Coinbase

Coinbase is bringing USDC lending to the United Kingdom, allowing customers to borrow against their Bitcoin and Ether holdings. The move expands the exchange's lending services into the UK market and gives British users a way to access liquidity in the dollar-backed stablecoin without selling their crypto. It follows Coinbase's broader push to grow its international presence amid a more favourable UK regulatory environment for digital assets.

Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong has reiterated his forecast that Bitcoin will reach $400,000 within the next four years. The prediction, first made during an earlier market rally, implies roughly a quadrupling from recent price levels. Crypto commentators are weighing the call against Bitcoin's continued volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty, with supporters citing institutional adoption and skeptics questioning the aggressive timeline.

Block has joined the x402 Foundation, an effort to establish shared standards for agentic commerce — AI-powered systems making and receiving payments autonomously. The x402 protocol, originally developed around Coinbase's stablecoin payments work, enables machine-to-machine transactions over HTTP. By joining the foundation, Block signals its intent to help shape how automated AI agents transact commercially as the technology matures.