Author: John Smith

Binance will roll out a new suite of U-margined perpetual futures contracts tied to traditional financial assets on May 15, adding exposure to Oracle, Disney, Uber, Cisco, Home Depot and Litecoin as the exchange accelerates its push into hybrid crypto-TradFi markets. Summary Binance will launch U-margined perpetual contracts tied to major U.S. equities including Oracle, Disney and Uber on May 15. The move deepens the exchange’s push to merge traditional finance exposure with crypto-native derivatives trading. Analysts say growing macro and political volatility is increasingly driving altcoin and Bitcoin trading behavior alongside equities. The launch was first reported by ChainCatcher,…

Alchemy Pay has joined Mastercard’s Crypto Partner Program as the payment gateway seeks closer ties with global payment infrastructure.  Summary Alchemy Pay joined Mastercard’s Crypto Partner Program to explore fiat-crypto payment integration with global commerce. Mastercard says the program links crypto builders with card rails, compliance standards, and payment partners. Related crypto.news coverage shows Mastercard expanding stablecoin, wallet, and crypto card partnerships worldwide this year. The company said the move will support future work on on-chain payments and digital asset commerce. Alchemy Pay said it wants to pursue deeper integration through future initiatives within the Mastercard ecosystem. The company said…

Block’s Square has reportedly enabled roughly one million U.S. merchants to accept Bitcoin payments.  Summary Square’s auto-enrollment push has now enabled roughly one million U.S. sellers to accept Bitcoin payments. Lightning Network support lets customers pay in BTC while merchants receive U.S. dollars by default. Block’s wider Bitcoin strategy includes Cash App rewards, Bitkey custody, and proof-of-reserves reporting across products. The rollout uses the Lightning Network, allowing customers to pay in BTC while sellers receive U.S. dollars by default. The update follows Square’s earlier plan to bring Bitcoin payments to eligible sellers by 2026. Block said in 2025 that the…

Switzerland has launched its first live municipal blockchain project through a biodiversity reward voucher system built on the Hedera network and backed by a Swiss franc-linked digital payment instrument. Summary Switzerland’s first municipal blockchain voucher system has launched in Muri bei Bern using the Hedera network. Residents can earn digital biodiversity vouchers for conservation work and redeem them at local businesses for 1 Swiss franc. The project uses Swisscoast’s HCHF stablecoin infrastructure as Switzerland continues developing stablecoin regulations under FINMA oversight. According to an announcement shared with crypto.news by the Municipality of Muri bei Bern, the Canton of Bern municipality…

LMAX Group has launched Kiosk, a hosted portal that lets institutional clients deposit digital assets into LMAX Custody and use them as collateral across several markets.  Summary LMAX Kiosk lets institutions use digital assets as collateral across FX, metals, CFDs and crypto. The launch follows DTCC, Franklin Templeton and BlackRock moves into tokenized collateral and fund rails. LMAX did not disclose supported assets, client names or initial trading volumes for Kiosk yet. The London-based cross-asset marketplace said the service supports spot foreign exchange, precious metals, digital assets, contracts for difference and perpetual futures. The platform brings custody, collateral access and…

Ray Dalio said Bitcoin lacks privacy and its transparency is why central banks will not hold it. Summary Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio posted on X that Bitcoin lacks privacy and its transactions can be monitored and potentially controlled by governments. Dalio said gold remains superior because it is more widely held, deeply established, and still plays a central role in the global financial system. Michael Saylor pushed back directly, calling Bitcoin’s transparency a feature rather than a flaw that makes it usable as global digital collateral. Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio posted on X on May 11 that Bitcoin’s public…

CryptoQuant signal has flipped Bitcoin into early bull territory for the first time since March 2023, analysts say. Summary CryptoQuant’s Bull-Bear Market Cycle Indicator entered bullish territory on May 12, using its Profit and Loss Index to confirm the regime shift. The last confirmed green signal in March 2023 preceded a sustained bull run taking Bitcoin from $20,000 to above $73,000 by April 2024. Analysts flag March 2022 as the key exception, when the indicator briefly turned green before Bitcoin extended a deeper downtrend into 2023. CryptoQuant’s Bull-Bear Market Cycle Indicator entered bullish territory on May 12 for the first…

The DTCC Chainlink Collateral AppChain partnership will automate 24/7 collateral management across global markets by Q4 2026. Summary DTCC will integrate the Chainlink Runtime Environment into its Collateral AppChain to automate pricing, valuation, margining, and settlement across financial markets. The Collateral AppChain targets a Q4 2026 production launch and extends a 2024 Smart NAV pilot that included JPMorgan, BNY Mellon, and Franklin Templeton. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov called collateral management the killer application that traditional finance has been waiting for from blockchain infrastructure. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation has announced that its Collateral AppChain will integrate the Chainlink Runtime…

Exodus wallet sold 1,076 bitcoin in Q1 2026 to fund its $175 million acquisition of W3C’s payments business. Summary Exodus Movement cut its BTC treasury from 1,704 to 628 coins during Q1 2026, raising $73.2 million in total crypto sales to fund W3C closing payments. The company closed its acquisition of Monavate and Baanx on May 1, adding card-issuing and payments infrastructure to its self-custody wallet business. Q1 revenue fell 36.8% to $22.7 million as exchange aggregation volume dried up, widening the net loss to $32.1 million from $12.9 million a year earlier. Exodus Movement (NYSE: EXOD), developer of the…

Ronin L2 migration completed May 12, ending four years as a sidechain after a 10-hour network shutdown. Summary Ronin executed its hard fork at block 55,577,490 on May 12, completing a transition to an OP Stack Ethereum Layer 2 with 10 hours of downtime. RON token inflation drops from over 20% to below 1% under a new Proof of Distribution model that rewards active builders over passive stakers. Partners including Optimism, Conduit, Boundless, and EigenLayer supported the migration, with EigenDA handling off-chain data availability. The Ronin L2 hard fork executed at block 55,577,490 on May 12, transitioning the gaming blockchain…