Category: Peer to Peer

LuLu Financial Holdings has cut cross-border settlement costs by 25% to 30% after adopting Circle’s USDC stablecoin and Circle Mint for remittance flows across the Gulf, Middle East, North Africa and Asia-Pacific, according to figures released by Circle.The payments group also recorded a 40% increase in cross-border settlement volume after shifting part of its treasury and settlement infrastructure to USDC. Beneficiaries are credited in under a minute once settlement is completed, while the company says the system operates around the

Bitcoin faces renewed downside warnings after Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone argued that a stock-market correction and tighter US monetary policy could drive the cryptocurrency sharply lower, potentially towards $10,000.McGlone’s latest bearish case centres on Bitcoin’s failure to establish a sustained break above $80,000, its increasing sensitivity to equities and the prospect that higher interest rates could pressure speculative assets. Bitcoin was trading near $77,000 over the weekend after retreating from levels above $82,000 earlier this month, leaving

Binance has set out a compliance and user-protection drive in West Africa as regulators in the region move to bring cryptocurrency trading, custody and related services under oversight.Its approach combines identity checks, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, fraud prevention, asset-security controls and co-operation with law-enforcement agencies. Binance also says it now has more than 1,500 people in compliance-related roles globally, spending about $300 million a year on compliance, figures that remain company-reported measures rather than independent rankings of industry performance.The push

Metaplanet has cut the potential share pool attached to its Series 10 stock acquisition rights by 41.1%, reducing possible issuance to 188.19 million shares after shareholders challenged the dilution created by the executive compensation structure.The Tokyo-listed bitcoin treasury company said on September 11 that it would lower the number of shares underlying each Series 10 right from 696 to 410. The change reduces the aggregate potential issuance from 319.464 million shares by about 131.27 million shares.Chief executive Simon Gerovich said

Ether remained confined to a narrow trading range after more than 116,000 tokens were withdrawn from cryptocurrency exchanges over 48 hours, a shift that reduced immediately available supply while traders watched whether the market could break through resistance around $2,500.The withdrawals, valued at roughly $300 million at prevailing prices, were highlighted by crypto analyst Ali Martinez. Exchange outflows can indicate that holders are moving assets into private custody, staking arrangements or longer-term storage, although such transfers do not by themselves

Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus has joked that the US government should spend $1.2 trillion buying Dogecoin and distribute the cryptocurrency to Americans, turning a contentious cash-dividend proposal into a meme-coin thought experiment rather than advancing a formal policy plan.Markus, who uses the name Shibetoshi Nakamoto on X, made the remark on September 12 while responding to President Donald Trump’s promise of a $5,000 payment to every adult US citizen if Republicans retain control of both chambers of Congress in November’s

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token has remained close to record levels after a sharp September advance, supported by rising derivatives activity, institutional investment products and a fee-funded buyback mechanism, while Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan has separately argued that tokenised real-world assets could eventually reach $200 trillion.HYPE touched an all-time high around $88-$90 this month after Hyperliquid’s open interest recovered to roughly $14.3 billion, close to levels seen before the platform’s October 2025 deleveraging. The token’s market value approached $20 billion

Aave’s fourth-generation lending platform has crossed $900 million in deposits, giving its AAVE token fresh support as traders assess whether stronger protocol activity can help the cryptocurrency challenge the $160 level.Aave said on September 9 that deposits in v4 had moved above $900 million, less than six months after the new architecture went live on Ethereum. Market data on Sunday showed AAVE trading around $128, up about 2 per cent over 24 hours, with a market capitalisation close to $2

Blockstream has rejected a demand to surrender part of the bitcoin still held after the $320 million Liquid Network exploit, saying it will not pay a ransom and will pursue lawful recovery of the remaining funds.The company said on September 11 that taking assets without authorisation and withholding their return constituted theft rather than responsible security disclosure. It warned that, unless the outstanding bitcoin was returned, it would work with law-enforcement agencies, exchanges, service providers and blockchain forensic specialists to

Ripple is targeting corporate treasury flows as a major growth avenue for its RLUSD stablecoin, with executive Jack McDonald pointing to customers of its treasury platform that process about $13 trillion in payments annually.McDonald, Ripple’s senior vice-president of stablecoins, said the company sees an opportunity to place RLUSD more deeply into the day-to-day movement of corporate cash, including cross-border transfers, transactions between subsidiaries and domestic payments. The push follows Ripple’s $1 billion acquisition of treasury-management software provider GTreasury in 2025.The

Iran is allowing exporters and importers greater use of cryptocurrencies, including Tether’s USDT and Bitcoin, for cross-border settlements as tighter US sanctions intensify pressure on trade and foreign-currency flows.The policy shift gives businesses more flexibility to repatriate export earnings outside the central bank’s official foreign-exchange platform and use those proceeds directly to pay for imports. Crypto transactions have become one route for moving value across borders where bank transfers, dollar clearing and correspondent banking are constrained.The change marks a further

Stablecoin liquidity is returning to Binance after months of withdrawals, offering a tentative sign of stronger buying capacity as Bitcoin remains above $75,000.CryptoQuant data show Binance recorded more than $1 billion in net stablecoin inflows during August, reversing part of the persistent drain from cryptocurrency exchanges that had characterised much of 2026. Bitcoin was trading around $77,300 on Saturday, September 12, after moving between roughly $76,000 and $79,900 during the previous 24 hours.The shift is significant because stablecoins such as

Nasdaq has invested $100 million in Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, extending a relationship that already spans tokenised equities and digital-market infrastructure.The investment places one of the world’s largest exchange operators directly on Payward’s shareholder register and adds a financial dimension to a strategic partnership announced earlier this year. Payward operates Kraken alongside businesses including NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks and CF Benchmarks, using a shared infrastructure platform across digital assets, trading and financial services.Financial terms beyond the $100

Consensys Software Inc. will split into two independently operated companies, turning its MetaMask business into a standalone consumer finance firm while creating a separate company for Ethereum protocols and institutional blockchain infrastructure.The existing legal entity will continue under the MetaMask name, with Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin serving as chairman and chief executive. Its protocols group and institutional infrastructure operations will move into a newly formed company that will retain the Consensys name.The separation is expected to be completed by the

Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev has rejected AMC Entertainment chief Adam Aron’s demand for control over stock tokens tied to AMC shares, arguing that public companies cannot veto third-party securities that reference their stock.Tenev said on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday that issuers retain control over the rights and obligations attached to shares they issue, but that authority does not extend to every financial instrument built around those shares. “They don’t control other companies issuing their own securities that reference

PayPal has extended the reach of its dollar-backed stablecoin into custom token issuance, with the PYUSDx developer platform now supporting three live projects and more than $100 million in processed volume.PYUSDx allows businesses and developers to create their own branded onchain tokens while using PayPal USD, or PYUSD, as the economic foundation. M0 built the platform’s programmable infrastructure, while MoonPay Digital Assets Limited handles issuance and reserve operations associated with the framework.M0 said on September 9 that Saturn, Concrete and

Hunter Biden’s newly launched LAPTOP memecoin lost about 99 per cent of its value within its first hour of trading on Wednesday, turning a hypothetical $1,000 purchase near its early peak into roughly $10 as prices collapsed below $2.The token, launched on Coinbase’s Base blockchain, traded near $190 to $200 shortly after opening before plunging to below $4 within minutes and later falling under $2 on some market trackers. The violent move wiped out almost all of the paper value

Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino has attributed Bitcoin’s failure to match gold’s global reach to a generational divide among financial decision-makers, arguing that the cryptocurrency remains poorly understood by many of the people who control pools of capital.Ardoino said Bitcoin is still at an early stage of adoption compared with gold, whose role as a store of value and reserve asset has been embedded in financial systems for centuries. He said many senior policymakers, bankers and institutional investors are more

CoinRabbit has been named Best Crypto Lending Platform 2026 by International Business Magazine, adding an industry accolade to the crypto-backed lender as it expands beyond loans into broader digital-asset capital management.The Toronto-based company said the recognition covers a lending operation that has originated more than $1.45 billion in crypto-backed loans since its launch in 2020. International Business Magazine lists a 2026 awards programme and says its honours cover banking, finance, investments, technology and other sectors.The award announcement said candidates are

Bitcoin ownership is estimated at about 5% of the world’s population, with India accounting for the largest number of holders, according to figures published by on-chain analyst Willy Woo.Woo’s country-level table, posted on September 1, places worldwide adoption in a range of 4.5% to 6%, equivalent to roughly 370 million to 500 million people. India is estimated to have about 68 million Bitcoin holders, representing 4.6% of its population and the highest absolute total among the 25 countries listed.The United

Blockchain networks are moving from experimental infrastructure towards a broader role in digital finance as developers increasingly raise transaction capacity and institutions test tokenised settlement at scale.The shift is being driven by advances in layer-two networks, data-availability systems and higher-capacity base chains to overcome the congestion, cost and latency that have limited blockchain use beyond cryptocurrency trading. Ethereum is pursuing simultaneous expansion of its main network and rollup capacity, while financial authorities are testing shared ledgers for payments and securities.Ethereum’s

Two Thai businessmen have sued stablecoin issuer Tether in a New York court, alleging it froze $42.4 million in USDT months before US authorities obtained a seizure warrant.Nutthawat Rukthammachalern and Natthawat Kasamvilas filed the complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 31, challenging Tether’s decision to blacklist 10 Ethereum addresses containing 42,417,785.62 USDT.The plaintiffs allege Tether acted on October 30, 2025 after an informal request from a Homeland Security Investigations agent, although

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has set February 2027 as the starting point for a three-stage expansion of tokenised securities, with the programme ultimately intended to support on-chain settlement linked to stablecoins.The roadmap, announced after a public-private consultative meeting on September 4, covers conventional assets including stocks, bonds and funds as well as fractional investment products. It is tied to amendments to the Act on Electronic Registration of Stocks and Bonds that take effect on February 4, 2027, giving tokenised

The International Monetary Fund has confirmed that all bitcoin added to El Salvador’s official holdings since June 2025 came from private donations, with no public resources used to expand the country’s cryptocurrency position.The disclosure was contained in an IMF statement issued after staff reached agreement with Salvadoran authorities on the combined second and third reviews of the country’s $1.4 billion Extended Fund Facility. The Fund said documentation supplied by the government verified that bitcoin accumulation since the first programme review