The crypto-friendly Custodia Bank has worked with Vantage Bank to complete what the two firms say is “America’s first-ever bank-issued stablecoin” on a permissionless blockchain.

Custodia said on March 25 that it tokenized US dollar demand deposits and facilitated the issuance, transfer and redemption of the stablecoin “Avit” on Ethereum via the ERC-20 token standard.

“A new US dollar payment rail has now been activated inside the US banking system,” Custodia added.

“We broke ground on the legal/regulatory front, proving that US banks can collaborate to tokenize demand deposits on a permissionless blockchain in a regulatorily-compliant manner,” said Custodia CEO Caitlin Long.

Source: Caitlin Long

Vantage Bank CEO and President Jeff Sinnott said the event was a “pivotal moment in reshaping the financial landscape, demonstrating how blockchain and stablecoins can revolutionize payments.”

In a series of posts on X, Long explained that the Avit stablecoin was a “real dollar” and not a “synthetic” dollar, as Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller called stablecoins in a Feb. 12 speech.

“Real” US dollars, Long explained, can only be issued by the Federal Reserve and a few legally authorized entities, including Custodia Bank. She added that Avit is a “real dollar” as it tokenizes a bank’s demand deposit — funds that customers can withdraw on-demand, such as money in a checking account.

Ethereum backers cheer Custodia’s chain choice

Custodia has historically championed Bitcoin, and Ethereum advocates were quick to note that the bank chose Ethereum for the stablecoin.

“ETH fixed this. Bitcoin couldn’t,” wrote Ethereum advocate Evan Van Ness. Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano also posted to make clear the “permissionless blockchain” Custodia referred to in its announcement.

“Just in case it wasn’t obvious, this is built on Ethereum.”

Source: Matthew Sigel

Related: Ethereum poised for record highs in Q1 2025, analysts predict

Ethereum secures over $125.8 billion worth of stablecoins on its network, nearly doubling the second-place Tron blockchain at $64.8 billion, DefiLlama data shows.

Ethereum also tokenizes over $3.6 billion worth of US Treasury bills — seven times more than its next competitor, Stellar, at $465.7 million, according to RWA.xyz data.

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Crusoe Energy, a company that captures waste gas from oil to power high-performance compute, is selling its Bitcoin mining business to New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to focus on artificial intelligence. 

In a March 25 announcement, Crusoe said it plans to sell its Bitcoin (BTC) mining operation,  including its digital flare mitigation business, to NYDIG, subject to regulatory approvals and other consents. 

The deal includes Crusoe’s 270 megawatts of power generation technology from more than 425 modular data centers across the United States and Argentina, along with 135 Crusoe employees who will join NYDIG, as no roles will be eliminated as a result of the transaction. 

Crusoe was founded in 2018 and pioneered technology that captures waste gas created during oil extraction and refinement that would be normally burned off in a process called gas flaring in order to power Bitcoin miners.

Photo of gas flaring in action. Source: Crusoe Energy

It converts the gas or “stranded energy” into electricity used to power the high-performance compute required for Bitcoin mining and AI data centers. Some reports suggest that Crusoe’s Bitcoin mining operation accounts for 1% of the world’s Bitcoin mining. 

Crusoe’s AI expansion plans

However, Crusoe says it now wants to focus its tech on building out AI infrastructure. 

“The AI business — it’s become the majority of our revenue,” Cully Cavness, the co-founder, president and chief operating officer of Crusoe, told CNBC. 

The company recently expanded its AI data center in Abilene, Texas, to 1.2 gigawatts around the same time it announced a joint venture with investment firm Engine No. 1 to develop large-scale data center campuses across the US to build out AI capabilities.

Source: Matthew Sigel

Last year in December, it closed $600 million in a Series D round at a $2.8 billion valuation to power AI. 

“We see a huge opportunity in front of us, and we have a big advantage and a big head start with what we’ve already announced — and more coming soon,” added Cavness. 

Related: Tokenized US gold could ultimately benefit Bitcoin: NYDIG

NYDIG said that the acquisition of Crusoe’s Bitcoin mining business will help expand its role in supporting Bitcoin’s proof-of-work security. 

NYDIG founder and executive chairman Ross Stevens said that “it is critically important to keep the Bitcoin network secure, and at the lowest possible cost,” claiming that fiat currencies are “collapsing against Bitcoin around the world.” 

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Bitcoin and Ethereum are poised to suffer their worst first quarter in years unless they can pull off a huge rally in the next few days.

Ether (ETH) has dropped 37.98% so far over the first quarter of 2025, its worst Q1 decline since 2018, when it plunged 46.61%, according to CoinGlass data. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) is down 6.49% so far over the quarter, which is slated to end on March 31 — marking its worst Q1 performance since 2020, when it saw a 10.83% decline. 

Crypto market unlikely to flash green before end quarter

Swyftx lead analyst Pav Hundal told Cointelegraph that a “vertical swing up into the end of the quarter looks unlikely.” 

Ether has posted an average return of 78.23% in the first quarter of every year since 2017. Source: CoinGlass

Hundal said that the crypto market will be “flying a little blind” until the middle of April, when the broader market should have better clarity on US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans.

“The economic data shows a global economy in decent shape,” he said. 

Some analysts say it may only be a matter of weeks after that before Bitcoin sees its next significant rally.

Crypto commentator Colin Talks Crypto said in a March 19 X post that Bitcoin may begin its “next major blast-off” around April 30. Meanwhile, Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten said earlier this month that there’s more than a 50% chance Bitcoin will hit all-time highs before the end of June.

The first quarter has historically been Ether’s strongest and Bitcoin’s second-best. Since 2017, Ether has averaged a 78.23% gain in Q1, while Bitcoin has seen an average return of 51.62% since 2013.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin is trading at $87,558, while Ether is trading at $2,059, up 5.08% and 5.88% over the past 24 hours, respectively.

Meanwhile, the ETH/BTC ratio — showing Ether’s relative strength to Bitcoin — is at its lowest point since May 2020, sitting at 0.2348, according to TradingView data.

The ETH/BTC ratio is sitting at 0.02348 at the time of publication. Source: TradingView

The rest of the crypto market has followed the downtrend of the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, with the entire crypto market capitalization declining 11.65% since Jan. 1, sitting at $2.88 trillion at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Related: Bitcoin price has 75% chance of hitting new highs in 2025 — Analyst

While many in the crypto industry were highly optimistic going into Q1 2025 following a strong end to 2024 after Bitcoin tapped $100,000 for the first time after Trump’s November election win, unexpected macroeconomic conditions were largely to blame for the crypto market’s downturn at the beginning of February.

After Bitcoin retraced below $100,000 in February, amid Trump’s imposed tariffs and uncertainty around the future of the US federal interest rate, the broader market sentiment turned fearful. The sentiment-tracking Crypto Fear & Greed Index was reading a “Neutral” score of 47 as of March 26.

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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.