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Central banks are experimenting with smart contracts to implement monetary policy in tokenized environments, signaling a growing interest in integrating blockchain technology into traditional finance (TradFi).According to a joint research study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Innovation Center and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub Swiss Centre, smart contracts could offer central banks a flexible and rapid-response toolkit in a tokenized financial system.The study, dubbed Project Pine, tested a prototype “generic customizable monetary policy tokenized toolkit” for further research by central banks, according to a BIS report published May 15.“The smart contract toolkit was fast and flexible,” the BIS wrote. “In hypothetical scenarios, the central bank was able to add and change tools instantly.”The report emphasized that if tokenization becomes widely adopted for money and securities, smart contracts could play a central role in how monetary policy is executed.Project Pine system overview. Source: BISRelated: Bitcoin more of a ‘diversifier’ than safe-haven asset: ReportThis marks the “first step” in highlighting the potential benefits of tokenization for central banks, according to the BIS.The framework “speed and consistency” was “validated” within a 10-minute hypothetical scenario where central banks quickly changed collateral criteria and exchanged liquid collateral for illiquid one amid falling collateral values.The smart contract framework also allowed central banks to deploy a new facility offering reserves and change the interest rates on these reserves in an “immediate” implementation.Project Pine, smart contract operations. Source: BISRelated: Coinbase faces $400M bill after insider phishing attackSmart contracts, tokenization may help central banksSmart contracts and tokenization technology may help central banks’ rapid response to “extraordinary events,” the BIS report stated:“This speed, coupled with the ability to adjust any of the parameters at any time, gives central banks flexibility in responding to unforeseen events and fast-moving crises.”While promising, the report also acknowledged that central banks will likely face infrastructure challenges, as most existing systems are not designed for these advanced use cases.Smart contract testing scenario. Source: BISProject Pine employed Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard combined with another standard for “access control.”Financial institutions have increasingly embraced tokenization in recent years.At the Consensus 2025 conference, Joseph Spiro, product director at DTCC Digital Assets, called stablecoins the “perfect” financial instrument for real-time collateral management for financial transactions such as loans or derivatives.Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest, April 13 – 19

The Trump family’s World Liberty Financial (WLFI) has approved a community proposal to airdrop its USD1 stablecoin to eligible token holders, according to a May 15 statement. The governance vote, which ran from May 6 to May 13, received near-unanimous support, with 99.96% of participants backing the initiative. In total, around 7 billion tokens were The post Over 40% WLFI’s USD1 airdrop approval vote concentrated to 5 wallet addresses appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Key takeaways:Bitcoin price consolidates as resistance at $105,000 prevents a rally to new all-time highs.Traders are slightly bearish, but historical data suggests a sudden bullish move should not be ruled out.Bitcoin (BTC) price has been consolidating within a roughly $3,500 range over the past seven days as the $105,000 level remains the overhead resistance to break.BTC/USD weekly chart. Cointelegraph/TradingViewBitcoin unable to crack $105,000Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Bitstamp shows that BTC’s price has been oscillating between its resistance level at $105,000 and $101,500, where it has found support.“$BTC is stuck in a narrowing $101.5K–$104K range,” said Swissblock in a May 16 post on X. The onchain data provider said that Bitcoin began consolidating after two failed attempts to break above the resistance at $105,000. “With the weekend ahead, resolution will likely be delayed, unless we get a Friday break.”BTC/USD chart. Source: SwissblockFor market intelligence firm Santiment, failure to rise past the $105,00 level has seen traders flip slightly bearish. “Markets generally tend to move opposite to the crowd’s expectations, suggesting there is a heightened probability of crypto markets rising due to this increased fear,” the firm explained in an X post, adding:“Retail traders are beginning to show impatience, which historically is a bullish sign for prices.”Bitcoin social volume. Source: SantimentBTC price lacks “serious catalyst”Bitcoin has managed to sustain $100,000 as support for over a week while hitting 14-week highs of $105,700 on May 12. Despite following broad volatility across risk assets, BTC/USD might have gone even higher were it not for maneuvers of large-volume trading entities on exchange order books, according to trading resource Material Indicators.Related: Bitcoin hitting $220K ‘reasonable’ in 2025, says gold-based forecastLooking at the Binance exchange, Material Indicators said large blocks of ask liquidity were stacked above the spot price, pinning the BTC price in the range.An accompanying chart shows that these liquidity clusters currently sit between $105,000 and $110,000.“Unless we have a serious catalyst, I’m not expecting to see a sustainable breakout to the all-time high territory until BTC has a legit support test at $100,000,” it said in a May 16 post on X.  BTC/USDT order book liquidity data. Source: Material IndicatorsMaterial Indicators added that a key level to watch on the downside was the $98,000-$100,000 range.“With all of the above in mind, be prepared for a support test in the $98,000-$100,000 range, but beware of short squeezes and bull traps until that happens.”Bitcoin bulls fight to hold key support levelsMeanwhile, trader Daan Crypto Trades said that the “start of the recent move” at $93,000 was essential for Bitcoin traders going forward.Bitcoin is trading “far away from any large liquidity clusters. The price didn’t trade for a long time up here just yet. So, after the initial squeeze of shorts, there are not that many new positions built up around this area,” his X post said, adding:“The main level to look out for would be local highs above $106,000 and below all the way down to $93,00, which was the start of the recent move.”BTC/USDT liquidation heatmap. Source: Daan Crypto TradesMaterial Indicators paid additional attention to the 50-day and 100-day simple moving averages (SMAs), key longer-term trendlines that formed a bullish cross, indicating a “strong upward momentum for the macro trend.”For MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe, $98,000 is a “crucial area to hold on to” in order to ensure continuation upward.Source: Michael van de PoppeThis article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Bringing student loans onchain would increase the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) by more than four times, supercharging the industry, according to Yat Siu, chairman of Animoca Brands.Speaking at Consensus 2025 in Toronto, Siu pointed to the $3 trillion global student loan market as an untapped opportunity for the crypto industry. He said moving even 10% of that market onchain could significantly boost DeFi’s growth.“You basically more than quadruple TVL in all of DeFi,” he said, underscoring how the industry is still in its early stages. Consensus chairman Michael Lau (left) with Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu (right) at the Consensus mainstage in Toronto, Canada. Source: CointelegraphWeb3-based education tools to drive crypto adoptionSiu said that Web3-based financial tools for the education sector could drive mass crypto adoption, especially among the young and unbanked.“The first unbanked are the kids,” he said. “If a student receives a loan onchain and pays it back onchain — which is regulated, better, faster, cheaper — they become onboarded for crypto for life.” Siu compared the situation to how PayPal and Venmo scaled by offering essential services to underserved users. He suggested that student loans could serve as crypto’s entry into the mainstream.The executive also highlighted Animoca Brands’ recent investment in Pencil Finance, a startup providing crypto-native student loans. Siu said the project operates in the Philippines and Indonesia, and plans to expand to the US. On April 30, Pencil Finance announced a $10 million student loan financing initiative to provide cheaper, blockchain-backed loans. Siu previously said in an interview that the industry needs these “positive-sum use cases” that everyone understands. He said students would be more pro-crypto if they had more opportunities through crypto loans. Related: NFT founder stole millions from Bitcoin project, investors allegeEducation is a natural Web3 use caseSiu also told the Consensus audience that education is a natural use case for Web3. He highlighted YouTube and TikTok, platforms that are often dismissed as entertainment applications. Siu said these social media apps are now the largest informal learning platforms in the world. He said everything is tied to education and that Web3 could do something similar. “Education is actually fundamental, something we do all the time,” Siu said. He suggested that by integrating financial infrastructure into educational experiences, Web3 could turn learning communities and reputational networks into capital assets, forming the basis of a new, decentralized financial ecosystem.Magazine: Binance Wallet ‘killing’ MetaMask and airdrops, Chinese RWA tokens: Asia Express

Key takeaways:XRP is retesting a falling wedge breakout, which could lead to a rally toward $3.60.Whale wallets are in the red, and history shows this isn’t bullish for XRP price.A breakdown below $1.11 could trigger an inverse cup-and-handle pattern, targeting a sharp drop to $0.50.XRP (XRP) has rebounded by more than 50% in the last five weeks to reach $2.42 on May 16. But the price remains 30% below its January 2025 peak of $3.40, raising concerns of a bull trap.Will XRP’s price sustain the recovery or drop further in the coming days? Let’s examine.Falling wedge retest hints at sharp XRP rally XRP is completing a textbook retest of its falling wedge breakout, according to chartist CW. Often, after the breakout, the price comes back down to “retest” the wedge’s upper trendline. If it holds as support, meaning buyers step in and prevent the price from falling back into the wedge, it signals strong demand and renewed confidence in the uptrend.XRP/USD three-day price chart. Source: TradingViewCW predicts XRP will hold above its falling wedge’s upper trendline, which could help its prices climb higher toward the technical upside target of $3.60. Related: History rhymes? XRP price gained 400% the last time whale flows flippedThis target is obtained by adding the wedge’s maximum height to the breakout point, as shown below.XRP/USD three-day price chart. Source: TradingViewThe wedge setup suggests that XRP will likely not crash in the coming days. But if the price drops below the wedge’s upper trendline, the bullish setup risks invalidation, exposing XRP to declines toward the lower trendline at around $1.75.Max pain scenario: 50% XRP price crashSimultaneously, XRP is possibly signi a bearish reversal signal as it forms an inverse cup-and-handle pattern.The pattern has developed over the past five months, with the rounded "cup" forming between December 2024 and March 2025, followed by the "handle" consolidation into May. The neckline support sits near $1.11. XRP/USD three-day price chart. Source: TradingViewA confirmed breakdown below this level could validate the pattern and trigger a deeper correction.Based on the pattern’s height, the projected downside target is around $0.50, a nearly 80% drop from current levels. The declining volume during the handle phase and the neutral RSI reading near 50 further support the risk of bearish continuation.XRP’s whale fractal indicates price drop below $1As of May 15, the XRP price is below the $2.58 average paid by its biggest holders—those holding over 10,000 XRP in their wallets.XRP realized price by wallet size. Source: GlassnodeWhen XRP whales are in the red, the price often rebounds toward their average buy level, but this bounce can be short-lived. Historically, it’s followed by a broader pullback that tests the average entry prices of smaller holders.For example, in September 2021, XRP briefly rose to $1.19, just above the whale realized price of $1.01. But soon after, it dropped below $1.10, retesting the entry levels of other wallet groups as support.XRP realized price by wallet size. Source: GlassnodeIt shows that realized prices act as magnets for price action, indicating XRP could rise toward the whale realized prices of $2.58 in the short term.In the worst-case scenario, XRP’s price can drop to $0.67, the realized price of the 1,000-10,000 XRP balance cohort. Taking the aggregated realized price, XRP’s target appears to be around $1.04.On the other hand, a continued rally above $2.58 will suggest bullish conviction among whales, which could be boosted by the launch of spot XRP ETFs in the US.This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.