Coin Market

Biopharma exec says Bitcoin could help industry through ‘biotech winter’

Published

5 days ago

March 21, 2025

NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical firm Atai Life Sciences says cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin could be key to survival for biotech startups as they wade through years of regulatory approvals.

Atai, which is developing mental health treatments using psychedelics like DMT and MDMA, has become the latest public company to announce plans to buy Bitcoin.

It plans to buy $5 million of Bitcoin (BTC), its founder and chair Christian Angermayer wrote in a March 20 Substack post.

“Drug development is a cash-hungry, long-term venture,” he said. “The necessary steps to achieve regulatory approval can easily take more than a decade.”

TechCrunch reported in January that, according to multiple data sets, the number of startups shutting down rose in 2024 compared to 2023 as firms failed to receive more funding to keep running.

Angermayer said the approval process is essential for drug development, but it exposes firms to financial risks while sticky inflation and high interest rates have caused the current “biotech winter.”

Source: Christian Angermayer

He added that the current industry approach is to put cash reserves in near-zero-yield accounts, as “preserving capital was more important than earning a return on their cash balance.”

“This context sets the stage for considering unconventional treasury moves — like adding Bitcoin to the treasury — to address the twin threats of inflation and low-yielding reserves, and in general to optimize and maximize shareholder value.”

Atai will join at least five other public medical companies that have bought Bitcoin in recent months with the aim of boosting shareholder returns.

Biotech firm Quantum BioPharma said on March 20 that it had now spent $3.5 million in total to buy BTC and other cryptocurrencies after an initial $1 million investment in December.

Medical device maker Semler Scientific said last month that since it started in May, it had spent a total of $280.4 million buying 3,192 BTC.

Hoth Therapeutics, Acurx Pharmaceuticals and Enlivex Therapeutics said in separate statements on Nov. 20 that each of them would buy $1 million in Bitcoin.

Atai’s Angermayer said his firm’s Bitcoin buy would primarily be as a long-term inflation hedge but also a short-term diversification play. He added that Bitcoin is likely to have short-term price fluctuations, so the Berlin-based firm is holding mostly US dollars, short-term securities, and stocks for its desired run rate into 2027.

Atai’s $5 million put would mean it is able to buy just over 59 BTC at its current price of around $84,300 and make it the world’s 52nd largest holder among public firms, according to Bitbo data.

Bitcoin has struggled to keep afloat amid a wider market rout due to US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and fears of a US recession, which Trump hasn’t ruled out.

Atai’s share price rose early in March 20 trading to a peak of $1.47 but tapered off to close the day down 1.44% at $1.37, according to Google Finance. Its stock has sunk nearly 93% from its mid-2021 public debut peak but is up 3% so far this year.

Magazine: Crypto fans are obsessed with longevity and biohacking — Here’s why

Coin Market

Fidelity plans stablecoin launch after SOL ETF ‘regulatory litmus test’

Published

19 minutes ago

March 26, 2025

Fidelity Investments is reportedly in the final stages of testing a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, signaling the firm’s latest push into digital assets amid a more favorable crypto regulatory climate under the Trump administration.

The $5.8 trillion asset manager plans to launch the stablecoin through its cryptocurrency division, Fidelity Digital Assets, according to a March 25 report by the Financial Times citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

The stablecoin development is reportedly part of the asset manager’s wider push into crypto-based services. Fidelity is also launching an Ethereum-based “OnChain” share class for its US dollar money market fund.

Fidelity’s March 21 filing with the US securities regulator stated the OnChain share class would help track transactions of the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX), an $80 million fund consisting almost entirely of US Treasury bills.

While the OnChain share class filing is pending regulatory approval, it is expected to take effect on May 30, Fidelity said.

Fidelity’s filing to register a tokenized version of the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund. Source: Securities and Exchange Commission

Increasingly more US financial institutions are launching cryptocurrency-based offerings after President Donald Trump’s election signaled a shift in policy.

Custodia and Vantage Bank have launched “America’s first-ever bank-issued stablecoin” on the permissionless Ethereum blockchain, which will act as a “real dollar” and not a “synthetic” dollar, as Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller called stablecoins in a Feb. 12 speech.

Source: Caitlin Long

Trump previously signaled that his administration intends to make crypto policy a national priority and the US a global hub for blockchain innovation.

Fidelity’s spot SOL application is “regulatory litmus test”

Fidelity’s stablecoin push comes a day after Cboe BZX Exchange, a US securities exchange, requested permission to list a proposed Fidelity exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding Solana (SOL), according to March 25 filings.

The filing may provide insights about the SEC’s regulatory attitude toward Solana ETFs, according to Lingling Jiang, partner at DWF Labs crypto venture capital firm.

“This filing is also more than just a product proposal — it’s a regulatory litmus test,” Jiang told Cointelegraph, adding:

“If approved, it would signal a maturing posture from the SEC that recognizes functional differentiation across blockchains.”

“It would accelerate the development of compliant financial products tied to next-gen assets — and for market makers, that means more instruments, more pairs, and ultimately, more velocity in the system,” Jiang added.

Meanwhile, crypto industry participants are awaiting US stablecoin legislation, which may come in the next two months.

The GENIUS Act, an acronym for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, would establish collateralization guidelines for stablecoin issuers while requiring full compliance with Anti-Money Laundering laws.

A positive sign for the industry is that the stablecoin bill may be on the president’s desk in the next two months, according to Bo Hines, the executive director of the president’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets.

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

Coin Market

Google releases new AI model as ChatGPT retains 43% market share

Published

1 hour ago

March 26, 2025

Google introduced Gemini 2.5, its latest experimental artificial intelligence model; it ranked second in a competitive leaderboard for AI-driven web development tools.

On March 25, Google announced that it will allow developers to try out Gemini 2.5 Pro. The company described it as a thinking model, capable of reasoning through thoughts before responding.

Google said this improves both accuracy and performance, particularly in coding, science and math tasks. It said Gemini 2.5 can support more context-aware agents.

Citing self-reported data compiled by the AI benchmarking platform LMArena, Google shared that the new AI model topped the charts in reasoning and knowledge, science and mathematics. Google described Gemini 2.5 as its “most intelligent AI model.”

Google’s new model ranks second in web dev leaderboard

Google’s new AI model ranked second in LMArena’s WebDev leaderboard, a real-time AI coding competition where models compete in web development challenges created by the AI benchmarking platform.

The AI model had an arena score of 1267.70, which surpassed competitors including DeepSeek, Grok and ChatGPT. Still, the top spot went to Anthropic’s AI model Claude 3.7 Sonnet, which had an arena score of 1354.01.

Leaderboard for AI web development competition. Source: LMArena

ChatGPT dominates the AI tools market

While many companies are working to improve their models’ performances, OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to dominate the AI tools market.

In 2024, the AI chatbot recorded more than 40 billion yearly visits, representing a market share of nearly 40%. Data from AI statistics and usage trends platform aitools.xyz showed that overall, the AI tools market had 101 billion visits throughout the year. Canva’s AI generator came in second place, with 10.4 billion visits, gaining a 10.25% market share.

AI tools market share distribution. Source: aitools.xyz

More recently, new contenders in the AI tools market have surfaced. In February, the data showed that DeepSeek’s AI tools climbed in popularity and now rank third with a 6.58% market share. DeepSeek also ranks first in the Trending list, recording a growth rate of 195% and monthly visits of 792 million.

Despite this, ChatGPT continues to dominate the space, with a 43% market share in February and 5.2 billion monthly visits.

Magazine: Researchers accidentally turn ChatGPT evil, Grok ‘sexy mode’ horror: AI Eye

Coin Market

SEC plans 4 more crypto roundtables on trading, custody, tokenization, DeFi

Published

4 hours ago

March 26, 2025

The US Securities and Exchange Commission will host four more crypto roundtables — focusing on crypto trading, custody, tokenization and decentralized finance (DeFi) — after hosting its first crypto roundtable on March 21.

The series of roundtables, organized by the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, will kick off with a discussion on tailoring regulation for crypto trading on April 11, the SEC said in a March 25 statement.

A roundtable on crypto custody will follow on April 25, with another to discuss tokenization and moving assets onchain on May 12. The fourth roundtable in the series will discuss DeFi on June 6.

A series of four crypto roundtable discussions are scheduled from April through to June. Source: SEC

“The Crypto Task Force roundtables are an opportunity for us to hear a lively discussion among experts about what the regulatory issues are and what the Commission can do to solve them,” said SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, the task force lead.

The specific agenda and speakers for each roundtable have yet to be disclosed, but all are open for the public to watch online or to attend at the SEC’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

SEC softens on crypto with new leadership

The agency’s Crypto Task Force was launched on Jan. 21 by acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda. It’s tasked with establishing a workable crypto framework for the agency to use.

The task force held its first roundtable on March 21 with a discussion titled “How We Got Here and How We Get Out — Defining Security Status.”

The SEC will also be hosting a roundtable about AI’s role in the financial industry on March 27, according to a March 25 release.

Join us on March 27 for a roundtable discussion on artificial intelligence in the financial industry. Topics include the risks, benefits, and governance of AI.

More details: https://t.co/ekX2RWp2KQ pic.twitter.com/7fH3j1tlwj

— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) March 25, 2025

The roundtable will discuss the risks, benefits, and governance of AI in the financial industry, with Uyeda, Peirce and fellow SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw slated to speak.

Under the Trump administration, the SEC has slowly been walking back its hardline stance toward crypto forged under former SEC Chair Gary Gensler.

The regulator has dismissed a growing number of enforcement actions against crypto firms it launched under Gensler.

Uyeda, who took the reins after Gensler resigned on Jan. 20, flagged plans on March 17 to scrap a rule proposed under the Biden administration that would tighten crypto custody standards for investment advisers.

Uyeda also said in a March 10 speech that he had asked SEC staff for options to abandon part of proposed changes that would expand regulation of alternative trading systems to include crypto firms, requiring them to register as exchanges.

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