Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC), a Japanese banking and financial services conglomerate, along with business systems firm TIS Inc, Ava Labs — the developer of the Avalanche network — and digital asset infrastructure company Fireblocks, have signed an agreement to explore a framework for commercializing stablecoins in Japan. Under a Memorandum of Understanding, the companies…
Over $2 billion was lost to cryptocurrency hacks in the first quarter of 2025. According to a report shared with Cointelegraph by crypto cybersecurity firm Hacken, in Q1 2025, nearly $1.63 billion was lost just to access control exploits. Anmol Jain, vice president of investigations at crypto forensics firm AMLBot, told Cointelegraph that the exceptionally…
The cryptocurrency market may see a local bottom in the next two months amid global uncertainty over ongoing import tariff negotiations, which have been limiting investor sentiment in both traditional and digital markets. US President Donald Trump is set to detail on April 2 his reciprocal import tariffs, measures aimed at reducing the country’s estimated…
Bitcoin may still rise to over $250,000 before the end of the year, with expectations of an increasing fiat supply remaining the significant catalyst for the world’s first cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s (BTC) 2025 price rally may be boosted by the US Federal Reserve pivoting to quantitative easing (QE), when the Fed buys bonds and pumps money…
Fraudulent tech workers with ties to North Korea are expanding their infiltration operations to blockchain firms outside the US after increased scrutiny from authorities, with some having worked their way into UK crypto projects, Google says. Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) adviser Jamie Collier said in an April 2 report that while the US is…
The Ethereum network’s main source of income from layer-2 (L2) scaling chains — “blob fees” — has sunk to the lowest weekly levels so far this year, according to data from Etherscan. In the week ending March 30, Ethereum earned only 3.18 Ether (ETH) from blob fees, according to Etherscan, or approximately $6,000 US dollars…
Update April 1, 1:42 pm UTC: This article has been updated to add comments from Cyvers co-founder and chief technology officer Meir Dolev. An unauthorized party withdrew about $70 million in digital assets from open-source payment platform UPCX, according to a security alert issued on April 1. The blockchain security firm Cyvers flagged suspicious activity…
A former executive of the Web3 game Blade of God X (BOGX) accused the project of abandoning its blockchain-based roadmap after raising funds through the crypto space. On April 1, BOGX’s former chief marketing officer Amber Bella claimed in an X post that despite being funded by Web3 sources, the game “completely abandoned” its Web3…
Japan-based Metaplanet has expanded its Bitcoin holdings, purchasing 696 BTC for 10.152 billion yen ($67 million), the company announced in an April 1 post on X. The investment pushes Metaplanet’s total Bitcoin stash to 4,046 BTC, valued at over $341 million at the time of writing. Source: Metaplanet Stock split targets investor accessibility The acquisition…
A US dollar-pegged stablecoin launched by a cryptocurrency platform tied to US President Donald Trump’s family could complicate ongoing bipartisan efforts to pass stablecoin legislation in Congress, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest. The Trump-linked World Liberty Financial (WLFI) crypto platform launched the World Liberty Financial USD (USD1) US dollar-pegged stablecoin in early March,…