Author: Benjamin Lee

Fund manager and activist investor Eric Jackson is reportedly planning to head up a new Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) firm despite the crypto market’s recent lull. Jackson intends to take on the role of founder, chairman and CEO of EMJX, which will invest in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and several altcoins, reports Reuters. The firm plans to launch as a reverse merger with pet wellness company SRx Health Solutions (SRXH). EMJX aims to set itself apart from the first wave of DAT firms like Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc (MSTR), which has a Bitcoin-only treasury, by managing a multi-asset portfolio and…

Visa just launched stablecoin settlement in the US using Circle’s dollar-pegged digital asset USDC. The move allows US issuer and acquirer partners to settle transactions on the blockchain, starting with the Solana network. The move marks a key step in Visa’s pilot program to integrate stablecoins into global commerce. Visa’s U.S. stablecoin settlement framework is designed to power seven day settlement windows for faster speed and liquidity, allowing banks and fintechs to settle transactions every day instead of just five business days. It also modernizes liquidity and treasury management with automated, advanced operations for banks. Says Visa’s Global Head of…

A large-scale investor has offloaded millions of ASTER tokens, absorbing a 22% loss within two weeks. ASTER price has dropped below key levels, signaling bearish short-term bias. Aster team calms supply-side worries by confirming no plans to sell unlocked tokens. The digital assets market remained deteriorated on Wednesday, with the global crypto market capitalization at $2.94 trillion after a 0.65% dip in the past 24 hours. Also, Bitcoin remained somewhat muted in the last day after the recent decline, changing hands at $86,640 following a mere 0.30% decline on its daily chart. While most altcoins sought footing after the latest…

BNB Chain has introduced a stablecoin to enhance cross-chain liquidity. The token targets large-scale, high-volume usage across different sectors. Community buzzes as Binance founder CZ follows a new stablecoin named U. BNB Chain is planning a massive step into the stablecoin industry. The platform took it to X to introduce a new stablecoin set to launch soon. The new token aims to integrate liquidity across different applications while catering to high-volume, large-scale utility needs. While most existing stablecoins have payment and trading as their primary use cases, BNB Chain’s upcoming token aims to seamlessly integrate into different financial platforms, dApps,…

The leading stablecoin company Tether is investing $8 million in Speed, a payments infrastructure firm. The funding round, led by Tether with participation from Ego Death Capital, aims to advance stablecoin payments on Lightning – a network built on top of Bitcoin to power instant and cheap transactions. The goal is to enable efficient payments with native Bitcoin and Tether’s USDT stablecoin. Speed processes over $1.5 billion in annual payment volume across consumers, creators, platforms, and enterprise merchants. Its products, Speed Wallet and Speed Merchant, serve 1.2 million users and businesses. Says Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, “Speed is showing what…

Fundstrat’s Tom Lee believes basic market dynamics favor crypto bullishness despite recent price woes. In a new interview with CNBC, Lee predicts that crypto’s “best years are still definitely ahead.” “Today, there are only four million Bitcoin wallets with $10,000 in them. There are 900 million IRA and brokerage accounts globally that have $10,000, so that’s 200 times larger a market.”  Lee thinks crypto’s 2025 story is still positive despite some hiccups and “uncertain” price levels. “I think that there have been some concerns about quantum, and then there was that huge deleveraging event on October 10th, but the crypto…

Institutional investors just bought an overall total of $716 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto assets in one week, according to a new update from Coinshares. Digital asset exchange-traded products (ETPs) drove the inflows, marking the second consecutive week of gains as market sentiment improved. Total assets under management rose to $180 billion, up 7.9% from November lows and below the $264 billion all-time high. Bitcoin attracted $352 million, pushing year-to-date inflows to $27.1 billion, which is below 2024’s $41.6 billion record. XRP saw $245 million in inflows, lifting year-to-date totals to $3.1 billion, surpassing last year’s $608 million. Chainlink…

Binance has suspended an employee who allegedly used one of the exchange’s social media accounts to promote a token. The top global crypto exchange says a preliminary investigation concluded that the employee had connections to a token that was issued on Sunday. Less than a minute after the asset was issued, the employee allegedly posted about it on the Binance Futures’ X account. Binance says it immediately suspended the employee and contacted legal authorities in the employee’s jurisdiction. “These actions constitute abuse of their position for personal gain and violate our policies and code of professional conduct.” The exchange notes…

Standard Chartered and Coinbase just announced an expanded partnership to develop digital asset services for institutional clients worldwide. The collaboration focuses on trading, prime services, custody, staking and lending solutions. The move combines Standard Chartered’s global banking expertise and risk management with Coinbase’s leading institutional platform to offer secure, compliant digital asset management. It builds on their existing tie-up in Singapore, where Standard Chartered enables real-time Singapore Dollar transfers for Coinbase customers. Says Margaret Harwood-Jones, Global Head of Financing & Securities Services at Standard Chartered, “Our role as a trusted international bank is to support clients as digital-asset markets mature…

The leading US-based crypto exchange Coinbase says it’s about to add support for two new digital assets. Starting today at 9:00 a.m. PST, Coinbase says it will add spot trading for Plume (PLUME) and Jupiter (JUPITER), assuming liquidity conditions are met. Plume is focused on bringing real-world assets onto the blockchain with a layer-1 network that scales RWAs like real estate and commodities for crypto users. The PLUME token is designed to function as the native utility token of the Plume Network, powering transaction fees, staking, governance and ecosystem incentives to support the integration of real-world assets into DeFi. Plume…