CFA Report Pegs US Crypto Fraud Losses at $80.7B

Visa and Mastercard executives expressed caution towards digital assets, particularly stablecoins, citing limited consumer demand for such payment methods in developed markets. Despite some experimentation with blockchain infrastructure, both companies do not view crypto as an immediate threat or opportunity to their core businesses.

Vitalik Buterin has withdrawn 16,384 ETH to support Ethereum's growth, entering a period of "mild austerity" to prioritize goals. He aims to advance Ethereum's utility as a decentralized "world computer" while ensuring user access with self-sovereignty, security, and privacy.

U.S. President Trump nominated Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as Chair of the Federal Reserve, amid a decline in cryptocurrency markets and shifting investor sentiment on interest rates. Warsh, a former Fed governor, has a history of criticizing quantitative easing and advocating for a central bank digital currency.

Bitcoin's price dropped nearly 2% to $82,927, causing uncertainty among Myriad users about reaching $100,000 before potentially falling to $69,000. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index hit a low of 16, reflecting extreme fear in the market due to factors like the U.S. government shutdown concerns.

Trump fans invested $550 million in WLFI tokens, but are unable to trade most of them as the project's creators control selling permissions. Despite promises, token holders are left waiting for a vote on trading availability.

The SEC and CFTC made significant strides in crypto regulation, with a joint event launching "Project Crypto" and the Senate Agriculture Committee advancing a market structure bill. The regulatory landscape is shifting towards a more favorable environment for cryptocurrencies in the U.S.

Ripple introduced Ripple Treasury, a new enterprise product, to streamline managing traditional cash and digital assets in one system. The platform enables quick cross-border payments using RLUSD stablecoin, reducing settlement times from days to seconds. It integrates with corporate treasury workflows, simplifying liquidity management for global firms.

Kevin Warsh has been nominated by President Donald Trump to succeed Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair, ending a tumultuous period for the central bank. David Bahnsen, chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, told CNBC that “There was no person who was going to get this job who wasn’t going to be cutting rates in the short term," adding that in the long term Warsh is a "credible candidate" for the role.

Bitcoin spot ETFs experienced a significant $817 million net outflow on Thursday, with BlackRock's IBIT leading the exodus. The price drop to a nine-month low of $81,315 was influenced by negative catalysts and policy shifts, causing a shift in market sentiment.

Vitalik Buterin has withdrawn 16,834 ETH, worth around $44.4 million, to support the Ethereum Foundation's "special projects." They include an "open-source, secure and verifiable full stack of software and hardware that can protect both our personal lives and our public environments," Buterin said, noting that the Ethereum Foundation is entering a period of "mild austerity."