Coindesk

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Cryptocurrency prices are rising after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s former crypto enforcement unit transitioned into the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit and amid dovish comments from Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic.

Renaming the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit is significant because it shows the agency is moving away from its crypto focus that often led to accusations of regulation by enforcement and legal battles with major industry participants.

“In the near to medium term, clearer regulations will likely boost institutional participation, leading to improvements in market infrastructure,” BackPack founder and CEO Armani Ferrante told CoinDesk. Bitcoin is now above $98,000 after adding 1.2% in 24 hours, while the broader CoinDesk 20 Index rose 1.35%.

Yet, volatility is still relatively low. “These environments may feel slow and frustrating, but they rarely persist for long — volatility tends to mean revert,” Wintermute OTC trader Jake O told CoinDesk.

With tensions between the U.S. and its European allies growing, investors are hoping Germany’s election on Sunday will lead to a stable coalition government that will push out economic reforms to stimulate growth and boost defense spending. Germany is Europe’s largest economy and a positive result could lead to a more risk-on approach.

Open interest has already moved up ahead of the election. Still, the crypto market lacks positive catalysts in the near term, JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a report.

In fact, the market is nearing backwardation — where spot prices rise above futures prices — in a “negative development” that’s “indicative of demand weakness” by institutional investors using regulated CME futures contracts to gain exposure to the market. Stay alert!

What to Watch

Crypto:

Feb. 21: TON (The Open Network) becomes the exclusive blockchain infrastructure for messaging platform Telegram’s Mini App ecosystem.

Feb. 24: At epoch 115968, testing of Ethereum’s Pecta upgrade on the Holesky testnet starts.

Feb. 25, 9:00 a.m.: Ethereum Foundation research team AMA on Reddit.

Feb. 27: Solana-based L2 Sonic SVM (SONIC) mainnet launch (“Mobius”).

Macro

Feb. 21, 9:45 a.m.: S&P Global releases February’s (Flash) U.S. Purchasing Managers’ Index (Flash) reports.

Composite PMI Prev. 52.7

Manufacturing PMI Est. 51.5 vs. Prev. 51.2

Services PMI Est. 53 vs. Prev. 52.9

Feb. 24, 5:00 a.m.: Eurostat releases eurozone’s (final) consumer inflation data for January.

Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.7% vs. Prev. 2.7%

Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.5% vs. Prev. 2.4%

Earnings

Feb. 24: Riot Platforms (RIOT), post-market, $-0.18

Feb. 25: ​​Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR), pre-market, $-0.17

Feb. 25: Cipher Mining (CIFR), pre-market, $-0.09

Feb. 26: MARA Holdings (MARA), post-market, $-0.13

Token Events

Governance votes & calls

Sky DAO is discussing withdrawing a portion of the Smart Burn Engine’s LP tokens to stop malicious actors from acquiring them.

DYdX DAO is discussing increasing the limit on the maximum notional value of liquidations that can occur within a given block on the dYdX protocol to enhance the speed and efficiency of risk reduction during liquidations.

Unlocks

Feb. 21: Fast Token (FTN) to unlock 4.66% of circulating supply worth $78.6 million.

Feb. 28: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.92% of circulating supply worth $34.23 million.

Mar. 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 0.74% of circulating supply worth $81.07 million.

Token Launches

Conferences:

CoinDesk’s Consensus to take place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.

Feb. 23-March 2: ETHDenver 2025 (Denver)

Feb. 24: RWA London Summit 2025

Feb. 25: HederaCon 2025 (Denver)

March 2-3: Crypto Expo Europe (Bucharest, Romania)

March 8: Bitcoin Alive (Sydney, Australia)

Token Talk

By Oliver Knight

With a botched launch from Argentine president Javier Milei and a token proposed by self-professed Nazi Kanye West, now known as Ye, this week in memecoin land has been one to forget.

Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter said the craze is “unquestionably over,” a view that might be cemented by a report revealing that West is planning to introduce YZY token — and will own 70% of the supply.

The rest of the crypto market remains relatively unperturbed by the potential demise of the sector: ETH and LTC are up by 3% this week whilst TRX has risen by 7.7% as liquidity appears to be rotating from speculative tokens back to more utilitarian projects.

NEAR leads the pack on Friday, surging by 11% after announcing the “first truly autonomous” AI agents. The agents will be able to autonomously own, trade and manage assets on-chain.

Derivatives Positioning

BTC open interest on centralized exchanges rose nearly 5% to $37.3 billion in the past 24 hours. This, coupled with the reversal in funding from positive to negative, suggests a potential short squeeze scenario. Short liquidations have dominated the futures markets over that period, nearing a total of $110 million compared with $6.11 million in longs.

Among the assets with over $100 million in open interest, Maker DAO, Virtuals Protcol and Artificial Super Intelligence saw the highest one-day increase, rising by 39.2%, 35.5% and 28.00%, respectively.

Among the options instruments, the call option on BTC with a strike price of $99,000 and expiring Feb. 22 has traded with the most volume on Deribit. The next most popular options instrument is the call on BTC with a strike price of $108,000, expiring on Feb. 28. The action hints at the optimistic short-term sentiment in the market over the past couple of days.

Market Movements:

BTC is up 0.28% from 4 p.m. ET Thursday to $98,632.42 (24hrs: +1.35%)

ETH is up 2.09% at $2,800.02 (24hrs: +2.15%)

CoinDesk 20 is up 0.92% to 3,298.29 (24hrs: +1.49%)

Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 2.99%

BTC funding rate is at 0.0010% (1.0961% annualized) on Binance

DXY is up 0.29% at 106.68

Gold is down 0.31% at $2,929.76/oz

Silver is down 0.12% to $32.91/oz

Nikkei 225 closed +0.26% at 38,776.94

Hang Seng closed +3.99% at 23.477.92

FTSE is up 0.20% at 8,680.19

Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.18% at 5,471.08

DJIA closed Thursday down -1.01% at 44,176.65

S&P 500 closed -0.43% at 6,117.52

Nasdaq closed -0.47% at 19,962.36

S&P/TSX Composite Index closed -0.44% at 25,514.08

S&P 40 Latin America closed +0.76% at 2,480.21

U.S. 10-year Treasury rate was down 2 bps at 4.49%

E-mini S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 6,138.25

E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.13% at 22,170.75

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.10% to 44,309

Bitcoin Stats:

BTC Dominance: 61.02 (-0.35%)

Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02842 (2.01%)

Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 807 EH/s

Hashprice (spot): $54.92

Total Fees: 5.34 BTC / $526,892

CME Futures Open Interest: 178,500 BTC

BTC priced in gold: 33.4 oz

BTC vs gold market cap: 9.49%

Technical Analysis

TAO has emerged as one of the strongest-performing assets over the past week, fueled by the launch of the dynamicTAO upgrade. This momentum has propelled the price above all key exponential moving averages on the daily time frame, signaling renewed strength.

Adding to the bullish sentiment, the price action has formed an inverse head and shoulders pattern.

TAO’s recent listing on Coinbase provided an extra catalyst, driving its price up nearly 20% to a high of $495 since the initial announcement.

Crypto Equities

MicroStrategy (MSTR): closed on Thursday at $323.92 (+1.65%), up 0.37% at $324.85 in pre-market

Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $256.59 (-0.80%), up 0.86% at $258.80

Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$25.65 (+1.30%)

MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $15.95 (+1.08%), up 0.38% at $16.01

Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $11.60 (+0.35%), up 0.52% at $11.66

Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $11.84 (-1.50%), up 0.51% at $11.90

CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $10.06 (+1.72%), up 0.80% at $10.14

CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $22.49 (-1.27%), down 0.31% at $22.42

Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $52.24 (+0.04%), unchanged

Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $47.80 (-1.26%), down 2.72% at $46.50

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

Daily net flow: -$364.8 million

Cumulative net flows: $39.63 billion

Total BTC holdings ~ 1.169 million.

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net flow: -$13.1 million

Cumulative net flows: $3.16 billion

Total ETH holdings ~ 3.807 million.

Source: Farside Investors

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

Bitcoin’s price action has triggered short liquidations totaling $97.9 million at the $98,890 level, according to CoinGlass. The next key resistance levels, based on the liquidation heat map, are $99,185 and $99,332, where liquidations worth $65.2 million and $67.9 million, respectively, are clustered.

On the downside, significant long liquidations are positioned at $97,415 and $97,194, amounting to $69.3 million and $70.7 million, respectively. These key levels highlight potential areas of volatility as bitcoin navigates its current price range.

While You Were Sleeping

Crypto Market Faces Weak Demand, Needs Trump Initiatives to Kick In, JPMorgan Says (CoinDesk): JPMorgan said CME futures data reveals weak institutional interest in crypto, with any pro-crypto initiatives from the Trump administration unlikely to emerge until the second half of the year.

South African Firm to Amass Bitcoin Hoard in First for Continent (Bloomberg): Altvest Capital adopted bitcoin to be a treasury reserve asset. It bought one BTC and is considering a $10 million share sale to expand its digital holdings.

Block Shares Fall on Profit, Revenue Miss (CNBC): At its Q4 2024 earnings call, Block (XYZ) executives commented on Proto, their bitcoin mining initiative. CFO Amrita Ahuja said the project should drive growth in the second half.

Japan Yields Fall as Ueda Warns BOJ Can Step In to Smooth Market (Bloomberg): Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda vowed to buy government bonds if long-term yields spike. Earlier, 10-year yields hit 1.455% — the most since 2009.

U.K. Retail Sales Rise for First Time in Five Months (The Wall Street Journal): In January, retail spending in the U.K. rose 1.7% from December, led by a 5.6% jump in food store sales as more people ate at home.

New Microsoft Chip Shortens Timeline to Make Bitcoin Quantum-Resistant: River (Cointelegraph): Bitcoin-focused financial services firm River said Microsoft’s Majorana — though not yet a threat — could reach a 1-million-qubit scale by 2027–2029, potentially enabling attacks on the blockchain.

In the Ether

Altvest Capital (ALV) became the first listed company in Africa to adopt bitcoin (BTC) as a strategic treasury asset, the company said in a press release Friday.

Altvest said it bought one bitcoin for its strategic treasury, following a path set by Strategy (MSTR) in the U.S. and Metaplanet (3350) in Japan.

The Johannesburg-based company paid 1.8 million rand ($98,200) for just over 1 BTC, and said it doesn’t plan to buy alternative cryptocurrencies.

Altvest said it sees “bitcoin as the only digital asset that meets its stringent investment criteria for a long-term treasury allocation.”

Corporates are increasingly adding bitcoin as a strategic treasury asset. Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy) pioneered the a move, starting to buy BTC in 2020. It now holds 478,740 bitcoin, worth more than $47 billion at current prices.

The South African investment firm said the initiative to acquire bitcoin was “focused on preserving shareholder value, mitigating currency depreciation risks, and gaining exposure to a globally recognized store of value.”

Since Tokyo-based Metaplanet started buying bitcoin in April last year, it has acquired 2,031 tokens worth nearly $200 million and its shares became the best-performing Japanese equity over the past 12 months, with a gain of 3,900%. Earlier this month, investment bank KBW started coverage of Strategy with an outperform rating and a $560 price target. The shares are currently $323.92.

Altvest shares were trading more than 9% lower at 590 rand at publication time.

Read more: Zoom Communications Should Embrace Bitcoin as Treasury Asset, Eric Semler Says

The cryptocurrency market is lacking positive catalysts in the near term, Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM) said in a report Wednesday.

The correction in crypto markets in recent months has seen both bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) futures near backwardation, which is a sign of lower demand, the report said. Backwardation occurs when the spot price of an asset is higher than the price trading in the futures market.

“This is a negative development and indicative of demand weakness by those institutional investors that use regulated CME futures contracts to gain exposure into these two cryptocurrencies,” analysts led Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote.

If demand for bitcoin and ether futures is healthy, the futures cost more than the spot price, and the curve is said to be in contango, the bank noted.

When demand slows and price expectations soften, the futures curve moves towards backwardation, the bank added.

This weakness in demand could be due to a number of reasons.

Positive crypto initiatives by Trump’s new administration are more likely to kick in during the second half of the year, the bank said, and this means institutional investors are likely taking profits due to a lack of short-term catalysts.

Lower demand from systematic and momentum-driven funds, such as CTAs, has also affected bitcoin and ether futures, JPMorgan added.

Read more: U.S. Crypto Task Force to Focus on Delivering National Bitcoin Reserve: Bernstein

HONG KONG—Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West who has repeatedly called himself a “Nazi” in recent weeks, plans to launch a crypto token, according to three sources close to the project.

The token, YZY, is designed to help Ye side-step platforms like Shopify that have cut ties with him in response to his hateful rhetoric.

Crypto, with its censorship-resistant ethos, offers Ye an alternative avenue for cashing in on his celebrity status: Seventy percent of the YZY token, named after Ye’s Yeezy clothing brand, will be reserved for Ye personally, with just 10% allocated for liquidity provisioning and 20% for investors.

Ye’s foray into crypto comes on the heels of years of public controversy that have strained his business empire. In 2022, Ye was dropped by Adidas, Balenciaga and his talent agency after making a series of antisemitic comments, including praising Adolf Hitler in a live interview and tweeting inflammatory rhetoric about Jewish people and other groups.

The fallout continued this year when Ye, after again calling himself a Nazi on X, listed a T-shirt bearing a swastika on the Yeezy website, leading e-commerce platform Shopify to shut down his online store.

YZY is being packaged as the official currency of Yeezy and will be accepted as payment on his website.

CoinDesk learned about the token through an email from Hussein Lalani, a person with a yeezy.com email address who identified himself as Yeezy’s chief financial officer. After sending a document describing the token unsolicited, Lalani requested that CoinDesk hold off on publication and agree to an “embargo.” CoinDesk did not agree to the embargo, and three sources close to the project authenticated the document.

Lalani did not respond to further requests for comment.

The YZY token was initially set to go for sale on Yeezy’s website on Thursday at 6:00 p.m., but the launch was delayed to Friday, according to a team member who asked not to be identified for fear of associating publicly with the project.

Following TRUMP

There have been murmurings of a potential Ye token since earlier this month, after the rapper teased that he had tried to contact Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Ye later posted that he was “not doing a coin” despite someone offering him $2 million to do so. He added: “Coins prey on the fans with hype.”

Sources close to the YZY team told CoinDesk that Ye aimed to emulate Donald Trump’s TRUMP meme coin, which the president launched two days before his second inauguration. Trump raised eyebrows for his similarly massive insider-ownership distribution: 80% of TRUMP is currently held by CIC Digital, a company with ties to the president.

Ye, too, wanted an 80% ownership stake but was negotiated down to 70%, an additional source close to the project who asked not to be identified told CoinDesk. Should Ye’s token achieve even a fraction of TRUMP’s success, his stake could still be worth many millions of dollars.

‘The Milei thing’

YZY enters an already saturated market of celebrity-driven crypto projects, many of which have been accused of exploiting fan loyalty without offering tangible utility. In many cases, these tokens see a short-lived price surge driven by hype before crashing, leaving retail investors holding the bag.

Centralized ownership allocation only adds to the risk of sudden price drops. According to the unsolicited YZY press release, Ye’s 70% YZY stake is structured through a multi-phase vesting schedule — some coins are locked for up to 12 months, meaning they cannot be sold until then — though critics argue that such insider-heavy allocations still favor founders over retail investors.

Just this week, Argentina became enmeshed in a political crisis after a meme coin endorsed by President Javier Milei, LIBRA, turned out to be a “pump-and-dump” scheme, triggering public outrage and calls for impeachment.

The source close to YZY told CoinDesk that the token’s delay comes as its team ponders whether it’s still “too close to the Milei thing.”

After months of rapid expansion, Bitcoin’s hashrate growth slowed down in January, according to the latest report from TheMinerMag.

The network’s difficulty saw its first decline since September, indicating that even though publicly listed companies have kept increasing their hash power, their growth isn’t enough to compensate for the capitulation of other, probably smaller operators.

The total revenue made from bitcoin (BTC) mining remained stable at $1.4 billion for the month. Publicly traded mining companies, which collectively hold 99,000 bitcoin (worth roughly $9.7 billion), accounted for about 30% of the hashrate market share in January.

Competition between the biggest publicly traded companies has also increased.

The leading mining firm, Marathon Digital (MARA), retained its top spot with a realized hashrate of 41.65 EH/s, followed by CleanSpark at 34.77 EH/s. Riot Platforms, which has been expanding aggressively, is closing in with 31.27 EH/s.

“Notably, the competition within the 30 EH/s group is heating up like never before, while the gap between the 30 EH/s tier and the 10 EH/s group — comprising Core Scientific, Cipher Mining, and Bitfarms — continues to widen,” the report said.

The top miners taking more market share is hardly a surprise as the recent halving event has cut bitcoin mining rewards by half and squeezed the industry’s profit margin, even with the BTC price near $100,000. In such an environment, it’s tough for smaller players to compete with big operations which were already positioned to dominate the market. In fact, a lot of miners are already looking for other revenue sources, such as hosting machines for AI and HPC firms.

Read more: Bitcoin Halving Is a ‘Show Me the Money’ Moment for Miners

The report also said that mining hardware imports to the U.S. also slowed in January, a factor contributing to the stabilization of hashrate growth. However, some firms, including Blockchain Power Corp and AcroHash, have imported a significant amount of cooling infrastructure from Bitmain.

Looking ahead, TheMinerMag predicts another difficulty adjustment decline in February as some smaller mining operators exit the market due to lower profitability.

Read more: Bitcoin Mining Is a Game of Survival, Consolidation and Potential AI Diversification: Bernstein

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his disappointment with some ETH community members and thought it was “bad” that the ecosystem was too welcoming for “casinos.”

During an ask-me-anything (AMA) on Tako, Buterin responded to a question about whether he had felt disappointed at the Ethereum Foundation, the crypto industry or the community. He answered “of course,” especially when others question why Ethereum has not been more open to applications with blockchain gambling, seemingly taking a jab at its competitor, Solana, and how their ecosystem has embraced a lot of memecoin activity over the past year.

Buterin’s comment comes as the Ethereum community has faced backlash from members raising the alarm that the chain will lose its competitive advantage to rivals if it doesn’t address some core issues, while Solana has attracted more new developers than Ethereum and has poached top talent.

Buterin also said that if the community continues on with this “moral reversal,” he would no longer participate in the Ethereum ecosystem.

“But I found an interesting point: on the internet, many people will say those things, but when I chat with the community in person, everyone’s values are the same as before, so I feel like I have a responsibility to this community and can’t abandon them,” Buterin added.

Read more: Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Goes on Offense Amid Major Leadership Shake-up

The European Central Bank (ECB) said it is looking to develop a way of settling distributed-ledger technology (DLT) transactions with fiat currency as it expands its work on the key feature that underpins the blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

The bank plans a two-stage approach to using the technology, which is a decentralized database that is maintained and updated independently by individual participants in a large network. Firstly it will develop a system linked to its existing Target settlement system. Target ensures “the free flow of cash, securities and collateral across Europe,” it said.

“This is an important contribution to enhancing European financial market efficiency through innovation,” Executive Board member Piero Cipollone, who oversees the initiative, said in a Thursday statement.

The bank will also look for a long-term, more integrated way of settling DLT-based transitions in fiat money, which will include foreign exchange settlement.

The ECB has been exploring digital currency technology since 2023. The initiative will build on exploratory work which invited financial market stakeholders to explore “wholesale financial transactions recorded on distributed ledger technology platforms to be settled in central bank money.”

A timeline on the bank’s plans will be made public later.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission unit tasked with chasing bad guys in the crypto space will be smaller and called something significantly different, the agency said Thursday, further cementing its trend away from an aggressive enforcement stance against the industry.

In three years, the same internal group has transitioned from the “Cyber Unit” to the “Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit” and now to the “Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit,” seemingly taking some focus off its crypto role. In 2022, then-Chairman Gary Gensler’s SEC announced the enforcement squad was almost doubling to 50 people. The latest announcement says it will include “approximately 30 fraud specialists and attorneys across multiple SEC offices.”

“The unit will not only protect investors but will also facilitate capital formation and market efficiency by clearing the way for innovation to grow,” Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda said in a statement, which also announced Laura D’Allaird as the head of the overhauled group.”It will root out those seeking to misuse innovation to harm investors and diminish confidence in new technologies.”

That language sharply contrasts with the crypto-focused rhetoric from Gensler in 2022, when he said the unit would pursue “those seeking to take advantage of investors in crypto markets.”

President Donald Trump elevated Republican Uyeda from his role as commissioner to run the agency on an interim basis while the U.S. Senate considers the nomination of former Commission Paul Atkins for the permanent job. Uyeda isn’t sitting on his hands during the wait and has already been remaking the SEC, especially in relaxing its strong past distrust of crypto.

Read More: SEC Backs Off Crypto Dealer Fight, Continues Resetting Industry Approach

Uyeda formed a Crypto Task Force at the SEC, under the watch of fellow Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce, and this enforcement unit is meant to “complement the work” of that group. In addition to still hunting for “fraud involving blockchain technology and crypto assets,” the unit will watch for unlawful uses of artificial intelligence, hacks and other cybersecurity missteps.

In the wake of shifting U.S. policy, the crypto landscape is undergoing a fundamental change — from fast-moving speculative bets to long-term, anchored investments, said Bitpanda CEO Eric Demuth during a fireside chat at Consensus Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Demuth said the 2024 bull run wasn’t a repeat of the retail-fueled 2021 cycle. Instead, it was being driven by what he calls “sticky money” — institutional capital that’s less volatile and more committed.

Vienna-based Bitpanda is one of Europe’s largest crypto exchanges with over 6 million users and offers stocks and previous metals, in addition to digital assets. The platform recently secured regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom.

Speaking about the impact of U.S. policies under the Trump administration, Demuth argued that the government’s aggressive embrace of crypto is forcing global markets to adapt. “The Trump administration is forcing everybody to do this, it’s not an option anymore, […] it’s mandatory.”

A clear sign of this shift is the booming interest in Bitcoin ETFs, which have ballooned to nearly $58 billion in assets under management in just one year of trading. Demuth believes these vehicles signal a maturing market, where major players are locking in capital for the long term, rather than chasing quick gains.

While altcoins haven’t picked up the same speed of adoption as bitcoin, Demuth believes that will change once U.S. regulation evolves and alternative crypto ETFs gain approval.

He also believes that U.S. banks will be the next wave of adopters.

“[Crypto] has been made one of the pillars of U.S. economic and financial policy, so you have the biggest financial power in the world putting [crypto] on the spotlight which means all the banks now have to either look into it or even offer something,” he said.

He predicts a surge in stablecoin issuances directly from U.S. banks and an uptick in tokenized assets, from government bonds to real estate.

In Europe, Bitpanda continues to focus on navigating the continent’s complex regulatory landscape, holding multiple licenses and positioning itself as a key player in a fragmented market. Demuth said the potential for new customers in Europe is big enough for the company to stay focused on its expansion in that region.

However, the company is expanding its B2B services, he said, licensing its crypto infrastructure to banks in the Middle East as well as Europe. Major financial institutions, including Germany’s Deutsche Bank and France’s largest banking group, are already tapping into Bitpanda’s backend systems.

Digital asset marketplace Figure Markets has launched YLDS, the first yield-bearing stablecoin registered as a public security offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said Thursday.

The YLDS stablecoin, issued through Figure Certificate Corporation, operates on the Provenance Blockchain and accrues interest daily, paid out every month in either U.S. dollars or YLDS tokens. It is backed by the same securities as prime money market funds and pays holders a return at an annual rate of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) less 50 basis points.

The token can be transferred peer-to-peer and exchanged for dollars or other stablecoins around the clock, with fiat off-ramps available during U.S. banking hours.

Stablecoins mushroomed to a $200 billion asset class and are increasingly popular for payments and cross-border transactions. However, market-leading stablecoins like USDT and USDC don’t generally pay out holders the yield earned on reserve assets, predominantly U.S. Treasuries. That’s where tokenized versions of money-market funds or investment strategies like BlackRock’s BUIDL, Franklin Templeton’s BENJI or Ethena’s USDE enter the market: They are increasingly used as collateral or to park on-chain cash to earn a yield.

Read more: Tokenized Treasuries: A Game-Changer for Collateral in Crypto Markets

Figure Markets is the digital asset arm of Figure Technologies, a company co-founded by Mike Cagney, the former CEO of SoFi. The firm has played a key role in blockchain-based real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, processing over $41 billion in transactions and originating $11 billion in home equity line of credit using the Provenance Blockchain. Figure filed paperwork to the SEC to launch a yield-bearing stablecoin offering in October 2023.

The company expects YLDS to attract interest from developers looking to integrate stable, yield-bearing digital assets into decentralized finance (DeFi) and payment applications.

“We see tremendous applications for YLDS,” Figure Markets CEO Mike Cagney said in a statement. “Exchange collateral, cross-border remittances and payment rails are immediate opportunities, but this is just the beginning of a larger shift of traditional finance to blockchain.”

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.