The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a Nasdaq rule change that allows certain securities to be traded in tokenized form, a move that integrates blockchain technology into traditional stock market infrastructure.

The approval, issued Wednesday, is part of a broader effort to explore digital representations of regulated assets while maintaining investor protections and market stability.

Under the new framework, eligible securities — including stocks in the Russell 1000 Index and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking major benchmarks such as the S&P 500  — can be represented and traded as tokenized assets on Nasdaq. 

These tokenized versions are fully interchangeable with traditional shares, sharing the same ticker symbols, CUSIP numbers, and shareholder rights. 

Investors holding tokenized securities retain standard protections, including voting rights, dividend access, and claims on residual assets, ensuring consistency with existing securities laws.

The system operates as a pilot program through the Depository Trust Company (DTC), which handles post-trade settlement and tokenization. Market participants can choose to settle trades in tokenized form via a designated instruction at order entry. 

Earlier this month, Nasdaq partnered with Payward, Kraken’s parent company, to enable the trading of tokenized stocks between traditional markets and blockchain networks using Payward’s xStocks platform. 

A nod to Bitcoin

This move won’t directly affect Bitcoin’s price or network, but it’s a nod to a growing regulatory comfort with blockchain-based assets, which could indirectly boost institutional interest in digital currencies. 

By integrating tokenized securities into mainstream markets, it may pave the way for broader adoption of crypto infrastructure and financial products that interact with Bitcoin.

If tokenization requirements are not met, trades default to traditional settlement. Nasdaq confirmed that its core trading infrastructure — including order types, routing strategies, trading sessions, and market data feeds — remains unchanged, ensuring tokenized securities are fully integrated into existing systems. 

Settlement continues on a T+1 basis, aligning tokenized trading with current standards.

Nasdaq emphasized that a tokenized share and its traditional counterpart will trade on the same order book, with identical execution priority and market data treatment. Surveillance systems will monitor both forms of the security using the same underlying data, accessible to both Nasdaq and FINRA. 

The exchange will issue alerts identifying which securities are eligible for tokenized trading and will notify members at least 30 days before launching any tokenized instruments.

The SEC, in its approval, said the proposal meets regulatory requirements designed to protect investors and maintain fair and orderly markets. 

The Commission specifically cited Section 6(b)(5) of the Securities Exchange Act, which requires exchange rules to prevent fraud, promote equitable trading principles, and remove impediments to a free and open market.

According to the document, tokenized securities must mirror traditional shares in rights and privileges, limiting the risk of divergence in value or investor protections.

The DTC pilot provides a controlled framework for blockchain-based trading without introducing new market risks.

The approval reflects growing momentum toward tokenization in regulated markets. Exchanges and infrastructure providers are increasingly exploring blockchain representations of conventional assets while remaining within the bounds of existing law. 

Nasdaq has indicated that alternative tokenization methods are under discussion and would require separate filings with the SEC.

This post SEC Approves Nasdaq Rule to Trade Tokenized Securities, Paving Way for Blockchain Integration first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Over 50 years after the first inter-networked message, peer-to-peer networks remain rare beasts in the jungle of the Internet. Bitcoin’s ability to provide an open monetary system depends on its peer-to-peer architecture, and across its attack surface it is the networking layer–how peers discover and connect to each other–that is the most vulnerable. There are two main places problems can occur: Bitcoin’s own peering protocol, and the Internet protocols that Bitcoin’s protocol depends on. In this light Core has a dual mandate to prevent Denial of Service (DOS) vectors that can be abused between nodes, and enable nodes to communicate safely in the wider adversarial environment that is the Internet.

P2P

“Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.”

– Satoshi, Nov 7, 2008 [1]

The P2P protocol encompasses how nodes exchange messages about transactions, blocks, and other peers. This exchange of information is required before any transaction or consensus validation can occur, and is therefore a primary concern.

There have been several bugs in this area over the years. In 2017, for example, a malicious SOCKS server vulnerability was patched and disclosed [2]. This “buffer overflow” vulnerability could theoretically lead to many different attacks: crash the node, inject malicious payloads, or modify data on the node. In 2020, a high severity vulnerability was reported and patched where a remote peer could get addresses banned, growing the banlist quadratically, and is therefore a DOS on the node [3]. The vulnerability was not disclosed until 2024. This bug is correctly marked as “high severity” since the attack is simple to execute, its effect results in a loss of function for the node, and it has few preconditions required to make it work. These are the kind of bugs that keep Core developers up at night, and why it is highly encouraged to update your node to a still maintained version (older versions of Core are not actively maintained/updated).

This distributed network we call Bitcoin remains relatively small: the clearnet node count hovers around 20k nodes, and even assuming a generous 100k TOR nodes, we still have a small, easily surveillable network. Recently, Daniela Brozzoni and naiyoma showed [4] that if a node runs with both clearnet and Tor, it is trivial to map a node’s IPv4 and Tor addresses. It is very likely that this is already done by intelligence agencies and chainalysis companies. It then becomes easy to notice which nodes publish which transactions first, deducing the transaction’s original IP, and therefore location. While this is not a bug per se, since the node does not crash or misbehave, it can be considered a vulnerability, since it presents a method for tying a given IP address to a transaction. 

How to prevent this effectively is currently an open question.

The Badlands of the Web

“We build our computers like we build our cities. Over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.” – Ellen Ullman [5]

Bitcoin runs on the Internet, and its ability to remain a distributed and decentralized system depends on the properties of the Internet itself. Unfortunately, the Internet’s architecture as we know it today remains woefully insecure, with known attacks employed routinely. Most of these attacks are conducted undetected until damage has been done, and this is not to mention the surveillance regimes that permeate the Internet today.

The most well known and practical vector of attack to be concerned with is called an eclipse attack, where a victim node’s peers are all malicious, and feed a specific view of the chain or network to the victim node. This class of attack is fundamental in distributed systems, if you control a node’s peers, you control its awareness of the network. Ethan Heilman and collaborators presented one of the first practical eclipse attacks on Bitcoin at USENIX 2015 [6], and in 2018, the Erebus attack paper described a “stealthy” eclipse attack via a malicious Autonomous System (AS) [7]. 

These attacks largely leverage weaknesses in the way the Internet’s networks communicate amongst themselves, such as ASs routing topology or via a protocol called the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). While there are ongoing initiatives to secure the BGP protocol–BGPsec, RPKI–they both have limitations that are well understood, and leave the Internet’s stewards pining for stronger solutions. Until then, the Internet will remain the wild west. 

A recent analysis by cedarctic at Chaincode Labs found that Bitcoin nodes are homed within just 4551 ASs, a fairly small subsection of the constituent networks that make up the Internet. They describe a set of attacks that can lead to eclipse attacks by compromising the upstream AS that nodes operate in [8]. The small distribution of nodes amongst ASs and the specific relationships among these ASs creates a unique attack vector. While there are remediations, it is unclear whether this attack vector was well understood beforehand by bitcoiners or their adversaries.

Any attack that relies on compromising one or several ASs requires resources, coordination, and skills to achieve. Although no successful attack of this type has been reported on a Bitcoin node, such attacks have been successfully mounted against miners [9], wallets [10], swap platforms [11], and bridges [12]. While we’re not going to fix the Internet, we can arm nodes with the tools to operate in this adversarial environment.

Network Armory

Below are some features and functionalities that Bitcoin Core has developed or integrated support for in order to arm users against network level attacks:

TOR (the Onion Router) is the oldest privacy-focused overlay network incorporated in Bitcoin Core. It creates hops between a random network of peers to obfuscate traffic. 

v2transport [13] encrypts connections between peers, hiding the traffic from snoops and censors. The aim is to thwart passive network observers from snooping on the contents of your communications with other nodes.

I2P (the Invisible Internet Project [14]) is an optional feature of Core which enables an additional, private, encrypted layer to one’s connections. It is a Tor-like anonymity network which relies on peers to obfuscate traffic between clients and servers.

ASmap [15] is another optional feature of Core which implements a mitigation for the Erebus attack that the authors already outlined in the paper, and applies to all AS-based attacks. By making Bitcoin’s peering mechanism aware of the AS that peers are coming from to ensure diversity amongst peers, an eclipse becomes exponentially more difficult, as an attacker would have to compromise many ASs, which is highly unlikely and almost impossible without being detected. Bitcoin Core supports taking a map of IP networks to their AS (an AS-map) since Core 20.0, and the Kartograf project enables any user to generate such an ASmap easily.

Given that the Internet is likely to continue being vulnerable to many attacks, one of the things we can do is observe our peers’ behavior to attempt to detect malicious behavior. This is the impetus behind the peer-observer project by 0xb10c [16]. It provides a full eBPF tracepoint-based logging system (a way to observe the tiniest actions in a program running on an operating system) to observe a node’s activity, including peer behavior. It also gives you everything you need to build your own logging systems.

Bitcoin Must Be Robust

Securing the ability to connect to peers and exchange messages is a keystone component of what makes Bitcoin tick.

Bitcoin operates in a multi-dimensional adversarial environment, in which many of the threats are created by limitations of the internet’s architecture itself. If Bitcoin is to survive and thrive, its developers and users must learn to navigate these strange waters.

The price of open networks is eternal vigilance.

Don’t miss your chance to own The Core Issue — featuring articles written by many Core Developers explaining the projects they work on themselves!

This piece is the Letter from the Editor featured in the latest Print edition of Bitcoin Magazine, The Core Issue. We’re sharing it here as an early look at the ideas explored throughout the full issue.

[0] https://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/connect.html

[1] https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/emails/cryptography/4/

[2] https://bitcoincore.org/en/2019/11/08/CVE-2017-18350/

[3] https://bitcoincore.org/en/2024/07/03/disclose-unbounded-banlist/

[4] https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/fingerprinting-nodes-via-addr-requests/1786/

[5] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ellen_Ullman

[6] https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity15/sec15-paper-heilman.pdf

[7] https://ihchoi12.github.io/assets/tran2020stealthier.pdf

[8] https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/eclipsing-bitcoin-nodes-with-bgp-interception-attacks/1965

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2014/08/07/bgp_bitcoin_mining_heist/

[10] https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/24/17275982/myetherwallet-hack-bgp-dns-hijacking-stolen-ethereum

[11] https://medium.com/s2wblog/post-mortem-of-klayswap-incident-through-bgp-hijacking-en-3ed7e33de600

[12] www.coinbase.com/blog/celer-bridge-incident-analysis

[13] https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/v2-p2p-transport/

[14] https://geti2p.net/en/

[15] https://asmap.org

[16] https://peer.observer

[13] https://github.com/asmap/kartograf

This post The Core Issue: Your Node Vs. The Digital Wilderness first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Julien Urraca, Fabian Jahr, 0xb10c and CedArctic.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rate steady, maintaining the federal funds target range at 3.50% to 3.75%. Bitcoin price is fighting to hold $70,000 amid a complex backdrop of elevated inflation, slowing job growth, and war in the Middle East. 

The decision marked the second consecutive FOMC meeting with no change in borrowing costs and followed a pause that began after three rate cuts last year.

Bitcoin price responded to the announcement with a drop in trading, changing hands around $70,500, down 3.6% over the previous 24 hours, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro. The cryptocurrency had flirted with $76,000 last week, reaching its highest level in over a month, but has since retraced as investors weighed inflation data and global uncertainties.

Voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee were split for a sixth consecutive policy meeting. Eleven supported holding rates steady, while Fed Governor Stephen Miran dissented, advocating a 25-basis-point cut. 

In its statement, the FOMC noted that “inflation remains somewhat elevated” and that job gains have remained low, even as the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4% in February. The Fed emphasized a data-dependent approach to future adjustments, signaling that any decision will rely on incoming economic information.

The backdrop for the Fed’s policy deliberations included the ongoing war involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran, which has pushed energy prices higher. On Wednesday, Bitcoin price fell in tandem with U.S. stocks following reports that Israel struck the South Pars gas field in Iran.

“Uncertainty about the economic outlook remains elevated,” the FOMC said. “The implications of developments in the Middle East for the U.S. economy are uncertain.”

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell discussed the implications of rising energy prices at a press conference. 

He said, “Near term measures of inflation expectations have risen in recent weeks, likely reflecting the substantial rise in oil prices caused by the supply disruptions in the Middle East.” 

He added that it is “too soon to know” the full economic impact of the conflict and that policymakers would continue to monitor data closely.

Bitcoin price reacts to tariffs, rate expectations

Powell also highlighted the influence of tariffs on consumer prices, noting that “some big chunk of that, between a half and three-quarters, is actually tariffs.” 

He described the current federal funds rate range as within neutral territory and emphasized the importance of central bank independence. 

“Independence is what allows us to do our jobs, and stable prices is half of our mandate, it’s one of our two mandates – maximum employment being the other,” he said.

Bitcoin price markets have historically been sensitive to interest rate expectations, as lower rates tend to make cryptocurrencies more attractive relative to traditional assets. 

Analysts suggest that the combination of higher energy costs, persistent inflation, and geopolitical uncertainty has prompted investors to reduce exposure to riskier assets, including Bitcoin.

Oil prices continued to climb Wednesday, with Brent crude rising 3.8% to $107.38 per barrel following the attack on the South Pars field. 

Despite the recent pullback, Bitcoin price remains above $70,000 for now and has recorded gains of 1.6% over the past week. Traders are watching closely for any signs from Powell or the Fed that could influence future monetary policy.

Powell’s term as Fed Chair will conclude in May, with former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh expected to succeed him if confirmed. Powell’s future on the Board of Governors remains undecided. 

He said, “I have no intention of leaving the board until the investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality.”

At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is slightly above $71,000.

This post Bitcoin Price Fights For $70,000 As Federal Reserve Holds Rates first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

A dispute over more than $172 million in Bitcoin has moved forward in the UK’s High Court of Justice, where a man alleges his estranged wife stole thousands of coins from his hardware wallet using covert surveillance inside their home.

Court filings show that Ping Fai Yuen, a UK resident, held 2,323 Bitcoin in a Trezor hardware wallet in 2023. 

On Aug. 2 of that year, the full balance was transferred without his knowledge. The funds were later split across 71 separate addresses through a series of transactions. No movement has been recorded since Dec. 21, 2023.

Yuen claims his wife, Fun Yung Li, obtained access to the wallet’s recovery phrase, which can be used to recreate the wallet and move funds. 

The filings allege she recorded him inside their home to capture the phrase, possibly with help from her sister, Lai Yung Li, who is also named as a defendant.

According to the claim, Yuen had been warned by his daughter in July 2023 that Li was attempting to access his Bitcoin. 

He then installed audio recording equipment in the residence. The recordings are cited as key evidence. In one excerpt referenced in court, Li is alleged to have said, “The Bitcoin has transferred to me” and “take all of it.”

The filings also describe a recording from July 29, 2023 in which Li allegedly discussed camera placement and the location where Yuen stored his wallet credentials. The claim states she was “covertly recording” him in an effort to obtain access.

After discovering the transfer, Yuen confronted Li and assaulted her. He was arrested and later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault.

Police opened an investigation into the alleged theft and arrested Li in 2023. Officers seized 10 crypto cold wallets during a search, including several linked to Yuen. Authorities later released Li after a no comment interview. The police have since stated they will take no further action without new evidence.

In November 2025, Yuen sought a proprietary asset preservation injunction. He asked the court to confirm his ownership of the Bitcoin, freeze Li’s crypto holdings, and order the return of the assets or an equivalent sum in British pounds.

‘Damning’ evidence of bitcoin theft

In a judgment following a March 2 hearing, Justice Cotter said Yuen’s case shows a strong likelihood of success. He pointed to the warning from Yuen’s daughter, the audio transcripts, and the discovery of equipment capable of accessing the wallet.

“The evidence is that he was warned of what the First Defendant was seeking to do, the transcripts are damning,” Cotter wrote.

The judge also cited Occam’s razor, the principle that the simplest explanation with the fewest assumptions is often the most likely. He said that this straightforward account aligns with the available evidence, and noted that Li has had the opportunity to present her version of events but has not done so in the proceedings.

Cotter added that the volatility of Bitcoin supports the need for a swift trial, as the value of the disputed assets may shift during the course of litigation.

The case is expected to test how English courts handle ownership and recovery claims tied to digital assets.

This post Till Death or Seed Phrase: Woman Accused of Spying on Husband, Stealing $172 Million in Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

A Canadian crypto entrepreneur survived a kidnapping attempt Monday night on one of Madrid’s busiest nightlife streets, after witnesses alerted police and helped foil the attack.

The incident occurred at approximately 11 p.m. near the intersection of Calle Claudio Coello and Calle Jorge Juan in the Salamanca district, a hub of high-end restaurants and bars. 

The victim had just left Lobito de Mar, the restaurant owned by chef Dani García, when three men forcibly removed him from the street, pepper-sprayed him, and threw him into a Ford Transit van.

Several pedestrians and residents on nearby balconies immediately called authorities. Spanish National Police tracked the vehicle to Ronda de Toledo, about 15 minutes from the scene, and arrested two of the attackers. One suspect escaped and remains at large, according to reports.

Police identified the arrested suspects as Serbian men, ages 33 and 45, both with no prior criminal record.

Investigators say the attackers had planned the abduction to extract the victim’s cryptocurrency passwords and gain access to his digital assets. The suspects also attempted to steal the Canadian’s €100,000 luxury watch.

Authorities determined the kidnappers had followed the businessman from Barcelona to Madrid, where he had traveled to finalize a cryptocurrency deal. 

The van used in the crime had an altered license plate, rented specifically for the abduction, and contained plastic zip ties and sedative pills, suggesting a premeditated scheme. GPS data recovered from the vehicle indicated the suspects intended to transport the victim to Petrer, a town in Alicante.

Inside the van, the victim was left alone while police focused on detaining the suspects. He freed himself from the zip ties and flagged down a taxi, which took him to La Princesa Hospital for treatment of injuries sustained during the initial assault. Police recovered firearms from the van during their investigation.

Be careful with your crypto

The kidnapping aligns with a recent rise in physical attacks targeting cryptocurrency holders across Europe. France, for example, has recorded 11 similar incidents so far in 2026, reflecting a trend of criminals seeking direct access to digital assets rather than traditional bank accounts.

Security experts refer to such attacks as “wrench attacks,” in which criminals attempt to obtain wallet seed phrases or private keys through coercion or violence. 

Authorities warn that cryptocurrency entrepreneurs are increasingly at risk due to the digital and highly liquid nature of their assets.

Police continue to search for the third suspect and have appealed to the public for information. 

The investigation remains open, with officers examining surveillance footage and digital evidence to determine whether the plot involved additional collaborators or extended surveillance beyond the two confirmed attackers.

This post Zip Ties, Sleeping Pills and Pepper Spray: Canadian Crypto Millionaire Targeted in Foiled Madrid Kidnapping first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Crypto exchange Kraken has suspended its plans for an initial public offering, sources familiar with the matter told CoinDesk. 

The company’s parent, Payward, had filed a confidential draft S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025. The filing valued Kraken at $20 billion, following an $800 million funding round that included a $200 million investment from Citadel Securities.

Kraken had planned to go public this year but now faces a market environment marked by falling crypto prices and weaker trading volumes. The downturn has prompted many digital asset companies to reconsider timing and structure for public listings.

Last year saw a surge in crypto IPOs, with at least 11 companies, including Circle, Bullish, and Gemini, raising a combined $14.6 billion. 

So far in 2026, only crypto custodian BitGo has listed publicly, and its shares have declined 45%, highlighting the risks for new entrants.

Kraken has not ruled out a future IPO but appears unlikely to pursue one until market conditions stabilize. 

A company spokesperson reiterated the November announcement and declined further comment.

Kraken’s master account

Earlier this month, Kraken secured a master account with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, making it the first crypto-native firm to access the Fed’s core payment infrastructure.

The approval gives Kraken Financial direct entry into Fed payment systems, including Fedwire, a real-time network that handles trillions of dollars in daily transfers. 

This allows the firm to settle dollar transactions without relying on intermediary banks, streamlining operations for large customers.

Kraken’s master account does not provide all traditional banking privileges: it will not earn interest on reserves or access the Fed’s lending facilities. Nonetheless, the move represents a breakthrough for crypto firms, which have historically faced repeated rejections in efforts to connect to the central bank’s payment rails.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming called the approval a “watershed milestone” for digital assets. 

Other firms, including Ripple and Custodia Bank, have applied for master accounts, though approval has been uneven. 

Kraken’s success is a sign the Fed may explore “skinny” master accounts, granting crypto institutions limited access to payment rails without full bank benefits, signaling cautious but growing acceptance of crypto in mainstream finance

Under such a framework, crypto firms could connect to settlement systems while remaining outside certain capital and reserve regimes applied to depository institutions. 

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This post Kraken Pauses IPO Due to Market Uncertainty: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Boltz Exchange launched USDT Swaps on March 18, 2026, introducing atomic, non-custodial swaps between sats on the Lightning Network and USDT on Arbitrum-based networks via USDT0.

The integration relies on USDT0, an omnichain version of Tether built on LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard. USDT0 concentrates liquidity into a single token primarily on Arbitrum, eliminating the need for Boltz to build separate liquidity pools and integrations across dozens of USDT chains like Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, Rootstock, and others. This approach delivers seamless swaps to and from USDT to Bitcoiners that do not care to understand the complexities of blockchain bridge networks. While giving DEFI a direct path to lightning payments, without counterparty risk. 

Users also gain practical access to the world’s leading stablecoin, while sidestepping custody risks from centralized exchanges or anonymous “trust me bro” swap services, as well as the privacy trade-offs of KYC-heavy platforms. Business applications include topping up crypto debit cards that natively support USDT by converting Lightning sats in seconds, receiving Lightning payments when clients or counterparties send USDT, or merchants accepting USDT inflows but settling revenue in Lightning sats on their preferred terms—all without relinquishing control of funds or trusting third parties at any point. Its all open source.

Atomic swaps ensure trustless, simultaneous execution of trades across different blockchains or layers, preventing one party from defaulting after receiving assets. In traditional swaps, especially cross-chain, users face timing risks where one side could claim funds without delivering the other. Atomic swaps resolve this through cryptographic commitments (like hash preimages) and conditional claims: both legs of the trade either complete together or fail entirely, reverting funds to their original owners. Boltz achieves this for Lightning and USDT by routing through tBTC, Threshold’s permissionless ERC20 Bitcoin wrapper on Arbitrum. The flow is Lightning to tBTC via an atomic Boltz swap, then to USDT0 via a DEX swap akin to those on Uniswap, stitched into one irreversible transaction by the Router contract on Arbitrum. Gas abstraction removes the need for ETH on Arbitrum, making the process seamless for Bitcoin-native users.

Boltz plans to expand USDT Swaps across all currently supported Bitcoin layers, including on-chain BTC, Liquid, Rootstock, and Arkade, broadening the utility for businesses and individuals holding Bitcoin in various forms. Future updates will also incorporate USDT0’s Legacy Mesh, which is expected to enable direct support for additional chains such as Tron and Solana. Tron currently holds the largest USDT supply at approximately $83.9 billion according to Tether’s March 17, 2026 transparency report, underscoring the demand for eventual integration on high-volume networks beyond the initial OFT-focused deployment.

This post Boltz Exchange Launches Atomic USDT Swaps for Lightning Network Users first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

U.S. Senators are pressing lawmakers to advance legislation aimed at clarifying Bitcoin and broader crypto market structure.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis emphasized urgency in remarks today at the D.C. Blockchain Summit today, saying, “This may be our only chance to get market structure done. I can’t be any clearer: The time for clarity is now.” 

She confirmed that the Banking Committee plans to mark up the bill in April, after the Easter recess.

“We really are going to get it out of the Banking Committee in April,” she added.

Lummis also addressed a potential compromise on stablecoin yield, hinted at by Sen. Tim Scott yesterday. “We think we’ve got it,” she said, though she acknowledged she has not seen the negotiated language herself. 

She noted banks remain cautious: “We’ve got to get the banks to swallow hard…. Gosh the banks got really dug in on this. But they’re gonna get there.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer echoed the call for speed yesterday, warning that “time is not our friend” and urging passage of market structure legislation before Easter. 

The White House’s Patrick Witt is expected to provide further updates on the bill’s progress later today.

The bill is gaining momentum

Efforts to establish the regulatory framework for the U.S. cryptocurrency market are gaining momentum. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said a revised draft, focused on stablecoins, could be introduced this week. 

The bill aims to balance innovation with financial stability, particularly regarding yield-bearing stablecoins, which have become a central discussion point.

Key lawmakers, including Angela Alsobrooks, Thom Tillis, and White House official Patrick Witt, have contributed to refining provisions on digital assets. Broader negotiations address political oversight, compliance standards, and balanced representation within regulatory bodies.

DeFi and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations are also under review. Mark Warner is advocating for stronger AML safeguards, with proposals for enhanced know-your-customer (KYC) requirements to improve transparency and prevent illicit activity.

If finalized, the bill could create a comprehensive regulatory structure for the crypto market. Observers see the stablecoin-focused draft as a major step forward, providing clarity for digital assets while maintaining bipartisan support

In the past, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has pressed lawmakers to act on the legislation, saying the United States must secure clear market structure rules before the end of the spring legislative window.

This post US Senators Urge Swift Action on Bitcoin, Crypto Market Structure Bill first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Breez, a lightning service provider and Bitcoin software lab, has introduced Passkey Login into its Breez SDK. The feature allows developers to build self-custodial wallets that use passkeys for authentication and key derivation, eliminating the traditional seed phrase requirement during normal use. 

Seed phrase support remains available for users who prefer it, keeping backwards compatibility with industry standards, but removing the “speed bump” in Bitcoin wallets, which prompts users to back up their 12 words. 

Breez explained the rationale behind this new feature in a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine: “The seed phrase has been a barrier to self-custody since day one. It’s what scares normies away from keeping their own bitcoin, and it’s a legitimate reason why people accept the counterparty risk of exchanges and custodial apps.” Adding that “Passkey Login doesn’t eliminate the tradeoffs of self-custody, but it reframes them around something people already understand and use, namely the same biometric authentication that protects their banking app and their password manager. For most users, that’s a much more intuitive security model than a piece of paper in a drawer.”

Passkeys: Per-Site Key Pairs in Modern Hardware

Passkeys — a fairly new security standard that is gaining broad adoption online — are cryptographic credentials based on the FIDO2 WebAuthn standard, jointly promoted by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and the FIDO Alliance since 2022. Each passkey consists of a unique public-private key pair generated for a specific website or application.

The private key remains stored in the secure element or similar hardware on the user’s device, such as Apple’s Secure Enclave, Android’s Titan chip, Windows TPM, external security keys like YubiKey or the user’s password manager. 

Normal online Passkeys resemble the original Bitcoin wallet.dat file introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in his early releases of the Bitcoin client, where private keys are stored locally to the user’s device, while public keys are shared with third parties. 

However, the FIDO2 standard implements this private-public key idea in a more standardised and modern way. Websites send a challenge to the user, referencing the user’s known public key for that account. The challenge message is signed by the user’s private key, authenticating their identity in a privacy-preserving way. Each service gets a different public key for the same user, so data compromised on one website does not leak data that can be used to access other websites, nor does it contain any user-identifying data.

FIDO2 is now widely adopted, it leverages device secure elements, integrates with password managers (e.g., iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager), browsers, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) WebAuthn API. Authentication occurs via challenge-response signing, with the private key bound to the domain to resist phishing.

Passkeys support biometric unlock (Face ID, fingerprint, PIN) and sync across devices within an ecosystem (e.g., via iCloud or Google)—over a billion activations reported by the FIDO Alliance as of mid-2025, with support on major platforms and many top websites.

FIDO2 was not Good Enough for Bitcoin Wallets

Standard passkeys excel at authentication (proving identity to a service) but were missing key functionality needed by the modern Bitcoin industry. 

Bitcoin self-custody typically relies on a single source of entropy (seed phrase) to generate all addresses and keys in a deterministic way, via standards like BIP-39. Users expect those 12 words alone to be enough to recover all balances and accounts on a Bitcoin wallet. The Passkey standard needed to be extended to support this use case. 

Breez’s Solution: Leveraging the PRF Extension

Breez addresses this by using the Pseudo-Random Function (PRF) extension in WebAuthn Level 3. PRF enables a passkey to produce a deterministic cryptographic output for any given input during authentication. 

As described in Breez’s announcement materials, “That’s what the PRF extension of WebAuthn solves, and it’s the key ingredient in Passkey Login. PRF is a newer capability, part of the WebAuthn Level 3 spec, that lets your passkey produce a deterministic cryptographic output for any given input. Same passkey, same input, same output. Always. The passkey never leaves your device’s secure enclave.”

Device Loss and Recovery

If a device is lost, recovery depends on the platform used to store the passkey. Synced passkeys — via iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, etc — restore on a new device after regaining access to the associated account. 

Breez provides an optional backwards-compatible path: users can export a normal 12-word, BIP-39 mnemonic for their wallet, so they can recover their account in other Bitcoin wallets, following industry standards. The press release adds that “Passkeys also aren’t fully interoperable across platforms yet. If you ever need to move to a platform or wallet that doesn’t support passkeys, you have a standard seed phrase to fall back on.”

The full technical specification for Passkey Login is public, and a reference app called Glow demonstrates the feature. Breez positions this as a step toward making Bitcoin self-custody more accessible by aligning with familiar biometric authentication used in banking and password managers, while preserving non-custodial control. Developers integrating the Breez SDK can now offer onboarding without the traditional “write down these words” step for supported environments.

The full technical specification for Passkey Login is public, and our reference app Glow is already running it, and it’s now available for all the Breez SDK devs to use.  

This post Breez SDK Launches Passkey Login for Seedless Bitcoin Wallets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

U.S. regulators took a decisive step toward reshaping crypto oversight yesterday, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission jointly issuing new guidance that states most digital assets are not securities.

The 68-page interpretation, released Tuesday, outlines how federal securities laws apply to cryptocurrencies and introduces a formal classification system for different types of tokens. The move marks a shift in tone and policy from prior years, when regulators often relied on enforcement actions and broad interpretations of securities law.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins framed the change as a return to clarity and statutory limits. 

“After more than a decade of uncertainty, this interpretation will provide market participants with a clear understanding of how the Commission treats crypto assets,” he said. Speaking at the DC Blockchain Summit in Washington, Atkins added, “We’re not the ‘securities and everything commission’ anymore.”

At the center of the guidance is a “token taxonomy” that divides digital assets into several categories. According to the agencies, stablecoins, digital commodities, and “digital tools” are not securities. 

Digital collectibles, including tokenized representations of art, media, or cultural items, also fall outside securities classification.

Only one category, described as “digital securities,” remains subject to traditional securities laws. These are assets that mirror existing financial instruments, such as equities or debt, but are issued and traded using blockchain infrastructure.

The framework attempts to resolve a long-running debate over how to apply the SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. standard, known as the Howey Test, to crypto markets. That test determines whether a transaction qualifies as an investment contract based on expectations of profit derived from the efforts of others.

Under the new interpretation, a digital asset that is not inherently a security can become one if it is marketed as an investment in a common enterprise with promises of profit tied to managerial efforts. The guidance also clarifies that such a designation is not permanent. Once those promises are fulfilled or no longer relevant, the asset may cease to be treated as a security.

The agencies also addressed specific crypto activities that have drawn regulatory scrutiny. Protocol mining, staking, and certain airdrops do not constitute securities transactions under the new framework. The guidance states that airdrops, in particular, may not meet the “investment of money” requirement under the Howey Test.

The CFTC endorsed the interpretation and aligned its approach with the SEC, signaling closer coordination between the two regulators. CFTC Chair Mike Selig said the joint effort reflects a broader push toward regulatory “harmonization” and provides a clearer path for market participants.

The announcement stands in contrast to the approach taken under former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, whose tenure was defined by enforcement actions against major crypto firms and a view that many tokens qualified as securities. Industry participants often criticized that strategy as “regulation by enforcement,” arguing it created uncertainty and limited innovation.

The new guidance acknowledges those concerns, stating that prior efforts did not fully address the unique characteristics of digital asset markets. It positions the taxonomy as a foundation for a more tailored regulatory framework that can support both compliance and technological development.

More crypto proposals are coming

Despite its scope, the interpretation does not carry the force of formal rulemaking. Atkins said the SEC plans to introduce additional proposals in the coming weeks, including an “innovation exemption” aimed at giving crypto firms more flexibility while maintaining investor protections.

Lawmakers in Congress are also working on legislation to establish a comprehensive market structure for digital assets. Regulators indicated that statutory changes will be needed to make the new approach permanent.

For now, the guidance sends a clear signal that U.S. regulators are redefining their stance on crypto. By narrowing the definition of what constitutes a security and outlining specific categories, the SEC and CFTC have moved to provide the clarity that industry participants have sought for years.

The shift may reshape how crypto businesses operate in the United States, with regulators emphasizing defined boundaries over broad enforcement.

This post SEC, CFTC Declare Most Crypto Assets Not Securities in Landmark Guidance first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.