Crypto weekly is authored by maaria and david blumenfeld

PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD
- Crypto Market Cap ($2.80T): 0% / -18%
- BTC ($83,223): +1% / -11%
- ETH ($1,886): -8% / -43%
- SOL ($127): -2% / -33%
- UNI ($6.09): -6% / -54%
- OP ($0.83): -4% / -53%
- Tether Mkt Cap ($143B): 0% / +3%
- USDC Mkt Cap ($58.7B): +1% / +34
- BTC / ETH Dominance: 59% / 8%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO
- Cryptocurrencies and crypto stocks fell along with the broader market, as fears of slowing economic growth and inflation caused investors to sell risk assets. Bitcoin fell below $80,000, its lowest level since November, and crypto stocks like Coinbase Global and MicroStrategy were down more than 15% on Monday. Link. 

- The Senate Banking Committee is pushing forward stablecoin legislation with the GENIUS Act. The draft legislation creates a framework for regulating privately-issued stablecoins – states would have oversight over stablecoin issuers with a market capitalization under $10 billion, while larger issuers would be regulated by the Federal Reserve and banking regulator the OCC. Link. Link.

- Trump-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial raised $590 million in its token sale, which was only available to accredited investors. Link. 

- US banking regulator the OCC updated guidance for financial institutions to use their own risk mitigation tools to service the crypto industry. The guidance was the Trump administration’s response to “Operation Chokehold 2.0”, alleged efforts by the Biden administration to debank crypto companies. Link. 

- An Argentine lawyer requested an Interpol Red Notice for the arrest and extradition of crypto entrepreneur Hayden Davis, who was central to the LIBRA token collapse last month which caused billions in investor losses and embroiled Argentine President Javier Milei in controversy. Link.

- US residents reportedly missed out on between $1.8 - $5 billion of cryptocurrency from airdrops due to geoblocking restrictions, costing federal and state governments between $284 million to $1.1 billion in tax revenue. Link. Report. 

- Vermont dropped its case against crypto exchange Coinbase over its staking service, which the state had claimed was an unregistered securities offering. Link. 

- Russia’s central bank has proposed new regulations that would allow qualified investors – those with over $11.5 million in assets or $5.7 million annual income – to buy and sell cryptocurrencies during a three-year testing period. Russia banned the use of digital assets in 2022. Link. 

- The tokenized treasury market has quadrupled over the past year, reaching $4 billion. Link. 

- Coinbase received approval to offer trading services in India later this year, despite trading volumes having dried in the country since the introduction of a 30% tax on crypto trading. Link. 

- Paolo Ardoino, CEO of the largest dollar-backed stablecoin Tether, travelled to the US for the first time ever, appearing at President Trump’s Crypto Summit. Link. 

- Ethereum's major Pectra upgrade – which increases validator staking limits from 32 to 2,048 ETH and adds the ability to convert externally owned accounts to smart contract accounts – will be delayed beyond March 2025. Link. Link. 

- Coinbase becomes the first US exchange to offer 24/7 Bitcoin and Ethereum futures trading for US customers. Link. 

- South Korea's Financial Services Commission plans to issue crypto investment guidelines by Q3 2025, allowing institutional investing into the space for the first time. South Korea is one of the world’s largest altcoin-heavy retail market, with over 30% of the population trading digital assets. Link. 

- The Wall Street Journal reports Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao is in discussions with President Trump’s family aboutan investment in Binance.US and a pardon for his money laundering conviction last year. CZ denies the allegations. Link. Link. 

- Telegram’s crypto wallet rolled out new features including fiat on-ramps and earning yield on TON. Telegram’s Wallet has over 100 million users to date. Link. 

- Coinbase’s Base has seen a 38% reduction in transaction activity from its January peak of 12 million transactions but remains the largest Layer-2 with nearly 3.5 million unique addresses using the network. Link. 

- A US bankruptcy court has granted liquidators of defunct hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) permission to expand its claim against FTX to $1.53 billion. Link. 

- Abu Dhabi’s MGX made its first investment in the crypto space, acquiring a minority stake in Binance for $2 billion. Link.