What are crypto-based mortgages?
Crypto-backed mortgages are a kind of loan where borrowers use their cryptocurrency holdings, such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH), as collateral to secure financing for real estate purchases. This approach allows you to access funds without selling your digital assets. By retaining crypto ownership, borrowers can still benefit from future price increases.
There are various types of crypto-backed mortgages: purchase mortgages, cash-out refinancing and bridge loans.
Purchase mortgages: These help you finance real estate using crypto as collateral. Cash-out refinancing: It allows you to refinance your existing mortgages by leveraging your crypto assets to access additional funds. Bridge loans: These loans provide short-term financing, helping you cover the period between purchasing a new property and selling an existing one.
Crypto mortgages are particularly appealing if you want to preserve your holdings while securing real-world assets. However, you need to consider the volatility
Vitalik Buterin meows at a robot, and the crypto world loses it
A video of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin kneeling in front of a robot and seemingly letting out a “meow” sound has gone viral — and, as usual, the crypto industry is already speculating what it might mean for Ether’s future.
“The future of Ethereum is in this man’s hands… Meow,” crypto influencer Wendy O said in a March 29 X post. Cork Protocol co-founder Phil Fogel shared the video and commented that “so much” of his professional life and net worth depend on Buterin but reiterated that the entertaining interaction makes him “bullish.”
Community links video to Ether price speculation
Pseudonymous crypto trader Scott Crypto Warrior shared the video with his 514,300 X followers and said, “Pray for our ETH bags.”
The short clip shows Buterin on his knees, gesturing at a four-legged robot and letting out what
Listing an altcoin traps exchanges on 'forever hamster wheel' — River CEO
When a cryptocurrency exchange lists its first altcoin, it sets itself up for an endless cycle of launching memecoins, warns a Bitcoin-only institution executive.
“The minute an exchange adds one non-Bitcoin token, they are signing up to be on the forever hamster wheel of memecoins,” River Financial CEO Alex Leishman said in a March 29 X post. “It makes no sense to list ETH if you don’t list the tokens issued on ETH, and the same goes for Solana,” Leishman said.
River has no interest in building a “successful crypto casino”
Leishman said while there are many “successful crypto casinos,” he has no interest in building one. River Financial is a Bitcoin-only financial institution focusing on buying and selling Bitcoin (BTC). Several companies have opted for the Bitcoin-only approach, including Swan Bitcoin, Bull Bitcoin, and decentralized exchange Bisq.
Leishman claimed that multi-asset trading
Why institutions are hesitant about decentralized finance — Shibtoshi
Shibtoshi, the founder of the SilentSwap privacy-preserving trading platform, outlined several concerns that make institutions hesitant to adopt decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions, including privacy, a lack of standardized compliance regulations, and legal accountability.
The DeFi founder told Cointelegraph that the high transparency of onchain transactions presents a problem for companies that must conceal sensitive information, including trading strategies, payroll information, and business-to-business agreements. Shibtoshi said:
“The main concerns — regulatory uncertainty, privacy limitations, and complex user experience — are real, but solvable. Innovations in privacy-preserving protocols are making DeFi increasingly compatible with enterprise needs. Platforms like SilentSwap are a step in that direction.”
Regulatory uncertainty continues to be one of the biggest problems for DeFi and is compounded by a fragmented approach across legal jurisdictions, which prevents institutional adoption, Shibtoshi added.
“Are DeFi tokens securities? What happens if a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) messes
US recession 40% likely in 2025, what it means for crypto — Analyst
The United States has a 40% chance of a recession in 2025 amid the potential for a protracted trade war and macroeconomic uncertainty, according to market analyst and Coin Bureau founder Nic Puckrin.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, the analyst said that while a recession is not probable, a recession and the current macroeconomic uncertainty will create an environment where risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies suffer. Puckrin said:
“Trump and his advisors have said they have not completely dismissed the recession, which means it is definitely possible, but right now, I would not say it is probable, but the odds have climbed a lot.”
The analyst added that US President Donald Trump is not actively attempting to engineer a recession, but that the things the Trump administration is doing, including cutting federal jobs and spending to balance the budget can lead to recessions as a side effect.
Macroeconomic uncertainty is
Potential Bitcoin price fall to $65K ‘irrelevant’ since central bank liquidity is coming — Analyst
Bitcoin’s (BTC) 7% decline saw the price drop from $88,060 on March 26 to $82,036 on March 29 and led to $158 million in long liquidations. This drop was particularly concerning for bulls, as gold surged to a record high at the same time, undermining Bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative. However, many experts argue that a Bitcoin rally is imminent as multiple governments take steps to avert an economic crisis.
The ongoing global trade war and spending cuts by the US government are considered temporary setbacks. An apparent silver lining is the expectation that additional liquidity is expected to flow into the markets, which could boost risk-on assets. Analysts believe Bitcoin is well-positioned to benefit from this broader macroeconomic shift.
Source: Mihaimihale
Take, for example, Mihaimihale, an X social platform user who argued that tax cuts and lower interest
Kalshi sues Nevada and New Jersey gaming regulators
Prediction market Kalshi filed a lawsuit against the Nevada Gaming Control Board and the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement after both state regulators sent cease and desist orders for the firm to pause all sports-related contracts in the states.
Kalshi’s legal team argued that the contracts fall under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and, therefore, cannot be regulated by state-level authorities.
The team also contends that the cease and desist orders fail to recognize that Kalshi’s event contracts are two-sided markets that trade as swaps as opposed to the sports-betting book model where the house controls the market. Kalshi co-founder Tarek Mansour said:
“Prediction markets are a critical innovation of the 21st century, and like all innovations, they are initially misunderstood. We are proud to be the company that has pioneered this technology and stand ready to defend it once again in a court of law.”
Additionally, the Nevada
The future of finance is built on Bitcoin — Ethereum was just the testnet
Opinion by: Alisia Painter, chief operating officer of Botanix Labs
Without Ethereum, the industry wouldn’t be where it is today in terms of bringing decentralized finance (DeFi) to life, making programmability a key feature of blockchains and proving the value of smart contracts at scale. The Ethereum Virtual Machine has become the go-to platform for developers, with the largest ecosystem and tooling.
As DeFi matures, however, it’s worth asking: Is Ethereum the best foundation for the future of financial innovation? Well, the answer might just be Bitcoin.
With nearly $6 billion in total value locked as of March 2025, Bitcoin’s decentralization, liquidity and resilience position it as the natural home for the next era of onchain finance, and while Ethereum’s flexibility has enabled an explosion of experimentation, that same flexibility has come with trade-offs.
From vulnerabilities in smart contracts we’ve seen in big-name hacks to ongoing debates around scalability, Ethereum’s experimental ethos
Bitcoin adoption in EU limited by ‘fragmented’ regulations — Analysts
Institutional adoption of Bitcoin in the European Union remains sluggish, even as the United States moves forward with landmark cryptocurrency regulations that seek to establish BTC as a national reserve asset.
More than three weeks after President Donald Trump’s March 7 executive order outlined plans to use cryptocurrency seized in criminal cases to create a federal Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, European companies have largely remained silent on the issue.
The stagnation may stem from Europe’s complex regulatory regime, according to Elisenda Fabrega, general counsel at Brickken, a European real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform.
“European corporate adoption remains limited,” Fabrega told Cointelegraph, adding:
“This hesitation reflects a deeper structural divide, rooted in regulation, institutional signaling and market maturity. Europe has yet to take a definitive stance on Bitcoin as a reserve asset.”
Bitcoin’s economic model favors early adopters, which may pressure more
Sonic Labs ditch algorithmic USD stablecoin for UAE dirham alternative
Sonic Labs has canceled plans to launch a US dollar-pegged algorithmic stablecoin, opting instead to develop a United Arab Emirates dirham-denominated alternative.
On March 22, Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje said the company was working on a US dollar-pegged algorithmic stablecoin with an annual percentage rate (APR) of up to 23%, Cointelegraph reported.
However, one week later, the firm reversed course.
“We will no longer be releasing a USD based algorithmic stable coin,” Cronje said in a March 28 X post. “Completely unrelated, we will be releasing a mathematically bound numerical Dirham which is settled and denominated in USD, which is definitely not a USD based algorithmic stable coin.”
The shift in strategy comes shortly after the UAE announced it would launch its digital dirham central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Source: Andre Cronje
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