This week, Bitcoin tumbled amid Israel-Iran tensions while markets braced for Trump Media’s Bitcoin treasury move. Major announcements included Cardano’s Cardinal protocol for Bitcoin DeFi, XRP Ledger’s upcoming EVM sidechain, and Coinbase’s Bitcoin rewards card. Meanwhile, regulators delayed ETF decisions and the Senate advanced stablecoin legislation. Bitcoin Amid major strikes by Israel across Iran, the Bitcoin price fell almost $6,000 through Thursday and into Friday. A comprehensive bounce is now underway, with experts wondering if the recovery will continue. DeFi Charles Hoskinson, founder of the Cardano blockchain, has officially introduced Cardinal , a new protocol designed to bring Bitcoin into decentralized finance (DeFi) through a trustless, cross-chain solution. Technology XRP Ledger is set to launch an Ethereum-compatible EVM sidechain in Q2 2025, aiming to integrate Ethereum smart contracts and decentralized applications into its ecosystem while onboarding new contributors and enhancing DeFi functionalities. Business Coinbase has partnered with American Express to launch the Coinbase One Card , offering up to 4% Bitcoin rewards on purchases and expanded crypto benefits as part of its growing payment ecosystem GameStop has announced a $1.75 billion convertible notes offering, signaling a deepening commitment to its Bitcoin-centric treasury strategy. US authorities have charged crypto entrepreneur Iurii Gugnin with operating a $500 million money laundering scheme through his crypto companies, helping sanctioned Russian banks and entities bypass international financial restrictions. Web3 Web3 at present only bestows its rewards on the bravest adventurers who dare to expose themselves to all of its fanfare and bluster. With a good UI and user experience, Web3 can transform its highly functional dApps into an experience that’s not only fun, but also extremely worthwhile for its users. These five crypto exchanges have successfully weathered the storm and managed to retain the trust of their customers over the course of the past decade. Pudgy Penguins has partnered with *My Neighbor Alice*, granting holders of Pudgys and their spin-offs land access in MNA’s new interoperable archipelago. For over two decades, cloud giants like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud have dominated global digital infrastructure, but their market concentration raises concerns over outages, censorship, and data privacy risks. The crypto market is maturing beyond meme hype and speculation, and the industry has firmly left the ICO mania of 2017–18 behind. Community alignment, sustainable tokenomics, and real utility, which tokens like Mosaic Galaxy's Kodexa embody, are becoming the benchmarks. The recently launched crypto exchange KuCoin EU Exchange GmbH, based in Vienna, Austria, has announced two new C-Suite level executives to its stacked team of professionals - Christian Derler and Tamara Rubey, who will share their experience in banking, finance, and legal matters to bolster the expansion of the crypto exchange across Europe. Security A false announcement claiming Paraguay had adopted Bitcoin as legal tender was posted from President Santiago Peña’s hacked X account, prompting swift clarification from the government and raising concerns over digital platform vulnerabilities. Regulation The Trump Media and Technology Group has announced that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has declared effective the company’s registration for its Bitcoin treasury deal . The SEC has postponed decisions on ETF proposals for Polkadot, Hedera, Avalanche, and Dogecoin, citing the need for further evaluation and public feedback. The U.S. Senate advanced the GENIUS Act , a bipartisan bill to regulate stablecoins, toward a final vote next week, with Trump’s backing and divided Democratic support. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
