Theta is proud to announce a new academic collaboration with Chung-Ang University’s Intelligent Information Processing Lab (IIPL), led by Professor Young Bin Kim. They join as Edgecloud’s 25th customer since platform launch in the summer of 2024, and EdgeCloud is now used by 4 of the Top 5 South Korea universities, top professional sports teams including NHL’s Las Vegas Knights and New Jersey Devils, and global esports teams FlyQuest and Evil Geniuses.

With Chung-Ang University joining the Theta EdgeCloud ecosystem, the platform continues to strengthen its role as a leading enabler of AI research and decentralized computing. IIPL(Intelligent Information Processing Lab) has built a global reputation in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP), consistently contributing to top-tier AI conferences such as NAACL, EMNLP, ECCV, AAAI, and ICLR. This partnership underscores Theta’s commitment to powering academic institutions globally with scalable, high-performance computing, which includes Seoul National University, KAIST, Korea University, Yonsei University, the University of Oregon, Michigan State University, and Singapore’s NTU.

“We evaluated multiple cloud based services from all the top tier providers and we’re excited to collaborate with Theta Labs to integrate EdgeCloud into our research,” said Professor Young Bin Kim, Associate Professor at Chung-Ang University. “We had the easiest access to EdgeCloud’s GPU computing infrastructure and received the most responsive customer service compared to all other providers. Looking forward to accelerating our AI model training and pushing the boundaries of NLP and multimodal AI in low-resource environments.”

Empowering AI Research with Theta EdgeCloud

Chung-Ang University’s Intelligent Information Processing Lab (IIPL) specializes in low-resource AI, natural language processing (NLP), multimodal AI, and data-efficient machine learning. Through this collaboration, Theta EdgeCloud will provide scalable and cost-effective GPU compute power to support various AI researches in:

• LLM-driven Data Generation and Augmentation: Enhancing the efficiency and scalability of dataset generation and augmentation by leveraging large language models and the high-performance computational resources of Theta EdgeCloud.
• Domain Generalization for Low-resource and Multimodal Tasks: Strengthening AI resilience in diverse, resource-constrained environments while ensuring consistent and robust performance through Theta EdgeCloud’s optimized edge computing capabilities and infrastructure.
• Bias Mitigation and Enhanced Model Robustness: Ensuring fairness and reliability in AI systems by employing advanced bias mitigation techniques and robust model training methods, powered by Theta EdgeCloud’s computational resources.

Theta EdgeCloud’s hybrid cloud-edge GPU computing platform enables Chung-Ang University’s researchers to scale deep learning models efficiently, overcoming the high costs and computational bottlenecks of traditional centralized cloud providers.

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The idea of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve under President Donald Trump has sparked intense debate, with European leaders warning that aggressive US crypto policies could lead to financial chaos. While Trump’s executive order on March 6 outlined plans to use seized BTC from criminal and civil cases, the skepticism is strong.

According to Polymarket, there’s only a 29% chance the reserve will be implemented within Trump’s first 100 days. Meanwhile Bitcoin (BTC) price; which had previously hit $100,000; have struggled to sustain momentum and is currently at $82,693.09 as at the time of this publication.

As the US pushes into Bitcoin-backed financial strategies, European regulators are sounding the alarm over economic risks.

With skepticism growing, experts are debating whether the US government’s Bitcoin accumulation will be a financial breakthrough or a new wave of uncertainty in global markets.

European Leaders Warn US Crypto Policies

“We are seeing great brutality on the American side. Donald Trump seems to harbor this false vision that the global economy is a zero-sum game. He sees it like a Monopoly board, with a fixation on trade deficits: what some gain is necessarily what others lose.”

Villeroy added that global trade should be about collaboration, not competition. He told European nations to strengthen their economic policies in response:

“No! Trade is about exchanging ideas, talents and products to create wealth together. We must not respond to this brutality with passivity or inevitability, but with will.”

Despite the concerns, the ECB official said Europe’s financial system is well regulated, so there’s less chance of a banking crisis. He also called for a stronger global role for the euro and better investment frameworks to attract international capital.

US Political Opposition

As European leaders warn, opposition in the US is growing. Based on reports, Representative Gerald Connolly is urging Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to stop Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve plan, citing conflicts of interest tied to Trump’s friends and donors.

This backlash only shows how divisive the Bitcoin reserve issue is in government reserves. Critics say BTC is too volatile for national reserves, others see it as an inflation hedge.

Experts Discuss Bitcoin’s Role in Financial Stability

The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has sparked debate among financial experts, with different views on its economic impact.

Naysayers Warn of Market Chaos

Critics say Bitcoin’s price swings will destabilize national reserves. The current dip, where BTC has fallen from over $100,000, has only strengthened their case. If Bitcoin were to lose big, the US Treasury would lose.

Economist Paul Krugman said:

“Bitcoin is a speculative asset. While it has gotten institutional interest, it doesn’t have the stability of a national reserve.”

Supporters Point to Liquidity and Resilience

Crypto analyst Christopher Perkins says digital assets can enhance financial stability. He cites Bitcoin’s liquidity and ability to do real-time transactions, reducing settlement risks; something traditional finance has struggled with for ages.

From his experience during the Lehman Brothers collapse, Perkins says liquidity is key to market resilience. He compares Bitcoin to gold in economic downturns, saying it can be a store of value in times of crisis.

“Bitcoin’s decentralized nature makes it an alternative to traditional banking systems, reduces systemic risk.”

Despite regulatory concerns, institutional interest in Bitcoin is growing. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says governments are getting more involved in blockchain adoption, which means a shift in sentiment.

Even Deutsche Bank has acknowledged Bitcoin’s potential role in setting global financial standards, so the debate over digital assets in national reserves is far from over.

The Future: Will the Bitcoin Reserve Become Reality?

The Bitcoin Reserve is a controversial idea, with no clear path forward.

– If it happens; it will be a major shift in how nations incorporate digital assets into their financial systems.

– If not, it will show the regulatory and political hurdles Bitcoin faces at the national level.

With domestic and international opposition building, the next few months will be crucial in determining if Trump’s Bitcoin vision becomes reality or just speculation.

Conclusion: An Inflection Point for Bitcoin and Global Finance

As Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve plan is being challenged by both US lawmakers and European officials; the debate over government-held BTC is far from over. While concerns over market manipulation and regulatory risks persist, institutional interest in digital assets is growing.

The next few weeks will decide if the US will move ahead with their Bitcoin plan or face growing opposition from lawmakers and international partners. Either way, the outcome will set a precedent for national crypto reserves and the role of digital assets in global finance.

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The US Senate Banking Committee passed the GENIUS Act to regulate payment stablecoins. There are two sets of changes to the draft legislation. They include amendments passed as part of yesterday’s markup hearing plus changes to the Bill before the hearing.

One important addition is the Bill now excludes stablecoins that offer interest or yield. However, it’s not clear that it explicitly bans such stablecoins. It’s likely that interest bearing stablecoins will be considered securities.

Amendments passed during the markup session

At the start of the session a package of bipartisan amendments were approved. These aimed to:

• clarify the treatment of payment stablecoins that are not issued by a permitted issuer
• consider the competence, experience and integrity of key leaders at an applicant’s company
• prohibit the use of deceptive names by a payment stablecoin
• maintain the status quo as it relates to the master account access at the Federal Reserve
• give customers of a stablecoin super priority over other creditors in bankruptcy
• clarify the stablecoin reserve requirements.

These topics were only mentioned in brief, and several of the descriptions appear to expand on other amendments to the published draft.

Key changes in latest GENIUS stablecoin draft

These are the changes to the updated draft published before the above amendments.

Tightens up the payment stablecoin definition:

• excludes those earning interest or yield
• excludes tokenized deposits or DLT based bank accounts
• also excludes certain types of securities
• a payment stablecoin not authorized under the Act (presumably offshore) cannot be used for interbank settlement
• the issuer of an unauthorized stablecoin in the US is subject to penalties of $1m for each infraction or up to 5 years prison

Reserves:

• expands cash to include “money standing to the credit of an account with a Federal Reserve Bank” (yet one of the amendments implies no master account access for issuers)
• repo shortened to overnight (from seven days)
• previous version included money market funds. What qualifies as a money market fund has been tightened
• additional liquid assets with “similar profiles” can be approved by the Federal regulator
• any of the specified reserve assets can be in tokenized form.
  (we’d observe the big variance in quality, custody and oversight between tokenization firms. Without caveats, this is risky in an FTX kind of way.)

Capital requirements:

• are tailored to the business model and risk profile of issuers
• stablecoin subsidiary of a bank doesn’t need to hold any extra capital (leverage or risk-based) other than required by the issuer under the Act

AML:

• Issuer treated as a financial institution under the Bank Secrecy Act. This was included in first draft, but now adds details such as AML/sanction programs, record retention, monitoring and reporting, etc
• FinCEN has to tailor rules to size and complexity of stablecoin issuer
• Beyond AML, the stablecoin issuer must have the technical ability to block the digital assets of a foreign person if instructed to do so by the Treasury or by a court order.
• Foreign stablecoin issuers cannot distribute stablecoins in the United States unless they can comply with the above clause.
• There is a new major section dealing with non compliant foreign stablecoin issuers. They will be listed on the Federal Register and digital asset service providers (DASP) are not allowed to provide secondary trading for these non-compliant stablecoins.
• There are hefty penalties on the foreign issuer and any DASP allowing trading

Prohibition on tying of services:

• A stablecoin issuer cannot require a user of one of its services to also use another paid service. Nor can it link the use of a service to blocking the use of a competitor’s offering.

Governance:

• A stablecoin issuer with more than $50 billion issuance must get an audit. Smaller issuers might need an audit if SEC rules require it.
• Marketing: Issuers don’t have a government backstop nor do they have federal insurance (FDIC or otherwise), so it’s unlawful to misrepresent their insurance status.
• A person convicted of certain felonies cannot act as an officer of a stablecoin issuer. Relevant felonies include insider trading, embezzlement, cybercrime, money laundering, financing of terrorism, or financial fraud.

State – Federal regulation boundaries: (only some highlights):

• Previously bank subsidiary stablecoin issuers had to be federally regulated. Now they can be state regulated if under $10 billion.
• The bank’s Federal regulator can sanction or stop a Federally regulated stablecoin issuer, but not a state regulated one.
• In exigent circumstances, the Fed or Comptroller could already step in regarding a State regulated stablecoin, provided it gave five days notice. That’s reduced to two days

Bankruptcy:

• The wording is substantially expanded with a target of starting to distribute reserves to stablecoin holders within 14 days of the relevant hearing.

Reciprocity:

• The existing clause relating to reciprocal arrangements with foreign jurisdictions with similar laws has been expanded in two ways:
  
  
  • added details regarding ‘similar’ – reserve requirements, supervision, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism features, sanctions compliance standards, liquidity requirements, and risk management standards
  • added a two year deadline for the Treasury to implement the arrangements

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