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Top US Regulator Gives Banks Greenlight To Engage in Crypto and Stablecoin Activities
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is easing its stance on how US banks deal with crypto and stablecoin activities.
In a new press release, the regulatory agency says that banks now have the green light to manage crypto assets, partake in certain stablecoin activities and participate in node verification networks.
Furthermore, the OCC is shedding a requirement that forced institutions under its jurisdiction to meet certain requirements before being able to engage in crypto-related activities.
Says Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney E. Hood,
“The OCC expects banks to have the same strong risk management controls in place to support novel bank activities as they do for traditional ones.
Today’s action will reduce the burden on banks to engage in crypto-related activities and ensure that these bank activities are treated consistently by the OCC, regardless of the underlying technology. I will continue to work diligently to ensure regulations are effective and not excessive, while maintaining a strong federal banking system.” Read More
How Freepik Transformed From a Stock Image Platform Into a Generative AI Powerhouse
Joaquín Cuenca Abela reveals how Freepik embraced AI and became a creative hub with tools for video, audio, image generation, editing, and more.
Fifteen years ago, Freepik was just another stock image provider, helping designers find the right visuals for their projects. Today, it's a completely different beast—a generative AI hub, attracting over 60 million visitors a month.
The shift wasn’t accidental. It was the result of a company willing to rethink its purpose and move beyond static images to something much bigger: a fully AI-powered creative ecosystem.
Sitting in his living room, Freepik CEO Joaquín Cuenca Abela spoke with Decrypt about the state of the AI industry and how his company harnessed the opportunity generative AI brought for digital artists.
“When generative AI appeared, we saw we could expand our mission,” he told Decrypt. “We were no longer limited to helping designers with pre-made content. Instead, we could adapt to what they needed and create something unique for each person.”
The move paid off. Freepik is now a one-stop shop for AI-powered image and video generation, upscaling, animation, and more. Cuenca Abela put it simply: “We just want to give creatives more control.” Read More
Bringing Reputation On-Chain: Can Ethos Network Boost Trust and Credibility in Crypto?
Decentralized social application Ethos Network is building to bring more accountability to crypto—a space that's prone to forgetting.
In the Wild West of crypto, where scams and fraud remain common, one team is betting on a novel solution: bringing reputation on-chain. Ethos Network, a platform designed to establish credibility and trust in the crypto space, is gaining traction as it tackles one of the industry’s most persistent problems—bad actors.
The brainchild of Trevor Thompson (aka Serpin Taxt) and Ben Walther, Ethos was born out of frustration with rampant scams plaguing the space.
“I used to do a lot of trading in crypto, and I witnessed a lot of the crime, fraud, and scams that have become more apparent in recent cycles,” Thompson told Decrypt. “I felt inspired by the opportunity to solve some of that.”
The idea crystallized after Thompson’s experience with Friend.tech, the since abandoned social platform where users buy and sell “keys” tied to Twitter accounts. While Friend.tech introduced the concept of tying on-chain actions to social identity, it fell short of addressing trust and credibility. Read More
The future of Ethereum scaling lies in hardware, not software
Ethereum’s future scaling relies on hardware acceleration, not just software solutions, to overcome bottlenecks and remain competitive.
Opinion by: Leo Fan, co-founder of Cysic
Running Ethereum today is like trying to play a modern game on a 1980s laptop — the outdated hardware would struggle to load, lag endlessly, and likely crash under the weight of new demands. Designed for a simpler blockchain era, Ethereum’s infrastructure can no longer keep up, processing just 10 to 62 transactions per second, far below the thousands needed for mainstream adoption.
Meanwhile, with sub-second block times and near-zero fees, Solana enjoys growing mainstream popularity, which is evident in surging wallet downloads amid the TRUMP launch. Ethereum remains hindered by high gas fees and congestion, pushing users and developers to faster alternatives.
Without addressing its scaling bottlenecks, Ethereum risks falling behind. While Ethereum’s layer-2 (L2) rollups have alleviated network congestion, they ultimately serve as stopgap measures that provide temporary relief. Software-first approaches are experiencing teething issues in interoperability and scalability, raising questions about Ethereum’s long-term sustainability and relevance.
Many L2s are designed to fit the native network and cannot support real-time applications such as decentralized gaming or cross-border payments. Ethereum needs a fundamental shift if it wants to maintain its leadership in the blockchain space. The solution lies not in incremental software updates but in hardware acceleration. Read More
CZ urges Elon Musk to ban bots on the X social media platform
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) urged Elon Musk to ban bots — automated accounts that spam the social media site and are used to amplify content or for coordinated attacks — from the X platform.
"If someone uses Grok, ChatGPT, or DeepSeek to generate a tweet and copy and paste it here, fine, but API posting should be disabled," CZ wrote in a March 9 X post.
In a separate comment, the Binance founder differentiated automated social media bots from AI agents, saying that the latter was helpful in real-world applications such as booking hotels or writing code without having to socialize with them.
Automated bots are a well-documented problem on X that spam the site and are particularly active in the crypto sphere of influence — plaguing users with scam messages advertising fake tokens, phishing links to malicious sites, and pump-and-dump schemes. Read More
The Markethive R² Principle Explained. Reach and Returns: Subscriptions vs Qualifications
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Markethive is a hybrid platform comprising social media, inbound marketing, and digital broadcasting within a cryptocurrency ecosystem, with many strings to its bow. Markethive operates on a fundamental principle that can be summarized as "Reach and Returns," represented as R².
This dual focus highlights the platform's commitment to providing both extensive marketing and broadcasting capabilities and effective tools and systems for cultivating a strong customer base. This principle is at the core of Markethive's operations, emphasizing the platform's focus on both reaching a broad audience and delivering significant returns on your investment, time, and qualifications.
"Reach" refers to Markethive's capacity to disseminate your message, products, or services to a broad audience. This is achieved through features and strategies designed to maximize visibility and engagement. For instance, our social media integration allows you to reach potential customers across various platforms, and our targeted advertising tools ensure your message is seen by the right audience. All these are made possible through the Markethive a-la-carte subscriptions.
"Returns," on the other hand, signifies the platform's emphasis on generating tangible results from your efforts. By providing tools to attract, nurture, and convert leads into customers and clients, Markethive aims to deliver a substantial return on your investment of time, skills, and resources through the Markethive KEY qualification.
This dual approach ensures that your marketing efforts are far-reaching and impactful, ultimately leading to significant growth and success for your business. Whether you're looking to expand your brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales, Markethive's R² principle provides a comprehensive framework for achieving your marketing goals and return on investment within the Markethive Ecosystem. Read More
Unknown attacker causes headaches during Pectra upgrade on Sepolia
An Ethereum developer says the recent Pectra upgrade of the Sepolia testnet ran into errors, which was made worse after an attacker used an “edge case” to cause the mining of empty blocks.
Pectra rolled out on its final testnet, Sepolia, at 7:29 am on March 5, but Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden said in a March 8 post that the team immediately started seeing error messages on their geth node and empty blocks being mined.
The error was because the deposit contract triggered the wrong type of event — a transfer event instead of a deposit, according to Van der Wijden.
A fix was rolled out, but van der Wijden says they missed one edge case, and an unknown user exploited it by sending a 0-token transfer to the deposit address, which triggered the error again.
“After a few minutes we saw a lot of empty blocks again, so we looked again into the transaction pools and found another offending transaction that triggered the same edge cases,” he said.
“First we thought that someone from the trusted validators has made a mistake, but we quickly realized that this transaction originated from a new account recently funded by the faucet.”
The ERC-20 standard does not forbid a zero token transfer; this allows anyone, even if they don’t own any tokens, to transfer to another address, which the unknown user realized, van der Wijden said. Read More
Why Are Bitcoin, Ethereum Prices Falling?
Bitcoin and Ethereum extend losses as traders digest Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve order and a wave of U.S. trade tariffs.
The crypto market continues to bleed as traders reassess the impact of trade tensions on global economic activity and President Donald Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve order.
Bitcoin has dipped 4.8% to $81,729 while Ethereum is down 8%, hovering just above November 2023 prices near $2,000. Dogecoin leads losses among the top 10 cryptos, down about 13% to $0.16.
That’s despite Trump signing an Executive Order on Thursday, officially establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and authorizing the creation of a digital asset stockpile.
“The knee-jerk reaction lower likely stems from the realization that no actual budget has been allocated for Bitcoin purchases in the near term,” Singapore-based digital asset trading firm QCP Capital wrote in a recent note.
Indeed, the order directs the Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce to develop “budget-neutral" strategies for acquiring additional Bitcoin but stops short of utilizing taxpayer funds to conduct spot purchases.
That appears to have rubbed investors the wrong way, according to David Lawant, head of research at FalconX. Read More
Utah Legislature Passes Blockchain Bill, Drops Bitcoin Reserve Provision
Utah lawmakers approved legislation late Friday, aimed at providing regulatory clarity but removed a pivotal provision that would have allowed the state to invest public funds directly into crypto.
H.B. 230—Blockchain and Digital Innovation Amendments passed Utah's Senate by a 19-7 vote after legislators amended it to eliminate language that would have authorized Utah’s state treasurer to allocate state-managed funds toward a Bitcoin reserve.
Later that night, the House concurred with the Senate's revisions, approving the bill 52-19, with four abstentions.
Initially introduced by Rep. Jordan Teuscher (R-Utah) and sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Kirk Cullimore (R-Utah), the amended legislation still contains significant blockchain-friendly provisions.
The bill explicitly prohibits state and local governments from restricting the acceptance or custody of digital assets, protects individuals' rights to run blockchain nodes, participate in staking, and exempts such activities from state money transmitter licensing requirements.
Additionally, the legislation limits local governments from imposing zoning and noise regulations that unfairly target digital asset mining businesses operating in industrial zones. Read More
Solana May Soon Get a Major Change—Here’s Why Builders Are Butting Heads Over SIMD-0228
A new Solana proposal aims to change the frequency at which new tokens are generated on the prominent blockchain—and the suggested changes are generating serious debate ahead of the imminent vote.
The proposal, also known as SIMD-0228, looks to move from fixed-rate token emissions to a programmatic, “market-based emission” schedule that is based on staking participation rate.
In other words, instead of decreasing Solana inflation based on a fixed, time-based schedule, SIMD-0228 proposes that Solana inflation dynamically changes based on network activity.
“The [current] mechanism is not aware of network activity, nor does it incorporate that to determine the emission rate. Simply put, it’s ‘dumb emissions,’” reads the proposal. “Given Solana’s thriving economic activity, it makes sense to evolve the network’s monetary policy with ‘smart emissions.’”
The proposal’s authors—Multicoin Capital’s Tushar Jain and Vishal Kankani, and Max Resnick, lead economist at Solana-focused R&D firm Anza—believe that so-called smart emissions would benefit the network and stakers by reducing inflation, spurring DeFi usage, reducing sell pressure, and improving the narrative around its existing inflation. Read More
Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile: What’s the Difference?
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve and a separate digital asset stockpile, fulfilling one of his biggest campaign promises to the crypto community.
Under the executive order, the U.S. Treasury will hold Bitcoin seized in criminal and civil forfeitures in a strategic BTC reserve. The directive also opens the door to the government potentially acquiring more Bitcoin on the open market, as well as through transfers from federal agencies that hold the token.
“The Secretaries of Treasury and Commerce are authorized to develop budget-neutral strategies for acquiring additional Bitcoin, provided that those strategies impose no incremental costs on American taxpayers,” the executive order reads.
The U.S. Digital Assets Stockpile—a separate entity—will consist of a variety of altcoins seized through forfeitures alone, with federal agencies fully accounting for the stockpile’s tokens. The federal government might sell some of the assets in its stockpile, pending approval from the Treasury Secretary.
“This move harnesses the power of digital assets for national prosperity, rather than letting them languish in limbo,” the order reads. Read More
Disclaimer: These articles are provided for informational purposes only. They are not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other advice.
Featured Image Source: Pixabay
