Connect with us
DAPA Banner

Crypto World

Prediction Markets Hit $25.7B Monthly Volume: Report

Published

on

Prediction Markets Hit $25.7B Monthly Volume: Report

Prediction markets are becoming one of the most active onchain applications, with retail users driving most activity even as participation across much of the broader digital asset market remains subdued.

According to a new report by Bitget Wallet and Polymarket, monthly trading volume reached $25.7 billion in March, with more than 80% of users classified as retail, defined as those trading less than $10,000.

The figures are broadly consistent with data from Dune Analytics, which recorded $23.7 billion in March trading volume, up from $1.9 billion a year earlier.

The report points to a broader behavioral shift in how prediction markets are used. Rather than focusing on one-off, high-profile events, users are returning more frequently and engaging across multiple categories. Average active days per user almost quadrupled from 2.5 to 9.9 over the first quarter, indicating deeper and more consistent participation.

Advertisement

Sports emerged as the largest segment, generating $10.1 billion in trading volume during the quarter, driven by a steady availability of global sporting events. Political markets also saw significant activity, totaling $5 billion over the same period.

The findings suggest prediction markets are evolving beyond episodic betting into a more continuous system for tracking real-world developments, with crypto wallets increasingly serving as key access points for users.

Trading volumes across various prediction markets. Source: Bitget Wallet

Polymarket, one of the largest platforms in the sector, operates on Polygon, allowing users to place onchain bets on real-world outcomes without intermediaries. By contrast, platforms such as Kalshi operate centralized marketplaces.

Advertisement

Related: Polymarket odds of Hormuz Strait traffic normalizing by end of May spike to 73%

Prediction market activity continues to grow

Industry projections cited in the report suggest prediction market volumes could reach $240 billion annually this year, with longer-term forecasts pointing toward the trillion-dollar mark.

That trajectory no longer seems far-fetched. Prediction markets have seen significant momentum since the 2024 US presidential election, benefiting early movers such as Polymarket and Kalshi. Both platforms are reportedly raising substantial capital at valuations exceeding $20 billion.

For Polymarket, evolving regulatory dynamics, particularly growing acceptance from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, have enabled more proactive steps around market integrity and transparency. The platform recently updated its governance framework to address risks related to insider trading and market manipulation.

Advertisement

Sports, crypto and politics remain high-volume event categories on Polymarket. Source: Bitget Wallet

Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Crypto World

Crypto hackers snatch over $1B in 68 incidents this year

Published

on

Crypto hackers snatch over $1B in 68 incidents this year

Crypto has always been a risky space in which to put one’s money, but the current rate of hacks has even multi-cycle veterans spooked.

In 2026 alone, a grand total of $1.08 billion has been stolen in at least 68 incidents.

Three major thefts account for the vast majority of the losses, two of which came in April. It’s been a particularly rough month with 30 incidents so far, an average of more than one a day.

Just this past week, Protos has identified 13 individual losses, including three on the same day this article was written. Although these were mostly for lower amounts, they totaled over $11 million of losses.

Advertisement

In an attempt to keep readers up to date (not to mention staying on top of it ourselves!) Protos has put together a catalogue of crypto hacks; entries cover 2026 so far, generally with a $100,000 loss cut-off.

Protos’ hack tracker can be found on the Live section of our website.

Read more: LayerZero among bridges Lazarus using to launder loot

Advertisement

Security firms struggling to keep up with crypto hacks

Facing such an onslaught of hacks, even specialist crypto security firms seem unable to keep pace. 

Team members from crypto projects Alchemix, Trading Strategy and Yearn Finance all scolded Peckshield on Wednesday for its “reckless” alerts, which implied their products were to blame for losses from insecure third-party contracts.

Read more: Crypto security firms more concerned with social media clout than the details

Even the experts aren’t exempt from falling victim to hackers. The business development manager of CertiK, a crypto audit firm whose reputation is already somewhat shaky, took to X to warn that his Telegram account had been hijacked by scammers to spread malware using “fake meeting links.”

Advertisement

More hacks or greater visibility?

The advent of widespread AI use is increasingly seen as a major factor in the recent perceived uptick of hacks, especially those targeting smaller and/or older contracts.

The near-constant stream of incidents may be down to a genuine uptick in activity or simply increased visibility.

As well as AI-powered tools being used to find and exploit vulnerabilities, they increase researchers’ ability to monitor and pluck out noteworthy transactions from the background noise of blockchain data.

Either way, it’s a significant amount of the overall DeFi sector, claims Pigi Finance.

Advertisement

It analyzed five years of hacks and estimates that 3.37% of DeFi assets are lost in protocol exploits, per year. This excludes “bridge hacks, CEX collapses, wallet drains [and] phishing,” focusing on “pure protocol-level risk.”

But as security standards harden, especially amongst projects holding significant funds, the focus for big paydays has moved elsewhere.

Neither of April’s two monster hacks, Drift Protocol’s $280 million and Kelp DAO’s $290 million losses, were smart contract exploits.

ImmuneFi’s Mitchell Amador, analyzing a similar timeframe, says “protocol security has improved dramatically.” Despite the number of loss events decreasing, both total losses and average loss per incident are down sharply from 2022 highs.

Advertisement

As the largest recent losses show, the juiciest crypto hack targets now involve long term social engineering and spear-phishing, with the ultimate aim to compromise privileged machines.

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on XBluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Crypto World

Meta Launches Stablecoin Payouts In Colombia And The Philippines

Published

on

Meta Launches Stablecoin Payouts In Colombia And The Philippines

The social media giant has rolled out USDC payments via Stripe on Solana and Polygon.

Meta has begun rolling out stablecoin payouts for creators, marking the social media giant’s return to digital currencies four years after shelving its Libra project.

According to a Meta help page, creators in Colombia and the Philippines can now opt to receive payouts in USDC on either the Solana or Polygon networks. Recipients must connect a compatible third-party wallet, such as MetaMask or Phantom, to their Facebook payout account.

“With off-ramps in 150+ countries, our Open Money Stack expands financial access and improves how creators receive and use earnings globally,” the Polygon team wrote on X.

Advertisement

Stripe is handling crypto-specific tax reporting alongside Meta’s standard forms. Meta is not offering an off-ramp, meaning creators who want to cash out into local currency must move their USDC to a third-party exchange.

Post-Libra Revival

The launch lands four years after Meta wound down Diem, the rebranded version of its Libra global stablecoin project, following sustained opposition from U.S. and European regulators. The Diem Association sold its assets to Silvergate Capital for around $182 million in early 2022.

Meta’s quiet return follows the 2025 passage of the GENIUS Act, which established the first U.S. federal framework for dollar-backed stablecoins and unlocked a wave of consumer-firm integrations.

Shopify began allowing merchants to accept USDC payments, Western Union announced plans to launch its USDPT stablecoin on Solana next month, and DoorDash partnered with Tempo, the Stripe-incubated stablecoin chain, to pay merchants and Dashers across more than 40 countries.

Advertisement

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

Source link

Continue Reading

Crypto World

Polymarket Pursues Full U.S. Return Through CFTC Approval Talks

Published

on

Crypto Breaking News

Polymarket is pursuing a regulatory pathway to reopen its main prediction markets platform to users in the United States, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. The development would signal a broader US re-entry for the firm, following a limited return last year via a regulated QCEX-based setup that still blocks American users from the main exchange.

The contemplated relaunch hinges on obtaining approval from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to lift the long-standing prohibition on US-based customers. A full reinstatement would require a formal CFTC commission vote. Bloomberg noted that the process could be facilitated by four vacant commissioner seats, potentially reducing the number of votes needed to advance the matter.

The move comes against a backdrop of heightened regulatory scrutiny of prediction markets in the United States, where rivals such as Kalshi have established a stronger domestic footprint even as the sector faces ongoing enforcement and legal questions at both state and federal levels. Polymarket’s potential US comeback would, if successful, intensify competition in a market that regulators closely monitor for compliance with registration, licensing, and consumer-protection standards.

Polymarket declined to comment to Cointelegraph about the Bloomberg report.

Advertisement

Key takeaways

  • Polymarket is seeking CFTC clearance to restore full US access to its main prediction markets platform, a move that would require a formal vote by the agency’s commissioners.
  • The bid follows the 2022 CFTC settlement, which forced Polymarket to block US users and imposed a $1.4 million civil penalty for unregistered event contracts.
  • A complete US relaunch would contribute to competition with Kalshi, which has gained traction domestically and holds relationships with major crypto platforms such as Coinbase.
  • US enforcement activity and state actions remain a material risk for Polymarket and other prediction platforms, including ongoing lawsuits and investigations into the use of event contracts for gambling or illegal betting.
  • Polymarket’s US operations have progressed only gradually, with a late-2025 comeback that began with a waitlist-based app focused on sports contracts, followed by broader market ambitions.

Regulatory backdrop and potential implications for US operations

The regulatory framework governing prediction markets in the United States rests primarily with the CFTC, which regulates commodity and derivative instruments and enforces registration and anti-fraud provisions. Polymarket’s 2022 settlement underscores the risk profile for platforms offering event-based contracts to US residents without appropriate registration or oversight. A formal CFTC vote to lift the ban would represent a significant legal milestone that could determine whether Polymarket can operate its core exchange in the United States on par with international platforms.

The transition would also intersect with broader policy considerations around digital markets, consumer protection, and financial innovation. While MiCA governs EU-based crypto-asset activities and has implications for cross-border services, the US approach remains characterized by federal agency actions and state-level enforcement. For market participants, the outcome could influence licensing strategies, KYC/AML controls, and compliance architectures required to service US customers at scale.

As regulators continue to scrutinize prediction markets, any relaunch would be weighed against enforcement history and ongoing legal challenges. Reports indicate that Wisconsin’s top law enforcement official filed a lawsuit on April 23 against Kalshi and Polymarket, alongside other firms such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and Crypto.com, alleging that these platforms facilitate illegal sports betting through event contracts. Separately, federal authorities—the CFTC and the Department of Justice—have pursued cases related to the use of event contracts in ways that may contravene US restrictions, including allegations tied to a US service member using non-public information to place bets on Polymarket’s international exchange via VPN access. These actions illustrate the current enforcement environment that any relaunch would navigate.

In practice, a successful US relaunch would necessitate robust licensing frameworks, rigorous consumer protections, and clear delineations of which markets fall under securities, commodities, or other regulatory categories. The interagency dynamics—encompassing the CFTC, the DOJ, and state authorities—would shape the pace and scope of any permitted activities. For exchanges and banks evaluating partnerships or custody arrangements, the decision to re-enter the US market would hinge on the ability to demonstrate compliant operations across borders and to manage enforcement risk effectively.

Market dynamics, performance, and enforcement risk in the US landscape

Polymarket’s position in the US prediction-market landscape has evolved alongside regulatory pressure. The platform previously accounted for the majority of activity in the field, but its dominance has come under pressure from a growing competitor base and heightened scrutiny. A Dune-derived assessment cited on Datadashboards suggested Polymarket once captured a substantial share of notional volume, though subsequent scrutiny of volume reporting has prompted questions about measurement and methodology. Meanwhile, Kalshi has expanded its domestic footprint and secured integration with major platforms, contributing to a more competitive environment for compliant prediction-market operators.

Advertisement

Despite higher visibility for Kalshi, Polymarket remains entangled in enforcement scrutiny that spans both federal and state channels. The Wisconsin action is indicative of a broader regulatory push against “event contracts” that resemble sports betting, highlighting the risk of civil actions that could affect platform viability and investor confidence. In parallel, ongoing investigations into cross-border activity—coupled with combatting unregistered contracts—underscore the regulatory challenges that accompany any attempt to relaunch the main US exchange at scale.

From a compliance perspective, the reintroduction of Polymarket into the US market would demand rigorous AML/KYC controls, transparent disclosures regarding contract types and settlement mechanisms, and robust risk-management measures to monitor for potential abuse or manipulation. For institutional observers, the development raises questions about licensing pathways, the consistency of state-by-state enforcement, and the potential for harmonized standards across multiple jurisdictions as digital prediction markets continue to mature.

Historical context and what a US relaunch would entail

Polymarket’s US trajectory has long been conditioned by regulatory decisions. The 2022 settlement setting a cap on the company’s US operations was a pivotal turning point, creating a permanent constraint that any broader US return must address. The company’s late-2025 comeback, characterized by a limited, waitlisted US app rolled out with sports-focused contracts, represented a cautious, incremental approach—intended to test compliance readiness while rebuilding user trust and infrastructure. A broader relaunch would require not only regulatory clearance but also scalable compliance programs, clear product classifications, and a plan to align with evolving enforcement expectations.

Against this backdrop, competition with Kalshi—already a domestic market leader and a recognized provider for major crypto exchange Coinbase—takes on strategic significance. A successful US relaunch for Polymarket could expand the range of state- and federally regulated offerings available to institutions seeking hedging tools or research data, while simultaneously increasing the regulatory and operational complexity for market participants who rely on these platforms for legitimate, compliant risk assessment.

Advertisement

Closing perspective

Any decision to lift the US ban and authorize Polymarket’s main exchange would represent a meaningful inflection point for the prediction-market ecosystem, with broad implications for licensing, cross-border operations, and enforcement alignment. As regulators, industry players, and market participants monitor evolving developments, the path forward will hinge on clear regulatory clarity, robust compliance infrastructure, and demonstrated adherence to applicable laws and standards. The coming months will clarify whether a formal CFTC vote materializes and how policymakers balance innovation with consumer protection and market integrity.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Crypto World

JPMorgan’s new blockchain chief warns that tokenization does not equal liquidity

Published

on

JPMorgan’s new blockchain chief warns that tokenization does not equal liquidity

Former Goldman Sachs crypto executive Oliver Harris, who has returned to the TradFi world as JPMorgan’s new blockchain chief, once said he believes tokenization alone will not fix one of finance’s core challenges, warning that putting assets on blockchain rails does not automatically make them easier to trade.

“Tokenization does not equal liquidity,” Harris, who will be leading JPM’s Kinexys division, said during a panel at Consensus Toronto last year as the founder and CEO of Arda, a startup that Harris worked on for a year and a half.

The comment underscores a more cautious view of one of the industry’s biggest narratives as Harris takes over Kinexys.

In a LinkedIn post on Tuesday, Harris said his focus will be on expanding digital settlement infrastructure, advancing tokenization capabilities and strengthening partnerships across both public and private blockchain networks.

Advertisement

“The work sits at the foundation of the next era of market structure: how money, assets, and information moves onchain,” he wrote.

During his panel last year, Harris also reflected on his own path through the industry, noting repeated attempts to bring tokenization into mainstream finance. “I think I would call this my third hell loop,” he said, referencing roles at JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and his startup Arda. He added that this time may be different given recent progress in technology and regulation.

His broader argument is that real change will come not from tokenizing individual assets but from reworking the systems that support them. “I get more interested about global settlement layer, where you can merge money, assets and data onto one software platform,” he said.

That shift could streamline how markets operate. “You can basically rip out the back end of these incumbent legacy industries and replace them with… blockchains,” he said, describing a future where markets run continuously and assets can interact more easily.

Advertisement

Harris returns to JPMorgan after earlier roles at the bank and at Goldman Sachs, where he worked on tokenization efforts. He said previous waves of experimentation fell short due to immature technology and unclear regulation.

“The technology is now fit for purpose,” he said, adding that “enterprise grade regulations were really not there” before.

Before rejoining JPMorgan, Harris spent about a year and a half building Arda, a platform aimed at making real estate assets programmable and easier to trade.

He said during the panel that he now sees the industry nearing a turning point. “Now [is the] best time in history to look at real world assets,” he said.

Advertisement

His appointment comes as large banks increase investment in blockchain infrastructure, betting that faster settlement systems and tokenized assets could reshape how global finance operates.

Source link

Continue Reading

Crypto World

Ripple CEO Just Said “All Roads Lead Back to XRP”: Is Garlinghouse Seeing Something the Market Is Missing?

Published

on

Ripple CEO Just Said “All Roads Lead Back to XRP”: Is Garlinghouse Seeing Something the Market Is Missing?

Brad Garlinghouse just reminded the entire crypto market who Ripple XRP is, and he did it in five words.

XRP trades at $1.40, up 1% in the last 24 hours, hovering directly on critical support as the broader market sends mixed signals. The question isn’t whether Garlinghouse is confident. It’s what he’s seeing that retail investors aren’t.

The Ripple CEO took to X to quote-tweet Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who had posted that a “CEO’s responsibility is to communicate and re-communicate the North Star. Again and again.”

Garlinghouse’s reply was blunt: “100%. All roads lead back to Ripple’s North Star, XRP.” The statement tracks with remarks he made during a recent X Spaces broadcast, where he called XRP the “heartbeat” of Ripple and confirmed every product the company builds is designed to benefit the token directly.

Advertisement

This is a very deliberate signal, especially with XRP still down more than 63% from its all-time high.

The timing of Garlinghouse’s reaffirmation matters. XRP is at a technical inflection point, and institutional adoption is accelerating behind the scenes. Whether the chart follows Garlinghouse’s conviction is the only question that counts right now.

Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with

Advertisement

Can Ripple XRP Price Breakout This Week or Is $1.30 the Real Bottom First?

XRP is sitting right on support around $1.40, and this is a fragile spot, because the XRP price is below most short-term averages, which usually means sellers still have control.

Momentum leans bearish overall, but the RSI is getting low, especially on higher timeframes, which suggests selling pressure may be running out rather than accelerating.

Source: Tradingview

The level that matters is $1.38. If it holds, that is where stabilization can happen, and price can start grinding back toward $1.42–$1.45, then $1.50.

If $1.38 breaks, that is where things can drop quickly toward $1.30, which would reset the structure and potentially create a stronger bounce later.

Advertisement

So this is a tight, high-pressure setup, hold support, and it stabilizes, lose it, and it flushes before any recovery.

Discover: The best pre-launch token sales

What if The Real Play Is Not XRP But Newly Launched Layer 3 Like LiquidChain

XRP being this far off its peak shows the reality of large caps; even strong narratives can trap entries, and upside gets harder as market cap grows, especially when support levels start to weaken.

Advertisement

That is why some traders look earlier in the cycle, where the upside is not already priced in.

LiquidChain is targeting that space, focusing on cross-chain liquidity by connecting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana into one execution layer. The idea is to remove fragmentation so developers and users can interact across ecosystems without the usual friction.

The presale is still early, around $0.01454 with just over $700K raised, which means it is in the early discovery phase and not widely priced yet.

But it is also unproven. Execution, adoption, and post-launch liquidity remain unknown, which is the trade-off of early-stage infrastructure.

So the contrast is simple: XRP offers more stability but limited upside, while something like LiquidChain offers earlier positioning with higher potential, but also higher risk.

Advertisement

Visit LiquidChain Here.

The post Ripple CEO Just Said “All Roads Lead Back to XRP”: Is Garlinghouse Seeing Something the Market Is Missing? appeared first on Cryptonews.

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Crypto World

Visa Expands Stablecoin Pilot to Polygon, Base; Settlements Hit $7B

Published

on

Crypto Breaking News

Visa has broadened its stablecoin settlement pilot to incorporate Polygon and four additional blockchain networks, signaling a continued push into crypto-native settlement rails for traditional payments. The program, launched in 2023, allows partners to settle transactions using stablecoins instead of conventional banking rails. The newly added networks are Polygon, Base, the Canton Network, Arc and Tempo, joining existing supported chains such as Ethereum, Solana, Stellar and Avalanche.

Visa says the pilot is aimed at evaluating whether stablecoins can offer faster settlement, round-the-clock availability, and efficiencies in cross-border payments. The company disclosed in a press release that the initiative has reached an annualized settlement run rate of roughly $7 billion, up about 50% quarter over quarter. While that growth is meaningful, Visa notes that the volume remains a smaller portion of its broader payments business.

Key takeaways

  • Visa expands its stablecoin settlement pilot to five new networks—Polygon, Base, Canton Network, Arc and Tempo—in addition to Ethereum, Solana, Stellar and Avalanche already supported.
  • The pilot’s annualized settlement run rate is approximately $7 billion, representing about 50% quarter-over-quarter growth, according to Visa.
  • The expansion underscores a deliberate exploration of faster, 24/7 settlement and efficiency gains in cross-border transactions as part of Visa’s broader stablecoin strategy, including related partnerships.
  • Industry momentum is rising, with Mastercard enabling stablecoin-linked card spending in the United States and fintechs accelerating blockchain-based settlement workflows, such as Modern Treasury’s Polygon integration.
  • Regulatory clarity around stablecoins is evolving in parallel, with legislation like the GENIUS Act shaping the environment for payment stablecoins and on-chain settlement.

Expanding the pilot and what changes

The expansion broadens the scope of Visa’s attempt to validate stablecoin settlement as a practical bridge for traditional finance to move faster and operate more continuously. By adding Polygon, Base, the Canton Network, Arc and Tempo to the existing lineup, Visa is testing a wider array of Layer 2s and cross-chain options that could influence how institutions approach on-chain liquidity and interbank settlement rails. Visa characterizes the pilot as a structured exploration rather than a mass rollout, aiming to quantify potential improvements in settlement speed, reliability, and cost.

As part of its ongoing push into blockchain-based infrastructure, Visa highlighted the broader strategic value of stablecoin settlement. The firm’s comments frame stablecoins as a potential enabler of around-the-clock settlement and cross-border efficiency, which could translate into material benefits for partners that operate at a global scale. The latest numbers—roughly $7 billion in annualized settlement—illustrate tangible progress, even as the pilot remains a small slice of Visa’s total payments landscape.

In March, Visa expanded its collaboration with Bridge, a Stripe subsidiary, to support a global card program that enables stablecoin-linked payments. The development signals a broader appetite for bridging stablecoins and traditional consumer-facing payment experiences, where on-chain settlement could reduce friction for merchants and users alike. That move complements the ongoing pilot by linking stablecoin settlement to card-based spend, a critical channel for mainstream adoption.

Advertisement

Industry momentum and regulatory environment

The steady growth of stablecoin settlement efforts reflects a broader industry pattern as major payments firms experiment with on-chain settlement layers. Mastercard has been active in this space as well, enabling stablecoin-linked card spending in the United States through wallet integrations, marking a parallel track in the push to normalize crypto-based settlement within everyday commerce.

Beyond card programs, fintechs are integrating blockchain-enabled settlement into their workflow. Modern Treasury, a payments software provider, announced its integration with Polygon to help businesses move stablecoin payments more quickly, a move that adds to the ecosystem’s momentum toward on-chain settlement. The U.S. regulatory landscape is also shifting gradually; the GENIUS Act provides clearer standards for payment stablecoins, a development shaping both policy and market participants’ risk and compliance planning. The balance of evolving regulation with rapid fintech innovation will influence how much-scale adoption of stablecoin settlement ultimately achieves.

On the broader market front, stablecoins continue to grow. DeFiLlama data indicates that the total value of stablecoins in circulation has surpassed $320 billion, up roughly 150% since early 2024. That expansion underscores both the demand for stable value on-chain and the potential liquidity that could underpin new settlement rails as financial institutions test and deploy cross-chain flows.

What to watch next

Investors and builders should monitor whether the expanded network support translates into measurable improvements in settlement speed, cost, and reliability for partner programs, as well as how institutional participants respond to the evolving regulatory backdrop. The coming quarters will reveal whether Visa’s pilot can scale beyond pilots and become a meaningful component of the broader payments infrastructure, alongside rising activity from competitors and fintechs pursuing similar goals.

Advertisement

For readers tracking the ecosystem, the ongoing integration work—both in corporate pilots like Visa’s and in third-party workflows such as Modern Treasury’s Polygon collaboration—will indicate where on-chain settlement might become a normalized option in enterprise payments. As policy clarity improves and liquidity expands, the next phase of stablecoin settlement could reveal its true potential for cross-border efficiency and around-the-clock operations.

Source: Visa press materials and industry reporting, with additional context from market coverage tracked by Cointelegraph and industry data aggregators.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

Advertisement

Source link

Continue Reading

Crypto World

Realmint launches to give retail investors a smarter way into RWAs

Published

on

Realmint launches to give retail investors a smarter way into RWAs

April 29, 2026 – Realmint officially launches today, opening doors for retail investors to access RWAs through a smarter, data-driven platform. Backed by Injective Foundation and Cointelegraph Accelerator, the platform combines scoring, aggregation, and one-click access to tokenized assets.

Why RWA retail isn’t here yet

The market for tokenized real-world assets is growing fast, but for most users, understanding what they’re actually buying is still far from simple. The barrier isn’t access, it’s understanding.

Assets are distributed across multiple chains and platforms, forcing users to manually navigate different ecosystems before even comparing options. Two tokens can represent the same asset, such as gold, while having completely different structures, levels of transparency, and risk profiles. One might be backed by audited reserves with clear redemption terms; another might offer little more than a whitepaper. For most users, these differences are not obvious, and there’s currently no simple way to tell them apart.

Realmint

Today, Realmint goes live to fix exactly that. Backed by Injective Foundation and part of the Cointelegraph Accelerator program, the platform aggregates over 50 tokenized commodities across chains including Ethereum, Polygon, Base, and more, allowing users to discover, understand and compare RWAs through a single interface. Stocks, bonds, and other asset classes are already in the pipeline and will be added weekly.

Advertisement

Realmint score

Instead of presenting raw data alone, the platform evaluates each asset across six dimensions: Enforceability, Backing, Control, Exit, Liquidity, and Social. The result is a composite score from 0 to 100, so users can compare assets at a glance without needing to parse whitepapers, run due diligence, or dig through on-chain data manually.

One-click execution

Starting week 2, Realmint will integrate execution directly into the same flow. Users will be able to explore assets, compare them side by side, and buy RWAs across different chains starting from USDC on Injective, all in a single gasless transaction. No wallet setup friction either: Realmint uses Privy to let users create self-custodial wallets in seconds, without leaving the platform.

Realmint rewards

A rewards system is on the way, and early activity on the platform will matter. What you do before June counts. Early engagement with RWAs on the platform is already being tracked.

Realmint is now live. Explore, compare, and understand RWAs before you invest.

Advertisement

Website | Twitter

This publication is provided by the client. The text below is a paid press release that is not part of Cointelegraph.com independent editorial content. The text has undergone editorial review to ensure quality and relevance, it may not reflect the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.com. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company. Disclosure.

Source link

Continue Reading

Crypto World

XRP Price Prediction: Garlinghouse Locks In as Ripple Raises the Standard in Las Vegas

Published

on

🌊

XRP price is stalling below the $1.40 resistance, but two words from Brad Garlinghouse may be about to change the prediction. OKX posted a teaser graphic of the XRP logo blazing across the Las Vegas Sphere with the caption “Probably nothing,” and Ripple’s CEO responded with his signature phrase: “lock in.”

That phrase has never been throwaway. Garlinghouse deployed it when Ripple acquired Hidden Road and again when he confirmed the SEC lawsuit was effectively closed. Each time, something significant followed.

Multiple exchanges piled on fast. Bitrue posted its own Las Vegas Sphere graphic with the identical “probably nothing” caption, while BitMEX stated flatly that all eyes were on XRP in Las Vegas. XRP’s logo physically lit up Las Vegas and coordinated a tease across major platforms ahead of the XRP Las Vegas conference, making it hard to dismiss as noise.

Advertisement

Discover: The best pre-launch token sales

XRP Price Prediction: $1.50?

XRP is caught in a compression zone that has to resolve soon. The asset has been testing the $1.28–$1.40 band for several sessions, trading below both the 50-day EMA at $1.38 and the 200-day EMA at $1.88.

Advertisement

Bollinger Bands are tightening around the $1.40 level in a classic pre-breakout setup. RSI sits at 45 in the daily, approaching oversold, while MACD shows negative expansion.

XRP price is stalling below the $1.40 resistance, but two words from Brad Garlinghouse may be about to change traders' prediction.
XRP USD, TradingView

For now, $1.28 holds as support, but if the CLARITY Act advances soon, plus today’s FOMC language turns less hawkish, XRP could clear $1.45 and test the $1.60 zone. Some analysts have a far more aggressive Fibonacci extension target of $7.52 by month-end via intermediate levels at $1.80, $2.40, $3.65, and $5.00. It’s ambitious, but the underlying downtrend breakout structure is real. $0.80–$1.00 band below that.

The Garlinghouse “lock-in” signal injects a wildcard. His pattern of using the phrase to define XRP moments suggests something material may be imminent around the Las Vegas conference.

Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with

Bitcoin Hyper Eyes Early Entry as XRP Navigates a Make-or-Break Level

Advertisement

XRP here with a bearish MACD and macro pressure overhead is not the setup traders dreamed of, and even the bullish $1.60 target represents modest upside from current levels for an asset with a market cap already deep in the billions. That math is why some capital is rotating toward early-stage infrastructure plays where the entry price and risk profile are structurally different.

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is currently in presale at $0.0136, having raised $32.5 million to date. The project positions itself as the first-ever Bitcoin Layer 2 with Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) integration. It’s targeting Bitcoin’s three core limitations simultaneously: slow transactions, high fees, and the near-total absence of programmable smart contracts.

The SVM layer is designed to deliver sub-second finality and low-cost execution while keeping BTC’s security model intact via a Decentralized Canonical Bridge for native BTC transfers. A high 36% APY staking mechanism is live during presale for early buyers.

Research Bitcoin Hyper here before the current presale price stage closes.

Advertisement

The post XRP Price Prediction: Garlinghouse Locks In as Ripple Raises the Standard in Las Vegas appeared first on Cryptonews.

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Crypto World

The ‘tokenization of everything’ is no longer a theory

Published

on

The ‘tokenization of everything’ is no longer a theory

For a decade, the crypto industry has gathered at Consensus to discuss what was coming next. This year, something different is happening. The future has started arriving.

Real-world assets are being minted onchain. Stablecoins are quietly becoming the connective tissue of global commerce. Prediction markets are turning probability into a tradable asset class. The institutions that once dismissed all of this – Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, the NYSE, DTCC, SWIFT, Franklin Templeton – are now sending their senior people to Miami to talk about how they fit in.

When Consensus 2026 convenes May 5–7 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, it won’t feel like a conference about crypto’s potential. It will feel like a summit about what happens next now that crypto’s promise has become the financial industry’s new reality.

The institutions have landed

For years, traditional finance circled the crypto industry from a cautious distance. That distance has collapsed.

Advertisement

The 2026 speaker roster reads like a who’s-who of institutional legitimacy: Mastercard, PayPal, T. Rowe Price, Nasdaq, NYSE, Morgan Stanley, SWIFT, and DTCC alongside crypto’s foundational builders. The sponsor list tells the same story: JPMorgan, Fidelity, Coinbase, Google, Bridge by Stripe, Broadridge, Circle, Grayscale, FTSE Russell and more. These are not exploratory delegations. They are bets.

“Consensus brings every pillar of the industry together for the largest crypto trade conference in North America,” says a Coinbase spokesperson. “That’s exactly where we want to be in order to move the needle.”

What drew them all in? The short answer is 24/7 markets. The longer answer is what those markets made possible.

Always on, everywhere at once

Blockchain infrastructure runs on internet time – no opening bell, no closing hour, no pause in price discovery. For years, traditional finance treated this as a quirk. They’ve since realized it’s a competitive advantage they don’t have.

Advertisement

In a world where capital moves at the speed of information and users expect their financial lives to work at midnight in Dubai as well as they do at noon in New York, always-on markets aren’t a novelty. They’re the standard. And now TradFi is racing to meet it.

The conversations at Consensus 2026 won’t debate whether 24/7 markets matter. They’ll debate the playbook: settlement rails, custody infrastructure, regulatory guardrails, and who controls the on-ramps.

Stablecoins: from bridge to backbone

Stablecoins were once described as a bridge between crypto and fiat. That framing is now outdated. Stablecoins have become infrastructure – the settlement layer for cross-border payments, the backbone of onchain commerce, and the first credible competitor to SWIFT for moving dollars at scale.

The next frontier is programmable money: protocols like x402 and Tempo’s Machine Payments Protocol are pointing toward a world where value moves as frictionlessly as data – without intermediaries, delays, or borders.

Advertisement

Expect stablecoins and their infrastructure to anchor multiple-stage conversations at the event. Cloudflare Chief Strategy Officer Stephanie Cohen, Robinhood SVP Johann Kerbrat, Ondo President Ian De Bode, and Tether US CEO Bo Hines will be among those shaping the conversation about stablecoins as a global settlement layer.

Everything gets tokenized

Tokenized treasuries. Onchain private credit. Fractional real estate. These sounded like thought experiments three years ago. Today, they are live products with real AUM, with institutions like Franklin Templeton and T. Rowe Price building on public blockchains.

What has changed is the convergence. Stablecoins provide the liquidity layer. Tokenized assets supply the product. Platforms like Coinbase create the access points. The infrastructure that once served only crypto-native users can now serve anyone with a brokerage account, a bank account, or a smartphone.

“Coinbase is now the Everything Exchange where you can trade crypto, stocks, commodities, prediction markets, and derivatives all in a single account,” says Max Branzburg, Coinbase’s head of consumer and business products. “Coinbase is also playing a central role as the trusted bridge that’s bringing the next trillion dollars of real-world assets onchain.”

Advertisement

That’s not a marketing line, it’s a roadmap. And Consensus is where that roadmap gets debated and amplified.

The unlikely onboarding ramp: prediction markets

Crypto’s new killer app may not be the one anyone expected. Prediction markets – platforms that let users trade on the outcomes of elections, economic events, sports results, and essentially anything quantifiable about the future – have quietly become one of the industry’s most powerful onboarding tools.

Kalshi, the CFTC-regulated prediction market leader, has shown that users arrive to take a position on inflation or a geopolitical flashpoint and leave having learned about wallets, tokens, and onchain transactions. The gamification is a gateway. The underlying infrastructure is the same blockchain rails that power DeFi and institutional RWA platforms.

Kalshi’s head of crypto John Wang will join Consensus to lay out his vision for the future of onchain sports betting and prediction markets – a sector that is growing faster than almost anything else in crypto and pulling in a user profile that traditional exchange products never could.

Advertisement

Miami: the right city for this moment

Consensus’ return to Miami is not incidental. The city has transformed into a nexus of finance, technology, and capital formation – a place where Latin American remittance flows, global wealth management, and crypto-native startup culture overlap in ways that feel unique to this moment in history.

“Miami is no longer just a leisure destination – it’s America 2.0,” says Ellie Platis, Solana’s Head of Events, who is hosting Solana Accelerate alongside Consensus. “A convergence point for the future of capital and culture. Its dynamic rise makes it the perfect place to showcase Solana’s role in powering the proliferation of Internet Capital Markets.”

With 20,000 expected attendees spanning crypto builders, Wall Street veterans, Washington insiders, and the next wave of onchain entrepreneurs, Consensus 2026 is less a conference about what’s coming and more a working summit for people who are already building it.

Why this year is different

Crypto has passed through several distinct eras. The ideologues arrived first, then the builders, then the speculators. The current wave is different: it’s the practitioners – asset managers, payment networks, regulators, and corporate treasurers – who are arriving not to explore but to deploy.

Advertisement

The technology has matured to meet them. Settlement is faster. Custody is institutional-grade. Regulation – slowly, fitfully, but unmistakably – is clarifying. The conditions for mainstream adoption are no longer aspirational. They are here.

Consensus 2026 is where that adoption gets a name, a framework, and a direction. The tokenization of everything isn’t coming. It’s already underway. Miami is where the industry decides what it looks like at scale.


Join 20,000+ industry leaders at Consensus 2026, May 5–7, in Miami. Register now at consensus.coindesk.com

Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Crypto World

Fed holds rates steady amid dissent

Published

on

Fed leaves funds rate unchanged, FOMC sees four dissensions
Fed leaves funds rate unchanged, FOMC sees four dissensions

An unusually divided Federal Reserve on Wednesday held its key interest rate steady as policymakers grappled with the policy impact of persistent inflation and awaited a looming leadership transition at the central bank.

In what may have been Chair Jerome Powell‘s final meeting at the helm, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee voted to hold the benchmark funds rate in a range between 3.5%-3.75%. Markets had been pricing in a 100% chance of no change.

However, the meeting saw a dramatic turn amid a groundswell of officials who opposed messaging that further rate cuts could be ahead.

Amid expectations for a routine vote to hold the benchmark funds rate steady, the Federal Open Market Committee instead was split along 8-4 lines, with officials expressing different reasons for their vote.

Advertisement

The last time four FOMC members dissented was in October 1992.

Governor Stephen Miran, as he has done since joining the central bank in September 2025, dissented in favor of a quarter percentage point cut.

The other three “no” votes came from regional presidents Beth Hammack of Cleveland, Neel Kashkari of Minneapolis and Lorie Logan of Dallas. They said they agreed with the hold but “did not support the inclusion of an easing bias in the statement at this time.”

At issue for the trio was this sentence: “In considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”

Advertisement

The phrasing indicates the likelihood that the next move would be lower, implied by using the word “additional,” which reflects that the most recent rate actions have been to cut. Hammack, Kashkari and Logan, along with several other Fed officials, have warned about the dangers of persistent inflation. Higher prices augur higher rates for the Fed, which has been on an easing bias since the latter part of 2025.

‘Inflation is elevated’

In the post-meeting statement, the committee noted that, “Inflation is elevated, in part reflecting the recent increase in global energy prices.”

Markets had been widely expecting the hold and in fact are pricing in no changes the rest of this year and well into 2027. Fed officials at the March meeting indicated they foresee one cut this year then another in 2027, putting the funds rate down to its expected “neutral” level around 3.1%.

The decision marked the third consecutive meeting where the committee chose to stand pat – following three consecutive cuts last year.

Advertisement

For most of his eight years as chair, Powell has been able to maintain strong consensus among the committee even as the Fed has struggled to contain inflation and resist aggressive White House political pressure.

Policymakers, though, face an economic climate where inflation indeed has held well above the Fed’s 2% target, as Trump’s tariffs and soaring energy prices are complicating policy. Normally, Fed officials would look through the temporary price shocks from both factors, but the duration of the surges has raised concern about the longer-lasting consumer impact.

On the other side of the Fed’s so-called dual mandate, concerns have abated over the low-hire low-fire labor market.

Nonfarm payrolls in March grew by a better-than-expected 178,000, while the unemployment rate slipped to 4.3%. For April, payrolls processing firm ADP has reported average weekly private payroll growth around 40,000, further indicating that the jobs picture is healthy if less than robust.

Advertisement

With the rate decision behind it, attention will quickly turn to Powell’s post-meeting news conference. Markets usually watch the chair’s remarks closely for clues about the future direction of policy, but in this case the most prominent question will be whether Powell will stay on board after his term as chair ends in May.

Earlier in the day, the Senate Banking Committee in a party-line vote advanced President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair. The full Senate is widely expected to follow suit, setting up the Fed’s first leadership change since Powell took over in 2018.

Powell’s choice

Powell faces a choice – leave now as Warsh comes on board, or serve out all or part of the remaining two years on his term as governor. Should Powell opt to stay, it would mark the first time a sitting chair didn’t leave the Board of Governors since Marriner Eccles in 1948.

Powell and Eccles faced similar challenges in the form of White House pressure on monetary policy. In Eccles’ case, President Harry S. Truman pushed the Fed to keep rates low to help reduce government borrowing costs. Trump has pressured the Fed to help the housing and labor markets, and to help reduce the financing burden of the nation’s nearly $39 trillion national debt.

Advertisement

In the Eccles era, the clash led to the 1951 Treasury-Fed Accord, which helped formalize the Fed’s independence by creating a clear barrier between the two institutions.

Warsh has spoken of reopening the accord and modernizing it for the current era where the central bank’s fixed income holdings total some $6.7 trillion. The chair-elect has advocated strengthening the relationship with better coordination on debt issuance while furthering Warsh’s goal of lessening the Fed’s imprint in the bond market.

Powell has spoken strongly about Fed independence. A Justice Department effort to subpoena him over the Fed building renovation project has failed thus far, and a criminal probe into the matter has been dropped.

Among his reasons to stay would be to wait until the renovations probe – which U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro handed off to the Fed’s inspector general – is finished. Also, there are ongoing issues regarding independence that Powell could resist as a governor, among them the potential replacement of regional Fed presidents.

Advertisement
Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2025