U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has emerged as a leading candidate to become President Donald Trump’s next artificial intelligence czar as the administration prepares to establish a new “AI Force.” Summary Scott Bessent is reportedly among the leading candidates for Trump’s next AI czar role, though the White House has not confirmed an appointment. Trump

Bitcoin and Ethereum options carrying roughly $18.1 billion in notional value have moved toward their Sept. 25 quarterly expiry with calls outweighing puts across both markets, according to Coinbase Markets. Summary Bitcoin and Ethereum options worth roughly $18.1 billion are scheduled to expire and settle Friday. Bitcoin options carry a 0.66 put-call ratio, while recent

Coinbase has added fixed-rate USDC loans backed by cbBTC after its variable-rate borrowing service reached more than $1.4 billion in outstanding loans and nearly $3 billion in collateral. Summary Coinbase customers can now choose between fixed-rate and variable-rate USDC loans backed by crypto. Fixed-rate loans set the interest rate and maturity when borrowers accept an

Stellar’s XLM has risen 2.7% to $0.2135 after BVNK added the blockchain to its stablecoin payments platform, opening the network to business payments across more than 130 markets. Summary BVNK has made Stellar available through its existing API for payments, payouts, remittances, and treasury transfers. CoinGecko data showed XLM trading at $0.2135, with a market

NEAR has partnered with Ondo Finance to give eligible users access to 20 tokenized U.S. stocks, exchange-traded funds, and commodity-linked products through near.com and NEAR Intents. Summary 20 tokenized assets will initially include Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, QQQ, SLV, and IAU. More than 30 connected blockchains can route supported crypto assets into Ondo Stocks

Pi Network has cleared a KYC barrier for more than 417,000 users and prepared a wallet fix for another 497,000 accounts that could not claim migrated PI balances. Summary More than 417,000 users can resume KYC after Pi removed possible duplicate-account flags. Around 497,000 Fast-Track wallets could not claim PI because they lacked gas funds.

Canada’s six largest banks have formed a joint project to test transfers of tokenized Canadian-dollar deposits between regulated financial institutions. Summary Six major Canadian banks will jointly explore an interbank tokenized deposit system. The first phase will test transfers of digital bank deposits among participating institutions. Tokenized deposits remain bank liabilities, unlike separately issued stablecoins

BitMEX has removed its remaining spot, conversion, and derivatives markets ahead of its Sep. 23 shutdown, ending more than 11 years of exchange operations. Summary BitMEX will end all exchange services at 04:00 UTC on Sep. 23. Remaining positions will be force-closed using the relevant contract settlement price. Customers can withdraw after closure, although account

The European Central Bank and the EU’s 27 national central banks have asked regulators to replace MiCA’s 30% and 60% bank-deposit floors for stablecoin reserves with maturity-based liquidity requirements. Summary MiCA requires regular stablecoin issuers to hold 30% of reserves in commercial bank deposits. The bank-deposit requirement rises to 60% for stablecoins classified as significant.

The European Central Bank and national central banks across the European Union have called for MiCA’s stablecoin remuneration ban to cover lending, borrowing, staking and other arrangements that can generate indirect returns for token holders. Summary ECB backed central banks want MiCA’s stablecoin yield ban extended to lending, borrowing and staking products. The ESCB said