Democrat lawmaker urges Treasury to cease Trump’s Bitcoin reserve plans
A Democratic lawmaker has recently called on the US Treasury to halt its plans of creating a strategic cryptocurrency reserve in the country. Representative Gerald E. Connolly of Michigan has criticized the proposed reserve, stating that it would not benefit the American people and would instead enrich President Donald Trump and his donors.
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Connolly expressed concerns about the conflicts of interest between Trump and the reserve, as well as the lack of consultation with Congress and potential waste of taxpayer dollars. He also pointed out that the Federal Reserve has described the idea as “the dumbest ever.”
The proposed reserve, which has been referred to as both the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the Digital Asset Stockpile, has faced criticism for its potential to favor certain cryptocurrencies over others and for its lack of transparency.
Connolly also raised concerns about Trump’s ownership of the crypto platform World Liberty Financial and the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin, which he referred to as a “money grab” that has allowed Trump-linked entities to profit from trading fees.
The Democrat’s letter also questioned whether the Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, which Bessent serves on, has reviewed financial disclosures from administration officials, including Elon Musk.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve would initially use cryptocurrency forfeited in federal criminal or civil cases, while the Digital Asset Stockpile would consist of other cryptocurrencies such as XRP, Solana, Cardano, and Ether.
Overall, Connolly’s letter highlights the concerns and controversies surrounding the proposed cryptocurrency reserve and calls for more transparency and accountability in its creation and management.
Ethereum pushes back Pectra upgrade to conduct third testnet ‘Hoodi’
Ethereum core developers have decided to create a third testnet, Hoodi, to better prepare for the Pectra upgrade, which has now been delayed until at least late April after the first two testnets encountered several bugs.The Hoodi testnet will launch on March 17 and the Pectra upgrade for it will be activated on March 26, Ethereum Foundation developer Tim Beiko said following the Ethereum All Core Dev Call on March 13.If Pectra runs smoothly on Hoodi without major issues, core developers could set a mainnet launch date for Pectra as soon as 30 days after Hoodi’s activation, Beiko said.That would mean Pectra could go live on Ethereum mainnet as early as April 25.Tim Beiko’s latest announcement on the Pectra upgrade: Ethereum MagiciansPectra, which combines features from the Prague and Electra proposals, will implement over 10 Ethereum Improvement Proposals mostly aimed at bringing more functionality to Ethereum wallets and improving user experience.It will also include scaling proposals to double the blob count for data availability from three to six.Pectra was initially slated to launch on Ethereum mainnet in late 2024 but has faced repeated delays due to client readiness issues and synchronization bugs in the first two Ethereum testnets, Holesky and Sepolia.Pectra was rolled out on Sepolia on March 5, but soon after, Ethereum developers started seeing error messages on their geth nodes and empty blocks being mined.Galaxy Digital vice president of research Christine Kim said Hoodi would look to “mimic” the Ethereum mainnet as closely as possible by launching a validator set similar to how mainnet currently operates.That would see at least 20 million test staked-Ether (ETH) distributed across 11 client teams and five staking operators.Source: Christine KimBeiko noted that aspects of Pectra may still be tested on Sepolia and Holesky.Related: Ethereum average gas fees drop 95% one year after the Dencun upgradeThe third testnet comes as Ethereum core developers agreed to deploy future Ethereum protocol upgrades at a faster cadence during an “All Core Devs” meeting on Feb. 13.Crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm also called on Ethereum core developers to ship faster protocol updates to achieve more milestones on its technical roadmap and maintain its competitive edge as a leading layer 1 blockchain.Magazine: MegaETH launch could save Ethereum… but at what cost
Vermont follows SEC’s lead, drops staking legal action against Coinbase
US state Vermont has dropped its “show cause order” against crypto exchange Coinbase for allegedly offering unregistered securities to users through a staking service.Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation said in a March 13 order that in light of the US Securities and Exchange Commission tossing out its case on Feb. 28, it would follow suit and rescind its action against Coinbase without prejudice.“The SEC has announced the formation of a new task force to, among other things, provide guidance for the promulgation of rules regarding the regulation of cryptocurrency products and services,” the department said.Vermont’s financial regulator has decided to drop its legal action against Coinbase. Source: Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation“In light of the dismissal of the Federal Action and likelihood of new federal regulatory guidance, the Division believes it would be most efficient and in the best interests of justice to rescind the pending Show Cause Order, without prejudice.”On the same day the SEC filed its lawsuit in June 2023, the US states of Alabama, California, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin said they were launching legal proceedings against Coinbase.The show cause order asserted that Coinbase was violating securities laws by offering staking to its users without a license and demanded the exchange provide a reason why the courts shouldn’t hit them with an order directing them to halt the service. Now that Vermont has opted out, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said in a March 13 statement to X that the other states with staking actions should take a “page from Vermont’s playbook.”Source: Paul Grewal“As we have always said: staking services are not securities. We applaud Vermont for embracing progress and providing clarity for its citizens who own digital assets,” he said.“Our work isn’t over. Congress must seize the bipartisan momentum we’re seeing across the House and Senate to pass comprehensive legislation that takes into account the novel features of digital assets, such as staking,” he added.Related: YouTuber says SEC will recommend dropping lawsuit over 2018 token ICOA growing number of firms facing legal action from the SEC have had their cases dismissed in the wake of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who took a hardline stance toward crypto, resigning on Jan. 20.Crypto trading firm Cumberland DRW was among the latest to have its case dropped on March 4, while the regulator is reportedly wrapping up its enforcement action against Ripple Labs after more than four years.Grewal has also launched a request under the Freedom of Information Act to find out how many enforcement actions were brought against crypto firms under Gensler’s tenure between April 17, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2025, and the cost to the taxpayer. Magazine: Elon Musk’s plan to run government on blockchain faces uphill battle
DOGE proposes slashing Internal Revenue Service staff by 20%
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is reportedly proposing cutting the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) workforce by 20% in a change expected to take effect by May 15, 2025.According to CNN, the cuts would impact an estimated 6,800 employees at the government agency, in addition to the 6,700 probationary employees who have already been let go and 4,700 IRS agents who were given severance packages to retire.However, a recent ruling from US district judge William Alsup ordering federal agencies to reinstate probationary workers terminated due to the DOGE cost-cutting programs could hinder the layoffs if the order is not overturned.President Trump has promised comprehensive tax reform in the United States, including potentially eliminating the federal income tax and funding the federal government exclusively through tariffs on foreign goods.President Trump discussing his policy proposals with reporters inside the Oval Office. Source: The White HouseRelated: Crypto taxes, DOGE, Trump and avoiding an IRS audit: Taxbit exec spills the teaDOGE pursues cost-cutting and efficiency strategiesThe Department of Government Efficiency, headed by businessman Elon Musk, is exploring methods to reduce the $36 trillion US national debt by substantially reducing the size of the federal bureaucracy and introducing cost-cutting measures.One of the more unique measures proposed included putting all public spending onchain to reduce deficits and ensure transparency.On Feb. 21, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it was cutting its regional office directors to comply with the Trump administration’s cost-saving directives.However, under the reorganization plan, the regional offices, which are spread out across major US cities, would stay open, and the SEC recently submitted its 2025 budget proposal to Congress requesting $2.6 billion.The US national debt has exploded to over $36 trillion. Source: US Debt ClockPresident Trump and Elon Musk have considered passing on 20% of the DOGE savings to Americans in a stimulus check or potential tax credits.Research from accounting automation company Dancing Numbers argued that Trump’s plan to eliminate federal income tax could save the average American $134,809 in taxes throughout their lives.The company added that these lifetime tax savings could extend to as much as $325,561 per person if other wage-based taxes at the state level are also repealed.Despite this, not everyone is convinced by DOGE’s cost-cutting tactics, including US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is highly critical of Elon Musk, Trump, and DOGE.In January 2025, the Massachusetts Senator sent a letter to the DOGE proposing increasing taxes and federal spending to make the government more efficient.Magazine: Elon Musk’s plan to run government on blockchain faces uphill battle
Solana CME futures tip impending US ETF approvals — Exec
The upcoming launch of Solana (SOL) futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), a US derivatives exchange, signals that the first US SOL exchange-traded fund (ETF) listings are coming soon, Chris Chung, founder of Solana-based swap platform Titan, told Cointelegraph. On March 17, CME is preparing to launch SOL futures contracts. They will be among the first regulated Solana futures to hit the US market after Coinbase’s launched in February. The listing “paves the way for the eventual approval of SOL ETFs,” Chung told Cointelegraph.Chung said he expects the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve asset managers VanEck and Canary Capital’s proposed spot Solana ETFs as soon as May.The existence of regulated Solana futures “signals to regulators that Solana is maturing as an asset, making it easier for them to greenlight additional financial products of similar risk and type,” Chung said. Futures contracts are standardized agreements to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date. They play a crucial supporting role for spot cryptocurrency ETFs because regulated futures markets provide a stable benchmark for measuring a digital asset’s performance.CME already lists futures contracts for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). US regulators approved ETFs for both of those cryptocurrencies last year. CME already lists crypto futures, including Bitcoin contracts. Source: CMERelated: CME Group reports record crypto volumes for Q4Beyond memecoinsAdditionally, Solana futures and ETFs will help expand Solana’s growth story beyond memecoins, which were central to the blockchain network’s success in 2024, Chung said.These products “will bring more serious, sticky capital and pave the way for the development of other real-world use cases, such as payments and remittances,” according to Chung. Those use cases are “[f]ar more boring than memecoins, perhaps, but a reliable source of long-term revenue that will buoy Solana’s price in the next bear market.”Memecoin trading, largely tied to the popular Pump.fun platform, comprises roughly 80% of the Solana blockchain network’s revenues, according to asset manager VanEck.However, activity on the Solana network declined in February after a series of memecoin-related scandals soured sentiment among retail traders. Solana vs. Ethereum price chart. Source: TradingViewRivaling EthereumStill, cryptocurrency trading volumes on Solana continue to rival those of the entire Ethereum ecosystem, including its layer-2 scaling chains, VanEck said on March 6. Chung said he expects Solana ETFs to take off among retail investors, partly because of the challenges facing rival smart contract platform Ethereum. Solana’s native SOL token has performed about twice as well as Ether since early 2024, according to TradingView. Ethereum’s spot price has struggled since March 2024, when the network’s Dencun upgrade cut transaction fees by approximately 95%. “With the extremely weak price action we’re seeing in ETH, Solana is now the only option for retail investors wanting to get exposure to crypto beyond Bitcoin, but not willing to go full degen,” Chung said.Bloomberg Intelligence has set the odds of the SEC approving spot Solana and Litecoin ETFs at 70%. Magazine: What Solana’s critics get right… and what they get wrong
L2 gaming activity spikes in February, but wallets decline — Report
Gaming activity on some layer-2 blockchains rose by over 20,000% in February 2025 while the number of daily unique active wallets (dUAWs) dropped, according to a report by DappRadar. Abstract, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain developed by Igloo, the parent company of NFT collection Pudgy Penguins, led all chains with a growth of over 20,000% in daily active unique wallets (dAUWs). Soneium, Sony’s Ethereum L2 blockchain, came in second with a growth of over 3,200%, and Linea, another L2 blockchain, placed third with over 1,000% growth.Monthly growth of unique active wallets across blockchains. Source: DappRadarOn Abstract and Soneium, two games were the primary drivers of activity growth: Treasure Ship on Abstract, which currently has around 72,000 UAWs, and Evermoon on Soneium, with approximately 32,000 UAWs.However, despite the rise of gaming activity on L2s, dUAWs overall dropped by 16% compared to January, settling at around 5.8 million. The report notes that while blockchain gaming “has historically held strong market dominance, economic conditions have shifted investor focus back towards DeFi. With market uncertainty causing traders to exit positions, DeFi now leads as the most dominant sector.”The most dominant blockchains for gaming in terms of dUAWs are opBNB, a layer-2 blockchain built on top of the BNB Smart Chain; independent layer-1 blockchain Aptos built for decentralized applications; and Nebula, which is a Skale chain.According to the report, blockchain gaming investments soared to $55 million in February, marking a 243% increase from January, with 92% of the funds allocated to infrastructure development.Blockchain gaming activity sees year-over-year growth, but challenges persistAs Cointelegraph reported in February, blockchain gaming activity saw a significant year-over-year surge, with daily unique active wallets soaring by 386% to 7 million. The sharp rise led some industry observers to speculate about a potential blockchain gaming bull run in 2025 — though that prospect is now under debate.One of the games that had been drawing attention to the use of blockchains in games was “Off The Grid.” The title, which plans to use an Avalanche subnet, generated more than 100 million transactions in its first month.The sector, however, has faced challenges. Gunzilla Games Web3 director Theodore Agranat told Cointelegraph that there “is no new money coming into the system,” explaining that existing capital is just being recycled between gaming projects. “They will just go from project to project and extract whatever value they can from that project,” he said. “And once there’s no more value to be had there, they are going to move on to another project.”Magazine: Web3 Gamer: How AI could ruin gaming, The Voice, addictive Axies game
Senate Banking Committee advances GENIUS stablecoin bill
The United States Senate Banking Committee elected to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in an 18-6 vote.None of the amendments proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren made it into the bill, including her proposal to limit stablecoin issuance to banking institutions.“Without changes, this bill will supercharge the financing of terrorism. It will make sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea, and Russia easier,” Warren argued.Senator Warren argues for amendments to be included in the bill. Source: US Senate Banking Committee GOPSenator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, characterized the bill as a victory for innovation. The Senator said:”The GENIUS Act establishes Common Sense rules that require stablecoin issuers to maintain reserves backed one-to-one, comply with anti-money laundering laws, and ultimately protect American consumers while promoting the US dollar’s strength in the global economy.”The bill must still pass a vote in both chambers of Congress before it is turned over to President Trump and ultimately signed into law. However, the Senate Banking Committee advancing the bill represents the first step in clear, comprehensive legislation requested by the crypto industry.Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, leads the hearing. Source: US Senate Banking Committee GOPRelated: The GENIUS stablecoin bill is a CBDC trojan horse — DeFi execGENIUS Act gets overhaul to feature stricter provisionsSenator Bill Hagerty, who introduced the bill in February 2025, defended the legislation against the proposed amendments from Senator Warren, arguing that the bill already includes provisions for consumer protection, Anti-Money Laundering, and crime prevention.On March 10, Hagerty announced that the bill was updated to include stricter reserve requirements for stablecoin issuers, AML provisions, safeguards against terrorist financing, transparent risk management procedures, and stipulations for sanctions compliance.According to Dom Kwok, founder of the Web3 learning platform Easy A, the newly added provisions will make it harder for foreign stablecoin issuers to comply, giving US-based firms a competitive edge.Senator Bill Hagerty defends his bill from proposed amendments. Source: Senate Banking Committee GOPAttorney Jeremy Hogan said the GENIUS Act signals an impending merger of the traditional financial system with stablecoins.“The legislation is explicitly making plans for stablecoins to interact with the traditional digital banking system. The ‘merge’ is being planned,” the attorney wrote in a March 10 X post.During the March 7 White House Crypto Summit, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explicitly said that the Trump administration would leverage stablecoins to protect the US dollar’s global reserve status.Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins
DigiFT launches Invesco private credit token on Arbitrum
Digital asset exchange DigiFT has launched Invesco’s tokenized private credit strategy on Arbitrum, further expanding the use cases of real-world assets (RWA) and giving institutional investors access to onchain credit markets.According to a March 13 announcement, Invesco’s US Senior Loan Strategy (iSNR) token is now live on Arbitrum, a popular Ethereum layer-2 network.The tokenized asset was launched on Feb. 19 and is designed to track the performance of a private credit fund managed by Invesco, a publicly traded investment manager headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. At the time of launch, the Invesco fund had $6.3 billion in assets under management, according to Bloomberg. DigiFT described the iSNR token as the “first and only tokenized private credit strategy.”The iSNR tokenized fund has a minimum investment of $10,000. Source: DigiFTDigiFT CEO Henry Zhang said adding iSNR to Aribitrum increases its utility by “allowing DeFi applications, DAOs and institutional investors to integrate with a regulated, onchain private credit strategy.”Consistent with the initial launch of iSNR on Ethereum last month, investors on Arbitrum can purchase tokenized shares using popular stablecoins USDC (USDC) and USDt (USDT).Related: Cantor Fitzgerald taps Anchorage Digital, Copper as Bitcoin custodiansDeFi tokenization on the riseDespite the recent crypto market downtrend, RWA tokenization appears to be heating up with the launch of several DeFi-oriented products. Positive regulatory developments, the rise of liquid multichain economies and innovations in decentralized exchanges are expected to push RWA tokenization into the crypto limelight this year. Earlier this week, tokenization company Securitize announced that oracle provider RedStone will deliver price feeds for its tokenized products, which include the BlackRock USD Institutional Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) and the Apollo Diversified Credit Securitize Fund (ACRED). The integration means that Securitize’s funds “can now be utilized across DeFi protocols such as Morpho, Compound or Spark,” RedStone’s chief operating officer, Marcin Kazmierczak, told Cointelegraph. Meanwhile, asset manager Franklin Templeton has launched a tokenized money fund on the Coinbase layer-2 network Base and a US government money fund on Solana. Private credit ($12.2 billion) and US Treasury debt ($4.2 billion) have dominated real-world asset tokenization so far. Source: RWA.xyzAccording to industry data, the total value of RWAs onchain has grown by 17.5% over the past 30 days to reach $18.1 billion. Private credit and US Treasury debt account for nearly 91% of that total. Related: Trump-era policies may fuel tokenized real-world assets surge