The Bank of Korea (BOK) is to begin a pilot for their own central bank digital currency (CBDC) in April according to local papers.

Security is a shared responsibility, and collaboration is key to making cryptocurrency space safer for everyone

Smart Contract reforming app, Halliday, raised $20M in Series A funding led by a16z crypto, with participation from the Avalanche Blizzard Fund.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) is gearing up to launch a pilot program involving 100,000 participants in early April to test its central bank digital currency (CBDC) in real-world transactions.

TL;DR Unified Trading: Alpha 2.0 integrates CEX and DEX functions, enabling direct on-chain token purchases within Binance without needing external wallets. Enhanced User Interface: A dedicated “Alpha” tab delivers real-time charts, project details, and trading options, simplifying asset exploration.

This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.

Litecoin (LTC) fell 5.6% and Filecoin (FIL) declined 5.5%, leading the index lower.

Fasset collaborates with Kitabisa's institution partner for Islamic donations to facilitate zakat payments through USDT, making it easier for Indonesian crypto users to make religious donations. In a press release sent to crypto.

Nothing says oligarchy like the plain black and white legal discrimination based on wealth that the Russian central bank has published as a new regulatory framework.

Limassol, Cyprus, 18th March 2025, Chainwire

The platform, utilizing Ethereum's blockchain, aims to streamline transactions for tokenized financial instruments and enhance capital market efficiency.

Halliday aims to make smart contract creation more streamlined and accessible, shortening how long it takes to make them.

The crypto industry is hitting a wall. Big banks, investment firms, and financial giants are already handling billions in blockchain transactions, yet full-scale adoption in traditional finance is still far off.

The product is designed for long term holders of bitcoin who might be looking for a loan to buy or upgrade a property, or buy a new car, Xapo said.

The Series A investment was led by venture capital giant a16z's crypto arm, following a $6 million seed round in 2022.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) is set to initiate a pilot program for its central bank digital currency (CBDC), named "Hangang," involving 100,000 participants.

Binance, in a much anticipated move, has announced the launch of Binance Alpha 2.0, expanding the offerings of its pre-listing token selection pool, Binance Alpha. After this major upgrade of Alpha 2.0, Binance has now integrated the upgraded version into its exchange, allowing users to explore and purchase tokens on-chain directly on the Binance Exchange.

Memecoin launchpad on BNB Chain, Four.Meme has restored its token launch function following an exploit that resulted in a $130,000 loss. In a March 18 post on X, the Four.Meme team confirmed it had suffered an attack, prompting an emergency suspension of its launch function.

The US introduced a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a user caused disruptions during Ethereum testing, and EU politicians questioned the digital euro's feasibility.

BX Digital, a subsidiary of Boerse Stuttgart, has been granted a license for a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) trading facility that connects to their central bank.

Leading cryptocurrency exchange and custodian platform, Gemini has hired a new chief financial officer in the person of Dan Chen.

According to Reuters, several industry insiders from these crypto firms see an opportunity to gain banking charters. Regulators had previously been slow to approve them.

The attack was the second in two months, on this occasion exploiting a “critical flaw” in Four.Meme's liquidity mechanism.

Robinhood has launched a new prediction markets hub through its futures subsidiary, allowing users to speculate on political, economic, and sports events.

Switzerland's financial market regulator FINMA has granted a Swiss subsidiary of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange a licence to operate a blockchain-based trading system in the country, the unit, BX Digital, said on Tuesday.

The Trump Administration's embrace of crypto is reportedly putting international financial stability at risk, says Francois Villeroy de Galhau, a member of the European Central Bank's (ECB) Governing Council. Villeroy de Galhau tells the French news outlet La Tribune Dimanche that the US “risks sinning through negligence,” according to Bloomberg.

In a significant development, the Bank of Korea has unveiled its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot program, dubbed “Digital Test Project Hangang.” The Bank of Korea, in partnership with seven major banks, is set to launch the pilot program next month, with a planned duration of about three months.

The protocol's lvlUSD stablecoin hit $80 million market capitalization since its beta launch and outperformed rival yield-generating stablecoins, founders told CoinDesk in an interview.

In a move that could send ripples through the crypto world, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reconsidering a stringent crypto custody rule from the previous administration. This rule has made it tougher for investment advisers to handle digital assets.

The information gathering Trojan can continuously monitor clipboard content, searching for cryptocurrency keys and passwords.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and USDT will be the accepted crypto.

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the former Binance CEO, has made a big prediction about how Binance can lead the new trend for centralized cryptocurrency exchanges in the future.

Crypto ETPs saw $1.7 billion in outflows last week, pushing the five-week total to $6.4 billion, with Bitcoin ETPs accounting for $5.4 billion.

StilachiRAT: a remote access trojan that steals credentials stored in the browser.

Bitcoin miner Bitfarms completed the acquisition of Stronghold Digital in a stock-for-stock merger, further expanding its U.S. footprint.

Financial technology firms and crypto companies are seeking to become state or national banks in a bid to expand their business under the Trump administration that they view as more industry-friendly, according to more than half a dozen industry executives.

MSTR's recent price action is exact inverse of the BTC topping pattern from January that warned of a price sell-off.

Microsoft has identified a sophisticated new malware called StilachiRAT that targets cryptocurrency by stealing data from Chrome wallet extensions, saved credentials, and clipboard content.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has been allowed to leave France temporarily, but the preliminary charges against him raise significant questions for the crypto community. On March 13, a French court gave the founder and CEO of the encrypted messaging app Telegram permission to leave for Dubai, where he had previously resided.

Hackers recently breached the South African Parliament's social media accounts, including X, Facebook, and Youtube, to promote a fake cryptocurrency named after President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The Central Bank of Russia has piloted a testing program in the Tatarstan region to test smart contracts for the digital ruble.

Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda has directed staff to consider withdrawing a 2023 crypto custody rule proposal as part of the agency's shift toward a more industry-friendly approach under the Trump administration.

ZenMEV transforms MEV into shared profits for traders, with new funding fueling global expansion.

The United States SEC is reconsidering a proposal to tighten the custody requirements for cryptocurrencies.

Four.meme, the native meme launchpad of the Binance ecosystem, got exploited for an estimated $120K. A hacker intercepted the liquidity pools for new tokens and drained the available liquidity for several new and trending memes.

Participants will be enabled to convert their bank deposits into tokenized deposits for payments at local shops, according to a local report.

Binance has launched Binance Alpha 2.0, a major update that integrates its Alpha platform directly into the Binance Exchange.

Binance Unveils Anti-Slippage Feature for BNB Chain Users