Pareto launches USP, backed by stablecoins USDC and USDT

Private credit marketplace Pareto has introduced a new synthetic dollar aimed at linking institutional investors with decentralized finance (DeFi) opportunities — a move that highlights the expanding role of stablecoins in global finance. The newly launched USP synthetic dollar is fully backed by real-world private credit, Pareto told Cointelegraph on May 15. To mint USP,…

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‘Bitcoin Standard’ author backs funding dev to make spamming Bitcoin costly

Economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard, Saifedean Ammous, has weighed in on the ongoing debate over spam inscriptions on the Bitcoin network, suggesting he would “throw in a few sats” to fund a full-time developer focused on making Bitcoin spamming more difficult and expensive. Ammous made the remarks in response to a thread initiated by…

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Coinbase faces $400M bill after insider phishing attack

Coinbase, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange, was hit by a $20 million extortion attempt after cybercriminals recruited overseas support agents to leak user data, the company said. According to a May 15 blog post, Coinbase said a group of external actors bribed and coordinated with several customer support contractors to access internal systems and steal…

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Stablecoins seen as ideal fit for real-time collateral management

Cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are gaining recognition in the traditional finance (TradFi) space for their ability to streamline payments and increase efficiency in existing financial systems In finance, collateral management refers to the process of managing the underlying collateral securing other financial transactions, such as loans or derivatives, to mitigate credit risks and ensure smooth transactions….

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Jim Chanos takes opposing bets on Bitcoin and Strategy

Prominent short-seller Jim Chanos, once a vocal critic of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, revealed a new trading play that involves shorting shares of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) and buying Bitcoin. At the Sohn Investment Conference in New York, Chanos told CNBC he’s “selling MicroStrategy stock and buying Bitcoin.” The investor described the move as buying something for…

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The Public internet is a bottleneck for blockchain — DoubleZero CEO

Public internet infrastructure is the critical speed and performance constraint on high-throughput blockchain networks, according to Austin Federa, co-founder and CEO of DoubleZero, a project developing high-speed fiber optic communication rails for blockchains. “The downside of the public internet is it was never built for high-performance systems. It was always built for this sort of…

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High-speed oracles disrupting $50B finance data industry — Web3 Exec

Michael James, the head of institutional business development at Douro Labs — the company that developed the Pyth high-speed blockchain oracle network — told Cointelegraph that oracle networks like Pyth are disrupting the $50 billion financial data industry that provides critical price information to exchanges, brokerages, trading firms, and other institutional entities. In an interview…

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The DeFi mullet — Fintech needs DeFi in the back

Opinion by: Merlin Egalite, co-founder at Morpho Labs Fintechs in the front, decentralized finance (DeFi) in the back: the DeFi Mullet. Today’s fintech companies offer excellent user experiences but are constrained by traditional financial infrastructure — siloed, slow, expensive and inflexible. Meanwhile, DeFi provides lightning-fast, cost-effective, interoperable infrastructure but lacks mainstream accessibility. The solution? Combine…

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Central banks testing smart contract toolkit under BIS Project Pine

Central banks are experimenting with smart contracts to implement monetary policy in tokenized environments, signaling a growing interest in integrating blockchain technology into traditional finance (TradFi). According to a joint research study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Innovation Center and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub Swiss Centre, smart contracts…

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Everstake defends non-custodial staking as SEC weighs industry input

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has held discussions with Everstake, one of the largest non-custodial staking providers globally, to explore clearer regulatory definitions around staking in blockchain networks. The meeting, which also involved the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, comes at a time when over $193 billion in digital assets are staked across major…

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