US derivatives exchange operator CME Group is piloting solutions for tokenized assets using Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), a new distributed ledger that was designed for traditional financial institutions.

According to a March 25 announcement, CME has already begun integrating GCUL to improve capital market efficiency and wholesale payments. 

CME Group chairman and CEO Terry Duffy said GCUL could “deliver significant efficiencies for collateral, margin, settlement and fee payments as the world moves toward 24/7 trading.”

The announcement did not provide specific details about which assets would be tokenized. CME Group and Google Cloud will begin testing the technology with market participants in 2026.

Source: CME Group

Before the March 25 announcement, there were no details about GCUL. However, Google Cloud has been expanding into blockchain technology for several years, beginning in 2018 by adding Bitcoin blockchain data to its data warehouse. 

In 2023, Google Cloud added 11 blockchains to its data warehouse. They included Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche and Optimism. 

Related: Google boss expects to spend $75B on AI this year

Tokenization goes mainstream

Tokenization — or the process of converting real-world and financial assets into digital tokens — has generated significant interest from major institutions. 

A March 24 article that was published by the World Economic Forum said the integration of traditional finance with blockchain is “now becoming a reality” and that tokenization was taking center stage. 

“With only $25 trillion of securities currently eligible for collateral use — out of a $230 trillion potential — tokenization could significantly expand liquidity and capital efficiency,” wrote Yuval Rooz, the co-founder of the New York-based company Digital Asset. 

The tokenization industry is expected to take off in the United States under President Donald Trump, who has promised to make America the blockchain and crypto capital of the world.

Tokenized securities platform Tokeny said the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) repeal of SAB 121 would be a boon for the industry by “enabling institutions to provide custody solutions for tokenized securities without unnecessary financial risk. 

Excluding stablecoins, the RWA tokenization market is approaching $20 billion. Source: RWA.xyz

Meanwhile, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has also become a cheerleader for the tokenized securities market. In a January CNBC interview, Fink urged the SEC to “rapidly approve” the tokenization of stocks and bonds. 

Related: Tokenized real estate trading platform launches on Polygon

US derivatives exchange operator CME Group is piloting solutions for tokenized assets using Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), a new distributed ledger that was designed for traditional financial institutions.

CME has begun integrating GCUL to improve capital market efficiency and wholesale payments, the company announced on March 25.

CME Group Chairman and CEO Terry Duffy said GCUL could “deliver significant efficiencies for collateral, margin, settlement and fee payments as the world moves toward 24/7 trading.”

The announcement did not provide details about which assets would be tokenized. CME Group and Google Cloud will begin testing the technology with market participants in 2026.

Source: CME Group

Google Cloud has been expanding into blockchain technology for several years, beginning in 2018 by adding Bitcoin blockchain data to its data warehouse. 

In 2023, Google Cloud added 11 blockchains to its data warehouse. They included Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche and Optimism. 

Related: Google boss expects to spend $75B on AI this year

Tokenization goes mainstream

Tokenization — or the process of converting real-world and financial assets into digital tokens — has generated significant interest from major institutions. 

A March 24 article published by the World Economic Forum said the integration of traditional finance with blockchain is “now becoming a reality” and that tokenization was taking center stage. 

“With only $25 trillion of securities currently eligible for collateral use — out of a $230 trillion potential — tokenization could significantly expand liquidity and capital efficiency,” wrote Yuval Rooz, co-founder of the New York-based company Digital Asset. 

The tokenization industry is expected to take off in the United States under President Donald Trump, who has promised to make the US the blockchain and crypto capital of the world.

Tokenized securities platform Tokeny said the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) repeal of SAB 121 would be a boon for the industry by “enabling institutions to provide custody solutions for tokenized securities without unnecessary financial risk. 

Excluding stablecoins, the RWA tokenization market is approaching $20 billion. Source: RWA.xyz

Meanwhile, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has also become a cheerleader for the tokenized securities market. In a January CNBC interview, Fink urged the SEC to “rapidly approve” the tokenization of stocks and bonds. 

Related: Tokenized real estate trading platform launches on Polygon

US derivatives exchange operator CME Group is piloting solutions for tokenized assets using Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL), a new distributed ledger that was designed for traditional financial institutions.

CME has begun integrating GCUL to improve capital market efficiency and wholesale payments, the company announced on March 25.

CME Group Chairman and CEO Terry Duffy said GCUL could “deliver significant efficiencies for collateral, margin, settlement and fee payments as the world moves toward 24/7 trading.”

The announcement did not provide details about which assets would be tokenized. CME Group and Google Cloud will begin testing the technology with market participants in 2026.

Source: CME Group

Google Cloud has been expanding into blockchain technology for several years, beginning in 2018 by adding Bitcoin blockchain data to its data warehouse. 

In 2023, Google Cloud added 11 blockchains to its data warehouse. They included Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche and Optimism. 

Related: Google boss expects to spend $75B on AI this year

Tokenization goes mainstream

Tokenization — or the process of converting real-world and financial assets into digital tokens — has generated significant interest from major institutions. 

A March 24 article published by the World Economic Forum said the integration of traditional finance with blockchain is “now becoming a reality” and that tokenization was taking center stage. 

“With only $25 trillion of securities currently eligible for collateral use — out of a $230 trillion potential — tokenization could significantly expand liquidity and capital efficiency,” wrote Yuval Rooz, co-founder of the New York-based company Digital Asset. 

The tokenization industry is expected to take off in the United States under President Donald Trump, who has promised to make the US the blockchain and crypto capital of the world.

Tokenized securities platform Tokeny said the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) repeal of SAB 121 would be a boon for the industry by “enabling institutions to provide custody solutions for tokenized securities without unnecessary financial risk. 

Excluding stablecoins, the RWA tokenization market is approaching $20 billion. Source: RWA.xyz

Meanwhile, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has also become a cheerleader for the tokenized securities market. In a January CNBC interview, Fink urged the SEC to “rapidly approve” the tokenization of stocks and bonds. 

Related: Tokenized real estate trading platform launches on Polygon

About $13 million worth of cryptocurrency has been drained from decentralized lending protocol Abracadabra.Money following an exploit targeting pools using GMX tokens.

In a March 25 X post, crypto cybersecurity firm PeckShield reported that contracts related to GMX and Abracadabra.Money had been compromised, resulting in the loss of about 6,260 Ether (ETH), worth around $13 million.

The news follows Abracadabra.Money losing $6.49 million after its smart contracts were compromised in late January 2024. At the time, this also led to the protocol’s Magic Internet Money (MIM) stablecoin losing its peg to the US dollar.

Related: Pump.fun’s new DEX reaches $1B volume a week after launch

GMX denies contract vulnerability

Despite initial reports, a pseudonymous GMX communications contributor claimed on X that “GMX contracts are not affected.” According to the user, GMX is involved because MIM’s pools are based on GMX v2 pools.

GMX Market (GM) tokens are a core part of the GMX platform, earning fees from swaps and leveraged trading. MIM’s pools, known as cauldrons, are the protocol’s core product and provide isolated lending exposure.

Related: DeFi lender Nostra pauses borrowing after price feed error

In an official X post, GMX stated that the hack involved MIM’s pools that used GM tokens. The post further claimed that “no issues have been identified with GMX contracts,” adding:

“We believe the issue relates solely to the Abracadabra/Spell cauldrons. These cauldrons allow for borrowing against specific GM liquidity tokens.”

GMX and Abracadabra.Money had not responded to Cointelegraph’s inquiry by the time of publication.

Hackers use Tornado Cash, bridge to Ethereum

Graphic tracking the hacked funds. Source: AMLBot

Crypto forensics firm AMLBot provided Cointelegraph with a partial reconstruction of how the hack was performed. The hacker’s address was first funded through the Tornado Cash decentralized cryptocurrency mixer, and then those funds were used to pay the transaction fees of the malicious transactions. The stolen ETH was later moved from the Arbitrum network to Ethereum via a blockchain bridge:

“The stolen funds, totaling 6,260 ETH, have been transferred from Arbitrum to Ethereum via a bridge.”

AMLBot’s investigations department also confirmed to Cointelegraph that only Abracadabra.Money contracts were breached as part of the hack. The GMX smart contracts, on the other hand, were not exploited in the malicious transactions, AMLBot added.

Magazine: What are native rollups? Full guide to Ethereum’s latest innovation

US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China and efforts to ramp up on-shore Bitcoin mining will be a boon for US mining rig manufacturers, which currently only hold a small sliver of market share compared to their major Chinese counterparts. 

The United States accounts for over 40% of the Bitcoin network’s global hashrate but still leans heavily on China-made mining rigs. China-based Bitmain reportedly holds as much as a 90% market share in the Bitcoin mining manufacturing market. 

“Trump’s continued focus to support the US BTC mining industry highlights the urgent need to address US reliance on foreign technology,” Auradine’s chief strategy officer, Sanjay Gupta, told Cointelegraph in a recent interview. 

US Bitcoin firms hit a major supply problem last year, with thousands of Bitcoin (BTC) miners held at ports of entry by the US Customs and Border Protection. 

One of the firms affected believed it was due to a mistaken belief that the chips were illegally imported Chinese radio frequency devices. It took months before they started being released. 

Gupta said that US-China trade tensions have also disrupted the flow of foreign Bitcoin miners. 

“These trade tensions have increased supply chain disruptions with many hardware shipments facing delays and uncertainties,” Gupta said.

The US was already competing with China to win the high-end chip manufacturing market, but the recent trade tensions have only “intensified” these challenges for US-based crypto miners, he added. 

China-based Bitmain is said to hold the majority of the Bitcoin mining manufacturing market. It expanded its production line into the US last December to improve supply chain efficiency.

Gupta said his firm could also stand well-positioned amid Trump’s plan to ramp up onshore manufacturing as a “dramatic increase in demand” for electricity would, in turn, “put a tremendous deal of pressure on the electric grid” — making it more important for Bitcoin miners to operate off-grid. 

Auradine recently announced the launch of its new Teraflux AH3880 hydro-cooled Bitcoin miner, competing with the likes of Bitmain, MicroBT and Canaan.

Source: Auradine

Related: Bitcoin mining hashprice stays flat despite higher difficulty: Report

Asked whether a further uptick in Bitcoin mining activity in the US could hurt Bitcoin decentralization, Gupta said that securing the Bitcoin network with more energy-efficient solutions in the US would be a “net positive” for Bitcoin but said there could be risks if the increase outpaces technology in sustainability and decentralization. 

Over 95% of the network’s hash power already comes from the US and China alone, according to the Hashrate Index.

Magazine: Korea to lift corporate crypto ban, beware crypto mining HDs: Asia Express

US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China and efforts to ramp up on-shore Bitcoin mining will be a boon for US mining rig manufacturers, which currently only hold a small sliver of market share compared to their major Chinese counterparts. 

The United States accounts for over 40% of the Bitcoin network’s global hashrate but still leans heavily on China-made mining rigs. China-based Bitmain reportedly holds as much as a 90% market share in the Bitcoin mining manufacturing market. 

“Trump’s continued focus to support the US BTC mining industry highlights the urgent need to address US reliance on foreign technology,” Auradine’s chief strategy officer, Sanjay Gupta, told Cointelegraph in a recent interview. 

US Bitcoin firms hit a major supply problem last year, with thousands of Bitcoin (BTC) miners held at ports of entry by the US Customs and Border Protection. 

One of the firms affected believed it was due to a mistaken belief that the chips were illegally imported Chinese radio frequency devices. It took months before they started being released. 

Gupta said that US-China trade tensions have also disrupted the flow of foreign Bitcoin miners. 

“These trade tensions have increased supply chain disruptions with many hardware shipments facing delays and uncertainties,” Gupta said.

The US was already competing with China to win the high-end chip manufacturing market, but the recent trade tensions have only “intensified” these challenges for US-based crypto miners, he added. 

China-based Bitmain is said to hold the majority of the Bitcoin mining manufacturing market. It expanded its production line into the US last December to improve supply chain efficiency.

Gupta said his firm could also stand well-positioned amid Trump’s plan to ramp up onshore manufacturing as a “dramatic increase in demand” for electricity would, in turn, “put a tremendous deal of pressure on the electric grid” — making it more important for Bitcoin miners to operate off-grid. 

Auradine recently announced the launch of its new Teraflux AH3880 hydro-cooled Bitcoin miner, competing with the likes of Bitmain, MicroBT and Canaan.

Related: Bitcoin mining hashprice stays flat despite higher difficulty: Report

Asked whether a further uptick in Bitcoin mining activity in the US could hurt Bitcoin decentralization, Gupta said that securing the Bitcoin network with more energy-efficient solutions in the US would be a “net positive” for Bitcoin but said there could be risks if the increase outpaces technology in sustainability and decentralization. 

Over 95% of the network’s hash power already comes from the US and China alone, according to the Hashrate Index.

Magazine: Korea to lift corporate crypto ban, beware crypto mining HDs: Asia Express

BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund has expanded to the Solana blockchain as its market capitalization approaches the $2 billion mark.

On March 25, Carlos Domingo, the founder and CEO of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform Securitize, welcomed the Solana network to the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). This marked the tokenized money market fund’s expansion to another blockchain network. 

BlackRock launched BUIDL in March 2024 in partnership with Securitize. In a Fortune report, Securitize chief operating officer Michael Sonnenshein said the fund aims to make offchain assets “unboring.” 

The executive said they are advancing some of the deficiencies of money markets in their traditional formats. 

BlackRock’s BUIDL at $1.7 billion market cap

RWA data platform rwa.xyz shows that BlackRock and Securitize’s BUIDL leads the Tokenized United States Treasurys in market capitalization. The platform’s data shows that the fund has a market capitalization of $1.7 billion and a nearly 34% market share. 

BlackRock’s BUIDL reached a $1.7 billion market cap. Source: RWA.xyz

BUIDL dominates the Tokenized US Treasurys list as the leading asset in its class. The tokenized product is followed by Hashnote, Franklin Templeton and Ondo USDY. 

The fund has experienced significant growth in just seven months. In July 2024, BUIDL’s market capitalization first reached $500 million. Its current market capitalization represents 240% growth since July. 

BUIDL’s price is pegged to the US dollar and pays daily accrued dividends to investors each month through its Securitize partnership. As of August 2024, the fund had paid its holders $7 million in dividends. 

Related: Frax community approves frxUSD stablecoin backed by BlackRock’s BUIDL

BUIDL’s Solana expansion comes over 1 year since launch

The tokenized product’s expansion into the Solana ecosystem comes months after the product started to go multichain.

On Nov. 13, the tokenized money market fund, which was initially launched on the Ethereum network, expanded to Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism and Polygon. The chain expansion was expected to attract more investors to the product. 

While tokenized Treasurys have expanded to other blockchains, Ethereum continues to dominate the asset class. According to RWA.xyz, Ethereum-based treasuries have a market capitalization of $3.6 billion, 72% of the market. 

Tokenized treasuries market capitalization by blockchain. Source: RWA.xyz

Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge

Cryptocurrency-friendly trading platform eToro has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States following several previous attempts.

The company said in a March 24 announcement that it had submitted a registration statement on Form F-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission related to the IPO of its Class A common shares.

EToro has applied to list its Class A common shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “ETOR,” according to the announcement, which stated:

“A registration statement on Form F-1 relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective.”

eToro public IPO announcement. Source: eToro

The public filing comes over two months after eToro made confidential filings to the SEC in a move toward a potential IPO in New York, the Financial Times reported on Jan. 16.

Submitted in January, eToro’s IPO filing may value the business at more than $5 billion and list the platform as soon as the second quarter of 2025, the report noted, citing unidentified sources familiar with the matter.

Trading platforms such as eToro are often used by beginning investors looking to buy their first stock shares or cryptocurrency, thanks to their ease of use.

EToro’s IPO received attention from some of the world’s most notable investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, UBS and Citigroup, as lead managing bookmakers.

Related: Friday’s PCE inflation report may catalyze a Bitcoin April rally

EToro tried to go public in 2021 via SPAC offering

The crypto-friendly trading platform had multiple previous attempts to go public on the US stock exchange.

In 2021, eToro announced plans to go public via a merger with Fintech Acquisition Corp V, a special purpose acquisition company, valuing the company at $10.4 billion. However, the deal was terminated in mid-2022 due to unfavorable market conditions.

Related: Friday’s US inflation report may catalyze a Bitcoin April rally

Although the United Kingdom remains its largest market, eToro is pursuing a US listing to tap into a broader investor base.

“Very few of our global clients would trade UK shares,” eToro founder and CEO Yoni Assia reportedly said last year. He added:

“Something in the US market creates a pool of both deep liquidity and deep awareness for those assets that are trading in the US.”

In 2023, eToro raised $250 million in a funding round that valued the brokerage at $3.5 billion. The business may now be valued at more than $5 billion in its upcoming IPO, said one of the people familiar with the flotation plans.

According to Forbes, eToro was one of the first regulated trading platforms in Europe to offer Bitcoin (BTC) services in 2013, just a few years after the first BTC transaction was made in January 2009.

Magazine: Trump’s Bitcoin policy lashed in China, deepfake scammers busted: Asia Express

Ether’s (ETH) price printed a bear flag on the daily chart, a technical chart formation associated with strong downward momentum. Could this bearish setup and decreasing transaction fees signal the start of the second leg of ETH’s drop toward $1,200?

Ethereum’s network activity slumps

The market drawdown, fueled by US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, saw Ether’s price drop by nearly 50% from a high of $3,432 on Jan. 31 to a 16-month low of $1,750 on March 11.

While ETH has rebounded 18% since, it failed to produce a decisive break above $2,000 for a second time in less than 10 days.

This weakness is reflected in onchain activity, with Ethereum’s daily transaction count dropping to levels last seen in October 2024, before Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.

Ethereum daily transaction count. Source: CryptoQuant

Ethereum’s average transaction fees also plummeted, reaching an all-time low of 0.00025 ETH ($0.46) on March 24. 

Ethereum: Fee per transaction. Source: Source: CryptoQuant

Low transaction count and fees suggest less demand for block space —whether for DeFi, NFTs or other DApps. It suggests lower network activity, often correlating with diminished interest or market confidence.

Historically, Ether’s price has correlated with periods of high network activity. For example, during the 2021 DeFi boom, fees spiked to as high as 0.015 ETH due to high demand. 

Conversely, lower fees require less ETH, which puts downward pressure on price.

ETH supply inflation returns

Other key factors weighing down Ether’s performance are its declining burn rate and rising supply.  

With transaction fees declining, the daily ETH burn rate has plunged to all-time lows, resulting in an inflationary trend. 

According to data from Ultrasound.money, the projected ETH burn rate has declined to 25,000 ETH/year, and its supply growth has risen to an annual rate of 0.76%, bringing the issuance rate to 945,000 ETH per year.

ETH burn rate. Source: Ultrasound.money

As a result, Ethereum’s supply has steadily increased since April 2024, reversing the deflationary period ushered in by the switch to proof-of-stake (the Merge) in September 2022. Ethereum’s total supply has now surpassed pre-Merge levels, as shown in the chart below.

Ethereum supply reclaims pre-Merge levels. Source: Ultrasound.money

The Merge eliminated Ethereum’s mining-based issuance, which previously had a high supply inflation rate. Ethereum also implemented the London hard fork in August 2021, which introduced a mechanism that burns a portion of transaction fees. 

Related: Ethereum down 57% from its all-time high, but it’s still worth more than Toyota

When network activity is low, the amount of ETH burned is lower than newly issued ETH, making the asset inflationary.

Ether’s bear flag targets $1,230

The ETH/USD pair is positioned to resume its prevailing bearish momentum despite the recovery from recent lows, as the chart shows a classic bearish pattern in the making.

Ether’s price action over the past 30 days has led to the formation of a bear flag pattern on the daily chart, as shown in the figure below. A daily candlestick close below the flag’s lower boundary at $2,000 would signal the start of a massive breakdown.

The target is set by the flagpole’s height, which comes to about $1,230, an approximately 40% drop from the current price.

ETH/USD daily chart featuring bear flag pattern. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Despite these risks, some traders remain optimistic about Ether’s upside potential, with analyst Jelle saying that the price is bouncing and trying to get back above the key support level at $2,200.

If this happens, “we’ll have a monster deviation on our hands,” Jelle added.

Fellow analyst Crypto Ceaser said that Ethereum is “heavily undervalued” and is bottoming out at current levels.

$ETH – #Ethereum is currently bottoming out. It’s so heavily undervalued. In every bullcycle, there is a moment most of the people think that Ethereum will never comeback after a big bearish event as you can see on the chart. We just had a moment like that in my opinion. pic.twitter.com/wPrV7loxlR

— Crypto Caesar (@CryptoCaesarTA) March 25, 2025

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Memecoin launchpad Pump.fun’s new decentralized exchange (DEX), PumpSwap, surpassed a cumulative trading volume of $1 billion a week after its launch, according to blockchain analytics platform Dune.

On March 19, Pump.fun launched its Solana DEX to create a “frictionless environment” for memecoin trading. Previously, memecoins launched on Pump.fun needed to migrate into the Solana DEX Raydium after bootstrapping liquidity, despite which the trading platform became the most popular DEX in Solana. 

Still, the Pump.fun team said these migrations slowed token momentum and introduced “needless complexity” for new users. With the new DEX, the project said migrations happen instantly and are free. 

A Dune Analytics dashboard by onchain analyst Adam_Tehc showed that PumpSwap had an all-time trading volume of $1.1 billion in its first seven days. 

PumpSwap DEX lifetime trading volume reaches. Source: Dune Analytics

PumpSwap exceeds $1.1 billion in trading volume 

During its first day, the platform had a modest trading volume of about $50 million. On March 24, the volume spiked eight times, recording over $425 million in trading volume. 

Daily swaps on the platform peaked on March 24, recording 4.2 million transactions. The DEX’s cumulative number of swaps surpassed 11 million, while the number of active users has reached over 388,000, according to the data. 

The data also showed that the fees on the PumpSwap protocol exceeded $2.1 million, while liquidity provider fees exceeded $540,000. According to the Dune Dashboard’s creator, PumpSwap’s $1 million daily fees generated on March 24 were already “on par” with Pump.fun. 

Source: Adam_tehc

PumpSwap’s launch follows news that Raydium plans to create its own memecoin launchpad, LaunchLab. The latest movements within the ecosystem shift the dynamics between Pump.fun and Raydium, turning the two Solana projects from partners into competitors. 

Related: Dubai regulator says memecoins must adhere to regulations

Pump.fun launches DEX amid memecoin decline

Pump.fun launching the new business comes as the Solana memecoin frenzy has begun to lose steam. Solscan data shows that Solana’s daily token-minting peaked at 95,578 on Jan. 26. Since then, the daily mints have declined, bottoming at 26,298 mints on March 22. 

Successful new listings from tokens created at Pump.fun have also declined. Dune Analytics data showed that the daily number of tokens completing Pump.fun’s “bonding curve,” a requirement for DEX listing, had dropped from highs of almost 1,200 on Jan. 23 and 24 to 149 on March 20. 

The memecoin decline also affected Solana’s weekly revenue. On March 11, the network’s weekly revenue dropped to $4 million from its high of $55.3 million in mid-January, at the height of the memecoin frenzy. This represents a 93% drop in the blockchain’s total weekly revenue. 

Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge