MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Nasdaq President Tal Cohen said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) changing approach to crypto regulation is giving market operators more room to experiment with blockchain-based infrastructure and tokenized assets.

Speaking at Consensus in Miami on Wednesday, Cohen said the industry now feels it can “build” again after years of regulatory uncertainty.

“The gray zone four years ago was a no-fly zone,” Cohen said. “The gray zone now is we can build. We can gain some scale. We can experiment without maybe any brush back.”

Cohen described a broader shift inside financial markets toward “always on” trading systems that operate nearly around the clock and move money, securities and collateral faster than traditional infrastructure.

Nasdaq, which provides trading technology to more than 130 markets globally, is investing in blockchain infrastructure, tokenization and artificial intelligence as part of that transition, Cohen said.

“We’re embracing two trends,” he said. “Always on market infrastructure” and “convergence” between traditional financial rails and digital asset systems.

Cohen said interoperability between those systems remains one of the largest hurdles for the industry. Firms do not want to operate separate infrastructures for traditional securities and tokenized assets, he said.

“Whether you’re in the existing world or you’re in the digital world, let me tell you, I’m bringing it all together for you so you get the benefits of both,” Cohen said.

He also pointed to a more collaborative stance from regulators.

“The SEC is much more constructive,” Cohen said. “It’s not even open mindedness. It’s a proactivity.”

Cohen said tokenization could eventually make assets easier to move, finance and trade while giving issuers better insight into shareholders.

“What it really does is take an asset and put it in motion,” he said.

Nasdaq is also testing AI systems designed to simulate trading activity in a digital replica of its matching engine. Cohen said the technology could help the exchange test market stress scenarios and improve software reliability as markets move toward extended trading hours.

Grant Cardone, a multibillionaire real estate investor, said Wednesday he added another $100 million in bitcoin as part of a strategy combining the asset with income-producing real estate, during a Fireside chat at Consensus Miami 2026.

“We just simply added another $100 million of bitcoin,” Cardone said, describing a recent property deal where BTC was paired with a $235 million asset, a hybrid strategy he believes will outperform real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Cardone said traditional real estate investment trusts are structurally limited. “These companies can never, ever hold bitcoin on their balance sheet,” he said. “We believe by combining real estate and bitcoin […] I’ll end up with somewhere between a 22 and a 32% return.”

The property investor said the latest allocation builds on an earlier bitcoin purchase made in 2025, when Cardone Capital added 1,000 BTC to its balance sheet, a position valued at just over $100 million at the time, bringing the firm’s total bitcoin exposure to roughly $200 million.

The real estate mogul said the structure combines two asset types within a single investment vehicle. “I have two assets that we just fused together in an LLC,” Cardone said.

He explained the approach also consists of introducing new investors to bitcoin. “Eighty percent of the people that invested in that fund own zero bitcoin,” he said, adding that the strategy does not involve putting real estate directly on blockchain rails.

“I’m not putting real estate on the blockchain,” Cardone said. “All I’m doing is buying a bunch of bitcoin and stuffing it into the discount gap.”

However, in February, In an X post, the investor said that Cardone Capital had plans to tokenize its holdings to give investors “collateral and liquidity in the secondary markets.” At the time, he also said the firm aimed to become a market leader in tokenizing assets at scale.

At Consensus, Cardone explained his hybrid strategy combines stable cash flow with bitcoin exposure. “If bitcoin goes to zero, I’m not getting rid of the real estate.” He said the combined model is intended to compete with existing real estate structures. “I’m going to rip [their] face off,” referring to competing investments without bitcoin exposure.

Fairshake has spent $28 million in 2026 primaries as a new poll shows most Americans distrust crypto and AI, raising questions about the political value of industry-backed super PAC money.

Fairshake, the pro-crypto super PAC backed by Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple, has spent $28 million across competitive 2026 primaries. Combined with pro-AI group Leading the Future, which launched in August 2025 and has raised more than $75 million, the two industry-aligned groups have together deployed over $100 million in the current midterm cycle.

The spending arrives against a difficult backdrop. A Public First poll conducted for Politico in April, surveying 2,035 US adults, found 45% of Americans say investing in cryptocurrency is not worth the risk, 44% say AI is developing too fast, and nearly two-thirds want Congress to impose strict regulations or broad AI oversight.

“I do think if they see somebody is backed by crypto, that’s always going to be a problem,” former Ohio Representative Jim Renacci was quoted as saying.

Despite those distrust numbers, public awareness of both groups remains remarkably low. Only 3% of respondents recognised Fairshake, and just 9% had heard of Leading the Future.

Political observers told Politico that backlash could be swift once voters make the connection between the spending and the industries behind it.

The stakes for crypto legislation are direct. As crypto.news reported, if Democrats take either chamber in November, the CLARITY Act’s passage odds are described as close to zero, with Senator Elizabeth Warren likely to take over the Senate Banking Committee chair.

Fairshake’s current $193 million war chest is explicitly aimed at preventing that scenario. In 2024, a Fairshake-affiliated PAC spent over $40 million helping unseat Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a longtime crypto critic who is now running again.

TLDR:

• Colombia generates 75% of its electricity from renewables, giving it a strong edge in clean Bitcoin mining.
• President Petro proposed Barranquilla, Santa Marta, and Riohacha as prime Caribbean Bitcoin mining locations.
• The Wayúu community, Colombia’s largest Indigenous group, could become co-owners of the mining project.
• Petro’s term ends in August, leaving the next administration to decide the future of the mining proposal.

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Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro eyes Bitcoin mining as a transformative opportunity for the country’s Caribbean coast.

He has identified cities like Barranquilla, Santa Marta, and Riohacha as prime locations for large-scale mining operations. The plan centers on converting the country’s surplus renewable energy into a steady revenue stream.

Petro has also proposed that the Wayúu community, Colombia’s largest Indigenous group, become co-owners of the project. With his term ending in August, time remains short to move the plan forward.

Petro Sees Renewable Energy as the Backbone of His Mining Vision

Colombia generates around 75% of its electricity from renewable sources, according to a World Bank report from April 2024.

That output is more than twice the global average, putting the country in a strong position. Petro wants to use that surplus power to draw foreign investment into the Caribbean region. Bitcoin mining, in his view, offers a practical way to turn unused electricity into consistent income.

La Guajira, a wind-rich province on the Caribbean coast, sits at the center of this proposal. State-owned energy company Ecopetrol is currently building the Windpeshi wind project there.

The facility is expected to begin operations by 2028, adding significant clean energy capacity to the grid. That additional supply could make the region more competitive for large mining investors.

Petro shared his vision on X after Luxor Technology’s Alessandro Cecere posted about Paraguay’s mining growth. Cecere noted that Paraguay now holds 4.3% of the global Bitcoin hashrate.

The country reached that position by tapping hydroelectric power from the Itaipu Dam. Responding to that data, Petro said the Caribbean coast holds similar potential, calling it “an immense boost to the development of the Caribbean.”

Petro also addressed environmental concerns directly in his X post. He warned that “if virtual currencies are based on fossil energy, global warming explodes and climate collapse ensues.”

His Caribbean coast proposal deliberately relies on clean energy to avoid those outcomes. The approach ties economic growth to environmental responsibility in a single strategy.

Political Clock and Global Competition Shape the Road Ahead

Petro’s presidential term ends in August, leaving him a narrow window to advance the initiative. Constitutional limits bar him from seeking re-election in the May 31 vote.

The next president will decide whether the Bitcoin mining proposal continues or stalls. So far, no leading candidate has offered a clear stance on the matter.

Prediction market Kalshi places Senator Iván Cepeda Castro and conservative lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella as the frontrunners in the upcoming election.

Neither has made notable public statements on Bitcoin or digital assets. Without clear support from the incoming administration, the plan faces an uncertain future. Investors and industry observers are monitoring the political landscape closely.

Meanwhile, global competition for Bitcoin mining activity continues to grow. The United States has put forward the “Mined in America Act” to expand domestic operations.

Russia now counts mining among its export revenue sources. Ethiopia is actively pursuing foreign capital to build out its own mining infrastructure.

Hashlabs managing partner Jaran Mellerud has noted that the industry “can have a sizable economic impact on emerging countries looking to convert otherwise unused electricity into cash flow.”

As American miners pivot toward AI and high-performance computing, opportunities are opening up for other nations.

Countries with lower electricity costs are also better placed to capture a larger share of global hashrate. Colombia’s renewable energy advantage could position it well in that expanding global race.

AI agents will become more relevant than humans on the internet within the next decade, a shift already already forcing Google, Facebook and Amazon to react, said Charles Hoskinson.

In his keynote at Consensus Miami 2026 on Wednesday, Hoskinson also said that “by 2035, the majority of searches, commerce and activity on the internet will be AI agents instead of people.”

He said the change threatens existing business models. “Amazon, Google, Facebook, they’re terrified of the agentic revolution,” Hoskinson said, adding that companies are investing heavily because “all of their business models are going to be disrupted.”

AI Agents do not click ads or have brand preferences, Hoskinson explained, saying this “threatens the advertising-driven models of platforms like Google, Amazon and Facebook.”

“Why do you think Google is interested in x402?” he asked his audience of the Coinbase-backed protocol that enables AI agents and applications to make direct, programmatic payments over the internet using stablecoins and crypto rails.

Hoskinson noted this shift will change how crypto is used, adding that artificial intelligence (AI) will increasingly handle tasks such as due diligence, transaction execution and interaction with decentralized finance.

Hoskinson AI agent forecast echoes that of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who said “very soon there are going to be more AI agents than humans making transactions” and Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao, who predicted they “will make one million times more payments than humans.”

On the flipside, Hoskinson said AI agents are the “single best thing to ever happen to cryptocurrencies” because it simplifies user experience.

The Cardano founder warned crypto users against relying on intermediaries rather than maintaining direct control of their assets, which is the principle, he said, crypto was built on.

“You have to own your data. You have to own your identity. You have to own your money,” he said, adding that users are “outsourcing that to custodial wallets,” “permissioned networks,” and “third parties that they come to regret trusting when they get their account shut down.”

He also pointed to fragmentation across blockchain ecosystems as a barrier to progress, saying it has slowed down development. “There’s been 11 million tokens issued over the years. We have enough of them,” Hoskinson said. “What I want is cooperation. What I want is the mission to be achieved.”

User experience remains a key issue limiting user adoption, said Hoskinson, who described the current crypto onboarding processes as complex and prone to error. “That is the user experience in 2026,” he said. “Is this like a product you want to use?”

He said technologies such as account abstraction and chain abstraction could simplify how users interact with crypto systems, while maintaining control over assets and identity.

Hoskinson highlighted changing attitudes among financial institutions, noting that JPMorgan has moved from restricting crypto-related activity to developing blockchain-based products. “Back when we started JPMorgan was turning people’s bank accounts off and now they have a blockchain product,” he said.

Bitcoin dominance climbed to 61% on Wednesday, its highest level since November 2025. The metric has risen from 58.44% at the start of April, proving that the bullish trend continues to favor BTC over the wider crypto market.

In the last two months, altcoin volumes on Binance also increased by 49%, while 12.6% of altcoins on Binance reclaimed their 200-day simple moving average (SMA). 

Bitcoin dominance, one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Altcoins show early signs of recovery

Crypto analyst Darkfost said Bitcoin has gained 36% since its Feb. 6 lows at $60,000, helping push its dominance to 61.3%. 

While altcoins spent much of that period under pressure, TOTAL3, which tracks the crypto market cap excluding Bitcoin and Ether, rose by 17% to a two-month high of $765 billion. The recovery pace of altcoins lagged behind BTC, but several indicators have started to improve.

TOTAL3, one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Data from CryptoQuant showed that trading activity in the altcoin market was slowly increasing. Their volume share on Binance climbed to 49% on Wednesday, up from 31% in March, when measured against the combined BTC and ETH futures trading volumes. The rise points to growing participation outside of Bitcoin and Ether after several months of capital concentration in the two largest crypto assets.

Darkfost added that the shift still looks moderate and sits far from the aggressive rotation phases seen during the previous altcoin rally in 2024. 

Altcoin dominance by volume. Source: CryptoQuant

Related: Zcash price may hit $800 as $2.7B hedge fund reveals ‘significant position’ in ZEC

Exchange volume trends point to a rotation

Market analyst CW8900 pointed to the rising activity on centralized exchanges (CEX) as another sign of improving participation beyond Bitcoin. According to the analyst, altcoin trading volume, excluding the five largest cryptocurrencies, has increased steadily over the past few weeks.

CEX volume ratio vs Top 5 crypto. Source: CryptoQuant

The 90-day AltSeason Index also climbed to 28.6, its fastest recovery in months. The index tracks whether a majority of altcoins outperform Bitcoin over a set period. Readings above 75 are associated with stronger altcoin cycles. However, CW8900 added, 

“The indicator also shows that there was no real AltSeason in this cycle. The period when the AltSeason Index reached its highest point was early 2024, and even that value was relatively low compared to previous AltSeasons.”

CryptoQuant data also showed improvements across the altcoin market after months of heavy underperformance against Bitcoin. The average altcoin now trades 23.47% below its 200-day simple moving average, rising from 44.4% earlier in the cycle. Similar readings previously appeared near the end of late-stage bear markets in 2022.

Altcoin performance, on average, relative to the 200-day SMA. Source: CryptoQuant

Related: Crypto Fear and Greed Index turns neutral for first time since January: Is $100K BTC next?

This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.

What was once viewed as a speculative fringe movement is rapidly becoming part of the world’s financial plumbing, according to executives from Binance, Revolut and Circle (CRCL) speaking at Consensus Miami on Wednesday.

“We were in the Prohibition era,” said Rachel Conlan, chief marketing officer at Binance. “Now we are in the infrastructure phase.”

Conlan said crypto is evolving beyond trading into functional everyday use cases and is “on route to becoming the fabric of everyday society.”

That shift is increasingly visible in consumer finance. Mazen ElJundi, global business head of investments at Revolut, said crypto’s narrative has moved from speculation toward “real-life utility and scaling.”

Revolut, which operates in more than 40 countries and serves over 75 million customers, now integrates crypto into a broader suite of banking services including remittances and stablecoin usage. “Crypto is about banking without borders,” he said.

At Circle, SVP of marketing Tim Queenan said institutions are increasingly exploring how to move core financial infrastructure onchain. “The infrastructure should be boring,” he said. “What you build on top of it is what’s interesting.” Queenan pointed to stablecoins becoming so embedded in payments that many users no longer even think of themselves as crypto users.

The panelists said institutional momentum, from exchange traded fund (ETF) approvals to major asset managers putting money onchain, is reinforcing retail adoption globally.

But challenges remain. Conlan said the industry still needs to reduce friction and make onboarding easier.

Read more: Crypto ETFs go mainstream as traditional finance locks in

NYSE parent ICE and Securitize warned at Consensus Miami 2026 that offshore synthetic tokenized stocks are misleading retail investors and creating serious risks for the broader market.

NYSE executives and partners raised the alarm at Consensus Miami 2026 on Wednesday over a wave of offshore synthetic tokenized stocks they said are creating market risks and misleading retail investors.

Michael Blaugrund of ICE, the NYSE’s parent company, and Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo both warned that products operating outside regulated frameworks are exploiting the tokenization trend at retail investors’ expense.

“For some stocks there’s like five different tokenized versions,” Domingo said at the panel. “None of them actually represent equity on Coinbase,” using the exchange as a concrete example of how public company names are being used without issuer approval by offshore token products that offer only synthetic price exposure.

Blaugrund said NYSE’s own approach takes the opposite path. The exchange’s first tokenized equity product will start with pre-funded tokens trading against stablecoins.

That model is “not the sexiest way” to build a market, Blaugrund acknowledged, but gives issuers, investors, and regulators a structure they can evaluate before more complex features like leverage or self-custody are introduced.

The warning lands as the tokenized equity market grows rapidly alongside legitimate players. As crypto.news reported, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has pointed to tokenized stocks as a way to expand international access, enable fractional ownership, and allow real-time settlement. But a parallel offshore market of synthetic wrappers, which confer no voting rights, dividends, or ownership, is undercutting trust in the category.

For NYSE, the Consensus panel was a public signal that regulated tokenized equities and unregulated synthetic tokens are not the same product.

TLDR

• Nigel Farage said he had no obligation to declare the $6.7 million personal gift from Christopher Harborne.
• He stated that the £5 million payment was unconditional and not linked to political activity.
• Conservative officials referred the matter to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg for review.
• Christopher Harborne holds a 12% stake in Tether and has donated £12 million to Reform UK.
• Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to UK political parties.

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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage rejected calls to declare a $6.7 million personal gift from crypto investor Christopher Harborne. He said the £5 million payment carried no political conditions and required no disclosure. Meanwhile, opposition parties asked the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to review the matter.

Nigel Farage Defends $6.7M Gift From Tether Stakeholder

Nigel Farage said he had “no obligation” to declare the $6.7 million gift from Christopher Harborne. He told broadcasters that the payment was “an unconditional, non-political, personal gift.” He added, “Believe you me, we’ve looked at this from every legal angle.” He said the law did not require disclosure of such gifts.

Farage linked the payment to past threats against him, including a firebomb attack on his home. He said the funds would help “ensure I can be safe for the rest of my life.” He confirmed he would not refer himself to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg. He argued there was “no case to answer” under current rules.

Conservative officials referred the issue to Daniel Greenberg for independent review. They asked him to examine whether any part of the £5 million supported political activity. Labour chair Anna Turley said Farage “appears to have broken the rules again.” Reform UK stated the gift arrived before Farage planned to stand for Parliament.

Reports revealed the payment occurred in June 2024, months before Farage announced his Clacton candidacy. The transaction did not appear in disclosures under UK campaign finance laws. Reform UK maintained that timing placed the gift outside reporting requirements. The party denied any breach of election law.

Crypto Donations Face Scrutiny After Rycroft Review

Christopher Harborne resides in Thailand and holds a 12% stake in stablecoin issuer Tether. He has donated £12 million to Reform UK through separate contributions. His £9 million donation last year became the largest single political gift from a living individual. He confirmed the $6.7 million payment to Farage was “unconditional and irrevocable.”

Harborne told the Telegraph he expected nothing in return except Farage’s safety. He said he believed he influenced the government’s decision to cap overseas donations. He stated he did not believe the government had “a right to stop me.” He did not rule out returning to the UK to bypass donation limits.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an immediate moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to political parties. The government triggered the move after an independent review led by Philip Rycroft. The ban applies to all crypto donations received from today. Parties must return any crypto within 30 days.

Philip Rycroft warned that hostile actors could exploit crypto assets to channel foreign funds. He said the risk was “unacceptable” and required urgent action. He described the moratorium as an “interlude” rather than a permanent ban. He clarified that donors could still convert crypto into fiat and donate through banks.