BUSINESS

Dakota, a crypto-integrated banking platform for businesses, has raised $12.5 million in a Series A round to expand its borderless banking services, the firm said on Tuesday.

The investment was led by CoinFund, with participation from 6th Man Ventures and Triton Ventures.

The announcement comes at a time when stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies tied to an external asset, predominantly to the U.S. dollar, are increasingly becoming part of traditional finance plumbing and a tool for cheaper, faster cross-border payments. Stablecoin regulation is also advancing in the U.S., with the Senate already having passed the GENIUS Act and the House aiming to vote on the proposal on Thursday.

“We believe stablecoins can revolutionize business banking,” Alex Felix, CIO of CoinFund, said in a statement. “Dakota is unlocking that potential by combining the familiarity of a bank account with the power of crypto rails.”

The startup, founded by alumni of Coinbase, Square, and Airbnb, lets businesses hold and move funds in U.S. dollars or stablecoins while using traditional payment networks like ACH, SWIFT and SEPA. Businesses can send or receive payments via regular bank accounts on the platform without touching crypto directly. Behind the scenes, it uses blockchain to settle transfers nearly instantly, offering an alternative to conventional banking.

The firm keeps customer deposits fully reserved and backed 1:1 by short-term U.S. Treasuries, aiming to eliminate liquidity and counterparty risks.

With the funding, the firm is now expanding its services to over 100 countries, including the UK, European Union, Singapore and parts of Latin America.

“Business today is borderless, and dollars are a universal language,” said Dakota CEO Ryan Bozarth. “We want to give entrepreneurs from Bogotá to Bangalore the same access to U.S. dollar banking that a startup in San Francisco would have.”

Read more: House Gears Up for Crypto Market Structure Vote on Wednesday, Stablecoins Thursday

Boundless, the decentralized zero-knowledge (ZK) compute marketplace powered by RISC Zero, has launched its incentivized testnet (which it is calling “Mainnet Beta”) on Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network.

With Boundless’ incentivized testnet, developers can build and test applications in an environment as if the protocol is in fully live format. The network has already landed early support from industry heavyweights like the Ethereum Foundation, Wormhole and EigenLayer.

A decentralized marketplace for zero-knowledge compute connects those who need zero-knowledge proofs — such as developers building rollups, bridges, or privacy-preserving applications — with a distributed network of independent “ZK provers or miners” who generate and verify those proofs. Instead of relying on centralized parties, this model allows anyone with the right hardware to contribute computing power and be rewarded for doing that cryptographic work.

Zero-knowledge (ZK) technology allows parties to prove that a transaction is valid without revealing sensitive details like identities or amounts. ZK proofs are widely seen as crucial to the next generation of privacy and scaling focused blockchain projects.

The network relies on a Proof of Verifiable Work (PoVW) consensus mechanism. “PoVW is an open proving market where ZK miners, like institutions and individuals with high-performance GPUs, are rewarded for successfully verifying proofs,” the team wrote in a press release shared with CoinDesk. “Unlike traditional Proof of Work, miners get rewarded for verification within a ZK Virtual Machine, ensuring efficiency, fairness, and security.”

In addition, those who will participate in the incentivized testnet will be able to earn early allocations of the network’s forthcoming token, $ZKC, with an airdrop event planned for later this year. Rewards are distributed based on the volume, speed, and complexity of proofs generated.

The team also shared that the network’s real mainnet is planned for the third quarter of 2025, with the token going live then too.

“Boundless makes blockchains more scalable by allowing secure, cross-chain computing without repeating the same tasks. This boosts efficiency, strengthens security, and lets developers and miners join in across different ecosystems,” said Shiv Shankar, the CEO of Boundless, in the press release.

Read more: Blockchain Capital Leads $40M Round for Crypto Firm RISC Zero

Inflation in the U.S. perked up in June but was mostly in line with expectations, perhaps helping to set the stage for another Federal Reserve rate cut as soon as September.

The headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.3% last month versus economist forecasts of 0.3% and just 0.1% in May. On a year-over-year basis, CPI rose 2.7% against 2.7% expected and 2.4% in May.

The core CPI, which strips out food and energy costs, climbed 0.2 % in June versus 0.3% expected and 0.1% in May. Core CPI year-over-year was higher by 2.9% compared to 3.0% anticipated and 2.8% in May.

In the midst of a steep decline from record highs of nearly $124,000 just a bit over 24 hours ago, the price of bitcoin (BTC) gained a bit back to $117,300 just following the release of the data.

A check of traditional markets finds U.S. stock indices futures adding a bit to gains, with the S&P 500 higher by 0.4%. The 10-year Treasury yield has dipped two basis points to 4.41%.

The new data comes as investors watch for signs of whether inflation is easing enough for the Federal Reserve to consider cutting interest rates later this year. Though at least two Fed members have agitated for a rate cut as soon as the central bank’s late July meeting, there’s doesn’t seem to be wide support from either Fed Chair Jerome Powell or the rest of the central bank policymakers.

That’s led to the Fed’s subsequent meeting — in September — as the leading candidate for the possible resumption of rate cuts. Prior to this morning’s inflation data, the odds of a September move were just shy of 62%, according to CME FedWatch.

Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options exchange, has announced a new rewards program for eligible USDC holders to enhance users’ collateral choices and boost overall capital efficiency on the platform.

These payments are possible because Deribit leverages Coinbase as a custody solution for USDC and Coinbase, in turn, pays rewards to those holding USDC through them. As of July 2025, the reward rate stands at 4%, though users should note that Coinbase regularly adjusts these rates.

USDC is the world’s second-largest dollar-pegged stablecoin with a market value of $63.83 billion at press time. Deribit accounts for nearly 80% of the global crypto options activity.

The eligibility to receive the USDC yield is determined by the user’s location, Deribit said in the official announcement, adding that for institutional users, the place of incorporation and principal place of business are taken into consideration.

Additionally, users must store their USDC directly with Deribit, and now with an external custodian, to earn the yield. In case of a hybrid setup, only the USDC held on Deribit will be considered.

The first rewards will be paid in August 2025, with the amount calculated based on the minimum equity held each day between July 15 and July 31, the exchange said.