Key points: Mastercard is integrating stablecoins into card settlements. Banks will be able to use digital dollars like SoFiUSD. A partnership with SoFi Technologies will allow SoFi Bank to settle in SoFiUSD. The Galileo platform will open up this model to other banks and fintech companies as well. This is specifically about the post-payment settlement…
Crypto traders traded more than $500 million in synthetic oil futures over the weekend on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid. The bet is that a new escalation in the Middle East could push oil prices back to $100 per barrel. A sharp spike in blockchain trading activity occurred after Iran unexpectedly closed the Strait of Hormuz…
Bitcoin surged sharply after Iran announced the opening of the Strait of Hormuz for commercial shipping. The BTC price hit its highest since February, oil prices fell, the US stock market set another record, and the yield on 10-year government bonds dropped to 4.24%. But there is a nuance. The markets behaved as if the…
The crypto industry continues to move into politics. In Ohio, another committee has backed a Senate candidate, and this is already starting to resemble the scenario of the 2024 elections. Sentinel Action Fund announced that it will support Republican John Husted. The fund says it promotes candidates who support the development of the crypto market…
Futures for the U.S. markets moved up on Friday morning after Iran announced the full opening of the Strait of Hormuz amid a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. Futures for the Dow rose by 524 points or 1.1%. S&P 500 added 0.8%, Nasdaq 100 rose by 0.9%. Oil, meanwhile, dropped sharply. U.S. oil futures fell…
Eco-friendly footwear maker Allbirds announced a sharp business pivot toward AI infrastructure on Wednesday. The company raised $50 million through convertible financing to fund this transition. To do this, Allbirds entered into an agreement with an institutional investor and effectively abandoned its core business. Now, the company plans to develop a GPU-as-a-Service model and work…
In the US, discussions on the cryptocurrency market regulation bill continue to be delayed. One of the key contentious issues is the yield on stablecoins. Senators involved in the negotiations say that a compromise version could be published as early as this week. But at the same time, banking groups are making it clear that…
At the start of the conflict around Iran, the market primarily watched oil. It was the most obvious indicator. Now, prices have dropped below $90 per barrel for the first time in a long while, while bitcoin, by contrast, is rising. But the key processes run deeper. It’s not just about oil, but the entire…
Bitcoin hit its highest level since the early February sell-off and climbed above $76,000. The rally coincided with the release of US inflation data, which turned out softer than expected despite an overall rise in producer prices in March. Additional support for the market came from falling oil prices and strong performance in the stock…
XRPL Commons, together with Boundless, introduced an integration that adds zero-knowledge proof technology to the XRP Ledger network. The launch was announced on April 14, 2026, at the XRPL Zone event in Paris. The main focus is institutional participants who need to conduct operations confidentially while maintaining audit transparency and regulatory compliance. What Changes for…
On Monday, oil once again dropped below $100 per barrel. Although prices jumped above $104 during the day, they failed to hold at that level. The market shifted after signals from China. Defense Minister Dong Jun indicated that Chinese ships would continue to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and that U.S. restrictions would not…
For a long time, stablecoins were seen as a tool just for traders. Useful, but almost invisible. They served as a way to quickly enter and exit volatile assets without dealing with fiat. Essentially, it was just an intermediate liquidity layer, not an independent tool. Now, this view is outdated. Stablecoins are gradually becoming one…
