Author: Steven Sahiounie

From alternative banks to on-chain banking, crypto banking still has plenty of options, experts say. The crypto ecosystem was built on the belief that no one entity, meaning a bank, should be in charge of one individual’s finances, but until that becomes a reality, traditional banking will likely have to serve as a bridge between centralized finance and decentralized finance. Thus, the shutdown of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and Signature Bank will certainly cause headaches for the industry in the short-term as many crypto companies search for new banking partners, uncertain if larger entities will even want to…

The real-time payments platform, popular with crypto businesses, will continue to be offered under the newly established Signature Bridge Bank entity, a source told CoinDesk. Signet, a real-time payments platform popular with Signature Bank’s institutional crypto clients, will continue to operate after state regulators shuttered Signature Bank on Sunday to “protect depositors,” a source told CoinDesk. Signature Bank’s assets were transferred to Signature Bridge Bank – a new interim entity that will be temporarily run by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Signet was launched on Jan. 1, 2019, as a proprietary blockchain-based digital payments platform. The service was integrated with…

Banking sector stress strengthens the case for Fed pause next week. Likely beneficiaries from the financial stress are gold and bitcoin, one observer said. Bitcoin (BTC) continued to rally early Tuesday as a key banking sector risk indicator spiked, strengthening the case for a pause in Federal Reserve’s (Fed) rate hikes. The leading cryptocurrency by market value rose to a three-week high of $24,900, extending a three-day winning streak, CoinDesk data show. Prices pretty much reversed the entire drop from $25,000 to $19,500 seen in the second half of February. The gap between the U.S. three-month forward rate agreement (FRA) and the overnight…

USDC depegged over the weekend to 89 cents, and a Buterin-linked wallet may have bought the dip. A wallet named after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin spent 500 ether, or just over $700,000, over the weekend to mint the lesser-known RAI stablecoin and used the funds to purchase USD Coin (USDC) while it traded below its $1 peg. The wallet labeled vitalik.eth was created seven years ago and held more than 5,360 ether as of Tuesday. While Ethereum Names Service (ENS) domains resolve to crypto wallets, they may be not necessarily held by a person popularly associated with the name. “Vitalik-labeled address has…

The exchange denies that any of the tokens former Coinbase manager Ishan Wahi inside-traded with associates were securities because Coinbase doesn’t list securities – but it would like to if the SEC gave it proper rules and guidance. The digital assets that Coinbase lists are not securities, but Coinbase, if given proper guidance and rules from the Securities and Exchange Commission, would like to list securities, Coinbase said Monday in an amicus brief. But the SEC’s willingness to work with the exchange in a productive fashion has been limited, the brief reads. Coinbase filed the amicus, or friend of the court…

The bug pertains to the way peer-to-peer communications are conducted on blockchain networks such as Litecoin and Zcash. Blockchain security Halborn says a vulnerability it found last year on the open-source codebase of the Dogecoin network is still present in at least 280 other networks, as per a Monday post. During an assessment in 2022, the researchers found several critical vulnerabilities that could have been exploited by attackers to compromise the network. At the time, Dogecoin developers addressed and resolved the vulnerabilities. However, further investigations by Halborn revealed that similar vulnerabilities were present in several other networks, including Litecoin and Zcash.…

The event managed to bring senior leaders from India’s ruling party and the opposition benches. On Saturday, India’s crypto industry pulled off a near coup by bringing lawmakers and members of India’s ruling party to a conference discussing Web3. Indian exchange CoinDCX, backed by the industry’s policy body, Bharat Web3, and media outlet Forbes brought lawmakers to an event titled “Namaste Web3” at one of New Delhi’s five star luxury hotels, to discuss India’s G-20 presidency and potential opportunities for India in the Web3 sector. The conference managed to bring senior leaders from India’s ruling party – National Vice President…

The largest cryptocurrency was trading at just over $24,700 during the Asian morning hours on Tuesday. Bitcoin (BTC) added over 11% in the past 24 hours to trade above $24,700 on Tuesday, retracting all losses from over the weekend and setting a three-week high. The movement possibly came as a surprise to traders who may have otherwise bet on declining prices after two key crypto-friendly banks were shut last week and USD Coin (USDC), a major stablecoin, depegged. Over $100 million worth of bitcoin shorts, or bets against a rise in prices, was liquidated on Monday. This was the highest…

Major banks are still willing to work with crypto firms, though they may restrict services, according to messages from DCG viewed by CoinDesk. Crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) is trying to find new banking partners for portfolio companies following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank (SBNY), and Silvergate (SI), according to messages viewed by CoinDesk. Santander (SAN), HSBC (HSBA), Deutsche Bank (DB), BankProv, Bridge Bank, Mercury, Multis and Series Financial are still willing to connect with crypto firms, according to the messages. DCG’s efforts come on the back of banking failures in the U.S., which left a…

When the Federal Reserve starts to raise interest rates, it generally keeps doing so until something breaks, or so goes the collective Wall Street wisdom. So with the second- and third-largest bank failures ever in the books happening just over the past few days, and worries of more to come, that would seem to qualify as significant breakage and reason for the central bank to back off. Not so fast. Even with the failure over the past several days of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank that forced regulators to spring into action, markets still expect the Fed to keep up its inflation-fighting…