Odaily Planet Daily News David Marcus, former president of PayPal, said that he firmly believed that Bitcoin was the only neutral form of Internet currency. （Cointelegraph）
On February 13th, according to The Block, US President Trump reached a prisoner exchange agreement with Russia, transferring former BTC-e operator Alexander Vinnik to Russia in exchange for American teacher Marc Fogel. Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017, and both the United States and Russia have requested extradition. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison in France for money laundering and extradited to the United States in 2022, facing 21 charges including international money laundering and operating an unlicensed payment business. In May 2024, Vinnik pleaded guilty in San Francisco Federal Court to conspiracy to launder money.
The Liquity team revealed Wednesday it is currently investigating a “potential issue” regarding its Liquity V2 Stability Pools and urged users to close their positions. Users can still withdraw collateral assets and the platform’s USD-pegged stablecoin BOLD remains fully backed, the team said.
President Donald Trump is just about done naming the key figures he's seeking to get into financial regulation posts that will direct the future oversight of the crypto industry, now including lawyer Jonathan Gould as a nominee to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that oversees U.S. national banks.With a widely circulated White House nominations document showing Trump has settled on Gould, a partner at law firm Jones Day who was a top lawyer at the OCC and a former crypto executive, and the president will reportedly nominate the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Jonathan McKernan to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the slate is almost clear.See all newslettersGould had briefly worked as the chief legal officer for blockchain technology company Bitfury after he left the OCC as senior deputy comptroller and chief counsel during the first Trump administration. At Bitfury, he worked for CEO Brian Brooks, who Trump had once installed at the OCC as an acting comptroller and also tried to make it permanent. At the OCC, Brooks worked to open U.S. banking for crypto firms, and he elevated Anchorage Digital as the first and only crypto bank chartered by the agency. Now the industry will find out if Gould will follow in those footsteps."For crypto, we believe Gould could seek to revive the concept of a limited-purpose national bank charter," said Jaret Seiberg, a policy analyst at TD Cowen, in a note to clients on Wednesday. "That could lead to banks that specialize in crypto. We also believe he would permit banks to get more involved with crypto including stablecoins."Rodney Hood, a former Republican chief of the National Credit Union Association, had been placed as Trump's temporary comptroller and would be replaced by Gould if he wins his Senate confirmation. Temporary Republican replacements like Hood are now leading most of the financial regulators, including banking agencies, the FDIC and OCC; the pair of markets regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; and the consumer watchdog CFPB.At the CFPB, the Trump administration's effort to gut the regulator with the assignment of his budget director, Russ Vought, as its interim leader has drawn vigorous protests from congressional Democrats. Now he's announced the name he wants to eventually replace Vought there: McKernan, a Republican member of the FDIC. McKernan had served as a staffer for former Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican who had led an early (failed) charge to get stablecoins regulated in the U.S.Ian Katz, a veteran financial-regulation analyst in Washington, noted the "conventional" pick of Gould for the OCC and the other recent choices for permanent chiefs of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that probably won't ruffle feathers among the U.S. senators that will evaluate their nominations. The relatively sedate choices seem to hew closely to Trump's model for financial regulators during his first term: No dramatic surprises. Unlike some of Trump's personnel decisions in his cabinet and other agencies, the choices are experienced and are absent political firebrands, including the pick of longtime securities consultant and former Commissioner Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. Virtually all of the names — temporary and those nominated for permanent roles — have crypto backgrounds or have demonstrated support.The Senate must still confirm all of these nominees, and that process often takes months into an incoming president's first year. Sometimes the confirmations fail entirely, and agencies are left with permanently acting heads, like the OCC was during the Biden administration.Meanwhile, Trump also picked former Commissioner Brian Quintenz to run the CFTC, where sitting Commissioner Caroline Pham has been holding down the fort and making major agency changes as acting chairman. So far, Pham and other acting agency heads have already begun work to overhaul Biden-era crypto policy.
In traditional finance, the "risk-free rate,” the interest rate an investor can expect to earn on an investment that carries zero risk, serves as a fundamental benchmark for all investment decisions. Today, DeFi has quietly established its own equivalent: the base rate for lending stablecoins. Through battle-tested protocols like Morpho and Aave, lenders can now access double-digit yields that substantially outperform traditional fixed-income instruments, all while maintaining remarkable transparency and efficiency.The emergence of this new base rate isn’t just a passing trend — it’s a structural shift that challenges traditional finance by demonstrating the market-driven sustainability of high-yield, low-risk on-chain money markets. At times, yields on major platforms like Morpho have reached 12-15% APY for USDC lending, significantly outpacing the 4-5% offered by U.S. Treasuries. This premium exists not from excess risk-taking or complex financial engineering, but from genuine market demand for stablecoin borrowing.Crypto Long & ShortSign up hereSee all newslettersThe rise of high-yield farming strategies, especially those involving Ethena’s synthetic dollar (sUSDe) product, has been a key driver behind elevated stablecoin lending rates. Over the past year, Ethena’s USDe and staked USDe (sUSDe) have delivered yields in the 20-30% APY range, fueling substantial demand for stablecoin borrowing. This demand comes from leveraged traders aiming to capture the spread created by these high yields.What sets Ethena apart is its ability to capture funding fees traditionally claimed by centralized exchanges. By offering sUSDe, Ethena allows DeFi participants to tap into profits generated from traders paying high funding rates to go long on major assets like ETH, BTC and SOL. This process democratizes access to these profits, enabling DeFi participants to benefit simply by holding sUSDe.The increasing demand for sUSDe drives more capital into the stablecoin economy, which, in turn, raises the base yield rates on platforms like Aave and Morpho. This dynamic not only benefits lenders but also strengthens the broader DeFi ecosystem by increasing yield and liquidity in the stablecoin lending market.While double-digit yields might raise eyebrows, the risk profile of these lending opportunities has matured significantly. Leading money market protocols have demonstrated resilience through multiple market cycles, with robust liquidation mechanisms and time-tested smart contracts. The primary risks — smart contract vulnerability and stablecoin depegging — are well understood and can be managed through portfolio diversification across protocols and stablecoin types.Annual Yield Comparison - Traditional Fixed Income vs. DeFi Lending Returns30-day average as of February 1, 2025Bloomberg Terminalvaults.fyiFor wealth managers and financial advisors, these developments present both an opportunity and a challenge. The ability to access stable, transparent yields that significantly outperform traditional fixed-income products demands attention. As the infrastructure for institutional participation in DeFi continues to improve, these yields may become increasingly relevant for income-focused portfolios. While yields are highly responsive to market cycles, especially funding rate dynamics, fluctuations are still common. However, the efficiency and transparency of on-chain money markets suggest that meaningful yield premiums over traditional alternatives could be sustainable in the long term.As DeFi infrastructure matures, these on-chain money markets may not only serve as a viable alternative to fixed-income products — they could become the new standard for transparent, risk-adjusted yields in the digital economy, leaving traditional finance to play catch-up.
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