Author: James Wilson

Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante denies BP OTC cash‑outs and downplays FDV focus as anger over “witch hunt” Sybil bans forces appeals, buybacks and a fairness rethink. Summary Backpack founder Armani Ferrante denied that the team sold BP tokens over-the-counter to cash out, calling the rumors “FUD.” Ferrante said earlier OTC comments were only meant to help large buyers find liquidity, not to facilitate insider sales. He admitted the exchange’s handling of “witch hunt” Sybil cases was “too mechanical” and promised re-evaluations, while downplaying short-term FDV as a meaningful metric. Backpack founder and CEO Armani Ferrante has moved to calm a…

Intercontinental Exchange has expanded its bet on prediction markets with a new $600 million investment in Polymarket.  Summary ICE invested $600 million more in Polymarket as part of its $2 billion commitment plan. Prediction markets are growing fast as exchanges target new trading demand beyond traditional derivatives products. Kalshi raised $1 billion recently, increasing competition in the event-based prediction markets sector globally. The deal adds to an earlier commitment and comes as the sector attracts more capital and more attention from large financial firms. ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, said on Friday that it invested…

Bitcoin (BTC) remained under pressure on Friday as on-chain data showed large holders were still adding to their positions.  Summary Santiment said wallets holding 10 to 10,000 BTC added 61,568 Bitcoin over the past month. Bitcoin fell below recent highs as Bhutan-linked transfers and Middle East tensions added pressure again. Retail wallets with under 0.01 BTC kept buying, matching whale accumulation and delaying breakout signals. The move came as retail wallets also kept buying, while market sentiment stayed weak amid fresh geopolitical risk and renewed selling activity from Bhutan-linked wallets. Santiment said wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC added…

Tether has moved closer to a full financial review of USDT as it prepares for wider regulatory scrutiny in the United States.  Summary Tether hired KPMG for its first full USDT audit and engaged PwC to prepare systems. The audit would review assets, liabilities, and controls beyond the reserve attestations issued since 2022. Tether’s audit push comes as it weighs US expansion and a possible major equity raise. The step follows a report that the company hired KPMG for its first full audit and brought in PwC to help organize its internal systems ahead of that process. The Financial Times…

Strategy’s “Stretch” preferred shares are drawing strong interest from retail investors as the company keeps using the product to fund Bitcoin purchases.  Summary Retail investors hold majority of Strategy Stretch shares seeking lower volatility Bitcoin exposure with steady yields Strategy raised over 1 billion dollars through Stretch shares to fund recent Bitcoin purchases Stretch shares offer 11.5 percent dividend while redirecting part of Bitcoin returns to investors New comments from Strategy executives show that individual investors now make up most of the holders of STRC, a dividend-paying security that the company markets as a lower-volatility way to gain Bitcoin-linked exposure.…

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only. Crypto scams surge as AI-powered fraud and fake exchanges exploit urgency and weak user verification. Summary Crypto scams surge as fake exchanges and AI fraud exploit urgency, costing users billions in stolen funds. Not all exchangers are equal — grey-zone platforms pose risks with unclear rules, weak support, and opaque processes. Safe crypto use starts with verification; users must assess risk, payment methods, and urgency before transactions. The crypto exchange market looks deceptively simple until funds are drained. Fake…

A viral warning from economist Peter St. Onge has spotlighted how an 89–10 Senate housing bill quietly folds in a temporary CBDC ban and reshapes the path for the CLARITY Act. Summary Economist Peter St. Onge’s post warning that a CBDC provision is buried inside a must-pass housing bill drew nearly 196,000 views on X in under three hours. The U.S. Senate passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act on March 12 with an 89–10 vote, embedding a ban on Federal Reserve-issued digital dollars through 2031. The bill must still pass the House, where Republican lawmakers are pushing for…

NYSE CPO Jon Herrick says blockchain should plug into existing rails like central clearing, as ICE’s OKX deal and SEC moves on tokenized stocks redraw market structure. Summary NYSE Chief Product Officer Jon Herrick said at the New York Digital Assets Summit on March 26 that the exchange’s strategy centers on blockchain “interoperability” with existing market infrastructure, not wholesale replacement of it. Herrick emphasized that legacy mechanisms like central clearing retain irreplaceable risk management value and predicted the boundary between traditional and tokenized assets could disappear within the next decade. The comments land weeks after NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)…

Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial. We began our new Outset Data Pulse analysis expecting 12 years of headline data to confirm a familiar belief in crypto: that news moves markets, and that faster headlines give you an edge. But what the findings showed instead was more unsettling: most of the time, price seems to move first, and the headline comes later to explain it. That’s not to say that “news doesn’t matter.” It’s closer to saying we’ve been treating it as the…

The UK has sanctioned crypto marketplace Xinbi and Cambodia’s #8 Park scam compound over a $19.9b fraud and trafficking network, freezing London assets ahead of June’s Illicit Finance Summit. Summary The UK sanctioned Xinbi — the first country to do so — after Chainalysis data showed it processed over $19.9 billion in illicit transactions between 2021 and 2025. Sanctions also target the operator of Cambodia’s “#8 Park” scam compound, believed to house up to 20,000 trafficked workers, along with multiple frozen London properties. The action precedes the UK’s Illicit Finance Summit in June, where officials plan to push for greater…