Tag: Bank

Augustus Wins OCC Approval for AI and Stablecoin Bank Charter

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Peter Thiel-backed payments startup Augustus received conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a US national bank built around artificial intelligence and stablecoin-based payments. The approval, announced Monday, would allow Augustus to expand its existing European banking operations into the US, as financial firms increasingly compete to modernize cross-border settlement infrastructure using tokenized dollars and blockchain-based payment systems. The company describes Augustus National Bank as “the first clearing bank for the AI era,” built on an AI and stablecoin-native core designed to…

Swiss Bitcoin Reserve Effort Withdrawn After Resistance From Central Bank

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Campaign founder Yves Bennaim isn’t giving up. Even after his group failed to gather enough signatures to force a Swiss national referendum on Bitcoin reserves, Bennaim said another push could follow. Related Reading The Swiss direct democracy system requires campaigns to hit a signature threshold within 18 months — his team didn’t make it. A Bold Proposal That Didn’t Get Off The Ground The initiative would have required the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin alongside gold and foreign currencies. Supporters argued that adding Bitcoin to the SNB’s reserves would…

Swiss National Bank Bitcoin Reserve Push Fails as Campaign Falls Short

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A campaign to require the Swiss National Bank to hold Bitcoin is set to lapse after failing to gather enough signatures to trigger a national referendum, Reuters reported. The initiative sought to amend Switzerland’s constitution to require the central bank to hold Bitcoin (BTC) alongside gold and foreign currency assets, but organizers said they collected only about half of the 100,000 signatures required under Swiss law. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has repeatedly opposed adding cryptocurrencies to its holdings, saying digital assets do not meet its reserve management standards due…

Stablecoin Industry Opposes Bank of England’s Unhosted Wallet Ban

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As the UK considers options to attract and develop the crypto industry at home, the Bank of England (BOE) has put forward several proposals for how it might regulate stablecoins to mitigate perceived financial risks. These have included a ban on custodial wallets for stablecoin holdings. The UK crypto industry, from stablecoin issuers to Bitcoin hardliners, has predictably taken issue with the ban. “This would be a serious misstep for the UK, risking long-term damage that is hard to unwind,” said Benoit Marzouk, CEO of stablecoin issuer tGBP told Cointelegraph.…

Bank of Italy Deputy Governor Urges EU to Evaluate Tokenized SEPA Payments

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European financial institutions should assess whether the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) can be extended into tokenized payments, Bank of Italy Deputy Governor Chiara Scotti said, as policymakers look for ways to keep euro-denominated settlement central to digital finance. Scotti called a tokenized extension of SEPA an “important area for reflection” during a Monday speech at the Digital Assets and Monetary Policy Transmission workshop in Rome, saying Europe’s existing payments framework offers scale, shared standards and interoperability. Her comments come as the Eurosystem prepares a pilot for Pontes, a distributed…

North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple: Asia Express

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Everything that happened in crypto news in Asia over the past seven days: Asia Express. In this issue North Korea denies cybercrime claims amid crypto hack allegations Upbit’s bank partner tests remittances with Ripple South Korean industry heavyweights test blockchain remittances Hong Kong flags fake stablecoins impersonating licensed issuers Bitcoin reserve proposal reaches Taiwan policymakers Startale adds private transfers to its app on Sony’s blockchain Japan warns of crypto use in property transactions Canaan expands Tether partnership with new hardware deal Bybit removed from Malaysia’s alert list North Korea denies…

Morgan Stanley says Bitcoin on bank balance sheets

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Morgan Stanley head of digital asset strategy Amy Oldenburg said at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference in Las Vegas that Bitcoin on US bank balance sheets is “not totally out of the question,” citing 16 months of regulatory progress while warning that Basel capital rules and Fed guidance still stand in the way. Summary The Basel Committee’s 1,250% risk-weight on unbacked crypto makes direct Bitcoin balance-sheet exposure economically unviable for major banks under current rules. Morgan Stanley’s MSBT launched April 8 as the first US bank-affiliated Bitcoin ETP, hitting $100M in…

XRP Bulls Eye Breakout As Ripple Unveils 13,000 Bank Connections Worldwide

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Ripple’s own top engineer has thrown cold water on one of the XRP community’s most persistent theories — that the company’s 1,700 non-disclosure agreements are hiding secret, large-scale adoption plans. Related Reading Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz said those NDAs are standard business practice and that claims of massive undisclosed events are “almost always completely false.” No coordinated government plans. No hidden catalysts. Just routine confidentiality agreements. What The Numbers Actually Show That clarification comes at an odd moment — right as Ripple is touting figures that have the XRP…

Brazil Central Bank Bars Virtual Assets From eFX Payments

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Brazil’s central bank, Banco Central do Brasil (BCB), has barred the use of virtual assets in certain regulated international payment and transfer services, tightening rules for cross-border payment providers operating under the country’s eFX framework. On Thursday, BCB published Resolution BCB No. 561, amending existing rules for eFX, a regulated category covering international payments and transfers. The resolution states that payments or receipts between an eFX provider and its foreign counterparty must be carried out exclusively through a foreign exchange transaction or movement in a non-resident Brazilian real account, with…

MiCA-licensed Banking Circle joins bank stablecoin settlement race in Europe

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Banking Circle’s stablecoin settlement launch follows its CASP approval, entering a crowded market with SocGen, Sygnum and a 12-bank euro stablecoin consortium. Luxembourg-based Banking Circle has launched stablecoin settlement services after receiving a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) license from Luxembourg’s financial regulator on April 15, expanding into regulated fiat-to-stablecoin and stablecoin-to-fiat settlement for institutional clients. The rollout includes support for Circle’s USDC, Paxos’ USDG and Banking Circle’s own euro stablecoin EURI, expanding the bank’s digital asset settlement capabilities beyond its initial EURI launch in August 2024. In a Monday…