Bitcoin

Franklin Templeton has joined fellow asset manager powerhouses Fidelity and BlackRock in the race to win approval to offer the first U.S. exchange-traded fund that invests directly in bitcoin. 

A recent court decision could create more crypto-service opportunities for traditional banks.

When Bitfinex was hacked, Bitcoin was trading under $1,000. It had skyrocketed to $44,000 by the time the couple was arrested in early 2022, pushing up the value of the stolen assets to $4.5 billion, of which $3.6 billion was recovered by authorities.

Fidelity is the latest high-profile traditional-finance firm to join the race after BlackRock Inc. made a splash with its June 15 application for a spot ETF, which opened the floodgates for others to try their hand at it, as well.

The 30-page receivership petition filed in federal court on Monday demands an immediate impounding of all assets of Las Vegas-based Prime Trust.

If the U.S. and Canada don't develop a coherent framework for regulating the industry, North America risks broader losses to other growing industries, like fintech and artificial intelligence.

Regulators need to recognize the uniqueness and potential of cryptocurrency instead of seeking to fit crypto assets into an outdated regulatory framework.

Citi research strategists say crypto markets were not immune to fears of the U.S. defaulting on its debt.

The company wants to get bids in as quickly as possible to take advantage of current market conditions, a lawyer for the crypto lender said.

The bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi plans to sell about $160 million of loans backed by around 68,000 bitcoin mining machines, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The crypto rebound has gained so much speculative vigor that even tokens torpedoed last year by their dependence on the discredited mogul Sam Bankman-Fried have rallied, with some more than doubling this month.

Lenders are getting creative as to what to do with the mining machines they accepted as collateral for the some $4 billion in rig-backed loans they underwrote when the rally in bitcoin seemed unstoppable.

Customer outflows from Binance's cryptocurrency trading platform are slowing, according to blockchain data from two digital-asset analytics firms.

With skepticism about cryptocurrency growing among members of Congress, a handful of lawmakers, including Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, are trying to convince colleagues that the FTX fiasco doesn't diminish the underlying value of digital currency.

FV Bank will let customers hold, transfer and settle both digital assets and fiat currencies in one account.

New developments in the banking app space include apps for Gen Z bankers and the relaunch of Google Wallet.

The crypto custodian Copper Technologies has obtained $196 million in fresh funding this year, as part of an ongoing series C investment in the business.

Grayscale Investments, the largest crypto asset manager, said the Securities and Exchange Commission acted arbitrarily earlier this year in rebuffing a bid to convert its $12 billion spot bitcoin trust into an exchange-traded fund.

U.S. lawmakers' efforts to pass significant crypto legislation by the end of the year are on life support, leaving in place Washington's scattershot approach to digital coins. 

It's surprising given the cryptocurrency's volatility, but the New York Yankees, the Houston Rockets, MVB Bank and Vantage Bank are among the companies that have begun letting employees invest some of each paycheck in bitcoin in recent months.