Crypto World
Argentina’s State-Backed Energy Giant YPF Launches Tokenization Initiative on XRP Ledger
Enertoken, developed by Justoken for YPF Luz, launched with over $800 million in tokenized energy assets on XRPL.
YPF Luz, the electricity subsidiary of Argentina’s largest energy company, has partnered with Buenos Aires-based blockchain infrastructure company Justoken to launch an energy tokenization platform built on XRP Ledger (XRPL), the firms announced earlier this month.
The platform, dubbed Enertoken, tokenizes, commercializes, and manages electricity contracts via XRPL, the public blockchain originally developed by Ripple Labs, which remains a core contributor. Meanwhile, Justoken recently emerged as the largest real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform on XRPL by total value.
Per the announcement, the new platform from YPF Luz, developed by Justoken, is aimed at corporations and large energy consumers to help manage everything from consumption tracking, to billing, to contract execution, “fully supported by tokenized energy assets recorded on blockchain.”
Martín Mandarano, the CEO of YPF Luz — the parent company of which has had a turbulent history of state and private ownership — was quoted as saying in the announcement:
“The integration of tokenized energy assets allows us to optimize processes, enhance traceability, and deliver greater transparency to our clients, reinforcing YPF Luz’s innovative profile within the energy sector.”
Justoken’s Quiet Dominance
In what the companies are calling the project’s initial phase, Enertoken launched with over $800 million in tokenized energy assets on XRPL, per the announcement, evidently referring to Justoken’s tokenized energy fund, JMWH.
Justoken’s JMWH, which, per RWAxyz, represents real megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy, backed by energy producers in Latin America, quietly become the largest tokenized asset on XRPL by total value when it launched in mid-January with over $861 million on-chain. Meanwhile, Justoken has another $832.3 million in various other tokenized commodities on Polygon.
As of today, March 26, JMWH’s total asset value still stands at $861 million — representing nearly 57% of all so-called represented asset value on XRPL, and a nearly 45% market share of all tokenized RWA platforms on the network.
Per RWAxyz, “represented asset value” refers to tokenized assets that exist on a blockchain but cannot be distributed or transferred on-chain — they represent a real-world commitment recorded on-chain, not freely tradable tokens.
Represented vs Distributed RWAs
Luke Judges, Partner Director at RippleX, Ripple’s open developer platform, explained to The Defiant why JMWH falls into RWAxyz’s “represented” asset category, rather than “distributed” — a distinction that indicates how these assets are used on-chain, stating, “‘represented’ assets operate within more controlled environments, often reflecting regulatory or contractual requirements.”
In JMWH’s case, the tokens operate under Argentina’s capital markets regulator Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV)’s regime for Virtual Asset Service Providers (PSAVs), with issuance, allocation, delivery, and retirement all tied to contractual obligations. This, Judges argues, explains why Justoken opted for a “closed loop approach.”
“The blockchain serves as a verifiable record of ownership and fulfilment rather than a trading venue,” Judges added.
He also noted that represented assets on XRPL are “an important starting point for many institutional use cases, with distributed assets playing a larger role as liquidity, infrastructure, and regulatory clarity continue to evolve on XRPL.”
Selecting XRPL
Ariel Scaliter, co-founder and CTO of Justoken, told The Defiant that the choice of XRPL was deliberate on multiple fronts, citing speed and scalability for teams building on the blockchain network:
“XRPL was selected for several strategic reasons. First, its institutional quality stands out. Many companies in the energy ecosystem are publicly listed, which aligns with the profile of counterparties involved in this type of business.”
Scaliter also cited the ability to build quickly on the XRPL EVM Sidechain before migrating to the mainnet, and flagged Ripple’s institutional legitimacy, as well as custody as a critical infrastructure consideration. He told The Defiant:
“XRPL, alongside contributions from Ripple, is well positioned to attract institutional investors. This global credibility and trust are essential for high-stakes, regulated use cases like energy tokenization.”
RippleX’s Judges elaborated on the architecture: “Justoken was looking for a way to bring renewable energy credits onchain that could support both traceability and automated compliance for corporate clients, while still fitting within existing custodial structures.”
YPF Luz and Its State-Backed Parent
YPF Luz is the power generation subsidiary of YPF (Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales), Argentina’s majority state-owned oil and gas company. The nation’s largest crude producer was originally established over a hundred years ago as Argentina’s state oil company, but was privatized in 1999 and purchased by Spanish energy giant Repsol.
In 2012, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner renationalized YPF, ousting Repsol after a dispute over slumping oil output and investment, Bloomberg reported at the time. Argentina’s Congress nationalized YPF through an overwhelming lower-house vote, clearing the way for President Fernández to sign the bill into law, per Reuters.
RWA Surge
XRPL has been steadily building its RWA credentials, and now has $1.5 billion in represented asset value on chain, and over $404 million in distributed asset value, per RWAxyz.
In late 2024, Ripple announced plans to tokenize the first-ever money market fund on XRPL, collaborating with UK-based digital securities exchange Archax and global investment firm Abrdn, as The Defiant reported. Last March, Ondo Finance deployed its tokenized short-term U.S. Government Treasuries product (OUSG) on the XRP Ledger, aiming to bring it to XRPL’s institutional user base.
Zooming out, the broader tokenized RWA market tripled from roughly $5.5 billion to $18.6 billion over the course of 2025, per The Defiant’s year-end analysis.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Crypto World
XRP Price Prediction Meets SEC ETF Deadline as Pepeto Outperforms and Investors Choose Exchange Tools Over Web3
The SEC faces its final deadline today on the remaining batch of spot XRP ETF applications, and with $1.44 billion already flowing into XRP funds and Goldman Sachs holding the largest institutional position at $153 million, the xrp price prediction hinges on whether that institutional capital wave finally arrives at scale.
While XRP waits for one more catalyst, attention shifts. The exchange that raised more than $8 million with verified tools already running is where investors are choosing to position before the listing. The XRP outlook shows strength in the infrastructure, but Pepeto with 100x projected by analysts offers the kind of return that XRP at $1.34 needs years to match.
The SEC reaches its 240 day maximum deadline on March 27 for the remaining spot XRP ETF applications from Grayscale, WisdomTree, and Franklin Templeton, with $1.44 billion in total inflows and Goldman Sachs holding $153 million as the single largest institutional allocation, according to CoinDesk.
Bloomberg analysts place the odds of at least one approval before year end at 95%, and the SEC commodity classification on March 17 removes the final regulatory obstacle, according to The Block.
The xrp price prediction benefits from ETF clarity, but the exchange already at presale pricing with a Binance listing confirmed is where the compressed return lives.
Where the ETF Catalyst Meets Presale Returns Before Trading Opens
Pepeto
XRP ETF volumes are rising, which shows institutions still enter crypto infrastructure even when prices swing. But sentiment flips fast and holding one token without protection exposes you to every shift.
That is why Pepeto stands apart. It is not a bet on one coin recovering but on giving traders verified answers in every market. The exchange raised more than $8 million at $0.000000186, and wallets are buying access to tools that help them make verified decisions.
The xrp price prediction may show strength, but the risk scorer checks every contract before your capital touches it, PepetoSwap handles every trade at zero fees, and the cross chain bridge sends tokens at zero cost.
Inside the platform, the contract scanner, the real time risk checker, and the zero cost bridge all run from one fast verified exchange with 193% APY staking compounding early positions while stages fill faster. The SolidProof audit verified every contract, and the developer who created the original Pepe coin reaching $11 billion with the same 420 trillion supply built the exchange alongside a former Binance expert.
If crypto keeps growing, the need for verification only grows with it, and the demand for Pepeto grows alongside. Getting in before that demand becomes obvious is where 100x lives.
XRP Price Prediction: Can XRP Break $1.60 Before the ETF Decision Lands?
XRP trades at $1.34 as of March 27 forming a tightening ascending triangle with the SEC ETF deadline arriving today, according to CoinMarketCap.
The xrp price prediction puts resistance at $1.45 then $1.55, with a break above $1.60 opening the path to $2.00. Support holds at $1.30 with $1.10 below if the triangle breaks down. Standard Chartered set the 2026 target at $2.80, citing rotation away from XRP. Weekly ETF inflows dropped from $200 million at launch to under $2 million by early March.
The XRP forecast for the year ranges from $2.50 to $4.00 if the CLARITY Act passes, but even the bullish case is a recovery play over quarters, not the 100x the presale delivers from one listing.
XRP Price Prediction Confirms the Pepe Cofounder Plus Exchange Tools Plus Binance Listing Is the Rarest Combination
The SEC ETF deadline landing today barely moved the price despite $1.44 billion already inside XRP funds, and that tells you where attention shifts in 2026. The real returns flow into early exchange infrastructure built before the listing.
Pepeto crossed $8 million with verified tools running and a Binance listing confirmed. Retail traders finally get exchange level tools at presale pricing, and early wallets get the full distance between this entry and the listing.
The Pepeto official website is where the Pepe cofounder plus exchange tools plus a Binance listing creates the rarest combination crypto produces, and entering before the listing is how you collect what the rest of the cycle references.
Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale
FAQs:
What does the xrp price prediction show after the SEC ETF deadline?
XRP targets $1.60 as the breakout trigger with $2.00 above if the ascending triangle resolves bullish, while $1.30 holds as support.
How do the latest XRP developments affect the market?
XRP ETFs pulled in $1.44 billion but weekly flows dropped to $2 million, and the commodity classification has not yet attracted the institutional wave. The Pepeto official website is where verified exchange tools at presale pricing offer stronger near term returns.
What are the key xrp price prediction levels right now?
XRP consolidates in a triangle with $1.45 and $1.55 as resistance, $1.30 as support, and Standard Chartered targeting $2.80 for 2026 if the CLARITY Act advances.
Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.
Crypto World
Kalshi Partners with ARK Invest to Meet Rising Institutional Demand for Prediction Markets
TLDR:
- Kalshi launches a formal market request pipeline to meet growing institutional investor demand.
- ARK Invest partners with Kalshi to list prediction markets aligned with its investment research.
- Live markets on Kalshi now cover non-farm payrolls, deficit-to-GDP ratios, and business KPIs.
- Crowd-sourced prediction markets are becoming alternative data signals for major financial institutions.
Prediction markets are gaining traction among institutional investors, and Kalshi is now at the center of this shift. The platform has partnered with ARK Invest to list markets used in investment research and analysis.
Tarek Mansour, co-founder and CEO of Kalshi, confirmed the collaboration publicly. Several markets are already live, covering non-farm payrolls, deficit-to-GDP ratios, and business KPIs. The move reflects growing institutional appetite for crowd-sourced financial signals.
Kalshi’s Formal Pipeline Now Serves Institutional Demand
Kalshi has been witnessing a steady rise in institutional interest in prediction markets. To address this, the platform developed a formal market request pipeline for institutional partners.
This pipeline allows institutions to work directly with Kalshi to list relevant markets. The structure gives major investors a standardized way to access crowd-sourced economic data.
The partnership with ARK Invest is one of the earliest collaborations built through this pipeline. ARK Invest, known for its research-driven approach to disruptive innovation, is using Kalshi to support its analysis process.
Through the pipeline, ARK can request specific markets aligned with its investment focus. This creates a direct link between institutional research needs and market creation on the platform.
Mansour took to X to confirm the partnership and outline its scope. He wrote: “As institutional adoption of prediction markets grows, Kalshi is seeing increased demand for a formal market request pipeline to help investors leverage the wisdom of the crowd.” He added that ARK Invest is actively working through the pipeline to list markets used in analysis.
The collaboration also points to a wider pattern among financial institutions. More investors are turning to prediction markets as alternative data sources for decision-making.
These markets aggregate collective public intelligence around key economic events. Kalshi is positioning itself to serve that growing need at an institutional level.
Live Markets on Kalshi Already Supporting ARK’s Research Process
Several markets created through the ARK partnership are already active on Kalshi. Non-farm payroll markets are among the live options available to investors today.
Deficit-to-GDP ratio markets and business KPI markets are also accessible through the platform. These give institutions a real-time, crowd-sourced view of major economic indicators.
Non-farm payroll data is one of the most closely watched monthly economic figures. A prediction market around it lets institutions gauge crowd expectations before official government releases.
This forward-looking signal can help firms calibrate their strategies more accurately. ARK Invest is actively incorporating this data into its research process.
Deficit-to-GDP ratio markets offer macroeconomic visibility that traditional data providers rarely surface. Tracking this ratio helps investors assess long-term fiscal sustainability trends.
A crowd-sourced market around it gives institutions an independent read on public sentiment. That kind of alternative signal is increasingly valued in institutional investment circles.
Mansour closed his post by noting “more to come,” suggesting additional markets are being planned. Kalshi appears set to grow the pipeline and bring more institutional partners on board.
The platform’s ability to convert research needs into live markets sets it apart. As institutional adoption of prediction markets continues to grow, Kalshi’s pipeline model may become a standard tool for major investors.
Opinion by: Samuel Owusu-Boadi, founder of WellsForAll
Over the past decade, crypto philanthropy has exploded. From a niche experiment to a transformative force channeling billions into global causes, crypto philanthropy’s moment has arrived.
According to data from The Giving Block, crypto donations exceeded $1 billion in 2024, proving that blockchain-based giving is now a legitimate, more transparent (in theory) and efficient alternative to traditional charity fundraising. While these figures show momentum, scale alone does not equate to success, especially in philanthropic projects across Africa.
Across the African continent, many crypto philanthropy initiatives are designed as moments — token launches, non-fungible token drops and campaigns designed to generate attention, capital and optimism in short bursts. These hype cycles rarely account for what happens after the launch window closes. No long-term systems are built to facilitate continued investment and oversight.
Why is this an issue? Public good projects cannot function on hype cycles. They require assets that endure for decades, with maintenance schedules, governance structures and local accountability.
There is no shortage of donation campaigns for philanthropic projects in Africa. What is lacking is long-lasting infrastructure. When philanthropy is structured around visibility rather than durability, the result is predictable: short-term relief followed by quiet failure.
The transparency illusion
Crypto philanthropy evangelists often point to blockchain’s transparency as a solution to these shortcomings. Onchain records can show where funds move, when they move and who authorized them. As valuable as this type of insight is, it is also incomplete.
Transparent records alone solve little without tangible truth on the ground. A transaction hash cannot confirm that infrastructure remains functional, that communities continue to benefit or that maintenance funding still exists. Blockchain systems can record intent, but they cannot verify tangible outcomes in the projects that crypto philanthropy seeks to enable. Academic research has highlighted that while blockchain may improve traceability, it does not automatically guarantee accountability or effect without additional systems that sit beside or within it to link the two.
Without on-the-ground presence and continuous oversight, onchain transparency risks becoming nothing more than performative in its credibility. Accountability must exist where the physical infrastructure exists, which means establishing frameworks outside of the distributed ledger that can track and measure tangible outputs. If effect is only measured at the transaction level, the most important question in any philanthropy project goes unanswered: Did lives meaningfully improve?
Ignoring local ownership makes failure inevitable
This gap between digital transparency and physical reality becomes more frustrating when projects are designed without the input from the communities they aim to serve. Many crypto philanthropy initiatives are conceived and executed by teams that have never visited the regions affected by their decisions.
Without local leadership overseeing these projects, responsibility evaporates once funding slows. Infrastructure that lacks community ownership will deteriorate quickly. Without clearly defined custodianship and locally managed maintenance resources, even well-funded projects deteriorate once initial enthusiasm fades.
At times, crypto-backed charitable initiatives in Africa treat local ownership as a cultural nicety, or an afterthought, rather than the heart and soul of the project. Communities must co-manage and protect assets if those assets are expected to survive. Projects that treat beneficiaries as end users rather than stewards inevitably collapse.
Charity tokens create dependency instead of dignity
Considering these observations, it becomes quite clear that most charity tokens and crypto fundraising models are designed to deliver temporary relief. They perform well at mobilizing attention and capital quickly but struggle to support systems that operate year after year.
Shifting the aim toward structural infrastructure enables philanthropic projects to function as a type of economic infrastructure, where longevity and sustainability are properly accounted for, and not merely as a charitable intervention. When clean water systems, schools or clinics remain operational over long periods, they reduce dependency rather than reinforce it.
Related: Ripple commits $25M to US school nonprofits
Dignity emerges not from receiving aid, but from creating systems from that aid that truly stand the test of time and endure.
Without long-term operational thinking, projects inadvertently recreate the very dependency dynamics they claim to disrupt.
Repeated failure harms the entire crypto industry
The consequences of these failures extend beyond individual projects. Whenever an initiative collapses, or public trust in a crypto-backed charity project erodes, not only is the power of philanthropy questioned, but so is belief in blockchain itself. With these failures, skepticism toward future crypto-powered initiatives only gets louder.
Africa experiences this damage the most. Failed experiments leave behind broken infrastructure and weakened confidence, making it harder for responsible models to gain support and traction. Philanthropy should never be treated as an experimental case study or showcase for blockchain technology. When human well-being is at stake, failure is not as abstract as we like to think.
For the crypto industry, this represents a credibility challenge. If blockchain is to play a meaningful role in global development, it must demonstrate discipline, restraint and accountability — not novelty for its own sake.
Maturity, not abandonment
With all this being said, is it time to abandon crypto philanthropy projects? Certainly not. Crypto advocates often highlight the advantages of digital assets in philanthropy, including borderless transfers, reduced transaction costs and immutable records. These benefits are real and largely undisputed.
For blockchain to contribute meaningfully to sustainable effects, then it must be treated as governance infrastructure rather than a marketing fundraising function. That means prioritizing local ownership, multi-year planning, maintenance funding and accountability frameworks that extend beyond the ledger.
Until crypto philanthropy builds systems instead of hype, it will continue to fail the communities it claims to serve.
Opinion by: Samuel Owusu-Boadi, founder of WellsForAll.
This opinion article presents the author’s expert view, and it may not reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. This content has undergone editorial review to ensure clarity and relevance. Cointelegraph remains committed to transparent reporting and upholding the highest standards of journalism. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company.
MARA Holdings sold more than $1 billion of Bitcoin in March to repurchase convertible debt at a discount, using its BTC holdings to reduce leverage, the company said Thursday.
In a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the largest listed US Bitcoin miner said it would buy back about $1 billion of zero-coupon convertible notes due 2030 and 2031 for roughly $913 million in cash, capturing about $88 million in savings, or close to a 9% discount to par.
The company said it sold 15,133 Bitcoin (BTC) for around $1.1 billion between March 4 and March 25 to fund the transactions, which it said will cut its outstanding convertible debt by about 30% to roughly $2.3 billion once the deals close at the end of the month. According to Bitcointreasuries.net, MARA now holds 38,689 BTC on its public balance sheet.
MARA’s chairman and chief executive officer, Fred Thiel, commented in a release that the transaction enhanced the company’s “financial flexibility” and increased its “strategic optionality” as MARA expands “beyond pure-play Bitcoin mining into digital energy and AI/HPC infrastructure.”
Related: Riot Platforms’ AI/HPC push could net up to $21B, says activist holder
MARA’s premarket share price reacted positively to the news, rising from yesterday’s close of $8.25 to $9.29, a gain of around 12.6%, and traded at $8.74 (+5.56%) at the time of writing, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
Bitcoin miners continue to sell down their stashes
The move follows a $1.7 billion net loss in the fourth quarter of 2025, driven largely by non-cash fair-value adjustments on MARA’s Bitcoin holdings. At the time, MARA pushed back against speculation that it was quietly selling down its BTC holdings, saying it continued to view Bitcoin as a strategic treasury asset while actively managing its balance sheet.
MARA is part of a broader shift among crypto miners seeking more stable revenue streams, redeploying energy and infrastructure toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. The company recently agreed to acquire a majority stake in Exaion’s AI-focused data centers, and peers are making similar moves.
Bitdeer sold down its Bitcoin treasury to zero in February as it pivots toward infrastructure and service‑based revenues in cloud and AI compute, while Canaan has invested in US mining sites in Texas to run both Bitcoin mining and AI workloads from the same energy-intensive facilities.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 26, 2026.
Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a blistering letter to Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh on Thursday, predicting he would serve as a “rubber stamp for President Trump’s Wall Street First Agenda,” and accusing him of having learned “nothing from your failures” during a prior stint at the central bank.
Warren, D-Mass, in the letter reported first by CNBC, told Warsh that his record as a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors from 2006 until 2011 — which included the 2008-09 financial crisis and Great Recession — “should disqualify you from a promotion.”
“But President Donald Trump has vowed that ‘anybody that disagrees with’ him ‘will never be the Fed Chairman,’ ” Warren noted.
“And you, apparently, have passed his test,” she added.
“As Fed Chair, you will be responsible for directing economy-altering policies that have serious
consequences for American workers and communities,” Warren wrote. “However, your track record leading up to, during, and after the 2008 financial crisis raises significant concerns about your ability to do so.”
The letter, which CNBC obtained before it was publicly released, asked Warsh pointed, detailed questions about 10 different subject areas to be answered for his confirmation hearing at the Senate Banking Committee, where Warren is the ranking Democrat.
But those queries were buried at the bottom of what reads as a scathing, eight-page indictment of his tenure at the Fed, and what she called his advocacy “against tougher safeguards intended to prevent big bank failures and taxpayer bailouts” after he left the central bank.
“I write to better understand what, if anything, you’ve learned from your failure to prioritize American families over Wall Street before, during, and after the 2008 financial crisis while serving as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,” Warren said in the letter’s first sentence.
“Rather than implementing policies to improve the lives of the American public, you ignored the obviously excessive risk-taking on Wall Street; worked tirelessly to bail out large financial institutions after their bets blew up the economy; and advocated for policies that would have further harmed the millions of Americans who lost their jobs, were thrown out their homes, and saw their life savings evaporate,” she continued.
Warsh did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC about the letter.
Warsh’s nomination is in limbo as Warren’s fellow Banking Committee member, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., has said he would effectively block the nomination from being considered by the full Senate until a criminal investigation of Fed Chair Jerome Powell is resolved.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, has indicated she has no intention of dropping that probe.
Pirro’s office is seeking to reverse a ruling on March 11 by a federal judge in Washington, blocking subpoenas issued to the Fed as part of its investigation of Powell, which is purportedly focused on cost overruns of the pricey renovation of the Fed’s headquarters and testimony about that project to the Banking Committee.
District Court Judge James Boasberg, in his order quashing those subpoenas, wrote, “There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will.”
Trump has repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, pressured Powell and the entire Board of Governors to cut interest rates more quickly and deeply than they have since Trump reentered the White House in January 2025.
Powell earlier in March said he would remain as chair pro tem if Warsh is not confirmed by May, when Powell’s term as chair expires.
In her letter to Warsh on Thursday, Warren said that when he began his service on the Board of Governors, there were “warning signs of the coming crisis” in the subprime home-lending market.
“Yet rather than using the Fed’s powerful supervisory and regulatory authorities to address the severe consumer and financial stability risks posed by subprime mortgages, you defended and even implicitly promoted these products,” Warren wrote.
“Astonishingly, in December 2007, you agreed that “subprime mortgages have gotten a bad name
in this environment,” she wrote. “You also promoted derivatives and other forms of ‘financial innovation’ as vehicles to disperse risk and make the financial system safer.”
“Again, you were wrong.”
Warren said that during the resultant financial crisis, “you appear to have prioritized the interests of large financial institutions ahead of the American public.”
“Your eagerness to bail out Wall Street, including through taxpayer-assisted megamergers, was not surprising, given the seven years you spent as a Morgan Stanley mergers and acquisitions executive prior to joining the George W. Bush Administration,” Warren wrote.
“It has been well-documented that you played a central role helping to arrange numerous [multibillion-dollar] bailouts and even obtained an ethics waiver to deal directly with Morgan Stanley, which received the special regulatory approvals from the Fed on an expedited basis necessary to access additional emergency support.”
The senator said Warsh also advocated for higher interest rates at the time, “further imperiling an ailing economy” that was hemorrhaging jobs.
“Your monetary policy record shows a repeated failure to accurately assess the impact of inflation on the American economy,” Warren wrote.
“It appears you have learned nothing from your failures,” she wrote.
“Since leaving the Fed, you have advocated against tougher safeguards intended to prevent big bank failures and taxpayer bailouts.”
— CNBC’s Matt Peterson contributed to this article.
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 a permanent CBDC ban rather than the temporary prohibition in the Senate version.
A viral alarm from Heritage Foundation economist Peter St. Onge is reigniting one of crypto’s most contested political fights in Congress: the prospect of a U.S. central bank digital currency. In a post on X that amassed 195,700 views and 3,600 likes by the afternoon of March 26, @profstonge warned that “Congress is trying to sneak a CBDC into their must-pass housing bill,” adding that such a currency “would replace the US dollar with a government-controlled crypto-token that 80% of voters reject.”
The bill in question, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, passed the Senate on March 12 by an overwhelming 89–10 margin. As reported by Yahoo Finance, the legislation is primarily a sweeping housing reform package crafted by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott and Senator Elizabeth Warren, covering everything from FHA loan limits to institutional investor restrictions on single-family homes. Buried within it, however, is Title X — a provision that bars the Federal Reserve and its regional banks from issuing or creating a digital dollar, or any asset substantially resembling one, through 2031.
The inclusion was not accidental. According to Unchained Crypto, House conservatives pushed to embed anti-CBDC language into the legislation as a condition of broader bipartisan compromise, a strategy that allowed digital currency policy to advance without requiring a standalone crypto bill. The White House signaled support for the measure, with advisors recommending the president sign it if presented in its current form.
The CBDC Provision Dividing Washington
The debate cuts across party lines in ways that complicate easy narratives. While the Senate version imposes a ban through 2031, some House Republicans are pushing for a permanent prohibition, arguing that a time-limited restriction simply kicks the problem down the road. At the same time, critics on the left have argued the provision has no place in a housing bill and could muddy what should be a straightforward affordability package.
Wall Street commentator @WallStreetMav added another layer of skepticism in a separate post on X that drew 92,000 views, writing that “Republicans aren’t banning CBDCs, they’re redesigning them. Same surveillance, same control, just routed through banks so Wall Street gets its cut.” The post, which framed the compromise as a “revenue-sharing agreement” rather than genuine reform, accumulated 873 likes and 357 retweets within hours.
The housing bill CBDC fight arrives alongside a parallel battle over the CLARITY Act, the digital asset market structure legislation that has stalled in the Senate over a separate stalemate on stablecoin yield. Coinbase withdrew support for an earlier CLARITY Act draft after proposed language would have banned passive yield on stablecoins — a provision the exchange said was worse than the status quo. Senator Cynthia Lummis has since said sticking points on stablecoin yield and DeFi provisions are “largely reached,” framing April 2026 as a critical legislative window.
A Temporary Ban or a Political Signal?
For CBDC opponents, the housing bill provision is less about the technical details of digital currency design and more about drawing a political line before midterm elections. As Ledger Insights noted, the ban expires at the end of 2030 — after Trump leaves office — leaving the door open for a future administration. The Federal Reserve, for its part, has consistently maintained it would not launch a digital dollar without explicit congressional authorization, framing its existing research as exploratory rather than developmental.
Whether the CBDC provision survives a House-Senate conference process remains uncertain. House leaders have already indicated they are unlikely to accept the Senate version of the housing bill as written and may seek to renegotiate key provisions — including how long, and how broadly, any CBDC ban applies. As crypto.news previously reported, the Senate vote drew rare cross-aisle alignment, but that consensus may face pressure once negotiations with the House begin in earnest.
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) made a strategic investment in crypto exchange OKX at a $25 billion valuation, with plans to offer NYSE tokenized equities to OKX’s 120 million users.
NYSE Chief Product Officer Jon Herrick on March 26 told the audience at the New York Digital Assets Summit that the world’s largest stock exchange has no intention of tearing down its existing market infrastructure to make way for blockchain — it intends to wire the two together. According to CoinDesk, Herrick said the NYSE is pursuing interoperability, exploring the application of tokenized assets within the current system, including real-time or near-real-time settlement and extended trading hours.
The position is a meaningful signal. NYSE is the most systemically significant equities venue on the planet, and Herrick’s framing — blockchain layered onto existing rails, not substituted for them — reflects how the exchange is navigating the practical and regulatory constraints of one of the most tightly supervised industries in finance. He noted that existing mechanisms such as central clearing still carry irreplaceable risk management value and should be preserved, even as the exchange pushes deeper into tokenization. As previously reported by crypto.news, the NYSE is already building a 24/7 blockchain-based trading venue for tokenized stocks and ETFs, pending SEC approval. The platform is designed to combine NYSE’s Pillar order-matching engine with blockchain-based post-trade settlement funded by stablecoins.
Herrick predicted that the boundary between traditional and tokenized assets may gradually dissolve over the next decade — a timeline that aligns with where institutional momentum is visibly heading. Morgan Stanley, as detailed in a previous crypto.news story, plans to enable tokenized stock settlement on its internal alternative trading system in the second half of 2026, while Nasdaq has already filed with the SEC to support tokenized equities on its public exchange.
ICE doubles down with OKX investment
The strategic backdrop to Herrick’s remarks is considerable. Earlier this month, ICE — NYSE’s parent company — made a strategic investment in OKX, valuing the crypto exchange at $25 billion and securing a board seat, as covered in a previous crypto.news story. Under the partnership, subject to regulatory approval, OKX’s 120 million users would gain access to ICE’s U.S. futures markets and NYSE tokenized equities. “Our strategic relationship with OKX will expand global retail access to ICE’s pre-eminent regulated markets and accelerate our plans to offer on-chain infrastructure and tokenized assets to U.S. investors,” said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, Chair and CEO of ICE, at the time of the announcement.
A market structure being redrawn
The tokenized equity market reached a market cap of roughly $800 million and $1.8 billion in monthly volume as of early 2026, still nascent by Wall Street standards but growing fast. The regulatory environment has also shifted: the SEC granted the DTCC a three-year window in late 2025 to custody tokenized securities, effectively clearing a path for broker-dealers to connect to on-chain settlement without abandoning the existing market structure.
Herrick’s interoperability-first philosophy — bridging old and new rather than replacing one with the other — may well prove to be the dominant model for how legacy exchanges absorb blockchain over the decade ahead.
U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, is questioning the limited “master account” obtained by crypto exchange Kraken from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which she said raises potential consumer-protection issues and questions about the approval process.
Waters, who is likely to return to the chairman seat on the committee if the Democrats regain a House majority in this year’s elections (set at an 84% chance in current bets on Polymarket), sent a Thursday letter to the president of the Kansas City arm of the Fed system, Jeff Schmid. She suggested that the unusual approval for a “limited purpose account” at Kraken, which allows the firm to become the first to win direct access to Federal Reserve payment services, is on unclear legal footing.
“The announcement raises questions about the approval because neither statute nor the Federal Reserve Board’s Account Access Guidelines refer to a ‘limited purpose account’ type,” she wrote in the letter. “Accordingly, I write to request that you clarify the terms of Kraken’s account access approval and provide additional information regarding the process and considerations informing the approval.”
The new account granted the U.S. firm full-fledged access to the same payment rails that much of the traditional financial system operates on. Several crypto-native firms have sought that access but are still awaiting approval, keeping a close eye on a separate effort at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington to write rules that could govern a “skinny” master account for such businesses. That process is still in the early stages.
When the Kansas City Fed was asked to comment on Waters’ queries, a spokesman said the bank has “received the letter and will review it.”
The regional bank in Kansas City — one of the 12 such banks nationwide — announced earlier this month that Kraken would get the long-sought-after access. Schmid said at the time that his bank was trying to maintain a system that “supports a level competitive field and reinforces the stability and resilience that has underpinned the Federal Reserve’s payment system offerings throughout its history.”
Read More: Court closes Custodia fight with Federal Reserve just as Fed opens master-account door
The crypto exchange has previously been in the crosshairs of Japanese regulators for offering products and services without the proper registration.
Japan’s watchdog overseeing many activities for cryptocurrency exchanges, has issued warning letters to companies including KuCoin for conducting certain operations without registering, according to a Thursday update from the Financial Services Agency (FSA).
According to the agency’s latest list of entities “conducting financial instruments business without registration,” the FSA said platforms KuCoin, NeonFX, theoption, and GTCFX received a March notice for “soliciting over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trading via the internet.” Of the four platforms, the FSA listed KuCoin, which is headquartered in the Seychelles, as offering services to Japanese residents, while the others have an international user base.
The FSA issued a similar warning to KuCoin and other exchanges, including Bybit, in November 2024 for offering products and services to Japanese residents without proper registration. In February 2025, the financial watchdog sent requests to Apple and Google for the companies to suspend downloads of KuCoin’s app.
Japan has a high concentration of crypto users. The FSA reported in February 2025 that there were more than 12 million accounts among a population of about 123 million. The country ranked 19th in Chainalysis’s 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index.
Cointelegraph reached out to KuCoin for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Related: Austria’s regulator slaps new business ban on KuCoin’s EU exchange
The FSA’s notice comes as the financial watchdog prepares to shift Japan’s legal framework from the country’s Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. The change would significantly alter reporting requirements for initial exchange offerings and token issuers, and provide regulators with greater enforcement authority over unregistered platforms.
Japan’s PM denies involvement in memecoin project
Sanae Takaichi, who has served as the prime minister of Japan since October 2025, publicly denied connections to the “Sanae token” earlier this month after the project grew to a market value of about $28 million before falling sharply. The FSA was reportedly considering an investigation into the matter.
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Crypto World
Ethereum Price Prediction Turns Bullish Long Term as Pepeto Presents Strongest Odds Before the Binance Listing
Large wallets are stacking ETH at a pace that took the market off guard, with buying address balances going vertical while the Fear and Greed Index hits 10, the lowest reading in 16 months. While the new trend looks good for the ethereum price prediction on a longer timeline, it could take a while before retail sees any returns from it.
This is why smaller entries and presales are growing in popularity. Pepeto is the exchange that raised more than $8 million, but the Binance listing approaching presents a much shorter path to returns when compared to waiting for ETH to clear resistance. Analysts project 100x to 300x, and the entry is still open.
The Fear and Greed Index dropped to 10 on March 26, the worst reading in 16 months, while ETH open interest climbed to multimonth highs as DeFi and AI tokens outperformed BTC, according to CoinDesk.
Bitcoin settled at $68,350 with spot ETF outflows hitting $124 million on March 25, the fifth straight day of redemptions, according to The Block.
The ETH outlook benefits from whale buying during fear, but the exchange already at presale pricing with a Binance listing confirmed is where the compressed returns live before trading opens.
Where the ETH Whale Buying Meets Presale Returns Before the Listing Window Closes
Pepeto
There is no guarantee ETH makes a massive move any time soon. This is exactly why Pepeto and the presale entry present such a valuable opportunity for traders who want control over their timing.
Analysts project 100x to 300x from the current entry, which at $0.000000186 could be the return that changes your position for the rest of the cycle. The exchange pulled in more than $8 million while the correction raged. The risk scorer checks every contract before your capital touches it, PepetoSwap keeps your full position intact at zero fees, and the cross chain bridge moves tokens at zero cost.
Since you can rely on the exchange for daily trading with 193% APY staking compounding early positions while stages fill faster, the adoption path is clear. The SolidProof audit verified every contract, and the developer who created the original Pepe coin reaching $11 billion with the same 420 trillion supply built the exchange alongside a former Binance expert.
Pepeto delivers the ETH forecast crowd a faster answer because the initial move from the listing could be massive, but the exchange itself and the daily use behind it will stay active for years.
Ethereum Price Prediction: Can ETH Clear $2,200 and Start the Run to $2,600?
Ethereum trades at $2,048 as of March 27 hovering above $2,000 support with open interest at multimonth highs, according to CoinMarketCap.
The ethereum price prediction depends on clearing $2,100 and the 50 day SMA near $2,200, which opens a run to $2,600 with $3,000 as the stretch target. The setup falls apart if ETH loses $2,000, locking the price between $1,750 and $2,100.
Whale buying addresses going vertical during the correction signals conviction, and Fear and Greed at 10 historically resolves with a sharp recovery 40% of the time. The ETH forecast is structurally bullish for 2026, but the path from $2,048 to $3,000 is a 40% move over many months, not the 100x to 300x the presale compresses into one listing event.
Ethereum Price Prediction Confirms This Is the Second Chance to Be Early and the Reader Can See It Clearly
The ethereum price prediction may not offer fast movement in the short term despite the high probability that a future rally is building underneath. You are waiting for external catalysts to move the chart while the Fear and Greed Index sits at its lowest point in over a year. In contrast, Pepeto already has everything needed to break out on its own terms with more than $8 million raised and a Binance listing confirmed.
The listing date is when the 100x to 300x projections from analysts play out. Last cycle made millionaires out of the wallets that moved first, and this is that same moment with a confirmed listing approaching. The Pepeto official website is where being early this time means you collect what the rest of the cycle talks about.
Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale
FAQs:
What does the ETH buying data mean for the ethereum price prediction?
Whales stacking ETH during fear reduces sell pressure over time and historically precedes big moves, but clearing $2,200 and the 50 day SMA at $2,200 is the trigger.
How does Pepeto compare to the ethereum price prediction timeline?
ETH’s bull case depends on macro conditions clearing resistance gradually. The Pepeto official website is where 100x to 300x from one listing is still at presale pricing with a confirmed date.
What levels does the ethereum price prediction need to break for a rally?
ETH must clear $2,100 and the 50 day SMA at $2,200 to open $2,600 with $3,000 as the stretch target, while losing $2,000 locks it in a range.
Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.
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