US big banks hold early talks on joint crypto stablecoin: WSJ

Some of the biggest banking companies in the US are reportedly exploring a team-up to launch a crypto stablecoin.

Companies owned by JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo have discussed the possibility of jointly issuing a stablecoin, The Wall Street Journal reported on May 22, citing people familiar with the matter.

Other financial institutions linked to the potential stablecoin include Early Warning Services, the parent company of digital payments network Zelle, and the payment network Clearing House.

The discussions are still in the early stages, and a final decision on the project could change depending on the regulatory environment and the demand for stablecoins.

A JPMorgan spokesperson told Cointelegraph the company had no comment. Bank of America, CitiGroup, and Wells Fargo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

On May 20, the US Senate voted 66-32 in favor of advancing discussion on the stablecoin-regulating Guiding and

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Anthropic’s debuts most powerful AI yet amid ‘whistleblowing’ controversy

Artificial intelligence firm Anthropic has launched the latest generations of its chatbots amid criticism of a testing environment behaviour that could report some users to authorities.

Anthropic unveiled Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4 on May 22, claiming that Claude Opus 4 is its most powerful model yet, “and the world’s best coding model,” while Claude Sonnet 4 is a significant upgrade from its predecessor, “delivering superior coding and reasoning.”

The firm added that both upgrades are hybrid models offering two modes — “near-instant responses and extended thinking for deeper reasoning.”

Both AI models can also alternate between reasoning, research and tool use, like web search, to improve responses, it said. 

Anthropic added that Claude Opus 4 outperforms competitors in agentic coding benchmarks. It is also capable of working continuously for hours on complex, long-running tasks, “significantly expanding what AI agents

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Hackers using fake Ledger Live app to steal seed phrases and drain crypto

Cybercriminals are using fake Ledger Live apps to drain macOS users’ crypto through malware that steals seed phrases, a cybersecurity firm warns. 

The malware replaces the legitimate Ledger Live app on victims’ devices and then prompts the user to input their seed phrase through a phony pop-up message, a team from Moonlock said in a May 22 report.

“Initially, attackers could use the clone to steal passwords, notes, and wallet details to get a glimpse of the wallet’s assets, but they had no way to extract the funds,” the Moonlock team said.

“Now, within a year, they have learned to steal seed phrases and empty the wallets of their victims,” it added. 

One way the scammers replace the real Ledger Live app with a clone is through the Atomic macOS Stealer, designed to steal sensitive data, which Moonlock said it has found lurking on at

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Pictures give glimpse inside Trump’s memecoin holder dinner

Photos from within US President Donald Trump’s secretive dinner for his top memecoin buyers show attendees were treated to a three-course meal and gift bags as protesters gathered outside the event to accuse Trump of profiting from the presidency.

Pictures posted online by some of the 220 largest holders of the Official Trump (TRUMP) token — one of several crypto ventures critics have said conflicts with Trump’s ethics as president — show attendees were greeted by large posters bearing “Fight Fight Fight,” which also sat atop each table, referencing the company that launched the memecoin.

The White House said it would not publish a guest list of those who attended the dinner, but Tron CEO Justin Sun, Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu and BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia were among those sharing snaps of the dinner held at the Trump National Golf Club in

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Bitcoin open interest hits record high as BTC slips below $111K

Bitcoin futures open interest (OI) has hit record levels on crypto derivatives exchanges as traders anticipate the cryptocurrency will continue and reach new all-time highs. 

Bitcoin (BTC) futures open interest reached a peak of just over $80 billion on May 23, according to CoinGlass. It’s an increase of 30% since the start of May as derivatives speculators load up on leverage in anticipation of higher Bitcoin prices.

Open interest is the total number of outstanding futures contracts that allow traders to bet on the future price of Bitcoin, which have not been settled or closed, showing the total amount of current market speculation.

Total Bitcoin futures OI. Source: Coinglass

When OI surges, it indicates massive leveraged positions are built up in the market, with lots of traders holding large positions with borrowed money. 

If Bitcoin’s price moves against these over-leveraged

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Trendspotting in crypto: How to discover winning projects before the crowd

TL;DR

Spotting the next big crypto project before it explodes demands data, discipline and a sharp eye for real signals. This guide explores how to identify early winners by analyzing onchain metrics, tokenomics, dev activity and community traction while avoiding the common traps of hype-driven pumps and red-flag projects.

Despite the crypto space being crowded, fast-moving and full of noise, some investors manage to consistently find promising projects while they’re still under the radar.

So, how do they do it? 

Crypto trendspotters know how to read onchain data. They understand tokenomics. They read GitHub commits and follow the money. It takes more than jumping on the hype bandwagon ahead of the crowd.

This guide breaks down how to find crypto projects with real potential using lessons from past winners like Solana, Arbitrum, Chainlink and even memecoins like Pepe. Along the way, it will highlight the tools that matter, red

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Swedish health firm jumps 37% on first Bitcoin buy, China EV seller to buy 1K BTC

Shares in Swedish health tech company H100 Group AB rose 37% after it said it purchased Bitcoin for the first time as part of a new strategy, while China’s Jiuzi Holdings revealed its plan to stack 1,000 Bitcoin over the next year.

H100 said on May 22 that it spent 5 million Norwegian krone ($490,830) buying 4.39 Bitcoin (BTC) at an average purchasing price of around $111,785.

The company’s shares closed May 22 trading up 37% to 1.22 Swedish krona ($0.13) on the Nordic Growth Market following its disclosure of its Bitcoin purchase, Bloomberg data shows. 

Source: H100

The strong trading day recovered some losses from the past two months, during which the firm’s shares have fallen by over 46%.

H100’s change in share price so far in 2025. Source: Bloomberg

The firm’s CEO, Sander Andersen, said he believes “the values of

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Crypto perp futures coming ‘very soon,’ says CFTC’s Mersinger

Crypto perpetual futures contracts could receive regulatory approval in the US “very soon,” says outgoing Commodities and Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Summer Mersinger.

Perpetual crypto futures “can come to market now,” Mersinger told Bloomberg TV on May 22. 

“We’re seeing some applications, and I believe we’ll see some of those products trading live very soon,” she said, adding it would be “great to get that trading back onshore in the United States.” 

Mersinger, who will leave the CFTC at the end of May, said having crypto derivatives trading and regulated in the US would be a “really good thing for these markets and would be really beneficial to the industry broadly.”

Crypto perpetual futures are derivative contracts that allow traders to speculate on the price of cryptocurrencies without actually owning them. Unlike traditional futures contracts that have expiration dates, perpetual futures can be held indefinitely. They can also

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‘No questions asked’ Bitcoin launderer gets 6 years in prison

A US man operating what prosecutors called a “no questions asked” cash-to-Bitcoin conversion service has been sentenced to six years behind bars and was ordered to hand over millions of dollars. 

Boston federal court Judge Richard Stearns sentenced Trung Nguyen, from Danvers, Massachusetts, to six years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered him to forfeit $1.5 million, the Boston US Attorney’s Office said on May 22. 

Prosecutors said Nguyen ran an unlicensed money-transmitting business called National Vending between September 2017 and October 2020, which used various techniques he learned in an online course to evade authorities.

As part of the course, Nguyen was taught how to conceal his actual business from banks, crypto exchanges and state authorities by masquerading as a vending machine company that accepted cash deposits, had a list of fictional suppliers, and generally avoided using the phrase “Bitcoin” where

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Michigan lawmakers file 4 crypto bills on retiree funds, CBDCs, mining

Michigan lawmakers have introduced four crypto-related bills covering crypto mining, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and crypto in state retirement funds.

Republican state Representative Bill Schuette introduced House Bill 4510 on May 21, which would amend Michigan’s Public Employee Retirement System Investment Act to allow the state treasurer, currently Rachael Eubanks, to invest in cryptocurrencies that have averaged a market cap above $250 million over the last calendar year.

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are the only cryptocurrencies that currently meet that threshold. The bill adds that any cryptocurrencies must be held in the form of an exchange-traded product issued by a registered investment company.

A similar bill was introduced in February, permitting the state treasurer to allocate up to 10% of Michigan’s Budget Stabilization Fund into crypto.

Republican Representative Bryan Posthumus led the introduction of the second bipartisan

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