Congress on track for stablecoin, market structure bills by August: Blockchain Association  

The UK should begin taxing crypto purchases in a bid to sway Britons to invest in local stocks, which could boost the country’s economy, says the chair of investment bank Cavendish, Lisa Gordon.“It should terrify all of us that over half of under-45s own crypto and no equities,” Gordon told The Times in a March 23 report. “I would love to see stamp duty cut on equities and applied to crypto.”Currently, the UK lumps a 0.5% tax on shares listed on the London Stock Exchange, the country’s largest securities market, which brings in around 3 billion British pounds ($3.9 billion) a year in tax revenue.Gordon added that a cut could sway people to put their savings into shares of local companies, which could then spark other firms to go public in the UK and help the economy.In comparison, she called crypto “a non-productive asset” that “doesn’t feed back into the economy.”“Equities provide growth capital to companies that employ people, innovate and pay corporation tax. That is a social contract. We shouldn’t be afraid of advocating for that.”The country’s Financial Conduct Authority said in November that crypto ownership rose to 12% of adults, equivalent to around 7 million people. A majority of crypto owners, 36%, were under the age of 55 years old.Gordon said that many had “shifted to saving rather than investing,” which she claimed “is not going to fund a viable retirement.”A 2022 FCA survey found that 70% of adults had a savings account, while 38% either directly held shares or held them through an account allowing nearly 20,000 British pounds ($26,000) of tax-free savings a year — around three in four 18-24 years olds held no investments.A quarter of 18-25 year olds and a third of 25-44 year olds held any investment in 2022. Source: FCABut in a follow-up survey, the regulator reported that in the 12 months to January 2024, the cost of living crisis had seen 44% of all adults either stop or reduce saving or investing, while nearly a quarter used savings or sold their investments to cover day-to-day costs.Gordon is a member of the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce, a group of industry executives aiming to revive the local market, which Cavendish would benefit from as it advises companies on how to navigate possible public offerings.Related: Will new US SEC rules bring crypto companies onshore?Consulting giant EY reported in January that the London stock market had one of its “quietest years on record,” with just 18 companies listing last year, down from 23 in 2023.At the same time, EY said 88 companies delisted or transferred from the exchange, with many saying they moved due to “declining liquidity and lower valuations compared to other markets” such as the US.However, Gordon claimed the UK is a “safe haven” compared to markets such as the US, which has lost trillions of dollars in its stock markets due to President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and fears of a recession.Crypto markets have also slumped alongside US equities, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading down 11% over the past 30 days and struggling to maintain support above $85,000 since early March.In the past 24 hours, at least, Bitcoin is up 2%, trading around $85,640.Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge 

The Sonic blockchain is working on the implementation of its yield-generating, algorithmic stablecoin despite fears over a potential collapse similar to the Terra-Luna meltdown that led to the industry’s longest crypto winter.Algorithmic stablecoins employ code-based mechanisms to ensure their price stability, as opposed to fiat stablecoins pegged directly to the value of the underlying currency.The Sonic blockchain is working on the implementation of an algorithmic stablecoin with up to 23% annual percentage rate (APR), according to Andre Cronje, co-founder of Sonic Labs and founder of Yearn.finance.Cronje wrote in a March 22 X post:“POC looks good. Yielding > 200% APR @ 10m tvl, around 23.5% APR @ 100m, steady at around 4.9% at 1bn+. Will scale up and get team for a full release.”Source: Andre CronjeThe announcement came a day after Cronje admitted to experiencing Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to algorithmic stablecoin due to previous cycles:“Pretty sure our team cracked algo stable coins today, but previous cycle gave me so much PTSD not sure if we should implement.”In May 2022, the $40 billion Terra ecosystem collapsed, erasing tens of billions of dollars of value in a matter of days. Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST), was yielding an over 20% annual percentage yield (APY) on Anchor Protocol.   As UST lost its dollar peg, crashing to a low of around $0.30, Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon took to X to share his rescue plan. At the same time, the value of sister token LUNA, once a top-10 crypto project by market capitalization, plunged over 98% to $0.84. For reference: LUNA was trading north of $120 in early April.Related: Sonic TVL rises 66% to $253M since rebranding from FantomSonic claims to be the world’s fastest Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chain, with a “true” 720 milliseconds (ms) finality — the assurance that a transaction is irreversible, which happens after it is added to a block on the blockchain ledger.Sonic has garnered attention in the crypto industry since its testnet achieved a 720 ms finality on Sept. 8, 2024.Related: FTX liquidated $1.5B in 3AC assets 2 weeks before hedge fund’s collapseInvestors are still buying collapsed LUNA token years after Terra crashThe Terra (LUNA) token is down over 98% from its all-time high of 19.54 recorded on May 28, 2022, nearly three years ago, CoinMarketCap data shows.LUNA/USD, all-time chart. Source: CoinMarketCapDespite the collapse, the token saw over $21 million worth of trading volume over the past 24 hours, which shows that “people are still buying it even though it’s dead,” noted popular technical analyst Optimus KevTron.The collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin issuer created shockwaves among both crypto investors and lawmakers.To create more stability, the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) bill will prohibit the issuance of algorithmic stablecoins to avoid another collapse similar to the Terra ecosystem’s.Magazine: ‘Hong Kong’s FTX’ victims win lawsuit, bankers bash stablecoins: Asia Express

Cryptocurrency wallet providers are getting more sophisticated, but so are bad actors — which means the battle between security and threats is at a deadlock, says a hardware wallet firm executive.“It will always be a cat and mouse game,” Ledger chief experience officer Ian Rogers told Cointelegraph when describing the constant race between crypto wallet firms adding new security features and hackers finding more advanced ways to access victims’ wallets.Rogers said, unfortunately, the most straightforward scams work best because scammers rely on people making simple mistakes.“People give their 24-word phrases to people every day, so as long as that happens, then they are going to go for the low-cost tax,” he said, adding:“Anyone who asks for your 24 words is a criminal.”Rogers highlighted a common crypto scam where victims get tricked by replies under “any post on Twitter about crypto,” with messages like “DM me, and I’ll help you.”“You know that scammers are always asking you for your 24 words,” Rogers said. CertiK chief business officer Jason Jiang recently told Cointelegraph that being aware of phishing attacks on social media can drastically increase a user’s crypto security.Sometimes, scammers hijack the accounts of well-known industry figures to post malicious links, making it even harder for users to spot the scam.In September 2023, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s account was compromised, leading to a fake NFT giveaway that tricked followers into clicking — only to drain over $691,000 from their wallets.Source: CertiKRogers emphasized that this will always be the case, just as bad actors aren’t limited to crypto — scams like fake emails from the “Nigerian president” have been around for years.“The cost of the attack is always commensurate with the size of the prize, right?” Rogers said. In 2024, crypto hacks jumped 15% from 2023, with over $3 billion stolen.Related: Hacker steals $8.4M from RWA restaking protocol ZothMeanwhile, pig butchering scams have emerged as one of the most pervasive threats to crypto investors, with losses on the Ethereum network costing the industry $5.5 billion across 200,000 identified cases in 2024.Pig butchering is a type of phishing scheme that involves prolonged and complex manipulation tactics to trick investors into willingly sending their assets to fraudulent crypto addresses.Magazine: Dummies guide to native rollups: L2s as secure as Ethereum itself