Aadi 11

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese startup JPYC said it will issue the first stablecoin pegged to the yen later in the year after receiving a licence this week.

The stablecoin, which will be called "JPYC", will be fully convertible to the yen and backed by domestic savings and Japanese government bonds (JGBs), the company's CEO Noritaka Okabe told a news conference.

"Initially, we expect demand to come from institutional investors, hedge funds and family offices in Japan," he said.

"Eventually, we aim to have JPYC used overseas as digital yen and delivered to people across the world."

JPYC, which plans to issue the stablecoin around autumn, said it would not charge transaction fees. Instead, the more stablecoins it issues, the more JGBs it will hold, and it would earn money from the interest on those holdings.

Blockchain-based stablecoins - which are typically pegged to a fiat currency and offer faster and cheaper transactions - are gaining much momentum worldwide.

In the U.S., President Donald Trump in July signed into law federal rules and guidelines for stablecoins to facilitate their usage in everyday payments and settlements.

Financial companies from Bank of America to Fiserv are preparing to launch their own dollar-backed crypto tokens, although experts warn the path forward may not be simple.

In contrast, in mainland China, where crypto trading is banned, Chinese regulators have asked big local brokers to halt publication of research endorsing stablecoins in a bid to curb a surge in interest among domestic investors.

You might expect that the blockchain behind the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency would earn top marks for security after more than a decade of operation.
But you’d be wrong — at least according to blockchain research firm Kaiko.
The XRP Ledger, which underpins the XRP token, ranked last for security in Kaiko’s latest quarterly Blockchain Ecosystem Ranking, scoring just 41 out of 100.
That was the lowest among the 15 blockchains analysed, trailing Polygon at 44 and Stellar at 45, while Ethereum topped the category with 83.
Kaiko’s ranking evaluates blockchain networks across five criteria: governance, integration, liquidity, operational efficiency, and security.
The security component includes assessments of operational resilience, validator decentralisation, audit frequency, and past incidents to evaluate infrastructure risks.
While Kaiko did not publish individual sub-scores, senior analyst Adam Morgan McCarthy told DL News that “the main issues were the hack earlier this year, a poor Nakamoto coefficient, and a low number of validators.”
The Nakamoto coefficient score is a metric that estimates how many entities would need to collude to compromise the network, compared to other proof-of-stake chains.
Security pain points
In April, a hacker compromised an official software package used by XRPL developers, injecting malicious code capable of stealing users’ private keys.
Although the core ledger and GitHub repository were not affected, the breach put users at risk and raised alarms around XRPL’s software supply chain security.
The network’s relatively small number of validators and its approach to decentralisation are also points of contention.
Unlike Ethereum and Solana, which rely on large, open validator sets — over 1 million and 1,700, respectively — the XRP Ledger operates with around 190 active validators.
However, only 35 of these are included in its default unique node list — a trusted subset used by most participants to reach consensus.
While this design aims to optimise speed and reliability, critics say it limits diversity and makes the system more vulnerable to coordinated disruption.
This limited validator distribution is reflected in XRP Ledger’s low Nakamoto coefficient score.
XRP Ledger architect and Ripple CTO David Schwartz did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ripple also didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Ripple’s founders developed XRP. The blockchain now underlines several of the company’s services.

Applicants face longer waits as the SEC seeks more time to assess new digital asset ETF proposals and public feedback.$XRP #MarketPullback
#Write2Earn

Key Takeaways
The SEC has extended review deadlines for XRP ETFs proposed by 21Shares and CoinShares.
Both ETF decisions are now delayed until October 2025 amid increased crypto ETF proposals.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has extended the timeline for when it will rule on spot XRP exchange-traded funds from 21Shares and CoinShares, the 21Shares Core XRP Trust and the CoinShares XRP ETF.

In separate notices published on August 18, the SEC designated longer periods to consider each application, pushing final decision deadlines into late October.

The SEC pushed the deadline for the 21Shares Core XRP Trust, which aims to list on the Cboe BZX Exchange, to October 19, 2025.

The proposal was filed in February and was subsequently amended and republished in the Federal Register later that month. After initiating proceedings in May, the SEC now says additional time is needed to fully evaluate the filing.

For the CoinShares XRP ETF, planned for listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market, the commission extended its review deadline to October 23, 2025. CoinShares submitted its initial rule change on February 7, 2025, with publication following on February 25.

21Shares and CoinShares filed their applications as part of a wave of crypto asset ETF proposals that followed the SEC’s landmark approvals of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs last year.

Those approvals opened the door for issuers to push for similar products tied to other digital assets, including XRP, in hopes of expanding investor access to the crypto market through regulated, exchange-traded vehicles.

The SEC has also delayed decisions on the CoinShares Litecoin ETF and the Truth Social Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF, a hybrid product proposed by Trump Media & Technology Group.

Bloomberg ETF analysts previously noted that the delays are procedural and do not impact the likelihood of approval.

XRP now sits alongside Litecoin and Solana as a top-tier candidate for a spot crypto ETF, with industry experts assigning a 95% chance that the SEC will authorize a fund tied to the fourth-largest digital asset.

$BTC #MarketPullback Bitcoin’s uptrend is still intact – 164K is still our target.
“Based on BTC’s past cycles, made up of four more minor phases, it is currently in the ’Mid Bull’ phase and thus close to the next Bull run, which can target $100-200+K by the end of 2025.”

Fast forward, and BTC reached its latest all-time high (ATH) on August 14 at $124,532. So far, so good. Based on Fibonacci extensions for the red wave five (W-v), the ideal target zone of $164-216K has not been reached yet, while there’s still more than three months left before the current cycle can be considered over. Additionally, our trading alert for the long term signaled to buy BTC on March 31, 2023, with an entry at $28,476 (green square), and it has yet to give a sell signal. When that occurs, we know the current run is over, as seen with the sell signals (red squares) in 2014, 2018, and 2022.

Figure 1. Bitcoin’s monthly price chart with our preferred EW count, four-phases cycle, and trading system signals.

Besides the Elliott wave count, cycles, and trading system signals, we also notice that Bitcoin has remained in an uptrend since it bottomed out late in 2022. See Figure 2 below. We included the On Balance Volume (OBV) indicator because every time it broke above its downtrend line, a new uptrend started (green arrows). It recently did so again (pink arrow).

Figure 2. Bitcoin’s uptrend since late 2022
We also added the time bitcoin has spent going sideways (black squares) and rallying (green squares). It follows that BTC has spent about 28 months in consolidation patterns and rallied for only ~6 months. Why is that important? Because it means 1) you snooze, you lose, and 2) don’t get shaken out during times of low volatility.

Lastly, the red down-pointing arrows indicate that each consolidation results in false breakouts. We just experienced one on August 14. Only the February-March consolidation of this year was resolved lower, but Bitcoin stayed within its uptrend channel and has rallied multiple times to new ATHs since then. Therefore, follow the trend, the four-year cycle, the Elliott Wave, and our long-term trading system signal. None of these has yet signaled that the top is in.

Additionally, assuming “THE” peak on December 1, the blue trend channel is then around $149.3K, which is still 28% above current levels and brings us close to the ideal $164K target.

US President Donald Trump speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025.

Russian President Vladimir Putin got everything he could have hoped for in Alaska. President Donald Trump got very little — judging by his own pre-summit metrics.

The question now is whether Trump secured any moderate gains or planted seeds for Ukraine’s future security if there’s an eventual peace deal with Russia that were not immediately obvious after Friday’s summit.

And he’s left with some searing strategic questions.

Despite Trump’s claim to have made “a lot of progress” and that the summit was a “10 out of 10,” all signs point to a huge win for the Russian autocrat.

Trump’s lavish stage production of Putin’s arrival Friday, with near-simultaneous exits from presidential jets and red-carpet strolls, provided some image rehabilitation for a leader who is a pariah in the rest of the West and who is accused of war crimes in Ukraine.

And by the end of their meeting, Trump had offered a massive concession to his visitor by adopting the Russian position that peace moves should concentrate on a final peace deal — which will likely take months or years to negotiate — rather than a ceasefire to halt the Russian offensive now. As CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh pointed out, that just gives Putin more time to grind down Ukraine.

Most importantly, Trump has, at least for now, backed away from threats to impose tough new sanctions on Russia and expand secondary sanctions on the nations that buy its oil and therefore bankroll its war. He’d threatened such measures by a deadline that expired last week out of frustration with Putin’s intransigence and a growing belief the Russian leader was “tapping” him along.

This leverage may have brought Putin to Alaska. But Trump seems to have relaxed it for little in return. “Because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about that now,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News after the summit.

Trump briefed European leaders after the summit, telling them that Putin called on Ukraine to yield the roughly a third or so of the Donbas, encompassing the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, that Russia does not currently control. In return, he’d offer to freeze the front lines in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, CNN’s Kevin Liptak reported, citing European officials. This would force Ukraine into an agonizing dilemma. Some analysts fear such a deal would allow Moscow’s forces a platform to launch a future attack.

European leaders also said Trump voiced openness to providing US security guarantees for Ukraine once the war ends. This could be significant because the president has yet to commit to US support for any Western-led peace mission in the country.

But he didn’t specify what kind of backing he’s willing to provide.

CNN’s Kit Maher reported Saturday that multiple European leaders had been invited to a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday. It was unclear which of them will attend, but it raises the possibility of a new widening of Trump’s peacemaking effort to include US allies. But the Kyiv government will also be on alert for any attempt to pressure it to make concessions to plans that Trump agreed with Putin.

Dueling shows of force

Fatih Aktas/Anadolu/Getty Images
F-35 jets and a B-2 bomber accompany the plane carrying the Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrives at Elmendorf-Richardson Joint Base ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump meeting in Alaska, United States on August 15, 2025.
Friday’s meeting began with a B-2 stealth bomber and F-22 fighters roaring overhead in a dramatic moment of US superpower signaling.

But Putin one-upped that symbolism by greeting Trump with the words “Good afternoon, dear neighbor,” as he leveraged the summit’s location in Alaska to imply that the two countries had important and immediate mutual interests that should not be disrupted by a distant war in Europe.

For Ukrainians and their European allies — who were shut out of the meeting and whom Trump briefed afterward — there was at least a moment of relief that Trump didn’t sell Kyiv out. The fact that a US-Russia land swap plan didn’t emerge from Alaska is a win for Europe’s emergency pre-summit diplomacy.

Still, Trump hinted that he will pile pressure on Ukraine’s leader when they meet at the White House on Monday. It’s “now up to President Zelensky to get it done,” Trump told Fox News in the friendly post-summit interview, after refusing to answer questions with Putin in what had been billed as a joint press conference.

Trump’s options moving forward
Before the summit, Trump obliterated careful efforts by his staff to lower expectations when he told Fox News, “I won’t be happy if I walk away without some form of a ceasefire.”

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
President Donald Trump after speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One while en route to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, on Friday, August 15, 2025.
The failure to get there is important.

Russia is happy to commit to a detailed peace process with interminable negotiations that would allow it to continue fighting — including in its increasingly successful summer offensive — while it talks. But Ukrainians are desperate for relief from years of Russian drone and missile attacks on civilians as a generation bleeds out on World War I-style battlefields. Peace talks without a ceasefire will leave it open to Russian or US pressure.

Trump’s zeal to work for peace in Ukraine is commendable, even if his repeated public requests for a Nobel Peace Prize raise questions about his ultimate motives. And one upside of the summit is that the US and Russia — the countries with the biggest nuclear arsenals — are talking again.

But the underlying premise of Trump’s peacemaking is that the force of his personality and his supposedly unique status as the world’s greatest dealmaker can end wars. That myth is looking very ragged after his long flight home from Alaska.

And by falling short of his own expectations in the Alaska summit, Trump left himself with some tough calculations about what to do next.

► Does he revert to his previous attempts to pressure Ukraine in search of an imposed peace that would validate Putin’s illegal invasion and legitimize the idea that states can rewrite international borders, thereby reversing a foundation of the post-World War II-era?

► Or as the dust settles, and he seeks to repair damage to his prestige, does he revert to US pressure and sanctions to try to reset Russian calculations? He at least left open the possibility of sticks rather than carrots in his Fox News interview, saying: “I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don’t have to think about that right now.”

► Alternatively, Trump could commit to the Russian vision of talks on a final peace agreement. History shows that this would be neither quick nor honored by the Russians over the long term. He’s hoping for a three-way summit between Putin, Zelensky and himself. That would satisfy his craving for spectacle and big made-for-TV events. But after Friday’s evidence that Russia doesn’t want to end the war, it’s hard to see how it would create breakthroughs.

► Another possibility is that Trump simply gets discouraged or bored with the details and drudgery of a long-term peace process that lacks big, quick wins he can celebrate with his supporters.

Jeenah Moon/Reuters
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a press conference following their meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025.
“A large part of (Trump) is all about style. There’s not a lot of real enjoyment of getting into the substance of things,” Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy who is now affiliated with the Center for New American Security, said before the summit. “He likes the meringue on top. And I think that’s how you can be manipulated.”

Trump’s style-before-substance strategy clearly backfired in Alaska. Putin appeared far more prepared as Trump winged it. In retrospect, it’s hard to see what the Russian president offered to US envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin that convinced the administration that the Alaska talks were a good idea.

And Russia is clearly playing on Trump’s desire for photo-op moments in the expectation that it can keep him engaged while offering few other concessions.

Trump’s Nobel campaign suffered a setback
Trump may remain the best hope for peace in Ukraine. He can speak directly to Putin, unlike Ukraine or its European allies. Ultimately, US power will be needed to guarantee Ukrainian security, since Europeans lack the capacity to do it alone. And the US retains the capability to hurt Russia and Putin with direct and secondary sanctions.

But Trump has to want to do it. And for now he seems back under Putin’s spell.

The Russian leader’s transparent manipulation of the US president and Trump’s credulity will worry Ukraine. On Fox News, Trump said Putin praised his second term, saying the US was “as hot as a pistol” and he had previously thought the US was “dead.”

Putin also publicly reinforced Trump’s talking point that the invasion three years ago would “never have happened” if he had been president. “I’m quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that,” said Putin.

Viacheslav Mavrychev/Suspilne Ukraine/Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images
Rescue workers extinguish a fire on a civilian enterprise in the Novobavarskyi district struck by a Russian drone on June 4, 2025, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he was “so happy” to hear validation from Putin and that the Russian leader had reinforced another one of his false claims, telling him that “you can’t have a great democracy with mail-in voting.” That a US president would take such testimony at face value from a totalitarian strongman is mind-boggling — even more so in the light of US intelligence agency assessments that the Russians interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump win.

Ultimately, events in Alaska drove a hole through a White House claim in a recent statement that Trump is “the President of Peace.” Trump has touted interventions that cooled hostilities in standoffs between India and Pakistan; Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo; Thailand and Cambodia; and Armenia and Azerbaijan to argue he’s forging peace around the globe at an extraordinary clip.

“I seem to have an ability to end them,” Trump said on Fox News of these conflicts.

He does deserve credit for effectively using US influence in these efforts, including with the unique cudgel of US trade benefits. He has saved lives, even if the deals are often less comprehensive than meets the eye.

But his failure so far to end the Ukraine war that he pledged would be so easy to fix — along with US complicity in the humanitarian disaster in Gaza — means a legacy as a peacemaker and the Nobel Prize that he craves remain out of reach.

Once, he predicted he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours. Despite his bluster, a comment on Fox News shows that after Alaska, he has a better understanding of how hard it will be.

“I thought this would be the easiest of them all and it was the most difficult.”$USDC $WCT #Write2Earn

United States (US) President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded an initial face-to-face meeting in Alaska late Friday, with both parties delivering mutually inconclusive statements. Trump and Putin both delivered vague promises of "progress" on multiple fronts, but initial details remain light. Now, President Trump will be pivoting to hand-delivering Russia's peace proposals on Ukraine to both the Ukrainian and European Union government bodies.
#NFPWatch

KEY PUTIN HIGHLIGHTS
Meeting has been long overdue.
Ukraine situation was one of key issues.
Ukraine war is a tragedy, great pain for us
Agree with trump, Ukraine security must be guaranteed.
Hope Kyiv and Europe will view agreements positively.
Today's agreements should be the starting point.
Trump would have prevented war in Ukraine.
US bilateral trade starts growing with Trump.

KEY TRUMP HIGHLIGHTS
Many points we agreed on.
Agreed on major ones, have made progress.
No deal until there is a deal.
Deal only when there is a deal.
Will contact Zelenskiy and NATO.
It's up to them to agree.
Always had fantastic relationship with Putin.
I will begin making a few phone calls.
Just a few points left to agree on.
Some things remaining to resolve.
Putin wants to see end to killing like I do.
Will probably see Putin again soon.
Will visit Moscow next time.