Here’s what happened in crypto today
Today in crypto, Morgan Stanley reportedly plans to enable cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade platform by 2026, marking a deeper push into digital assets amid a shifting US regulatory landscape. The crypto-tied eye scanning project World is now in the US, and Ripple reportedly made a $5 billion bid to acquire Circle. Morgan Stanley eyes crypto rollout for E*Trade platform: BloombergBanking giant Morgan Stanley reportedly plans to list cryptocurrencies on its E*Trade investment brokerage and trading platform.According to a May 1 Bloomberg report, the firm intends to list crypto assets on E*Trade in 2026. The plan is still in early development, and the bank is said to be exploring partnerships with established crypto firms to power the service. Internal discussions about cryptocurrency support reportedly began in late 2024.E*Trade homepage. Source: E*TradeThis would not be Morgan Stanley’s first exposure to digital assets. The bank’s wealthiest clients have had access to crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and futures for some time, with the firm’s advisers allowed to pitch Bitcoin ETFs since August 2024.Eyeball scanning crypto project World hits US shoresOpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s crypto-tied digital identity project World, formerly Worldcoin, said on April 30 that it will make its US debut, first coming to the so-called “key innovation hubs” of Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and San Francisco.World offers a crypto token, Worldcoin (WLD), to those who verify their humanity with its spherical device called an Orb that scans a user’s face and eyeballs, which can then be used to make a World ID on the company’s platform to verify they are human on connected services including Minecraft, Reddit and Discord.Source: WorldThe firm had previously stayed away from the US due to regulatory concerns over offering a token, fears now seemingly allayed with the crypto-friendly Trump administration.World also announced a tie-up with Visa for a card that allows payments in WLD, and a pilot program testing out World ID with the online dating giant Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, and Plenty of Fish.Ripple multi-billion bid to purchase Circle rejected — ReportBlockchain payments firm Ripple has reportedly bid up to $5 billion in an effort to acquire stablecoin issuer Circle, but the offer was rejected.According to an April 30 Bloomberg report, Ripple put in a bid of $4 billion to $5 billion as part of an attempted takeover of Circle, which was rejected as being too low. Ripple hasn’t considered whether to make another bid to purchase the stablecoin issuer.The reported acquisition attempt came less than 30 days after Circle applied for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US. Cointelegraph reached out to representatives of Circle and Ripple for comment, but had not received a response from either at the time of publication.Ripple reportedly had an $11 billion valuation in 2024, an estimate CEO Brad Garlinghouse called “outdated” as of January. The blockchain company purchased prime broker Hidden Road for roughly $1.2 billion in April, claiming the move would help scale activity for XRP and XRP Ledger.
SolanaSOL#5
