Day: March 7, 2025

OCC confirms banks can offer crypto custody without prior approval

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Key Takeaways The OCC confirms that national banks can provide crypto custody and stablecoin services without prior approval. Banks must implement robust risk management controls equivalent to traditional banking operations when engaging in crypto activities. Share this article The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has clarified that national banks can now offer crypto custody and stablecoin services without prior regulatory approval. The agency’s latest guidance, Interpretive Letter 1183, confirms that banks and federal savings associations can engage in these activities under existing banking laws. The guidance eliminates…

US will use stablecoins to ensure dollar hegemony — Scott Bessent

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United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US government will use stablecoins to ensure that the US dollar remains the world’s global reserve currency during the White House Crypto Summit on March 7. Bessent reiterated the Trump administration’s promise to end the war on crypto and committed to rolling back previous IRS guidance and punitive regulatory measures. Bessent then turned his attention to stablecoins and said: “We are going to put a lot of thought into the stablecoin regime, and as President Trump has directed, we are going to…

4 reasons why Solana (SOL) price could rally back to $180

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Solana native token, SOL (SOL), is up by 17% after falling to a low of $125 on Feb. 28. However, it encountered strong resistance near the $180 mark. More significantly, the current price of $145 represents a 50% decline from its all-time high of $295 on Jan. 19, raising concerns among traders about SOL’s ability to regain bullish momentum. While analysts attribute the sharp decline in SOL’s value to the memecoin market crash, onchain activity has declined across various sectors, including liquid staking, tokenized assets, yield aggregators, synthetic perpetuals, NFT…

Darknet marketplace wallet with over $400M BTC awakens after 9 years

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A crypto wallet holding over $400 million in Bitcoin (BTC) linked to the darknet marketplace Nucleus has awakened after nine years, according to Arkham Intelligence. On March 7, the entity controlling the wallet moved $77.5 million in BTC to three new addresses, leaving $365 million in the primary wallet. The wallet had been dormant since April 2016, when the marketplace shut down with 5,000 BTC from vendor and customer deposits. At the time, the funds were worth roughly $2.1 million, according to Arkham’s tracker. Related: Who is the mysterious Bitcoin…

The Bitcoin bull market isn’t dead yet

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US President Donald Trump took investors by surprise last weekend when he directed his digital asset working group to create a cryptocurrency reserve that includes Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, XRP and Solana. After an epic pump, crypto markets reversed course within 24 hours, leaving Bitcoin on the precipice of a bearish trend reversal. Fear and trepidation gripped the markets, with investors wondering whether the bull market had ended prematurely.  A closer look at the business cycle reveals that the Bitcoin bull (BTC) market is far from dead. Things may be about…

‘We’ve decided Bitcoin is scarce, it’s valuable’ for US strategic reserve — David Sacks

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White House crypto czar David Sacks has further elaborated on the US government’s decision to treat Bitcoin as a special reserve asset, calling it a “scarce” digital resource that could benefit the country over the long term.  In a March 7 interview with Bloomberg Technology, Sacks said, “We’ve decided that Bitcoin is scarce, it’s valuable, and that it’s strategic for the United States to hold on to this as a long-term reserve asset.” Sacks was referring specifically to the roughly 200,000 Bitcoin (BTC) currently in the US government’s possession. However,…

Budget-neutral strategies for US to acquire BTC

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US President Donald Trump’s executive order establishing a strategic Bitcoin (BTC) reserve called for a budget-neutral strategy to acquire more coins, which includes adding more BTC through asset forfeitures and possibly converting other reserve assets to the cryptocurrency. The US government maintains strategic reserves covering a range of assets and commodities, including gold, petroleum, natural gas, foreign currency, medicine, land, critical rare-earth minerals and even cheese. The most liquid of these strategic reserve assets are petroleum, gold and foreign currency. According to the US Department of Energy, the US Strategic…

Crypto execs weigh in on what to expect at White House summit

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With many crypto industry leaders and US government officials expected to gather at the White House in a matter of minutes, some are speculating that the event will explore regulatory clarity. On March 7, US President Donald Trump is expected to address an audience of crypto company CEOs and founders to discuss regulatory policies, stablecoins and a proposed plan to establish a strategic crypto reserve in government. A senior White House official said prior to the event that the summit would not focus on taxes but rather “rolling back” policies…

Ownership In A Digital Age

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Amazon has updated its purchasing terms for Kindle e-books in the United States to clarify that customers are acquiring a license to the content, not ownership. The new statement reads: “By placing your order, you’re purchasing a license to the content and agree to the Kindle Store Terms of Use.” This update is specific to U.S. customers; international users continue to see the previous wording, but the message is the same: You don’t own it; we are only letting you use it. Starting February 26, 2025, Amazon will discontinue the…

Ripple co-founder Larsen’s $150M XRP theft linked to LastPass breach

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The January 2024 theft of 283 million XRP (XRP) from Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen’s personal accounts has been linked to a password manager breach, according to a forfeiture complaint filed by US law enforcement revealed by crypto investigator ZachXBT. The investigator shared a screenshot of the forfeiture complaint in his Telegram channel on March 7, claiming the theft “was the result of storing private keys in LastPass (password manager which was hacked in 2022). Up to this point, Chris Larsen had not publicly disclosed the cause of the theft.” Related:…