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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has no business with certain stablecoins or their issuers, the regulator’s staff declared in the latest statement outlining the corners of the crypto sector for which it doesn’t have a legal interest.

Since the agency was taken over by President Donald Trump-appointed leadership and formed a Crypto Task Force to ease pressures on the digital assets space, its staff has issued a series of statements meant to clarify the crypto areas outside its jurisdiction — so far including memecoins and proof-of-work crypto mining. It’s now added stablecoins to that list. The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued the Friday statement — not yet a binding rule, or even formal guidance — to declare stablecoins “do not involve the offer and sale of securities.”

“Persons involved in the process of ‘minting’ (or creating) and redeeming Covered Stablecoins do not need to register those transactions with the Commission under the Securities Act or fall within one of the Securities Act’s exemptions from registration,” according to the statement.

It went on to clarify that such stablecoins — an arena dominated by Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC — “are marketed solely for use in commerce, as a means of making payments, transmitting money, and/or storing value, and not as investments.”

Congress has been moving forward on establishing a new set of U.S. standards for the issuance of such tokens. This week, the House Financial Services Committee advanced a stablecoin bill toward a vote of the overall House of Representatives. The Senate is building toward consideration of a similar bill that’s also been approved by committee there — in both cases by a wide, bipartisan vote.

While they’re the most sedate of crypto assets, stablecoins have been a colorful political topic in recent weeks, as the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial pitched its own stablecoin, and some congressional Democrats are concerned that Elon Musk will leverage his status as a tech giant to follow suit.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, who is leading the agency’s task force, has said she feels the early, nonbinding moves to reverse crypto resistance at the SEC are important and should be done as rapidly as possible, even if they’re not yet official policy. She’s said non-fungible tokens (NFTS) may also be considered for such a statement. Read More: SEC ‘Earnest’ About Finding Workable Crypto Policy, Commissioners Say at Roundtable

The SEC is set to have its second in a series of crypto summits next week. This one is set to focus on trading.

The agency may also soon be taken over by Trump’s pick for a permanent chairman if Paul Atkins is confirmed by the Senate. The Senate Banking Committee approved his nomination in a party-line vote this week.

Even before his arrival, interim Chairman Mark Uyeda has made dramatic moves to overhaul the regulator’s crypto position. That’s included throwing out most of the prominent enforcement cases the agency had pursued against digital assets businesses, though a few remain.

After U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection in November, optimism surged among crypto companies eyeing the public markets. Trump floated big promises: clearer rules for the industry and ambitions to make America the crypto capital of the world.

For a moment, it looked like the floodgates might open. IPO pipelines buzzed with activity. Founders dreamed of ringing the opening bell. But beneath the surface, storm clouds were gathering. A bull market is the lifeblood of successful listings, and few foresaw just how rocky the road ahead would become.

Circle didn’t wait for perfect conditions. After years of false starts and regulatory hangups, the stablecoin issuer finally filed its S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, taking a long-delayed step toward becoming a publicly traded company.

The filing landed with a mix of energy and doubt. Some in the industry saw it as a bullish signal—another crypto heavyweight inching closer to the public markets. Others questioned the timing. Markets remain shaky, and Circle’s path to a successful debut is far from guaranteed.

“I believe Circle will be able to price their IPO and raise capital, however it isn’t going to be easy,” said David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. “Generally, companies going public would like to debut during strong equity markets.”

Equities have been in a free fall since Trump announced so-called reciprocal tariffs on about 90 U.S. trade partners, including China and the European Union, deepening fears of a global recession. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have dipped 11% and 17% year-to-date, respectively, marking one of the worst quarters in recent years.

As a result, cloud computing firm CloudWeave, which went public last month, saw a disappointing debut, even though the stock rebounded on the second day of trading as investor demand for artificial intelligence companies appears to be stronger than short-term anxiety in markets. Payments app Klarna said it paused its IPO plan earlier today.

But Circle doesn’t just face broader market jitters as a potential threat to its IPO. Analysts have pointed out the company’s financials, which could make it difficult to attract investors.

“While I personally have tremendous respect and appreciation for Circle and their leadership, their financials show the challenges they have faced with growth and the high cost of their distribution partnerships,” Pakman, who noted that he still believes long-term value of the company, said.

Circle’s IPO filing revealed shrinking gross margins and high spending, which comes at a time when clearer stablecoin regulation could bring increased competition to the market.

“Circle is currently being priced like a traditional crypto business — cyclical, interest rate-dependent, and not diversified enough. If Circle can evolve to look more like a payments network with high margins and strong moats, its valuation might reflect that,” Lorenzo Valente, a crypto analyst at ARK Invest, wrote in a post on X.

Many aspects about the company’s structure seem to be in question, including how its revenue-sharing agreement will evolve, as well as the growth of Base, the blockchain created by Coinbase that uses Circle’s USDC, according to Valente.

“One precaution Circle has taken is a lower valuation. But, still hurdles remain as the rollout and implementation of digital rails in the banking system will take time,” said Mark Connors, chief investment strategist at Risk Dimensions, a New York-based Bitcoin investment advisory.

Circle’s rumored valuation of $4 billion to $6 billion, roughly 13 to 20 times its adjusted EBITDA, is in line with Coinbase and Block, and “not necessarily cheap, especially considering its recent drop in profitability,” Valente said.

“We do like the prospect for the growth in US-backed stablecoins based on the growing commercial use, shift in U.S. the regulatory and legislative (GENIUS Act) winds and the U.S. Treasury’s incentive to find new buyers of its growing stack of U.S. T-Bills,” according to Connors.

Over $6 trillion of Treasury bills will be rolled over this year, with additional issuance likely to fund the still-growing U.S. deficit.

Despite market uncertainty about the remaining year, several other crypto natives are looking to fulfill their IPO dreams, including Kraken, Gemini, Blockchain.com, Bullish (the parent company of CoinDesk) and BitGo. Even more crypto firms are rumored to be in talks to go public as well.

However, others will likely put their IPO plans on hold as they wait for regulatory clarity and better market conditions. Analysts at crypto M&A advisory firm Architect Partners expect the majority of IPOs to be filed in the second half of 2025 after written regulations and policies are clearly completed.

When Ethereum’s hottest startup of last year, EigenLayer, launched a year ago to massive expectations — many community members were quick to criticize that it was lacking a critical feature.

An announcement from the project on Wednesday said that the feature — slashing — is finally set to arrive on April 17. The introduction of slashing will mark the first “feature complete” version of the protocol.

EigenLayer pioneered the concept of restaking, a way for Ethereum users to secure additional protocols beyond the base layer by recommitting their staked Ether. Slashing was supposed to be a core part of this system, providing apps a way to punish bad actors by seizing a portion of their capital.

The implementation of slashing will allow Actively Validated Services (AVSs) — apps built atop EigenLayer’s restaking system — to set custom conditions penalizing operators who fail to meet pre-established conditions and rewarding those who do.

“This is a major step forward in the EigenLayer protocol because it allows for a free marketplace where Operators can earn rewards for their work and AVSs can launch verifiable services,” EigenLayer said in a blog post.

EigenLayer attracted more than $15 billion to the platform within a year and generated massive hype for the EIGEN token, which launched in October.

EigenLayer’s ecosystem has been expanding, with “100+” AVSs in development, according to its website. Notable services include EigenDA, a data availability service operated by Eigen Labs, and ARPA Network, which specializes in trustless randomization.

While EigenLayer pioneered restaking, the lack of slashing left room for competitors to gain market share. Symbiotic, which allows for the restaking of any asset, has been used by EigenLayer early adopters including Hyperlane, an interoperability framework, and Ethena, a popular synthetic dollar protocol.

Read more: EigenLayer, Crypto’s Biggest Project Launch This Year, Is Still Missing Crucial Functionality

After a frustrating few weeks in which bitcoin (BTC) prices seemed to move tick for tick with the Nasdaq, the world’s largest crypto is showing some signs of going its own way as stock prices go from struggling to plunging.

With the Nasdaq following up its 6% tumble on Thursday with another 5% decline halfway through the day on Friday, the price of bitcoin is holding at around $83,000. That’s about 1% higher over the past 24 hours and lower by just 3.5% since President Trump announced his tariff package on Wednesday evening.

Bitcoin is also greatly outperforming crypto-related stock like Coinbase (COIN), MicroStrategy (MSTR), Semler Scientific (SMLR) and the miners, all of which are down double-digit percentages over the past two sessions.

The broader crypto market is also flashing strength, with the CoinDesk 20 Index climbing higher, led by 4%-5% gains of XRP, Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA.

“Bitcoin has shown impressive resilience,” said David Hernandez, crypto investment specialist at digital asset manager 21Shares. “After briefly dipping below $82,000, it rebounded quickly, reinforcing its status as a macro hedge in times of macroeconomic stress.”

The decoupling — if it persists — could bode well for BTC’s appeal among institutional investors seeking refuge from shaky stock markets, Hernandez added.

Geoff Kendrick, digital asset research head of Standard Chartered Bank, argued last week that bitcoin trades like a tech stock most of the time but could feature as a hedge at market panic, such as the March 2023 U.S. regional banking crisis.”Over the last 36 hours I think we can also add ‘US isolation’ hedge to the list of bitcoin uses,” he said in a Friday note.

However, the newfound strength could be due to companies with BTC investment programs like Michael Saylor’s Strategy or GameStop bidding, said Sean Farrel, head of digital assets at Fundstrat.

“Still in the camp that this is due to the multibillion-dollar corporate treasury twap happening,” Farrell posted on X on Friday. “But if we maintain this strength through the weekend, we’re gonna have to revisit those priors.”

It was a dreadful week for the stock market, with the S&P 500 falling more than 6% over the last five days. That didn’t help Bitcoin, but the original cryptocurrency fared better than the wider market, rising over 1% in the same period.

The Nasdaq had one of its largest falls in 25 years Thursday, but Bitcoin held relatively steady (CoinDesk’s James Van Straten reported) even if now it’s nowhere near the highs above 100,000 that we saw at the beginning of the year.

The big question for bitcoin amid market uncertainty is whether it’s seen as a risk asset to be sold off in a storm or a safe haven akin to gold (which until the last 24 hours at least was doing well relative to the market). The impact of tariffs on crypto is much debated by researchers. Meanwhile, the digital assets industry prepared for better days ahead. Circle — the issuer of the second largest stablecoin, USDC — officially filed for an IPO. An important U.S. House committee advanced its stablecoin bill, with significant Democrat support.

Fidelity Investments, a major brokerage firm, announced plans to offer an IRA allowing investors direct access to crypto in their retirement accounts. Helene Braun had the news. Advisers are increasingly willing to promote crypto products to their clients, surveys show. In other news, corporate bitcoin buyers, like Strategy, Metaplanet, Mara and Tether, kept stockpiling bitcoin, taking advantage of today’s prices.

Ethereum developers locked in May 7 for their next upgrade (named Pectra), Margaux Nijkerk reported. Ripple reported big demand for its new stablecoin RLUSD, Kris Sandor reported.

Then in regulatory news, Paul Atkins neared confirmation for SEC Chair and long-time D.C. crypto advocate stepped down from heading the Blockchain Association to work for a new Solana-focused group.

Much of the news followed a pattern we’ve seen for the last few weeks: Sagging markets and quiet industry growth aided by a regulatory thaw.

Given the tumultuous macroeconomic environment, it’s going to be fascinating to see how crypto continues to fare.

Bitcoin’s original promise of “peer-to-peer electronic cash” hasn’t exactly developed in the way Satoshi intended. More people than ever are eager to pay in crypto, while most vendors want nothing but fiat.

While the mismatch has plenty of workarounds in countries with a strong banking and credit card culture, it’s a real problem in places with alternative electronic payment rails, like QR codes, says pseudonymous crypto developer Sheldon Cooper. How can one scan a fiat-only code and pay in stablecoins?

Cooper’s claimed solution, P2P.me, does it without ever touching the regular on-and-off ramps. Instead, this blockchain-based service relies on a network of middlemen willing to accept USDC from, say, Alice and send the equivalent fiat along to Bob. The whole process takes about 90 seconds, he said.

There are no traditional identity checks, either. P2P.me vets its users with zero-knowledge proofs that checks for a real-seeming social media presence and maybe even for a government ID. But it doesn’t store this personal data as would most financial institutions from banks on down to Binance.

“What we thought about is, ‘How do we decentralize this? How do we do on and off rams in a decentralized way,'” said Cooper. “The number one concern is privacy and self custody. All these CEXes give data to the government.”

P2P.me’s quirky blend of permissionless markets and privacy tech has processed $1.6 million in payments from around 1,100 users, mostly in Indonesia, Nigeria and Vietnam. That modest amount, quickly growing, was enough to get venture capitalists’ interest: Multicoin Capital and Coinbase Ventures recently invested $2 million P2P.me’s seed round.

The money’s already helped P2P.me scale its team to 20 people ahead of a planned push into Latin America, Cooper said. He sees local communities that struggle to navigate established financial rails as key adopters. So too are crypto-savvy tourists who go places where their credit cards don’t work, but their cell phones do.

Built on Base, the open protocol plans to launch a token in the next 12 months that will shift control to the community, according to Cooper.

“The strategic idea of the token is to scale globally, to break the network effects of the centralized exchange with P2P,” he said.

Gold-backed cryptocurrencies like Paxos Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT) retreated from record highs on Friday amid a global financial-markets sell-off that erased $2.5 trillion from U.S. equities alone in a single day after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his reciprocal tariffs.

The tokens, which are backed by physical gold and track its price, initially rallied as investors sought shelter from the uncertainty the tariffs introduced. Gold is usually seen as a haven investment, but large-scale losses in equity markets often force investors to liquidate safer assets to cover margin calls and cash out losses.

PAXG climbed to an all-time high of $3,191 with XAUT following closely behind to reach $3,190, exceeding spot gold’s peak of $3,167. The initial rise didn’t last, with PAXG dropping to $3,074 and XAUT to $3,064, mirroring gold’s pullback to $3,038 per ounce.

The tariffs announced on Wednesday spooked markets with their breadth and unclear targets. Investors, already jittery from a volatile global outlook, responded swiftly. The S&P 500 posted one of its steepest drops since the COVID-era panic in 2020 on Thursday, while the Nasdaq 100 saw its worst single-day point loss in history according to the Kobeissi Letter. The rout extended into a second day, with the MSCI World Index dropping 4.3% on Friday after losing 3.7% on Thursday.

Still, gold-backed tokens remain 17% higher since the start of the year. The rally has been driven by Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, sustained demand from Asia and a wave of central bank buying earlier in the year. In February, central banks reported net gold purchases of 24 metric tons, according to the World Gold Council.

Poland led the pack, adding 29 tons and bringing its total reserves to 480 tons, now 20% of its foreign exchange holdings. China, Turkey, Jordan, and Qatar also increased their holdings.

Investors hoping for a sizable dovish pivot from the Fed following the president’s Wednesday tariff announcement and subsequent two-day plunge in stock prices will have to wait at least a bit longer.

“We are well positioned to wait for greater clarity before considering any adjustments to our policy stance,” said Fed Chair Jerome Powell in prepared remarks at the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing Annual Conference. “It is too soon to say what will be the appropriate path for monetary policy.”

Noting that the tariffs are “significantly larger” than expected, Powell said it’s the Fed’s job to make sure what is sure to be a temporary rise in inflation does not become persistent.

Bouncing a bit ahead of the Powell speech perhaps in the hope he would take a more dovish stance, bitcoin (BTC) has retreated back below $83,000, roughly flat from 24 hours ago. The crypto is doing far better than stocks, with the Nasdaq now lower by 4.2% following yesterday’s 6% tumble.

In the early-1990s, telephone companies ran ads for long distance calls highlighting the cost per minute for a U.S. customer to speak to someone in another country. Today, that business does not exist. You can now Facetime or Zoom anyone, anywhere, for free.

What changed?

The shift to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) ultimately drove the price of calls down to nearly zero.

Today, we are experiencing a similar transformation as a global, embedded financial layer emerges within the internet. This will ultimately drive money transfer costs closer to zero, transforming a system long burdened by high fees, delays and middlemen.

Stablecoins are the application driving this evolution. The maxim “adoption is slow until it is fast” captures their explosive growth in recent years. To get an idea of scale, stablecoin transaction volume surged above $27 trillion in 2024 – surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined. Today, there are stablecoin providers, such as Tether, that hold more U.S. Treasuries than entire countries like Germany and the Netherlands.

Stablecoins are no longer a niche experiment. They are becoming more deeply embedded in our global financial ecosystem. As U.S. lawmakers debate stablecoin legislation, the goal should be clear: reinforce the dollar’s dominance as the global reserve currency while extending its reach into corners of the world that traditional banking cannot touch. This should include many important players — not just those based in the United States.

Two Paths, One Future

Congress is at a crossroads between two general positions. One is a closed-market approach in which U.S.-based stablecoin issuers would be privileged over their non-U.S. competitors. This is shortsighted and will ultimately stifle innovation.

The other approach is to build a regulatory framework that cultivates fair and free global competition. By allowing international players like Tether to compete alongside U.S.-based issuers, the U.S. can foster a dynamic ecosystem where the best ideas and technologies rise to the top. Competition is what would drive excellence.

There is a myth being perpetrated that only U.S.-based issuers back their tokens with sufficient reserves, attest to those reserves, and take necessary steps to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. That simply is not true. Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, assisted American law enforcement and over 230 law enforcement agencies in 50 countries to block $2.5 billion dollars in illicit activities worldwide. The reality is that responsible stablecoin issuers exist both inside and outside the U.S. (Tether, which is based in El Salvador, accounts for more than half the stablecoin market.)

Overly restrictive regulation could also backfire on the U.S. economy. If stablecoin legislation drives foreign-based companies out of the U.S., it could result in decreased demand for U.S. Treasuries, weakened dollar dominance and a less competitive stablecoin space.

Congress stands at an important crossroads — “two roads diverged” as Robert Frost once wrote. It could seize this moment to craft a regulatory framework that champions competition and transparency, or it could take the narrow road by taking a protectionist approach and choking innovation. The market’s diversity is not a bug to fix. It’s a feature to harness.

It’s time to make a careful choice as the stakes could not be higher. Let’s make sure we get this right for the future of finance.

Riot Platforms (RIOT) reported strong operational performance in March 2025, highlighted by continued expansion into the artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) sector.

The company’s bitcoin (BTC) production last month rose to 533 BTC, the most since the reward halving almost a year ago. The figure represents a month-on-month increase of 13% and 25% more than a year before. Bitcoin holdings grew to 19,223 BTC.

Riot said it plans to “aggressively pursue” development of its Corsicana facility to capitalize on rising demand for compute infrastructure used in AI and HPC.

A recently completed feasibility study by industry consultant Altman Solon confirmed the significant potential of the site to support up to 600 megawatts of additional capacity for AI/HPC applications. Key advantages include 1.0 gigawatt of secured power, 400 MW of which is already operational, 265 acres of land with substantial development potential and close proximity to Dallas — a major hub for AI and cloud computing.

The study noted the site’s ability to support both inference and cloud-based workloads, strengthening its appeal to AI/HPC tenants.

Riot maintained a steady deployed hash rate of 33.7 EH/s, while its average operating hash rate grew 3% month-over-month to 30.3 EH/s—representing a 254% increase year-over-year. Although power credits declined due to seasonal factors, Riot kept its all-in power cost low at 3.8 cents per kWh, and improved fleet efficiency to 21.0 J/TH, a 22% improvement from the previous year.

Riot’s shares fell 5.5% Friday, while the Nasdaq 100 index dropped 2.8%. They have lost 35% year-to-date.

Disclaimer: This article was generated with 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. This article may include information from external sources, which are listed below when applicable.