The first wave of crypto ETFs allowed investors to onboard crypto assets into traditional brokerage accounts – and tax-advantaged retirement accounts. Given the long-term return potential of cryptocurrencies, that’s a win-win. But cryptos are still volatile. Last week’s $19 billion leveraged wipeout in bitcoin surpassed the wipeout at the Covid bottom in March 2020. And
Prediction market operator Kalshi is receiving investor offers valuing the company at more than $10 billion, according to a Bloomberg report. That valuation would make Kalshi one of the largest prospective valuations yet for a regulated event-trading platform. The offers come just weeks after Kalshi closed a $300 million round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and
Nearly half of Russian citizens consider the digital ruble merely a tool for government control over their finances, and almost as many fear the new form of national fiat will hurt financial freedom, in general. Regular crypto usage is still relatively limited in Russia, which has yet to regulate it, although a fifth of the
Stablecoins are taking on a new role in the $350-billion global gaming market, according to a new report published by the Blockchain Gaming Alliance (BGA). The BGA report argued that fiat-pegged digital assets, once viewed as only payment tools or decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity, are now becoming the unseen financial infrastructure that powers how developers
When I worked at the Federal Reserve, we used to joke that our job was to protect the status quo. The Fed’s mandate has long included financial stability, certainly not financial disruption. But Fed Governor Chris Waller’s speech calling on Fed staff to research the creation of a new “payments account” for nonbank payment providers
The crypto market in 2025 has shown a clear pattern: narratives rise and vanish as quickly as waves. By October, data revealed that discussions around the most promising themes had almost completely faded. This article explains the sudden change based on available data and expert insights. Narratives Disappeared Rapidly in October Google Trends data highlighted
Crypto adoption accelerated in 2025, with India and the United States setting the pace, according to TRM Labs. From January through July, South Asia recorded the world’s fastest growth, up 80% from 2024, and reached roughly $300 billion in transaction volume on expanding retail use and digital payments. India held the top spot for the
Hollywood has hit a breaking point. Audiences are fatigued by franchise sequels and reboots. YouTube has overtaken Disney as the world’s largest distributor. And Gen AI tools like Sora 2 can soon turn anyone into a filmmaker. Yet one thing hasn’t changed: how films get financed. And that’s why we keep getting fewer original films.
Bitcoin may dominate the crypto headlines, but the real growth story of the next five years will be stablecoins, the digital dollars that are modernizing the way money moves around the globe. Yes, the original cryptocurrency is rapidly becoming an ideal non-sovereign global store of value, with a market capitalization of $2.3 trillion, but stablecoins
Story Highlights Senate Democrats demand Trump envoy Steve Witkoff explain his crypto holdings amid ethics concerns. Witkoff’s World Liberty Financial facilitated a $2B UAE investment in Binance via stablecoin USD1. Lawmakers worry the deals blur lines between private profit and official U.S. diplomacy. Crypto and politics are colliding again. Senate Democrats are demanding answers from