Latest news with #Stacks
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How Stacks is looking to power a second wave of Bitcoin DeFi
How Stacks is looking to power a second wave of Bitcoin DeFi originally appeared on TheStreet. While the crypto world continues to watch publicly traded companies build their own Bitcoin treasuries, builders in the Stacks ecosystem are quietly preparing to scale ways for more people to earn yield on their Bitcoin via their Layer-2. A new draft proposal — SIP-031, titled Fueling Stacks Builders & Growth — marks the next step in a long-term plan to turn Bitcoin into more than just digital gold, according to co-founder Muneeb Ali. "I think the analogy would be that if Bitcoin is sort of like a highway and it's congested, Stacks is like a more modern highway right next to it where you can pay a small toll and use it," Ali said about the ecosystem's efforts to expand Bitcoin's usage. "And I feel like now, projects are reaching that level of maturity — that it's not just initial experimentation, it's not just building the thing, but it's actually maturing to real usage and then generating protocol revenue and then figuring out what happens with the protocol revenue." The new Stacks proposal seeks to answer that, by establishing a Stacks Endowment that will be fueled in-part by higher emissions over the next five years, raising from 3.52% to an average of 5.75% per year. As the proposal highlights, Stacks is somewhat unique in how it has operated with less firepower than other top-50 projects in crypto after raising about $80 million six years ago. It's also unique in that Stacks was born out of one of the few U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) qualified offerings in the space. (Despite that, the SEC still opened a probe into Stacks and later closed it in 2024.) Now, Ali says Stacks is looking to accelerate its unique positioning under new leadership at the SEC. "Stacks is all about making Bitcoin productive, so people are bringing their Bitcoin into the into the L2 and they're using it either for payments or in DeFi or lending, whatever they want to do. But as more Bitcoin capital comes in and gets used on the network, there are very clear value accrual models where value accrues back to STX," he said. "And I think we can be much more explicit about it now ... we feel more comfortable because the ecosystem is so decentralized. The SEC already looked into the project for three years and gave a letter saying, you know, you guys are all clear." One of the clearest use cases to come from Stacks' early efforts has been the advent of their challenger to centralized custodians expanding Bitcoin to other blockchains. Rather than offering wrapped Bitcoin that may be operated by centralized players like BitGo or others, Stacks' sBTC has sought to offer a more decentralized alternative by tokenizing Bitcoin and bringing it to other blockchains like Solana and Sui. After launching in December with a 1,000 sBTC cap, the project expanded a few months later to a 3,000 sBTC cap — which it hit just 24 hours later. After raising the cap again this month, total sBTC surpassed 5,000 may soon be showing up in more places. 'We want to take Bitcoin to where the users are ... and open almost like this two-way street. That helps them discover Stacks. That helps them discover Bitcoin DeFi," Ali said. Behind it all is a simple yet powerful bet: Bitcoin can do more. And with regulatory attitudes shifting and protocol maturity setting in, Ali believes Stacks is finally in a position to show how. 'We want to be the most trust-minimized way for people to keep their Bitcoin in a programable environment where they can actually earn yields ... [and] deploy easily in applications and so on,' he said. After a community comment period, SIP-031 will be voted on by the Stacks community and could very well help to accelerate progress. How Stacks is looking to power a second wave of Bitcoin DeFi first appeared on TheStreet on May 30, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on May 30, 2025, where it first appeared. Fehler beim Abrufen der Daten Melden Sie sich an, um Ihr Portfolio aufzurufen. Fehler beim Abrufen der Daten Fehler beim Abrufen der Daten Fehler beim Abrufen der Daten Fehler beim Abrufen der Daten
The Print
3 days ago
- Business
- The Print
Why is Pakistan going all out on crypto? There's a Donald Trump angle
Crypto is already widely popular in Pakistan, with around 20 million users —far more than the 420,000 people who invest in the capital market—placing the country among the global top 10 for crypto trading. In a surprising move, in late April, Pakistan partnered with World Liberty Financial (WLF), a company linked to the US President Donald Trump's family. WLF has promised to help Pakistan develop blockchain tools, tokenise assets, and provide crypto industry guidance. However, details of the deal remain vague. New Delhi: As its economy remains in shambles and ever dependent on IMF bailouts, a desperate Pakistan is trying hard to find a new window of growth. And this new life line is coming in the form of cryptocurrency and a company that has links to US President Donald Trump. In February 2025, the government formed a Crypto Council, and on Tuesday, it upgraded this into a full regulatory body called the Pakistan Digital Asset Authority. This new authority will oversee and regulate digital assets like crypto and blockchain-based technologies. The government now aims to regulate and tax the sector, attract foreign investment, and legitimise the ecosystem through the newly formed Pakistan Digital Asset Authority (PDAA), led by Bilal Bin Saqib—a Forbes 30 Under 30 and MBE awardee. Pakistani-British entrepreneur Saqib's appointment signals Pakistan's push to align with global trends. With global crypto exchange platforms like Binance and Stacks showing interest, Pakistan is also allocating power for data centres to support crypto mining and AI. Saqib is tasked with creating a FATF-compliant crypto framework, launching Bitcoin mining, regulating it, and integrating blockchain into governance and finance. However, questions are being raised about policymaking and governmental control. Hussain Nadeem, a policy strategist and Pakistani AI expert, posed a few questions to Bilal Bin Saqib, who earlier headed the Pakistan Crypto Council and will now lead the PDAA. In a long post on X, he asked if there was a white paper on crypto advancement in Pakistan, how much of governmental/army control there would be and whether there were public discussions on policymaking in crypto post the tie-up with Trump's company. Nadeem's questions point toward larger policy hiccups. Industry experts, however, are confident of the prospects of crypto in Pakistan. 'The founders of WLFI recently visited Pakistan and expressed strong interest in supporting our crypto ecosystem. With their stablecoin valued at over $2 billion, WLFI is a significant global player. While the details of our collaboration will be announced soon, possibly at the upcoming Bitcoin Vegas Conference, their visit alone signals growing international confidence in Pakistan's crypto ambitions,' Ali Farid Khwaja, chairman at KTrade Securities and a domain expert, told ThePrint. Geopolitical concerns There are also geopolitical implications. An article from The Economist's May edition pointed out that many in India interpreted the US-Pakistan crypto deal as Pakistan's way to win Trump's favour, which perhaps even led to Trump declaring the ceasefire. In late April, Texas-based logistics firm Fr8Tech made headlines by pledging up to $20 million to buy $TRUMP, a cryptocurrency launched by Donald Trump. The firm, linked to World Liberty Finance, also promised to help Pakistan develop blockchain products and provide crypto industry advice—raising eyebrows globally. Meanwhile, the Trump family's deep ties to crypto via promotion, regulation, and investor perks like exclusive dinners are drawing the industry into US politics. While this gives crypto unprecedented visibility, critics in The Economist article, warn that its association with a partisan figure could ultimately harm its broader legitimacy. Nadeem too, in his criticism, compared the new crypto push to the Pakistan Army's involvement in Special Investment Facilitation Council, which is a federal body under the Pakistan government but one that is effectively run by the Pakistan military, including 36 active military officers. Established in 2023, under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, SIFC aims to increase foreign investment and ease business but heavy military presence in the council has sparked concerns over civilian-military power balance. Calling it a 'great disservice to the country', Nadeem said 'Crypto is the new SIFC' 'The way this regime is approaching Crypto, it has unfortunately become a new con that has politics, not public good, as an end goal…. The regime has only ONE interest in Crypto: Access to the Trump White House, and sadly this hype is all about that, nothing more,' he wrote on X. Even Indian analysts are issuing words of caution. Pakistan's growing crypto adoption highlights a significant shift in the region's digital strategy—one India should closely monitor given the potential geopolitical and economic impacts, distinguished fellow at the Council on Strategic and Defence Research, C Raja Mohan, wrote in a recent column for The Indian Express. Khwaja, however, is hopeful for crypto's prospects in Pakistan and is not worried about governmental control overriding the positive impacts. Since the Crypto Council was announced just three months ago, Pakistan has attracted significant attention from some of the top names in the crypto industry. Binance, World Liberty Finance, crypto billionaire Justin Sun, and Stacks, a New York-based token with a $2 billion market cap, have all publicly announced engagements with Pakistan, he said. 'This surge of inbound interest from major global players is driving investment and prompting the government to actively facilitate regulations, aiming to position Pakistan as both a regional and global leader in crypto,' Khwaja said. He also added that, unlike before, when interest was often met with scepticism, the government is embracing these opportunities. 'It's not about trying to force development; companies are coming forward saying, 'We want to invest,' and Pakistan is responding. Similarly, in the US, President Trump has expressed a strong desire for the country to lead globally in this space, reflecting how quickly things are evolving worldwide,' he added. (Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Stacks will meet St Kierans in repeat of last year's Kerry County U21 final
County Kerry U21 FC semi-finals: 2-21 to 0-19 Austin Stacks thanks to an explosive opening half proved far too strong for a gutsy East Kerry side in the semi-final of the County U21 Football Championship with a 2-21 to 0-19 victory in Paddy Burke Memorial Park Milltown. Stacks who are going for back to back County U21 titles laid down a marker from the throw in when Ben Murphy fetched the ball and raced right through the heart of the East Kerry defence where he had to be fouled and Paddy Lane who only passed a fitness test just before throw in converted the free. Two minutes later Jack Murphy raced forward and played Ryan O'Driscoll through and he jinked his way past two defenders to score a superb goal. Cian Gammell replied for East Kerry but it was all Stacks pressure with the wind to their backs for the rest of the half. O'Driscoll was denied by a post for a second goal, before he added another point and with Donnacha Sayers, Sean Óg Brosnan and a Paddy Lane two pointer, Stacks led 1-6 to 0-3 at the end of the opening quarter with Mark O'Shea and Stephen Palmer (two of East Kerry's top performers) replying for East Kerry. By half time Stacks with the Murphy brothers, Luke Casey and Daniel Kirby driving them forward and two pointers from Ronan Carroll and Paddy Lane saw Stacks retire 1-13 to 0-7 in front at the interval. East Kerry needed a quick start to the second half but instead two Paddy Lane points and one from Daniel Kirby and Ronan Carroll saw Stacks stretch 13 points clear and that was game over. Credit East Kerry with Paul O'Shea with a two pointer and five second half Stephen Palmer points along with accurate James Horgan free taking saw they gap at down to just eight. But Ben Murphy killed off East Kerry's unlikely comeback when Gavin Casey set up Ben Murphy so drilled the ball to the net and Stacks cruised to an eight point win. They will meet St Kieran's in a repeat of last year's County final after they held off a late Glenflesk rally to book their place in the Kerry U21 final after a 2-22 to 4-13 win in Fossa. Killian Dennehy was the star of the show scoring 1-10 while as Maurice Lane scores their other goal. Glenflesk can thank Callum Cronin who scored 2-1 with John Kelliher and Dylan Roche (penalty) other Glenflesk goal scorers. St Kierans recovered from going 0-5 to 0-0 down to Glenflesk after 10 minutes to lead by 0-7 to 0-6 at half-time. Killian Dennehy with three points as Glenflesk have braces from Dylan Roche, Jamie Moynihan and John Kelliher. Kierans were 1-14 to 0-6 up after 43 mins before Callum Cronin got Glenflesk first goal. Cronin got his second in 49th min which made it 1-16 to 2-9. When Dennehy got Kierans 2nd goal in 52nd minute to make it 2-16 to 2-10, it felt like game over but John Kelliher got Glenflesk's third goal in 55th min to make it 2-18 to 3-10, but dissent proved costly for the East Kerry club. Luke Crowley and Cian Lynch kicked two pointers as Dylan Roche scored 4th goal from a penalty in 60+2 as Glenflesk but a Kieran Dennehy free ensured Kierans got through but only just.
Business Upturn
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Upturn
Asigna Announces a $3M Funding Round and a Multisig v2 Upgrade
New York, NY, May 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Asigna, the leading smart multisig vault operator for Bitcoin, its metaprotocols and Layer-2s is launching a major v2 upgrade with support for Embedded Apps and a developer SDK. The project also announced it raised a $3M funding round led by Hivemind Capital and Tykhe Block Ventures with participation from Sats Ventures, Trust Machines, and various angels. Asigna previously completed a pre-seed round led by Portal Ventures, with support from Bitcoin Frontier Fund. Asigna is a non-custodial smart multisig vault designed for secure Bitcoin asset management that protects over $1.1B of funds. It enables teams, DAOs, and institutions to securely manage shared Bitcoin treasuries and participate in Bitcoin DeFi while minimizing the risks of hacks and conflicts. Asigna integrates the Bitcoin base layer and execution environments like Stacks, Arch, Citrea, Botanix, and enables all standard wallet operations, including direct interactions with dApps, decentralized exchanges, bridges, and metaprotocols, such as Ordinals, Runes, Alkanes, BRC-20, Rare Sats, and others. 'With Asigna, we are establishing foundational infrastructure for institutions and large holders to securely and confidently participate in the evolving Bitcoin ecosystem,' said Viven, Co-Founder at Asigna. 'There's a critical need for robust, transparent, and programmable non-custodial solutions, and the multisig infrastructure is at the heart of this transformation.' With this v2 release, Asigna's users will be able to interact with Bitcoin-based applications directly from within the multisig environment via Embedded Apps. The app now also provides a customizable dashboard for portfolio tracking and enables direct swaps between Bitcoin Assets and BTC. In addition to this, Asigna released its Connection SDK and Multisig SDK to empower third-party developers to connect user multisig wallets directly to their Bitcoin and Stacks applications. They can make multisig vaults, create, sign and execute transactions, sign messages, manage funds, contract deployments and calls. New features also include the ability for vaults to have Sub Accounts, Email notifications, Governance, Customizable signer permissions, Privacy mode, and advanced UTXO Management. 'What's unique about Asigna is that, unlike many other onchain smart wallet implementations, it is fully native to the Bitcoin layer, with no smart contract risks. We don't directly interact with private keys and account owners can use any wallet to sign their transactions,' said Vlad, Co-Founder at Asigna. 'Which means these multisig wallets can never be frozen or lost, regardless of what happens to Asigna. As it should be'. Over $2.2 trillion of assets were stored in Bitcoin in late 2024 when it reached the previous peak price of $108,135. Fueled by unprecedented ETF demand that significantly outpaced mining production, Bitcoin's ecosystem is experiencing explosive growth, particularly within its DeFi sector, which boasts a $6 billion Total Value Locked and is expected to grow rapidly along with the launches of scaling metaprotocols. Asigna is perfectly positioned to support this growth and will use the raised funding to build offerings for enterprise customers to provide access to DeFi and yield generation through staking and lending with a white-glove service. 'We believe Asigna's innovative approach to Bitcoin security and its seamless integration with Layer-2 protocols make it a game-changer for institutional investors', said Kayla Phillips, Senior Investment Principal at Hivemind Capital. 'We are thrilled to support their mission to provide robust and transparent non-custodial solutions for the evolving Bitcoin ecosystem.' About Asigna Asigna is a smart multisig vault operator for Bitcoin and its Layer-2 metaprotocols, protecting over $1.1B in assets. Its multi-party custody approach allows teams, DAOs, and institutions to securely manage shared Bitcoin treasuries and DeFi assets with collective control. Asigna integrates the Bitcoin base layer and metaprotocols, enabling direct interactions with dApps, decentralized exchanges, bridges, and metaprotocols. For more information, please visit Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Deputies on breakfast break save choking man at Waxhaw restaurant
A group of Union County deputies were having breakfast at a Waxhaw restaurant when their morning break quickly turned into a life-saving mission. Inmate saves Mecklenburg County detention officer from choking The restaurant's owner told Channel 9's Gina Esposito that he's glad the deputies were there because he's not sure what would've happened if they hadn't been. Union County Sheriff's Office deputies were having breakfast early on May 4 at Stacks in Waxhaw. 'The waitress came over and asked us if we could go help this guy that was choking,' Deputy Sarah Tucker said. 'He was a booth over from us.' A 78-year-old man was struggling to breathe. 'One of our sergeants, Sgt. Williams, performed the Heimlich (maneuver) on him,' the deputy said. The food was dislodged, and the man could finally breath. Union County Sheriff's Office spokesman James Maye said they are thankful the deputies were in the right place at the right time. 'It goes without saying, I don't think they expected to do that in that moment, but I'm glad they were there because this situation could've ended differently,' said Maye, public information officer. The deputies said they do annual life-saving training, including how to save a choking victim, CPR, and how to use an AED. The waitress declined to speak with Esposito about the rescue. VIDEO: SRO saves choking student in high school cafeteria
