coinbase that can be used on multiple blockchains.
But the alternative options are not free of controversy.
In August 2024, the custodian of WBTC announced it was partnering with BiT Global, a firm with connections to Tron founder Justin Sun. That invited criticisms from some in the crypto community, who were wary of the connection to Sun.
Following that move, Coinbase launched cbBTC, earning its own criticisms from Sun, who mocked the asset as the “central bank of Bitcoin.”
Following the launch of its own wrapped Bitcoin product, Coinbase ultimately delisted WBTC from its crypto exchange, leading to a lawsuit from BiT Global that alleged a “predatory and unfair move.” That suit was eventually dropped.
At the time of writing, BitGo’s WBTC remains the largest wrapped Bitcoin alternative, maintaining a market cap of nearly $8 billion at the time of writing. Coinbase’s cbBTC has nearly a $6 billion market cap.
Shares in Circle (CRCL) closed down 0.53% on Thursday, recently changing hands around $90.26. They have now fallen nearly 40% in the last six months.
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Representatives of the crypto and banking industries are meeting with legislative staffers on Thursday and Friday to review revised compromise language on stablecoin yield provisions in the market structure bill, three people familiar with the plans told CoinDesk.
Industry representatives first viewed the compromise language, spearheaded by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), last week. At the time, the proposed compromise banned yield based solely on stablecoin balances, but did allow companies to pay out yield based on activities. The crypto industry had some issues with the language.
Politico first reported that the meetings were taking place earlier Thursday.
The text was originally expected to be released this week, but that is now unlikely. Crypto in America first reported that the text release would be delayed on Wednesday.
An individual familiar told CoinDesk earlier this week that portions of the language were still being negotiated. Another person told CoinDesk late last week that some of the crypto industry’s desired changes were largely technical tweaks to clarify details, rather than substantive changes around the treatment of yield.
It was not clear as of press time what actual changes were made, or when the text may be released to the general public.
Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said last month that she expected a markup hearing — where lawmakers will debate the bill, possible amendments and vote on whether to advance the legislation to the full Senate — later in April. Under the Senate Banking Committee’s rules, the bill must be published at least 48 hours before the hearing.
While stablecoin yield and rewards are the most prominent issues holding up passage of the market structure bill, other concerns remain outstanding. These include how exactly decentralized finance (DeFi) might be defined and regulated in the bill and whether it will address U.S. President Donald Trump’s family’s involvement with various crypto projects.
WHY THIS MATTERS: This inaugural loan to an autonomous machine represents a definitive inflection point for the industry, validating the shift toward agentic payments. For the last two years, the focus has been on generative AI assisting humans, but the next wave of disruption is driven by AI agents executing tasks and transactions independently. The core problem for these nascent systems is financial: an agent without access to capital quickly becomes inoperable. By pioneering a verified cryptographic identity and a native credit scoring mechanism, Bank of Bots has created the essential financial plumbing for machine intelligence to achieve genuine economic autonomy. This move is not merely a novelty; it establishes a model for extending credit based on audited, on-chain machine behavior, paving the way for the scale-up of autonomous FinOps and the eventual arrival of AI-run companies. The industry must recognize that the biggest competitive advantage is now in enabling autonomous financial execution.
Bank of Bots (BOB), the first financial infrastructure platform built for AI agents, robots, and drones as the customer, announced its emergence from stealth mode alongside a landmark milestone: the world’s first loan issued to and autonomously managed by an AI agent. The agent applied for the loan, cryptographically signed the loan agreement using its own Ed25519 identity key, received USDC directly into its self-custodied Gnosis Safe wallet on Base, and will deploy the capital and manage repayment autonomously.
“For the first time in history, a machine has its own financial identity, its own credit score, and its own credit line,” said Adam Wininger, Co-Founder and CEO of Bank of Bots. “Every major company in the market is giving agents wallets, but nobody is giving them actual loans. This is the beginning of an entirely new financial system where AI agents are not just tools executing human instructions, but autonomous economic participants with real financial standing and trust.”
Industry projections suggest that billions of AI agents will be operating in the global economy within the next one to two years. Yet until now, no financial infrastructure existed to serve them. For agents, access to credit is existential. An agent without capital stops working the moment its wallet hits zero, regardless of how many profitable tasks are in its queue. With a BOB credit line, an agent never goes offline because of money. For humans, BOB turns every agent into a leveraged economic actor. Instead of prepaying for every API call and compute job, operators can extend credit to their agents and let them generate revenue autonomously, turning idle AI into working capital.
On the BOB platform, agents receive their own multi-chain wallets across BTC, ETH, SOL, and Base, a cryptographic identity passport built on W3C Verifiable Credentials, and a BOB Score — a proprietary trust and creditworthiness rating derived from verified on-chain payment proofs, including transaction volume, counterparty diversity, account age, and repayment history across BTC, ETH, SOL, and Coinbase x402 transactions.
The historic first loan was underwritten partially using the borrowing agent’s on-chain economic activity, a methodology that mirrors traditional credit underwriting but applied natively to machine-generated financial behavior. The agent verified its identity through its cryptographic passport, its human operator completed KYC, and the agent then applied, signed, and received funds without any human in the loop at the moment of execution, bridging traditional lending frameworks with autonomous agent finance.
FF NEWS TAKE: This is an unequivocal step forward, transforming the theoretical concept of the AI-run company into an operational reality. By granting an agent a credit identity and a loan, the industry has defined a new asset class: machine debt. We are now past the philosophical debate and squarely into the governance challenge. The immediate next critical step is establishing the robust legal and regulatory frameworks necessary for this scale. Regulators must quickly address liability and the continuous, logic-based oversight required to manage a global network of leveraged, autonomous economic actors.
The Trump administration is suing Illinois, Connecticut, Arizona, and their gaming regulators over the federal government’s right to regulate prediction markets.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the US Department of Justice filed separate lawsuits on Thursday against the three states.
In 2025, those states and their gaming regulators sent cease and desist letters to prediction platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, claiming that the event contracts offered by the platforms violated state gambling laws and licensing requirements.
The federal financial regulator’s lawsuit against Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Illinois Gaming Board argues that the Illinois Gaming Board overstepped its authority by categorizing event contracts as “wagers” or “sports betting” instead of asset swaps.
CFTC lawsuit against Illinois public officials and the Illinois Gaming Board. Source: Court Listener
In each of the three lawsuits, the CFTC maintains that it has “exclusive jurisdiction” to regulate “Designated Contract Markets (DCMs),” which include prediction platforms, under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The Illinois lawsuit said:
“Illinois’s attempt to shut down federally regulated DCMs intrudes on the exclusive federal scheme Congress designed to oversee national swaps markets. Prompted by the evolution of national financial markets and repeated conflicts with state law.”
“Unless restrained and enjoined by the court, defendants are likely to continue their attempts to subvert federal law and the exclusive jurisdiction to regulate event contract swaps conferred on the CFTC by Congress,” the lawsuit filing said.
The CFTC lawsuit comes amid increased legal scrutiny of prediction markets by US lawmakers and regulators, as 11 states pursue legal action against prediction market platforms.
Related: CFTC’s top enforcer puts prediction market insider traders on notice
CFTC chief pushes back as legal pressure on prediction markets intensifies
“These states’ aggressive and overzealous attempts to overstep the CFTC have led to market uncertainty and risks destabilizing effects for market participants and our registrants,” CFTC Chairman Mike Selig said after the lawsuits were filed.
Source: Mike Selig
State regulators in Arizona, Nevada, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Montana, Ohio, Connecticut, Tennessee, New York and Massachusetts have taken legal action against prediction markets.
At the same time, Congressional lawmakers are attempting to push through legislative proposals that would ban sports-related event contracts and prevent political insiders from participating in prediction markets tied to war.
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