All articles tagged with #blockchain
For a $3,000 investment to hold for five years, Ethereum is the stronger pick due to its leading role in tokenizing real-world assets and ongoing network upgrades, while XRP faces a narrower growth path with fewer tradable assets and more uncertain upside.
A Taliban-era Afghan startup is building blockchain-based tools to transform humanitarian aid, with HesabPay used in Syria to distribute funds, illustrating Afghanistan as an unlikely hub of crypto innovation despite internet skepticism.
ARK Invest's Big Ideas 2026, its 10th flagship report, maps a wave of tech-driven growth led by AI and its infrastructure, consumer OS, and productivity gains, while also highlighting blockchain/tokenized assets, DeFi, multiomics, reusable rockets, robotics, distributed energy, and autonomous vehicles and logistics—designed to help investors and decision-makers anticipate the next big shifts and Own What's Next.
BBC InDepth reports that personal crypto theft surged to about $713 million in 2024–25 as ownership climbs; attackers use hacks, scams, social engineering, and even wrench attacks to target ordinary investors, often with self-custody wallets leaving victims unprotected and unrecoverable. High-profile cases—from a UK couple losing hundreds of thousands after a cloud-storage breach to networks of hackers and even North Korean actors profiting from crypto—illustrate the growing risk. Regulators note crypto is still largely unregulated in the UK, and experts urge stronger wallet security, features like geofencing, and better protections for everyday users.
Circle’s 2026 Internet Financial System report argues that regulated, full-reserve digital dollars and open internet-native money protocols will become the backbone of a global, programmable economy, with USDC and Circle at the center as public blockchains evolve into trusted platforms for trillions in value, enabling broader digital-asset markets, global payments, humanitarian finance, and on-chain infrastructure under converging regulatory foundations.
A draft Senate bill, the Clarity Act, would classify certain tokens as "non-ancillary" assets if they were the principal asset of an ETF listed on a national exchange as of Jan 1, 2026, potentially placing XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin (along with others) in a Bitcoin/Ethereum-like regime and exempting them from SEC securities rules. The change would mainly affect institutional access and regulatory clarity rather than short-term price moves, though the bill’s fate is politically uncertain and could hinge on upcoming elections.
BNY Mellon has launched a new capability to tokenize client deposits on its Digital Assets platform, enabling on-chain representation of cash for institutional clients to support faster, more efficient settlement and liquidity management, with plans to expand these features to broader cash movement and market infrastructure.
The Marshall Islands has launched the world's first national universal basic income scheme offering payments via cryptocurrency and traditional methods, aiming to support citizens amid rising costs. The program, funded by a US-backed trust, provides quarterly payments of about $200, with most recipients choosing bank deposits or checks, and a small number opting for digital wallets. While innovative, the scheme faces challenges related to internet connectivity and governance, and its long-term success remains uncertain.
Visa has launched USDC stablecoin settlement in the U.S., allowing banks and fintechs to settle transactions faster and more efficiently using blockchain technology, marking a significant step in integrating stablecoins into mainstream financial operations.
Two brothers accused of crypto fraud faced a stressful mistrial after the jury, overwhelmed by the case's complexity and emotional toll, could not reach a verdict, leaving the case unresolved and potentially subject to retrial.
Ripple has raised $500 million at a $40 billion valuation with backing from major Wall Street firms like Fortress and Citadel Securities, aiming to expand its services in custody, stablecoins, and prime brokerage. Its US-dollar backed stablecoin RLUSD has surpassed $1 billion in market value, and the company has processed over $95 billion in transactions, positioning itself as a key infrastructure provider for institutional crypto adoption amid increasing regulatory clarity and industry momentum.
Ripple has raised $500 million in funding, boosting its valuation to $40 billion, as it expands beyond payments into areas like stablecoins, custody, and treasury management, with strategic acquisitions and institutional investor interest, despite ongoing cryptocurrency market volatility.
Tempo, a blockchain startup developed by Stripe and Paradigm, has raised $500 million in a Series A funding round led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks, valuing it at $5 billion. The project focuses on stablecoins and aims to become a key infrastructure layer for global payments, reflecting mainstream investment interest in crypto. Stripe continues to expand its crypto-related initiatives, including acquisitions and new product launches, with Tempo representing its most ambitious blockchain project to date.
PayPal's blockchain partner Paxos accidentally minted $300 trillion in stablecoins due to an internal technical error, significantly exceeding the global GDP, but the issue was acknowledged and resolved by burning the excess reserves.
The article compares Bitcoin and Shiba Inu, highlighting Bitcoin's status as a scarce, gold-like asset favored by institutional investors, versus Shiba Inu's meme coin status with potential growth tied to its Layer-2 network Shibarium. While Bitcoin is generally a safer, more established investment, some see potential in Shiba Inu due to its ecosystem development, though it faces stiff competition and risks of underperformance. Overall, most investors should prefer Bitcoin, but a contrarian case exists for Shiba Inu based on its growth prospects.