Mastercard (MA) is betting that AI agents will soon become active participants in the economy and wants its payments network to sit at the center of that shift. The payments giant on Tuesday unveiled Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), a service enabling AI agents and software systems to make payments to each other securely and…
If bitcoin and Ethereum had been invented on the same day, nobody would have heard of bitcoin. I sold every bitcoin Bit Digital held and deployed the proceeds into Ethereum. I have built one of the largest corporate Ethereum treasury positions in the world and said, on the record, that we will never sell it….
The customer experience industry will become a $5 trillion market by 2030, according to Netomi founder and CEO Puneet Mehta, who says that growth will create demand for stablecoins and blockchain-based payment infrastructure rather than pull capital away from crypto. Mehta said companies currently spend roughly $500 billion annually on customer experience-related knowledge work. As…
When U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) launched in January 2024, investors had more than a dozen funds to choose from. BlackRock, Fidelity, Ark Invest, Bitwise, VanEck, Franklin Templeton and several others entered what many expected would become a fiercely competitive market. Eighteen months later, the battle increasingly looks like a two-player race. Data shows…
For years, privacy in transacting was one of crypto’s most ambitious promises. Then it took a back seat as other trends took off. As developers focused on scaling blockchains and regulators scrutinized privacy tools such as Tornado Cash, much of the industry’s attention shifted elsewhere. But a new Ethereum proposal and a growing number of…
The Coinbase-backed group Stand With Crypto UK called on its 286,000 members to file formal complaints against British retail banks over blanket restrictions on crypto transactions, it announced Wednesday. The campaign is a demonstration against country-wide bank rules that block or cap customer transfers to exchanges, including those registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA),…
Welcome to our institutional newsletter, Crypto Long & Short. This week: To win over big investors, DeFi builders must act like accountable money managers, not just software developers, writes Ben Nadareski. Bitcoin holders can survive crashes and protect their assets by earning income through reinsurance, says Stephen Stonberg. Top headlines institutions should pay attention to…
Tempers are flaring as the bitcoin BTC$60,930.61 bear market deepens. Strategy’s (MSTR) latest bitcoin purchase has sparked a public debate on X between Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and bitcoin advocate Matthew Kratter over whether the company’s most recent capital raise was accretive or dilutive for shareholders. The disagreement centers on Strategy’s own bitcoin performance metric,…
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed its first prediction markets regulation on Wednesday, pitching an approach to how it can make widespread evaluations of whether contracts trip the federal standard for what’s off-limits. The agency that regulates U.S. derivatives has been a defender of prediction markets such as those run by Kalshi, Polymarket and…
U.S. inflation data came in as expected on Wednesday, reinforcing the view that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates at 350-375 bps at its June 17 meeting but is likely to increase rates by 25 bps by the end of the year. The Consumer Price Index year over year rose 4.2% in May, according…
