The crypto payments startup Circle Internet Financial said it’s closer to submitting an application to operate as a bank in the U.S., pushing forward with a months-old plan even as regulators make it more difficult for crypto companies to secure this kind of license.

Circle Internet Financial, the issuer of USD Coin, the second-largest stablecoin, landed $400 million in funding from a group that includes BlackRock and Fidelity Management and Research, a sign of traditional finance’s growing acceptance of the exploding cryptocurrency industry.

People with a wealth of crypto holdings are loath to trigger a taxable event by cashing out. But they still represent a sizable market for the payments industry, according to the bank and fintech. "Demand for transacting in crypto is building, and we're preparing," said GreenBox CEO Fredi Nisan.

Circle Internet Financial has conducted a number of “state visits” to the U.K. in the last year, flying over its most senior executives to engage with government, regulators and industry bodies with a view to expanding its business in the region.

The acting comptroller pushed back against a key feature of Sen. Pat Toomey’s stablecoin proposal, and the idea that stablecoins could be regulated as money market funds

The billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel called Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink members of a “finance gerontocracy” opposed to a “revolutionary youth movement” that embraces Bitcoin.

The guidance follows similar instructions laid out by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency late last year.

The two San Francisco-based companies are seeking to provide a one-click cryptocurrency checkout system to simplify digital shopping.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen laid out her approach to crypto regulation, including banks' and other traditional financial firms’ exposures to the crypto market, in a speech at American University.

The executive order on cryptocurrencies leaves many important questions unaddressed.

Martin Grant, who serve as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's chief compliance and ethics officer for more than 15 years, has joined JST Capital, a financial services firm for digital assets.

It began as an app for teens, but Current had its eye on cryptocurrency-related services from the start. The goal is to improve on the products it offers customers, such as above-market interest rates.

Citizens' overdraft break, Warren's digital-dollar push and more in banking news this week.

A push by Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis, one of the crypto industry’s staunchest supporters in Congress, to write a new law for digital assets is getting the support of at least one Democrat.

The digital payment company, which recently got back into digital assets after a multiyear hiatus, has launched a suite of merchant services and industry partnerships to support payments and risk management.

The Bank of England called on policymakers to beef up the global framework for regulating cryptocurrencies to prevent them from threatening the wider stability of financial markets.

Nellie Liang, the Treasury Department's under secretary for domestic finance, said there’s consensus on the risks posed by digital assets. But she was vague about how much progress has been made in discussions between the administration and lawmakers about toughening the regulatory system.

The children's research hospital is tapping into the fast-growing market for digital currency donations and NFT sales to appeal to millennials, who are more likely to have crypto investments.

In global news this week, 7-Eleven puts holograms at the point of sale; the U.K. shores up security for online payments while cracking down on Bitcoin ATMs; and more organizations find ways to send aid to Ukraine.

Gauntlet, a financial-risk modeling platform for crypto lending, raised a new round of funding that pushed its valuation to $1 billion.