BlackRock made its first formal transfer into decentralized finance this week, itemizing its tokenized Treasury fund on Uniswap, with Bitcoin and Ether staging solely modest rebounds amid heavy ETF outflows.
Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) every rose about 2.5% through the previous week however had been unable to cross key psychological ranges as a result of blended exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows and crypto investor sentiment sinking to file lows.
Bitcoin ETFs began the week with two consecutive days of inflows, however they shortly reversed with $276 million in outflows on Wednesday and $410 million on Thursday.
Ether ETFs noticed related flows, with two modest days of inflows, adopted by $129 million in outflows on Wednesday and $113 million on Thursday, in response to Farside Buyers knowledge.
In a silver lining to the correction, Bitcoin’s sharp drawdown to $59,930 could have marked a essential “midway level” within the present bear market, as markets at the moment are sitting at a essential inflection level that may decide the relevance of the four-year cycle principle, in response to Kaiko Analysis.
Regardless of sliding crypto valuations, massive establishments proceed exploring cryptocurrency adoption, together with the world’s largest asset supervisor, BlackRock, which introduced its first foray into decentralized finance (DeFi) on Wednesday.
BlackRock enters DeFi, faucets Uniswap for institutional token buying and selling
Asset administration large BlackRock is making its first formal transfer into decentralized finance by bringing its tokenized US Treasury fund to Uniswap, marking a milestone second for institutional adoption of DeFi.
In line with a Wednesday announcement, BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) might be listed on the Uniswap decentralized change, permitting institutional buyers to purchase and promote the tokenized safety.
As a part of the association, BlackRock can be buying an undisclosed quantity of Uniswap’s native governance token, UNI, the announcement mentioned.
The collaboration is being facilitated by tokenization firm Securitize, which partnered with the world’s largest asset supervisor on the launch of BUIDL.
In line with Fortune, buying and selling will initially be restricted to a choose group of eligible institutional buyers and market makers earlier than increasing extra broadly.
“For the primary time, establishments and whitelisted buyers can entry know-how from a pacesetter within the decentralized finance area to commerce tokenized real-world property like BUIDL with self-custody,” mentioned Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo.
BUIDL is the most important tokenized cash market fund, with greater than $2.18 billion in whole property, in response to knowledge compiled by RWA.xyz. The fund is issued throughout a number of blockchains, together with Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Aptos and Avalanche.
In December, BUIDL reached a key milestone, surpassing $100 million in cumulative distributions from its Treasury holdings.
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Trump household’s WLFI plans FX and remittance platform: Report
World Liberty Monetary (WLFI), a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform backed by the household of US President Donald Trump, introduced on Thursday that it’ll launch international foreign money change (FX) and remittance companies for its customers.
The deliberate international change and remittance platform, referred to as World Swap, seeks to problem conventional remittance and FX service suppliers with decrease charges and a simplified consumer interface, in response to Reuters.
Day by day world FX buying and selling quantity surpassed $9.6 trillion in April 2025, in response to a report from the Financial institution for Worldwide Settlements (BIS), and the non-public remittances market topped $892 billion in annual quantity in 2024, in response to knowledge from the World Financial institution.
No precise timeline was given for the rollout. Cointelegraph reached out to World Liberty Monetary however didn’t obtain a response by the point of publication.
The enlargement into FX and remittances follows WLFI’s software for a nationwide belief financial institution constitution in January and the launch of World Liberty Markets, a lending platform, as WLFI continues to develop whereas attracting scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers within the US.
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Uniswap scores early win as US choose dismisses Bancor patent go well with
A New York federal choose dismissed a patent infringement lawsuit introduced by Bancor-affiliated entities towards Uniswap, ruling that the asserted patents declare summary concepts and will not be eligible for defense beneath US patent legislation.
In a memorandum opinion and order on Tuesday, Decide John G. Koeltl of the US District Court docket for the Southern District of New York granted the defendant’s movement to dismiss the criticism filed by Bprotocol Basis and LocalCoin Ltd. towards Common Navigation Inc. and the Uniswap Basis.
The courtroom discovered that the patents are directed to the summary concept of calculating crypto change charges and due to this fact fail the two-step take a look at for patent eligibility established by the US Supreme Court docket.
The ruling marks a procedural win for Uniswap, however it’s not last. The case was dismissed with out prejudice, giving the plaintiffs 21 days to file an amended criticism. If no amended criticism is filed, the dismissal will convert to at least one with prejudice.
Shortly after the ruling, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams wrote on X, “A lawyer simply advised me we gained.”
“Uniswap Labs has at all times been proud to construct in public — it’s a core worth of DeFi,” a Uniswap Labs spokesperson advised Cointelegraph. “We’re happy that the courtroom acknowledged that this lawsuit was meritless.”
Cointelegraph reached out to representatives of Bprotocol Basis for remark however had not acquired a response by publication.
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Binance completes $1 billion Bitcoin conversion for SAFU emergency fund
Binance accomplished the $1 billion Bitcoin conversion for its emergency fund, committing to holding Bitcoin as its core reserve asset.
Binance bought one other $304 million price of Bitcoin (BTC) on Thursday, finishing the conversion of $1 billion in Bitcoin for its Safe Asset Fund for Customers (SAFU) pockets, in response to Arkham knowledge.
The fund now holds 15,000 Bitcoin, price over $1 billion, acquired at a median mixture price foundation of $67,000 per coin, Binance mentioned in a Thursday X publish.
“With SAFU Fund now absolutely in Bitcoin, we reinforce our perception in BTC because the premier long-term reserve asset.”
The final tranche of BTC got here three days after Binance’s earlier $300 million acquisition on Monday.
The change first introduced it will convert its $1 billion consumer safety fund into Bitcoin on Jan. 30, initially pledging a 30-day window for the acquisitions, which had been accomplished in lower than two weeks.
The change mentioned it will rebalance the fund if volatility pushes its worth beneath $800 million.
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Vitalik attracts line between “actual DeFi” and centralized yield stablecoins
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin drew a transparent boundary round what he considers “actual” decentralized finance (DeFi), pushing again towards yield-driven stablecoin methods that he says fail to meaningfully rework danger.
In a dialogue on X, Buterin mentioned that DeFi derives its worth from altering how danger is allotted and managed, not merely from producing yield on centralized property.
Buterin’s feedback come amid renewed scrutiny over DeFi’s dominant use circumstances, significantly in lending markets constructed round fiat-backed stablecoins like USDC (USDC).
Whereas he didn’t identify particular protocols, Buterin took purpose at what he described as “USDC yield” merchandise, saying they rely closely on centralized issuers whereas providing little discount in issuer or counterparty danger.
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DeFi market overview
In line with knowledge from Cointelegraph Markets Professional and TradingView, many of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week within the inexperienced.
The Pippin (PIPPIN) token rose 195% because the week’s largest gainer within the high 100, adopted by the Humanity Protocol (H) token, up 57% through the previous week.
Thanks for studying our abstract of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Be part of us subsequent Friday for extra tales, insights and schooling concerning this dynamically advancing area.