US Crypto Companies Expand Via New Licenses, Products, Integrations
By Robert A. Musiala Jr.
A major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange recently announced that it has “secured a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration from Argentina’s National Securities Commission (CNV), allowing it to operate within the country’s legal framework for virtual assets.” According to a blog post by the company, 5 million Argentinians use crypto daily.
In related news, Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, recently announced the launch of Circle Paymaster, a “permissionless product that simplifies stablecoin payments by enabling users to pay gas fees in USDC” instead of native tokens like ETH. According to a company blog post, the product is currently available on the Arbitrum and Base networks.
And in a final notable item, according to reports, Ramp Network recently announced an integration with MetaMask that will allow users of the popular Ethereum wallet to withdraw ETH directly from Ethereum layer 2 networks into fiat currencies. The solution reportedly leverages instant bank transfers in the U.S. and real-time payouts via SEPA Instant in Europe.
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Digital Asset Products Launch in Treasuries, Loans, Tokenization, Options
By Robert A. Musiala Jr.
In a recent blog post, Ondo Finance announced plans to deploy “Ondo Short-Term US Government Treasuries (OUSG), its tokenized US Treasury fund, on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) … within the next six months.” According to the blog post, among other features, OUSG on the XRPL will have “seamless interoperability with Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin,” which “will allow instant minting and redemption of OUSG via RLUSD.”
In a recent press release, Propy, “a company transforming how people buy and own real estate,” announced a new loan product that “allows buyers to purchase real estate using both cryptocurrency and the property itself as collateral.” According to the press release, the new loan product was used in the sale of a “tokenized Hawaiian condominium” on Jan. 29.
Another recent press release announced that tokenization platform Securitize has launched an integration with Wormhole, a blockchain interoperability platform. The integration reportedly “will allow funds tokenized on Securitize’s platform to be seamlessly and securely transferred between all blockchain networks supported by Securitize.”
And BlockFills, an institutional digital asset trading firm, recently announced a collaboration with CoinDesk Indices “to introduce the BlockFills CoinDesk 20 Options Market and bring professional liquidity to the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20).” According to a press release, trading on the BlockFills CoinDesk 20 Options Market began in January.
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Reports Analyze Expected Digital Asset Trends for 2025
By Robert A. Musiala Jr.
Several recent reports comment on expected trends for the digital assets market in 2025. A major digital asset investment firm published its 2025 Investment Outlook, which analyzes digital asset trends in Bitcoin, ETFs, corporate financing, IPO and M&A, tokenized securities, stablecoins, banking, corporate adoption, decentralized finance (DeFi), and artificial intelligence.
A major digital asset trading firm published its 2025 Subsector Trends report, which profiles the following six subsectors: (1) Based Rollups for a Unified Ethereum, (2) zkVMs: Bringing Zero Knowledge Proofs to All, (3) Trusted Execution Environments for Trusted High-Speed Compute, (4) Restaking for Verifiable SaaS, (5) Towards an Autonomous Economy with AI Agents, and (6) Unlocking Bitcoin Compute with Bitcoin Layer 2s.
And Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm, published its State of Crypto 2025 report introducing new research based on 218 interviews. The report finds that banks, fintechs and payment providers are accelerating plans around crypto and digital assets for 2025. Notable findings from the interview respondents include the following:
- 44 percent of financial institutions state they are ready to start offering bank accounts to crypto businesses, with 21 percent already active within digital assets.
- 76 percent of financial institutions state that they will need to progress their digital asset activity within the next two years to avoid falling behind.
- 75 percent of respondents predict that DeFi will grow consistently over the next five years.
- 96 percent of compliance and risk leaders state that well-defined regulatory frameworks are urgently needed for their organization to progress in digital assets.
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Exchange Pays $297M for AML Violations, Spanish Action Freezes $26.4M in Crypto
By Robert A. Musiala Jr.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that KuCoin, a foreign-based cryptocurrency exchange, has pled guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. According to a DOJ press release, “For years, KuCoin avoided implementing required anti-money laundering policies designed to identify criminal actors and prevent illicit transactions” and “was used to facilitate billions of dollars’ worth of suspicious transactions and to transmit potentially criminal proceeds, including proceeds from darknet markets and malware, ransomware, and fraud schemes.” As part of its guilty plea, KuCoin agreed to pay monetary penalties totaling more than $297 million.
In foreign enforcement news, according to reports, Spanish law enforcement in coordination with the T3 Financial Crime Unit recently froze $26.4 million in cryptocurrencies linked to a European money laundering operation. The action reportedly marks the T3 Financial Crime Unit’s largest coordinated freeze to date.
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Crypto Exchange Hacked for $29M; New Data Released on 2024 Crypto Crime
By John Robertson
Recent reports indicate that cryptocurrency exchange Phemex lost $29 million worth of crypto tokens during a recent hack. Cyvers was the first to report the hack, noting “multiple suspicious transactions” out of Phemex’s wallet across multiple blockchains. The stolen tokens were reportedly exchanged for ETH. Phemex responded to the hack reports by stating they were investigating and providing reassurances that their cold wallets remain safe.
Meanwhile, TRM Labs released a teaser of key highlights from their upcoming 2024 Crypto Crime Report. Among other findings, TRM states that while overall crypto transaction volume grew 56 percent in 2024, the illicit transaction volume dropped by 24 percent. While the largest share of this illicit transaction volume occurred on the TRON blockchain, TRON also saw the most significant decline in illicit activity due in part to TRON’s focus on rooting out illicit actors. The teaser further indicates that sanctions evasion and fraud, despite decreasing from 2023, were the largest drivers of illicit transaction volume. Comparatively, while smaller in volume, other categories of threats – such as terrorist financing, ransomware, hacks and illicit drugs – increased in 2024.
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