Rowing through a sea of heavy waves, the crypto market is struggling to bring some positive energy, especially to the market. The market looks slightly bullish, although current geopolitical tensions continue to cast uncertainty. As we begin the new week, here are some of the top crypto stories from last week covering regulation, market movements, and technological advancements across the crypto industry.
Appeals court rejects Custodia Bank rehearing in Federal Reserve case
A US appeals court has rejected Custodia Bank’s request for a rehearing in its legal battle against the Federal Reserve. In 2020, the Wyoming-based crypto-friendly bank sued the Federal Reserve following a delay in reviewing the application for a master account. The bank then filed a lawsuit arguing that the Fed had unlawfully delayed the review process.
At the moment, the US appeals court denied rehearing the case. A master account allows banks to access the Fed’s payment system directly, devoid of any intermediaries, and to enhance faster settlement. Recently, crypto exchange Kraken received a Federal Reserve master account, making it the first digital asset bank with direct access to the country’s payment system.
Robinhood crypto volume surges to $25 billion as other sectors dip
Trading platform Robinhood experienced a strong surge in its crypto trading activity. The platform’s crypto volume peaked to nearly $25 billion amid slow run activity in other segments, including options, stocks, and event-based trading.
This descent surge in crypto volume signals that traders may be actively shifting their focus back to cryptocurrencies as the traditional market moves slowly.
Geopolitical tensions push Token2049 Dubai to 2027
TOKEN2049, a major crypto conference, has postponed its Dubai edition due to ongoing geopolitical tensions and the following security concerns. The grand event typically includes panel discussions, blockchain project announcements, and workshops, and attracts thousands of crypto investors, founders, developers, and policymakers from around the globe.
US Treasury sanctions crypto laundering network
The US Department of the Treasury sanctioned six individuals and two entities over an alleged involvement in crypto money laundering and an IT worker fraud scheme, helping the North Korean government. The crime happened in 2024, helped cultprits generate $800 million in money, including crypto payments.
US Treasury urges crypto platforms to block suspicious funds
The US Department of the Treasury urged crypto platforms to freeze suspicious funds linked to illegal activities, including cybercrime, money laundering, and sanctions evasion. The Treasury authorities said exchanges and other crypto service providers should enhance their monitoring and compliance systems to avoid illegal activities in the industry.
Kraken unveils open-source engine for AI-driven crypto trading
Crypto platform Kraken launched the Kraken CLI, an open‑source, single‑binary execution engine, using which AI agents and developers can have native access to crypto markets.
The new open-source interface enables automated systems and helps developers to interact with Kraken’s trading infrastructure more efficiently. That said, developers can do tasks such as market data retrieval, order execution, and strategy automation.
Besides, other notable incidents that AltCoinDesk covered include the debate over prediction market regulation in Brazil, Meta acquiring Moltbook, a social media platform for AI, Anthropic filing for a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense to remove the AI firm from the blacklist, and a trader swapping $50 million USDT for $36,000 AAVE due to extreme slippage.
