Decentralized identity explained

Decentralized identity refers to a system of identity management that is not controlled by any central authority such as governments, corporations or identity providers. 

Traditional identity systems often involve intermediaries that store and manage personal information, which can lead to privacy concerns, data breaches and dependency on centralized entities. 

In contrast, decentralized identity is a self-sovereign model where individuals fully own and contro

Casey Caruso, a former investment partner of crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm, has raised $75 million to kickstart her new early-stage venture firm called Topology.

Caruso, who was listed in Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in 2022, said in a Dec. 12 X post that Topology will back founders who “put everything on the line to bend the arc of human progress.” 

She worked at Paradigm between May 2021 and January 2023 and was the crypto specialist at Bessemer Venture Partners for two and a half

The Bank of England’s regulatory arm has requested that businesses disclose any current or future exposure to crypto by March next year so it can monitor stability and help shape policy. 

In a Dec. 12 statement, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) asked firms to share their “current and expected future crypto asset exposures” and how they’re using the crypto-regulating Basel framework.

“This will inform work across the PRA and the Bank of England on cryptoassets by helping us calibrate o

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has racked up over $24 billion in inflows from user deposits in 2024, according to data from DefiLlama.

In a blog where Binance said its inflows were higher than 10 exchanges combined, Binance said the “growth aligns with a surge in global adoption of digital assets” — pointing to regulatory victories, historic price milestones, and the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds launching in the United States, Hong Kong and other large markets.

“These developments have

Donald Trump’s transition team is reportedly exploring whether the incoming president’s administration can slim down, lump together, or even cut banking regulators.

President-elect Trump’s advisers from the partly Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have asked in interviews with potential bank regulator picks if a president could, for example, abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal for a Dec. 12 report

A United States federal judge has criticized the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for its redactions of crypto “pause” letters to banks in a Coinbase-backed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit.

“The Court is concerned with what appears to be FDICs lack of good-faith effort in making nuanced redactions,” Washington, DC, district court judge Ana Reyes wrote in a Dec. 12 text order.

“Defendant cannot simply blanket redact everything that is not an article or preposition.”

Judge Re

New developers flocked to the Solana ecosystem this year, overthrowing Ethereum’s eight-year reign as the top ecosystem for new developers.

However, Ethereum is still number one globally in total developer activity.

According to a Dec. 12 report from Electric Capital, the Solana ecosystem onboarded more new devs in July than the Ethereum ecosystem for the first time since 2016. 

That momentum continued throughout the rest of the year, with current totals showing 7,625 new developers have join

Bitcoin environmentalist Daniel Batten claims a “single commentary” in 2018 from Alex de Vries, the founder of Digiconomist, has been the cause of “all junk science on Bitcoin’s environmental impact” over the years. 

“We found patient zero,” Batten said in the Dec. 12 X thread.

While Batten didn’t point to the exact commentary, he has previously criticized a May 2018 report from de Vries titled “Bitcoin’s Growing Energy Problem.”

Digiconomist is a platform “dedicated to exposing the unintende

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped pro-crypto businessman and former SEC commissioner Paul Atkins as the next chair of the SEC under his administration, fulfilling his promise to replace current chair Gary Gensler, to the delight of the crypto industry.

Here’s what we know about Atkins and the potential changes he could bring to the crypto industry if he’s confirmed as expected by Congress in 2025. 

From SEC to Patomak and back again

Atkins served as a Republican SEC commissioner from Ju

Big Tech companies like Amazon have a large amount of cash on hand — $87 billion last year — which loses purchasing power as the currency evaluates.

Washington DC-based think tank The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) has submitted shareholder proposals to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as a solution. However, whether tech giants would see major benefits from this remains unclear.

NCPPR has been pushing the strategy at Microsoft and Amazon. In both cases, the think tank believes adopting

Arkansas Representative French Hill, currently the chair of a digital asset subcommittee, will likely take over leadership of the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee in the 119th Congress.

In a Dec. 12 announcement, Representative Hill said he beat his Republican challengers — Andy Barr, Frank Lucas, and Bill Huizenga — in a decision at the party’s steering committee. He is expected to take the gavel from Chair Patrick McHenry on Jan. 3 when the next session of t

The Eigen Foundation announced that it will allocate 1% of the EIGEN token supply to the Protocol Guild — a group of core developers responsible for maintaining the Ethereum layer-1 blockchain.

According to the Eigen Foundation, the funds will be used to support the continued work of the Protocol Guild, which currently boasts 180 members from 29 teams.

EigenLayer is a restaking protocol on Ethereum, which allows Staked Ether (stETH) and other assets to be repurposed and staked multiple times.

Consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen and other interest groups are urging lawmakers in the United States to act and confirm Caroline Crenshaw to a second term at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before the next Congress is sworn in.

In a Dec. 12 letter to the US Senate, more than 40 organizations asked lawmakers to vote yes on Crenshaw’s nomination, which could have her working at the SEC until 2029.

The Senate Banking Committee was expected to decide on the SEC commission

Activist investor Starboard Value has taken a “significant position” in Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms, The Wall Street Journal said. The financial details were not reported, but the news gave Riot a boost in stock price.

Looking to unlock Riot’s value

According to the newspaper’s unnamed sources, Starboard Value has been urging Riot to repurpose some of its Bitcoin (BTC) mining capacity for hyperscalers — large data center users — which have grown drastically in number due to the artificial int

Shiba Inu whale Shibtoshi often works through the night, before crashing and sleeping during the day. Little is known of this enigmatic character, who wears a gold-themed mask when in public and is surrounded by a security detail.

When hes not trading or building, Shibtoshi enjoys hunting and shooting. He posts different videos on X of him shooting machine guns and firing weapons from tanks. That is just what he likes to do to decompress. 

He amassed a position in Shiba Inu worth north of $5 b

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said an up to 2% portfolio allocation is “reasonable” for investors who wish to hold Bitcoin (BTC), according to a Dec. 12 report.

The report, which was shared with Cointelegraph and first reported by Bloomberg, says 1-2% is “a reasonable range for a Bitcoin exposure” but cautions that larger allocations “would sharply increase Bitcoin’s share of the overall portfolio risk.”

Meanwhile, a 1-2% BTC allocation poses “on average, about the same share o

Cryptocurrency ownership is climbing across the globe, although market volatility and scams are still barriers to newcomers.

According to Consensys’ 2024 Perception Survey, crypto ownership has increased in several countries in 2024, with an 8% jump in Mexico, a 7% surge in the Philippines and South Africa, followed by growth of 5% in Germany and 4% in Japan. 

Overall, emerging markets are leading crypto adoption. At least half of respondents in Nigeria (84%), South Africa (66%), Vietnam (60%)

A lawmaker in the Texas House of Representatives has drafted legislation to create a Bitcoin reserve as part of the state’s treasury.

In a bill tentatively named the “Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act” filed with the state government on Dec. 12, Representative Giovanni Capriglione proposed the comptroller hold Bitcoin (BTC) as a reserve asset for “at least five years.” The legislation suggested that Texas residents or “governmental entities” could voluntarily donate their BTC to the reserve,

Ether (ETH) rallied 11.6% from Dec. 10 to Dec. 12, recovering losses from the preceding two days. This price move was partly driven by robust inflows into Ether spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and heightened activity on the Ethereum network, which helped restore investor confidence.

Between Dec. 9 and Dec. 11, the spot Ether ETFs recorded net inflows of $557 million, a significant contributor to the rapid price recovery. However, this appears to be more of a result than the primary cause. Inv

AMP, an Australian superannuation fund, revealed that it invested approximately $27 million into Bitcoin (BTC) in May 2024 — making it the first large Australian superannuation fund to embrace the digital asset.

According to a report from Financial Review, the fund has roughly $57 billion in assets under management (AUM). The Bitcoin allocation is fairly conservative at 0.05% of the fund’s total assets under management.

The superannuation fund reportedly acquired Bitcoin in the $60,000 to $70,