Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s remarks on BTC during Monday’s Bank for International Settlements’ Innovation Summit garnered attention for his comparison of the asset to gold. However, Powell has previously made similar remarks, signaling that the Chairman’s views on BTC remain unaltered despite the asset’s growth. 

THETA's move into the Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap makes it the 5th network with smart contract capabilities in that group. This coincides with elevated recent Google search volume for the term “smart contract.”

With the firm agreeing to pay a penalty of USD 6.5 million and not admitting fault, this is one of several instances regulators have shown they’re willing to forgive behavior reflective of the gray regulatory history of crypto in certain situations, for certain firms.

On Monday, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) DeFi venue PancakeSwap had its site “compromised by a third party” asking users to enter crypto wallet private keys while over the weekend hackers stole digital art from NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway. The episode highlights the novel security challenges faced by new crypto applications. 

Binance allegedly allowed U.S. residents to trade derivatives that violate local rules, Bloomberg reports. This is confirmation that crypto, particularly unlicensed foreign derivative venues, remain in the focus of U.S. regulators.

PayPal announced that it’s acquiring Tel Aviv-based crypto custody startup Curv in order to “accelerate and expand its initiatives to support cryptocurrencies and digital assets.” The acquisition reflects the challenges non-crypto firms face in participating in the space without the support of crypto-native firms.

While that footprint is significant, BTC critics on this front simplify the issue, fail to draw comparisons to other commodities, and overlook the asset’s potential contribution to sustainability. 

Gensler’s confirmation follows remarks from SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, in which she criticized “the lack of clarity around crypto.”

Yesterday, several outlets reported that the government of the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia is planning to shut down crypto mining as part of broader efforts to meet energy efficiency standards. The move isn’t expected to have a significant impact on mining, which is increasingly distributed around the globe.

ADA’s rally comes ahead of the network’s March 1 “Mary” upgrade, described as introducing “native tokens [and] multi-asset support” on the network.