USDC Native Cross-Chain Transfers, Hong Kong Launching Crypto License

Market Update Crypto markets are lower today, with $BTC down 1.7% after a highly volatile session saw ~$360m in both long and short derivative liquidations yesterday. After initially rising to $30k, $BTC dropped nearly 7% in one hour following alerts that U.S government BTC sales were taking place from Arkham Intel. The rumors were later proven false, sending $BTC from an intraday low of $27.2k to its current level of ~$29.2k. Despite the high levels of volatility, Bitcoin continues to trade as a safe haven amid uncertainty in the banking sector, recently reaching a 57% 30-day rolling correlation with gold, its highest level in nearly two years. $ETH fell 2.5% nominally while $ETHBTC is down -0.9%. Equities are higher today, with the S&P gaining 1.6% and the Nasdaq up 2.14%.Circle, the creator of US Dollar Coin (USDC) has launched a new protocol that enables users to transfer USDC between Ethereum and Avalanche without the need for bridges or third-party services. The new protocol, called Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), destroys tokens sent to its contract and issues new tokens on the receiving network, improving liquidity and capital efficiency in decentralized finance. CCTP is expected to simplify user experience and increase trust in highly liquid, safe, and fungible as