TRUMP tokenholders face steep losses as the first vesting unlock goes live on April 18, releasing 40 million tokens, worth roughly $309 million, into circulation at a 90% discount from its peak.

The unlocked tokens account for 20% of the current circulating supply and could introduce fresh volatility as a previously illiquid portion of the supply hits the market. According to CoinGecko, the TRUMP token price has fluctuated between $7.46 and $7.83 in the past 24 hours.

April 18 marks the first unlock event for the TRUMP token, with steady, smaller unlocks following from that date.

TRUMP emission schedule. Source: GetTrumpMemes

The TRUMP token is down 89.5% from its all-time high of $73.43 recorded on Jan. 19, just two days after launching ahead of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The token’s value collapsed in the weeks following its debut, with over 800,000 wallets suffering a total of $2 billion in losses, according to estimates from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis

Gains or losses are only realized upon sale, meaning holders won’t incur actual losses unless they choose to sell their tokens. According to the token’s website, the unlocked tokens will belong to the “Creators and CIC Digital LLC.”

Related: Donald Trump’s memecoin generated $350M for creators: Report

Who owns the TRUMP token supply?

According to the TRUMP token’s website, two organizations affiliated with Trump’s business umbrella own 80% of the token supply: CIC Digital LLC and Fight Fight Fight LLC.

A report from MarketWatch notes that CIC Digital, an affiliate of The Trump Organization, was placed in a trust by the time of Trump’s 2024 financial disclosures to the US Federal Election Commission. CIC Digital had previously been linked to Trump’s non-fungible token collections.

Related: What is TRUMP? Donald Trump’s billion-dollar memecoin

Fight Fight Fight LLC is another Trump-affiliated business. It is co-owned by CIC Digital and another company, Celebration Cards LLC, which was formed in Wyoming by Andrew Pierce. Fight Fight Fight LLC is synonymous with the Trump slogan “Fight Fight Fight,” which he shouted into a camera during an assassination attempt during a campaign rally.

The April 18 unlock represents a “cliff” — a large, one-time release of tokens. While there are other cliff unlocks ahead, many tokens will be released at a steadier pace. For example, between April 19 and 21, around 493,000 tokens will unlock daily, according to DropsTab.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken introduced foreign exchange (forex) perpetual futures contracts to its Kraken Pro platform on April 18, giving traders further exposure to global currency markets.

The first two perpetual forex futures available on the platform will be the euro-US dollar (EUR-USD) and the British pound-US dollar (GBP-USD) contracts, according to a company announcement.

Both contracts feature 20x leverage and no expiry date, meaning they do not have to be rolled or settled by a deadline, unlike traditional futures contracts, which have an expiry date.

Kraken’s move is the latest in a series of expansions from the company, as it seeks to blur the line between digital assets and traditional financial products — a trend reflected across the crypto industry.

EUR-USD price action. Source: TradingView

Related: Kraken secures restricted dealer registration in Canada

Kraken sinks its tentacles into TradFi markets

Kraken rolled out spot forex trading to clients worldwide except for the United States in March 2020.

The launch gave crypto traders access to nine major currency pairs on the platform, including the euro, US dollar, Canadian dollar, Japanese yen, pound, and Swiss franc pairs.

The crypto exchange in March signed an agreement to purchase NinjaTrader, a retail futures platform, for $1.5 billion.

The deal is expected to close during the first half of 2025 and will position Kraken to offer crypto futures trading to US residents.

Mastercard and Kraken partnered in April to release a crypto debit card that gives holders the ability to spend cryptocurrencies in standard retail transactions.

On April 14, the exchange introduced stock and ETF trading in select US states, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, Iowa, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Alabama and the District of Columbia.

Kraken is also reportedly eyeing a capital raise of up to $1 billion as the company explores going public, according to a Bloomberg report published in March.

If Kraken’s IPO plans materialize, the public offering will likely happen in the first quarter of 2026, Bloomberg reported.

Magazine: Crypto ‘more taboo than OnlyFans,’ says Violetta Zironi, who sold song for 1 BTC

Federal prosecutors said they will continue pursuing their case against Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, despite the US Justice Department issuing a memo suggesting a policy of abandoning “regulation by prosecution” related to digital assets.

In an April 18 filing in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, US Attorney for EDNY John Durham said his office had reviewed the April 7 DOJ memo issued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and intended to proceed with a trial against Karony.

The former SafeMoon CEO faces securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy charges for allegedly “divert[ing] and misappropriat[ing] millions of dollars’ worth” of the platform’s SFM token between 2021 and 2022.

April 18 notice that US prosecutors will continue to prosecute John Karony. Source: PACER

Karony, initially indicted in October 2023 under former US Attorney for EDNY Breon Peace, argued in February that his criminal trial should be delayed, hinting that securities laws enforcement under the Donald Trump presidency could see “significant changes.” The judge denied the motion and later ordered jury selection for the trial to begin on May 5. 

However, Karony’s legal team made its claims about securities laws under Trump potentially undergoing “policy changes” before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dismissed cases and dropped investigations into many crypto firms facing allegations of violating securities laws. Blanche’s April 7 memo also suggested that the DOJ under Trump would direct jurisdictions not to pursue many crypto enforcement cases.

Related: Democrats slam DOJ’s ‘grave mistake’ in disbanding crypto crime unit

“[T]he parties may learn within days or hours of the commencement of trial that DOJ no longer considers digital assets like SafeMoon to be ‘securities’ under the securities laws,” said Karony’s legal team on Feb. 5. “Worse, the parties may learn this during or shortly after a trial, half of whose charges rest on the government’s claim that SafeMoon is such a security.”

Crypto enforcement by the SEC and DOJ under Trump

Since being appointed acting SEC chair by Trump in January, Mark Uyeda has led the agency to drop cases against Ripple Labs, Coinbase, Kraken, and others. The SEC has also launched a crypto task force headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce to explore a regulatory framework for digital assets, and issued a memo saying memecoins were not securities.

The agency’s actions suggest a more permissive approach to digital assets than that under former chair Gary Gensler.

“By directing the SEC to abdicate its critical mission of investor protection, Mr. Trump is unnecessarily endangering our financial system,” said former SEC official John Reed Stark in an April 18 New York Times op-ed with Duke University lecturing fellow Lee Reiners. “Whether he is doing so to keep his promise to crypto-donors or in a zeal to cash in (or perhaps even both), that is a troubling development not just for investors and banks, but for all of us.”

Whether Trump’s appointees in the Justice Department intend to step in and move to halt Karony’s case, as the DOJ did in the corruption case with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, is unclear. At the time of publication, the former SafeMoon CEO was set to go to trial in May and has been free on a $3 million bond since February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Federal prosecutors said they will continue pursuing their case against Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, despite the US Justice Department issuing a memo suggesting a policy of abandoning “regulation by prosecution” related to digital assets.

In an April 18 filing in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, US Attorney for EDNY John Durham said his office had reviewed the April 7 DOJ memo issued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and intended to proceed with a trial against Karony.

The former SafeMoon CEO faces securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy charges for allegedly “divert[ing] and misappropriat[ing] millions of dollars’ worth” of the platform’s SFM token between 2021 and 2022.

April 18 notice that US prosecutors will continue to prosecute John Karony. Source: PACER

Karony, initially indicted in October 2023 under former US Attorney for EDNY Breon Peace, argued in February that his criminal trial should be delayed, hinting that securities laws enforcement under the Donald Trump presidency could see “significant changes.” The judge denied the motion and later ordered jury selection for the trial to begin on May 5. 

However, Karony’s legal team made its claims about securities laws under Trump potentially undergoing “policy changes” before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dismissed cases and dropped investigations into many crypto firms facing allegations of violating securities laws. Blanche’s April 7 memo also suggested that the DOJ under Trump would direct jurisdictions not to pursue many crypto enforcement cases.

Related: Democrats slam DOJ’s ‘grave mistake’ in disbanding crypto crime unit

“[T]he parties may learn within days or hours of the commencement of trial that DOJ no longer considers digital assets like SafeMoon to be ‘securities’ under the securities laws,” said Karony’s legal team on Feb. 5. “Worse, the parties may learn this during or shortly after a trial, half of whose charges rest on the government’s claim that SafeMoon is such a security.”

Crypto enforcement by the SEC and DOJ under Trump

Since being appointed acting SEC chair by Trump in January, Mark Uyeda has led the agency to drop cases against Ripple Labs, Coinbase, Kraken, and others. The SEC has also launched a crypto task force headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce to explore a regulatory framework for digital assets, and issued a memo saying memecoins were not securities.

The agency’s actions suggest a more permissive approach to digital assets than that under former chair Gary Gensler.

“By directing the SEC to abdicate its critical mission of investor protection, Mr. Trump is unnecessarily endangering our financial system,” said former SEC official John Reed Stark in an April 18 New York Times op-ed with Duke University lecturing fellow Lee Reiners. “Whether he is doing so to keep his promise to crypto-donors or in a zeal to cash in (or perhaps even both), that is a troubling development not just for investors and banks, but for all of us.”

Whether Trump’s appointees in the Justice Department intend to step in and move to halt Karony’s case, as the DOJ did in the corruption case with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, is unclear. At the time of publication, the former SafeMoon CEO was set to go to trial in May and has been free on a $3 million bond since February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Crypto investor sentiment took another significant hit this week after Mantra’s OM token collapsed by over 90% within hours on Sunday, April 13, triggering knee-jerk comparisons to previous black swan events such as the Terra-Luna collapse.

Elsewhere, Coinbase’s report for institutional investors added to concerns by highlighting that cryptocurrencies may be in a bear market until a recovery occurs in the third quarter of 2025.

Mantra OM token crash exposes “critical” liquidity issues in crypto

Mantra’s recent token collapse highlights an issue within the crypto industry of fluctuating weekend liquidity levels creating additional downside volatility, which may have exacerbated the token’s crash.

The Mantra (OM) token’s price collapsed by over 90% on Sunday, April 13, from roughly $6.30 to below $0.50, triggering market manipulation allegations among disillusioned investors, Cointelegraph reported.

While blockchain analysts are still piecing together the reasons behind the OM collapse, the event highlights some crucial issues for the crypto industry, according to Gracy Chen, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget.

“The OM token crash exposed several critical issues that we are seeing not just in OM, but also as an industry,” Chen said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction daily X show, adding:

“When it’s a token that’s too concentrated, the wealth concentration and the very opaque governance, together with sudden exchange inflows and outflows, […] combined with the forced liquidation during very low liquidity hours in our industry, created the big drop off.”Source: Cointelegraph

Continue reading

Crypto in a bear market, rebound likely in Q3 — Coinbase

A monthly market review by publicly traded US-based crypto exchange Coinbase shows that while the crypto market has contracted, it appears to be gearing up for a better quarter.

According to Coinbase’s April 15 monthly outlook for institutional investors, the altcoin market cap shrank by 41% from its December 2024 highs of $1.6 trillion to $950 billion by mid-April. BTC Tools data shows that this metric touched a low of $906.9 billion on April 9 and stood at $976.9 billion at the time of writing.

Venture capital funding to crypto projects has reportedly decreased by 50%–60% from 2021–22. In the report, Coinbase’s global head of research, David Duong, highlighted that a new crypto winter may be upon us.

“Several converging signals may be pointing to the start of a new ‘crypto winter’ as some extreme negative sentiment has set in due to the onset of global tariffs and the potential for further escalations,” he said.

Continue reading

Manta founder details attempted Zoom hack by Lazarus that used very real “legit faces”

Manta Network co-founder Kenny Li said he was targeted by a sophisticated phishing attack on Zoom that used live recordings of familiar people in an attempt to lure him to download malware. 

The meeting seemed real with the impersonated person’s camera on, but the lack of sound and a suspicious prompt to download a script raised red flags, Li said in an April 17 X post.

“I could see their legit faces. Everything looked very real. But I couldn’t hear them. It said my Zoom needs an update. But it asked me to download a script file. I immediately left.”

Li then asked the impersonator to verify themselves over a Telegram call, however, they didn’t comply and proceeded to erase all messages and block him soon after.

Source: Kenny Li

Li said the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group was behind the attack.

The Manta Network co-founder managed to screenshot his conversation with the attacker before the messages were deleted, during which Li initially suggested moving the call over to Google Meet.

Source: Kenny Li

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Li said he believed the live shots used in the video call were taken from past recordings of real team members.

“It didn’t seem AI-generated. The quality looked like what a typical webcam quality looks like.”

Continue reading

AI tokens, memecoins dominate crypto narratives in Q1 2025: CoinGecko

The cryptocurrency market is still recycling old narratives, with few new trends yet to emerge and replace the leading themes in the first quarter of 2025.

Artificial intelligence tokens and memecoins were the dominant crypto narratives in the first quarter of 2025, accounting for 62.8% of investor interest, according to a quarterly research report by CoinGecko. AI tokens captured 35.7% of global investor interest, overtaking the 27.1% share of memecoins, which remained in second place.

Out of the top 20 crypto narratives of the quarter, six were memecoin categories while five were AI-related.

AI tokens, memecoins, were leading crypto narratives in Q1 2025: CoinGecko

“Seems like we have yet to see another new narrative emerge and we are still following past quarters’ trends,” said Bobby Ong, the co-founder and chief operating officer of CoinGecko, in an April 17 X post. “I guess we are all tired from the same old trends repeating themselves.”

Continue reading

Crypto lending down 43% from 2021 highs, DeFi borrowing surges 959%

The crypto lending market’s size remains significantly down from its $64 billion high, but decentralized finance (DeFi) borrowing has made a more than 900% recovery from bear market lows.

Crypto lending enables borrowers to use their crypto holdings as collateral to obtain crypto or fiat loans, while lenders can use their holdings to generate interest.

The crypto lending market was down over 43%, from its all-time high of $64.4 billion in 2021 to $36.5 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, according to a Galaxy Digital research report published on April 14.

“The decline can be attributed to the decimation of lenders on the supply side and funds, individuals, and corporate entities on the demand side,” according to Zack Pokorny, research associate at Galaxy Digital.

Crypto lending key events. Source: Galaxy Research

The decline in the crypto lending market started in 2022 when centralized finance (CeFi) lenders Genesis, Celsius Network, BlockFi and Voyager filed for bankruptcy within two years as crypto valuations fell.

Their collective downfall led to an estimated 78% collapse in the size of the lending market, with CeFi lending losing 82% of its open borrows, according to the report.

Continue reading

DeFi market overview

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.

Decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium’s (RAY) token rose over 26% as the week’s biggest gainer, followed by the AB blockchain (AB) utility token, up over 19% on the weekly chart.

Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.

Bitcoin’s spot price could take a hit after the US Federal Reserve reported some of the worst manufacturing data in recent history, according to several cryptocurrency analysts.

On April 17, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index — a monthly survey of 250 US-based manufacturers — reported the sharpest declines in overall business activity since 2020. 

The data puts Bitcoin (BTC) “under short term pressure,” researchers at Bitunix, a crypto exchange, said in a post on the X platform. They added that Bitcoin could still see a “strong comeback” if its price holds above $83,000 per coin.  

As of April 18, Bitcoin has been trading at approximately $84,000 per coin, according to data from Google Finance. The Federal Reserve’s bearish report comes as factories brace for the impact of US President Donald Trump’s plans to impose sweeping tariffs on US imports, potentially raising production costs for manufacturers.

“[I]ndicators for general activity, new orders, and shipments all fell and turned negative… suggest[ing] subdued expectations for growth over the next six months,” the report said. 

Source: Felix Jauvin

Related: Trade tensions to speed institutional crypto adoption — Execs

Bad omen for crypto?

Analysts said the combination of rising prices and slowing production could deal a blow to financial markets, including cryptocurrencies. Rising prices limit central banks’ ability to support markets in a downturn. 

“Economic activity is falling off a cliff and any activity that remains, the prices are going up,” Felix Jauvin, a Blockworks macroeconomic analyst, said in a post on the X platform. 

It’s an “[a]bsolute worst scenario for policy makers here especially with no meaningful idea of how permanent tariffs will be,” he added.

Six-month outlook for key manufacturing indicators. Source: Derek Thompson

However, Bitcoin has been more resilient to recent macroeconomic shocks than stocks or other cryptocurrencies, Binance said in an April research report. 

Since Trump announced his tariff plans on April 2, Bitcoin has traded roughly flat after initially declining but more than 10%, Google Finance data shows. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 — an index of US stocks — is still down by around 7%. 

“Even in the wake of recent tariff announcements, BTC has shown some signs of resilience, holding steady or rebounding on days when traditional risk assets faltered,” Binance said. 

Trump initially sought to impose double-digit levies on virtually all foreign goods but later paused planned tariffs on certain countries. 

He still wants to place high taxes on many Chinese imports, causing concerns among crypto executives who fear a trade war could harm blockchain networks. 

Magazine: Crypto ‘more taboo than OnlyFans,’ says Violetta Zironi, who sold song for 1 BTC

Bitcoin’s spot price could take a hit after the US Federal Reserve reported some of the worst manufacturing data in recent history, according to several cryptocurrency analysts.

On April 17, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index — a monthly survey of 250 US-based manufacturers — reported the sharpest declines in overall business activity since 2020. 

The data puts Bitcoin (BTC) “under short term pressure,” researchers at Bitunix, a crypto exchange, said in a post on the X platform. They added that Bitcoin could still see a “strong comeback” if its price holds above $83,000 per coin.  

As of April 18, Bitcoin has been trading at approximately $84,000 per coin, according to data from Google Finance. The Federal Reserve’s bearish report comes as factories brace for the impact of US President Donald Trump’s plans to impose sweeping tariffs on US imports, potentially raising production costs for manufacturers.

“[I]ndicators for general activity, new orders, and shipments all fell and turned negative… suggest[ing] subdued expectations for growth over the next six months,” the report said. 

Source: Felix Jauvin

Related: Trade tensions to speed institutional crypto adoption — Execs

Bad omen for crypto?

Analysts said the combination of rising prices and slowing production could deal a blow to financial markets, including cryptocurrencies. Rising prices limit central banks’ ability to support markets in a downturn. 

“Economic activity is falling off a cliff and any activity that remains, the prices are going up,” Felix Jauvin, a Blockworks macroeconomic analyst, said in a post on the X platform. 

It’s an “[a]bsolute worst scenario for policy makers here especially with no meaningful idea of how permanent tariffs will be,” he added.

Six-month outlook for key manufacturing indicators. Source: Derek Thompson

However, Bitcoin has been more resilient to recent macroeconomic shocks than stocks or other cryptocurrencies, Binance said in an April research report. 

Since Trump announced his tariff plans on April 2, Bitcoin has traded roughly flat after initially declining but more than 10%, Google Finance data shows. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 — an index of US stocks — is still down by around 7%. 

“Even in the wake of recent tariff announcements, BTC has shown some signs of resilience, holding steady or rebounding on days when traditional risk assets faltered,” Binance said. 

Trump initially sought to impose double-digit levies on virtually all foreign goods but later paused planned tariffs on certain countries. 

He still wants to place high taxes on many Chinese imports, causing concerns among crypto executives who fear a trade war could harm blockchain networks. 

Magazine: Crypto ‘more taboo than OnlyFans,’ says Violetta Zironi, who sold song for 1 BTC

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield is planning a lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase, alleging the company is selling unregistered securities to residents of the US state, after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) dropped its federal case against the exchange.

According to Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, the lawsuit is an exact “copycat case” of SEC’s 2023 lawsuit against the exchange, which the federal agency agreed to drop in February. Grewal added:

“In case you think I’m jumping to conclusions, the attorney general’s office made it clear to us that they are literally picking up where the Gary Gensler SEC left off — seriously. This is exactly the opposite of what Americans should be focused on right now.”

The lawsuit signals that the crypto industry still faces regulatory hurdles and pushback at the state level, even after securing several legal victories on the federal level. Pushback from state regulators could fragment crypto regulations in the US and complicate cohesive national policy.

Source: Paul Grewal

Related: Coinbase distances Base from highly criticized memecoin that dumped $15M

Several US states drop lawsuits against Coinbase following SEC moves

The SEC reversed its stance on cryptocurrencies following the resignation of former chairman Gary Gensler in January.

Gensler’s exit triggered a wave of dropped lawsuits, enforcement actions and investigations against crypto firms, including Coinbase, Uniswap, and Kraken.

Several US states followed the SEC’s lead and also dropped their lawsuits against Coinbase in the first quarter of this year.

Vermont, one of the 10 US states that filed litigation against the exchange, dropped its lawsuit on March 13.

Vermont drops legal action against Coinbase. Source: State of Vermont

The legal order specifically cited the SEC’s regulatory pivot and the establishment of a crypto task force by the agency as reasons for dropping the lawsuit.

South Carolina dismissed its lawsuit against Coinbase two weeks after Vermont rescinded its litigation against the exchange giant.

Kentucky’s Department of Financial Institutions became the third state-level regulator to dismiss its Coinbase lawsuit, ending the litigation on March 26.

Despite the legal victory, Coinbase’s Grewal called on the federal government to end the state-by-state approach of crypto regulation and focus on passing clear market structure policies at the federal level.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Opinion by: Axel Schorn and Dr. Duc Au

Traditional stocks, bonds and commodities markets have long benefited from well-established standards governing the flow of information and data. These standards underpin the seamless functioning of trading, settlement and regulatory compliance, ensuring all participants can rely on the same consistent frameworks.

As the financial industry moves into decentralized finance (DeFi) with the introduction of digital assets, like crypto assets and tokenized securities, the lack of such standards presents a growing challenge. 

While digital assets promise transformative potential, their fragmented information landscape risks undermining their adoption and integration into the broader financial ecosystem.

Independent platforms like CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko provide information on various tokens, but this data varies significantly regarding market capitalization, total supply and other relevant reference data. Several global initiatives by private foundations and associations are working toward standardization. 

Traditional frameworks as a guideline 

Just as standardized financial data has been instrumental in building trust and facilitating growth, digital assets need their global standards. According to studies, standards generate overall economic benefits estimated at 17 billion euros annually in Germany alone.

For traditional assets, a clear hierarchy of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) exists to unambiguously categorize and identify each asset. The International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) is the global standard for uniquely identifying all types of financial instruments, including equities, debt, derivatives and indexes. The Certification of Financial Instruments (CFI) is the internationally recognized system for classifying financial instruments. It is defined when a financial or reference instrument is issued and remains unchanged. The Financial Instrument Short Name (FISN) outlines a standardized approach to short names and descriptions for financial instruments. Unlike ISIN and CFI, the FISN is not intended to be machine-readable but to provide a short format for key information about security for human use. 

National Numbering Agencies (NNA), responsible for collecting registration data such as issuer information, instrument types, terms and trading conditions, assign ISIN, CFI and FISN. The Association of National Numbering Agencies maintains the identifiers and data in a global database. For countries that do not have an NNA, four global Substitute Numbering Agencies assign identification to those countries.

Recent: DePIN needs a more cohesive narrative for mass adoption

ISINs are allocated to financial instruments regardless of the technology used for creating the respective instruments, both in paper form and electronic form, thereby including tokenized instruments such as crypto securities according to the German Electronic Securities Act. For tokens with an apparent geographical reference, such as the issuer of a security token residing in Germany, the responsible NNA will allocate the ISIN. Regarding tokens for referential instruments without an apparent geographical reference — e.g., Bitcoin (BTC), where the issuer’s country cannot be identified — an ISIN with the prefix “XT” is allocated from Etrading Software.

This helps to identify the instrument on the token level. More exemplary data fields on the token level are the type of token, hash function and generation mechanism. Focused on the instrument level, additional data elements like the token’s blockchain are needed.

For this purpose, the Digital Token Identifier Foundation, which is responsible for allocating this new identifier, provides the so-called Digital Token Identifier — e.g. DTI, ISO 24165. 

Key working theses regarding the standardization of digital assets 

Crypto identifiers could become mandatory. Similar to traditional assets using systems like ISINs, digital assets will adopt unique identifiers for cryptocurrencies and tokenized securities. These identifiers will facilitate tracking, trading and reporting across exchanges and custody providers, enabling seamless integration with legacy financial systems.

Data standards will enhance transparency and compliance: With increasing regulatory scrutiny, standardized data formats will emerge for compliance and risk management. 

Global coordination will drive interoperability: The standardization of digital assets will rely on global collaboration among regulatory bodies and financial institutions. International organizations will play pivotal roles in creating frameworks that ensure interoperability across jurisdictions and reduce market fragmentation and, thus, inconsistencies in information handling. 

Initial steps have been taken toward unambiguously identifying digital assets with generally accepted ISO identifiers. Combined with a European Union-wide regulation such as the regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), the industry lays the foundation for more significant adoption. 

It remains to be seen how investors and the digital assets player will further progress toward more standardization and what roadblocks may arise to be solved.

Opinion by: Axel Schorn and Dr. Duc Au

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

As gold prices break new highs, many Bitcoiners are seeking ways to get exposure to the precious metal, but have been met with some hurdles along the way.

Although physical gold is accessible in the form of jewelry, gold bars and coins, many industry executives are concerned about aspects like its quality, liquidity when selling, and buying at a premium above spot prices.

On the other hand, gold advocates are confident that the precious metal is much easier to buy than Bitcoin (BTC), given the complexities of storing private keys and a steep learning curve for new crypto investors.

Both Bitcoin and gold are available in the form of tokenized assets, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other equity instruments, but the question of owning these assets in the physical form exposes some differences.

Community: Buying Bitcoin is easier and faster

“Buying Bitcoin is significantly easier and faster than buying physical gold,” Ross Shemeliak, co-founder of the tokenization platform Stobox, told Cointelegraph.

He referred to Bitcoin’s instant and 24/7 availability, no need for vaults, while gold is associated with additional costs like transportation, storage, verification and resale.

Adam Lowe, chief of product at the self-custody firm CompoSecure, agreed that buying physical gold is subject to many challenges and additional costs.

“The first is maintaining quality, assuring the purity is accurate,” Lowe said, adding that investors have to rely on the reputation of dealers and the supply chain when buying physical gold.

Related: Bitcoin may rival gold as inflation hedge over next decade — Adam Back

“Selling liquidity is also an issue as you have to find a buyer and will most likely pay a discount relative to the market price per ounce,” he continued, adding that self-custodied Bitcoin has none of these issues.

As well as limited liquidity, retail investors in physical gold face widened spreads, Shemeliak said, as they often have to buy at a premium above the market price of gold.

Gold advocate: Bitcoin self-custody is not easy

Unlike crypto investors, traditional finance (TradFi) investors and analysts are not so excited about self-custody opportunities offered by Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin could be very easy to buy if you have everything set up already, but if you don’t, it’s very difficult,” Rafi Farber, publisher of the gold-focused marketplace service End Game Investor, told Cointelegraph.

Farber, who has emerged as one of the biggest Bitcoin critics, referred to challenges for investors around Bitcoin self-custody, which requires holders to safely store the private key or risk losing access to the coins entirely.

While dealing with a self-custodial wallet, users have to “remember a string of random words or copy it down and put it in a safe, then copy and paste a gibberish code,” Farber said. “And if you lose any of the codes or the power goes out for whatever reason you’re screwed,” he added.

Self-custody wallet providers offer onboarding sessions for $99 per hour. Source: Trezor

Farber’s concerns over the challenges of self-custody are not without reason. Trezor, one of the most prominent self-custody wallet providers, admits that usability remains one of the key issues faced by self-custodial wallets.

While some have tried to offer simplified self-custody options, others insist that holding a private key is the only way to actually own a cryptocurrency, which requires onboarding and a learning curve — but doesn’t come without its own costs, too.

Is Bitcoin a direct competitor to gold?

On the other hand, physical gold is “very easy to buy,” Farber said, suggesting options like coins or jewelry shops.

“Yes, buying a gold coin at a jewelry or coin shop is easy — but that doesn’t mean you’ve made a sound investment,” Stobox’s Shemeliak countered:

“Without verified origin, proper assay, secure storage, and a liquid resale market, you’ve likely bought a souvenir, not a serious store of value.”

“In contrast, digital assets like Bitcoin or tokenized gold offer transparency, liquidity and verifiability,” he added.

Shemeliak doesn’t see Bitcoin and gold as direct competitors either.

“Gold will always have historical value — but Bitcoin is building financial infrastructure for the next 100 years,” he stated.

At the time of publication, the price of spot gold stood at $3,327, up nearly 27% year-to-date (YTD) as it continues breaking new highs, according to TradingView.

The picture is less appealing for Bitcoin, which reached new highs around $110,000 in December 2024. Bitcoin is down 10% YTD, trading at $84,525 at publication, according to CoinGecko.

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again