Everything web3, crypto, defi, degen
In brief The White House has abruptly ended Brian Quintenz’s candidacy to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Crypto lobbying, a dispute with Gemini co-founders the Winklevoss twins, and opposition to Quintenz’s Kalshi links may have played a role. Acting CFTC chair Caroline Pham will remain in place as new contenders are considered. The White…
In brief Schwartz is concluding his 13-year tenure as CTO at Ripple and will join its board to guide the company’s long-term vision. He plans to spend more time on an XRPL node, exploring new XRP use cases, and engaging in hands-on coding for community projects. Stablecoins, tokenized assets, and decentralization remain central to his…
In brief President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing the NIH to spend $50 million on AI projects aimed at improving childhood cancer research and treatment. The initiative will fund scientific teams to enhance clinical trials, sharpen diagnoses, and develop better therapies using data from the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative. The announcement comes as…
In brief Ethereum gaming metaverse The Sandbox will soon have its own layer-2 network. SANDChain aims to be the core infrastructure built to empower the creator economy on-chain. The network will use The Sandbox’s SAND token as its native gas and utility token. Ethereum gaming metaverse The Sandbox will soon have its own creator-focused blockchain…
Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.GM!Today’s top news: Crypto majors green but pulling back after Monday rally; BTC at $113k SWIFT partners with Consensys to bring payments onchain SEC &…
In brief Indonesia’s Universitas Gadjah Mada will pilot verifiable digital credentials, beginning with English proficiency courses. Students receive digital wallets preloaded with tokens for paying tuition and course fees, with no added costs. The pilot rollout will cover 60,000 students and run alongside a separate AI lab initiative. Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), one of Indonesia’s…
In brief Wisconsin’s Assembly Bill 471, introduced Monday, would exempt crypto users from licensing when accepting payments, using self-hosted wallets, running nodes, developing software, and staking. The bill would prohibit state agencies and local governments from restricting these fundamental blockchain activities. The move follows Wisconsin’s $300 million Bitcoin ETF liquidation in Q1 2025 and Democrats’…
In brief A meme coin modeled on Baby Shark’s creator collapsed. Pinkfong said the token created using Story Protocol was unaffiliated. Story Protocol deleted posts, but sleuth ZachXBT saved some receipts. A meme coin touting Pinkfong’s name collapsed on Thursday after the entertainment company behind YouTube hit Baby Shark said that it was unaffiliated with…
In brief Decentralized exchange Aster has refunded users who lost funds due to “abnormal price movements” on the recently debuted XPL token. It is believed that the pricing error came as a result of a “hardcoded” index price and capped mark price, which when removed prompted a big spike in XPL’s valuation. Aster’s token has…
In brief Nansen launched a Claude-based AI assistant trained on 500 million labeled blockchain addresses. The bot currently surfaces insights; trade execution is planned, with users retaining final approval. There’s no white paper yet, and experts warn AI agents in finance are vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Blockchain analytics firm Nansen pushed deeper into the AI…
