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When Doug Milnes started buying cryptocurrencies in January of this year, he felt like it could become an entirely new asset class for investors.

Thieves stole around $100 million (€95 million) worth of cryptocurrency from Horizon, a blockchain bridge developed by US crypto start-up Harmony, the latest in a string of cyber heists on a sector long targeted by hackers, the company said on Friday.

So-called stablecoin company Tether is launching a cryptocurrency pegged to the British pound as the United Kingdom tries to embrace digital currencies and global regulators grow wearier of stablecoins.

As crypto winter sends a chill down the markets, with the price of Bitcoin crashing below the key threshold of $20,000 (€19,000) and crypto exchanges laying off staff as fears of a recession bite, the world’s largest crypto exchange says it’s all déjà vu and is not concerned.

Cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius Network will pause withdrawals and transfers between accounts due to "extreme market conditions", the company said on Monday, in the latest sign of pressure in the crypto industry.

Some PayPal customers can now move their cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin from their accounts to external wallets and exchanges.

Crypto winter is coming - or perhaps it is already here - as the last month has shown the industry has been frostbitten.

Russia is considering allowing cryptocurrency to be used for international payments, Interfax news agency quoted a government official saying on Friday.

So-called stablecoins are sending shockwaves through the cryptocurrency markets, wiping billions off their value and causing liquid cryptos such as Bitcoin to crash.

Coinbase's chief executive said a disclosure in its latest quarterly filing did not indicate the largest US cryptocurrency exchange faced a bankruptcy risk, and it had been made to meet a regulatory requirement.

A crypto platform's pledge to amass $10 billion (€9.2 billion) worth of Bitcoin to back its own "stablecoin" is firing up the market. It's part of a wider movement to crown Bitcoin as the reserve currency of a new age.

As a bleak first quarter draws to a close, crypto seems to have the wind in its sails. It has pushed through the $2 trillion (€1.8 trillion) barrier and is proving surprisingly resilient amid global chaos.

The European Union could spell the end of Bitcoin mining when the bloc's parliamentarians head to a vote on Monday.

Despite a crackdown on Bitcoin in China last year, mining the largest cryptocurrency actually got much dirtier and emits around the same amount of CO2 annually as a country the size of Greece, a new study shows.

Bitcoin donations have soared to Ukrainian volunteer and hacking groups, some of which have supplied equipment to government forces, according to a report showing such groups received more than $550,000 (€480,000) worth of cryptocurrency in 2021.

The second-largest decentralised finance (DeFi) hack occurred this week in an attack that swiped $320 million (€279 million), or 120,000 Ether, highlighting the growing trend of attacks on cryptocurrency platforms and concerns over security.

India is set to launch a state-backed digital currency by next year and said it will tax cryptocurrencies and NFTs as part of new fiscal measures announced by the government on Tuesday.

Russian authorities have drawn up a "road map" that envisages restrictions on cryptocurrencies but not a complete ban as advocated by the central bank, according to a document seen by Reuters.

Bitcoin. The ballooning popularity of Bitcoin and other digital currencies has given rise to a strange new political breed: the crypto mayor. Eric Adams, New York's new mayor, accepted his first paycheck in Bitcoin and another cryptocurrency, Ether. Francis Suarez, Miami's mayor, headlines crypto conferences. Now even mayors of smaller towns are trying to incorporate crypto into municipal government, courting startups and experimenting with buzzy new technologies like NFTs to raise money for public projects. Their growing ranks reflect the increasing mainstream acceptance of digital currencies, which are highly volatile. «Mayors rationally want to attract high-income citizens who pay their taxes and impose few costs on the municipality,» said Joseph Grundfest, a business professor at Stanford. But as with many ambitious crypto projects, it's unclear whether these local initiatives will ultimately amount to much. So far, most are either largely symbolic or theoretical.

Bitcoin may be the most valuable cryptocurrency for now but consumers and businesses are leaning to other digital tokens for purchases, according to one of the world's biggest crypto payments processors.

With US cities such as Miami and Austin trying to court digital asset companies, John Wu was unsure whether to make New York the permanent home of his cryptocurrency and blockchain start-up Ava Labs - until Eric Adams was elected mayor last year.