Priced $2,000 - $6,000 on a cybercrime forum, the MaaS toolkit promises publication on the Chrome Web Store.
The post ‘Stanley’ Malware Toolkit Enables Phishing via Website Spoofing appeared first on SecurityWeek.
Swiss banking giant UBS, with assets under management (AuM) of up to $7 trillion, is set to launch Bitcoin trading for some of its clients. This comes amid predictions that regulatory clarity and broader adoption could send the BTC price to as high as $200,000.
Bloomberg reported that UBS is planning to launch crypto trading for some of its wealth clients, starting with its private bank clients in Switzerland. The bank will reportedly begin by offering these clients the opportunity to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum. At the same time, the crypto offering could further expand to clients in the Pacific-Asia region and the U.S.
The banking giant is currently in discussions with potential partners, and there is no clear timeline for when it could launch Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for clients. This move is said to be partly due to increased demand from wealth clients for crypto exposure. UBS also faces increased competition as other Wall Street giants are working to offer crypto trading.
Morgan Stanley, in partnership with Zerohash, announced plans to launch crypto trading in the first half of this year, starting with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The banking giant may soon also be able to offer its crypto products, as it has filed with the SEC to launch spot BTC, ETH, and SOL ETFs.
Furthermore, JPMorgan, another of UBS’ competitors, is considering offering crypto trading to institutional clients, although this plan is still in the early stages. The bank already accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral from its clients. Last year, it also filed to offer BTC structured notes that will track the performance of the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF.
Kevin O’Leary predicted that Bitcoin could rally to between $150,000 and $200,000 this year, driven by the passage of the CLARITY Act. His prediction came just as White House Crypto Czar David Sacks said banks would fully enter crypto once the bill passes. As such, there is a possibility that BTC could reach this $200,000 psychological level in anticipation of the amount of new capital that could flow into BTC from these banks once the bill passes.
BitMine’s Chairman, Tom Lee, also predicted during a CNBC interview that Bitcoin could reach between $200,000 and $250,000 this year, partly due to growing institutional adoption by Wall Street giants. Meanwhile, Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said that a BTC rally to $200,000 is the “most obvious thing in the world” to him.
At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $89,600, up in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
With the nationwide launch of Edibles.com last spring, Edible Brands, the company behind Edible Arrangements, is entering bold new territory: THC. Yes, that Edible Arrangements — the name behind the flower-shaped pineapples and chocolate-covered strawberries gracing teachers’ desks and mother-in-laws’ kitchen islands since 1999.
The idea of transitioning to THC had been percolating for a while, with the brand acquiring the domain name a year ago after settling a cybersquatting lawsuit to release the name from World Media Group, an entity that had acquired the site with the hope of turning a profit by reselling it. Soon after, Edible Brands hired cannabis business professional Thomas Winstanley as executive vice president and general manager of the new venture, Edibles.com. Later that year, Somia Farid Silber stepped up as CEO after eight years with the company.
The synergy comes not only from the name, but also from the brand’s trusted reputation. In a market dominated by gas station grams and poorly labeled edibles in prohibition states, Edible Arrangement’s trusted reputation is a salve for those seeking regulation and reliability.
Edibles.com now reaches more than 65% of Americans with lab-tested, federally compliant THC products, offering same-day delivery in select markets. It’s a first-of-its-kind e-commerce network built for a category that, until recently, was defined by patchwork regulation, consumer uncertainty and underground connections.
Cannabis Now recently spoke with Winstanley to understand how this new model came to life, and what it means for the new era of cannabis commerce.
Winstanley has described his ideal model as “The Amazon of THC.” In the same way Amazon helped build trust and ease in e-commerce, Edibles.com seeks to educate and serve as a central hub for THC nationwide.
“We shied away from that moniker initially, but the parallels are there.” Winstanley says. “Amazon started with one category, books, that made sense for e-commerce. For us, that entry point is functional ingestibles: products that are safe, tested and outcome-driven.”
But Winstanley’s ambitions go beyond product aggregation. “Amazon built an ecosystem that educated consumers about online shopping. We’re trying to do the same for cannabis,” he explains. “Our goal is to demystify the access point—to help people understand what they’re buying, why it’s legal and how to shop by outcome rather than just strain or potency.”
At the end of the day, Edibles.com’s is focused on consumer health and wellness—helping people enhance their wellbeing through hemp while being able to skip the hassle of going to the store. “Wellness is our guiding principle: highly categorized products that focus on outcome,” Winstanley says. “We have a lot of folks who are purchasing products online for the first time and having them delivered to their door.”
Even within such a massive framework, starting a new business is never easy. “In some ways, we’re beginning a business within a company. This is not an extension of more ways to sell strawberries, but a whole new portfolio of substances,” he says, adding that Edibles.com is currently primarily speaking to Edible Arrangements’ existing audience.
Edibles.com’s UX/UI mirrors the company’s mission to deliver outcome-driven products. Rather than overwhelming users with a dispensary-style menu of hundreds of SKUs, Edibles.com organizes its offerings by need: sleep, stress, pain management, energy and mood uplift.
That health-forward lens, he notes, aligns more with Target’s vitamin aisle than a traditional cannabis shop. “My wife and I love Olly Sleep Gummies,” he says. “Our products belong in that same conversation. We’re not marketing ‘getting high’; we’re marketing better sleep, less stress and overall functional outcomes. That’s the bridge between cannabis and wellness.”
This framing places THC as a nootropic along the lines of ashwagandha, demystifying the ingredient as a part of the larger wellness landscape. Winstanley describes their framing as “more aligned with nutraceuticals than controlled substances.”
With each state comes a new set of laws, bylaws and risk assessments, along with a separate set of legal reviews and ongoing vetting. “We move fast, but we’re also cautious,” he says. “Every day involves balancing innovation with compliance. You want to grow quickly, but you can’t jeopardize consumer trust or partner integrity.”
That trust is earned through curation and transparency. Edibles.com only features brands with established reputations, such as Wyld, Wana, Kiva, and Cann—all of which undergo rigorous compliance audits before being listed. “This is our varsity lineup,” Winstanley says. “It sets us up to reach further outside the margins.”
While the U.S. hemp-derived THC market now exceeds $28 billion, consumers remain skeptical of its legality. “We get asked all the time: ‘How is this legal?’” he says. “We’re talking about the same molecule, just different extraction processes due to regulation.”
Since hemp plants legally contain less than 0.3% THC, industry practice requires hemp-derived THC to take the route of using CBD to convert into THC. This process requires more sophisticated techniques, such as isomerization. “Marijuana” plants, however, have a naturally higher THC content, lending themselves to a more straightforward extraction process (including solvents, ethanol or CO2).
“Hemp leveled the playing field,” he says. “It allows for a vibrant, more diverse community of entrepreneurs and businesses that are no longer locked out of the market and can pursue their goals, finding a manufacturing contract with a brewery or gummy company, rather than in a regulated market.”
However, in November, President Trump signed a spending bill to end the 43-day government shutdown, which included a ban on all hemp-derived THC products. While nothing has taken effect yet—and industry professionals are pushing back—it remains a very real threat. Winstanley is one of those professionals, pledging to use the one-year grace period to organize resistance: “Farmers, brands, and consumers, once fragmented, are now mobilizing together to defend what they’ve built and to finally push for the federal framework the hemp industry has long demanded.”
“We’re executive directors of the US Hemp Roundtable. We’re aiming to ensure that federal laws don’t eliminate the $28 billion industry, 3,000 jobs, and revenue for farmers that they currently generate from soy and corn production. I’m fortunate to have to solve these problems; I think there’s a major generational shift happening – the issues we’re arguing about now will be so far in the rearview mirror in the next ten years. The pain will be worth it in the end.”
For Winstanley, the stakes go beyond business. “We’re not just selling THC, we’re proving we can do it responsibly at scale,” he says.
He’s candid about the risks that keep him up at night, the first concern being the very real consumer health threat posed by unregulated products. “I have a four-year-old and one-year-old, and if my son saw a Nerd’s Rope-infused gummy, he’s more likely to try something he shouldn’t. That’s why we self-regulate, use age gates, and push for better policies.”
Amid the challenges, Winstanley remains optimistic. “THC can help our country,” he says. “It’s grown, processed and sold here: a true homegrown supply chain. What excites me most is that we’re finally bringing cannabis into the same conversation as wellness, health and happiness.”
The post Inside the “Amazon of THC”: Edibles.com Reinvents Cannabis E-Commerce appeared first on Cannabis Now.
Bitcoin Magazine
Morgan Stanley Seeks SEC Approval for Spot Bitcoin ETF
Morgan Stanley has filed with U.S. regulators to launch a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, marking the first time a major U.S. bank has sought approval to issue an ETF tied directly to the price of bitcoin.
The filing, submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, proposes the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, an exchange-traded fund designed to track the price of bitcoin, net of fees and expenses.
If approved, the fund would hold bitcoin directly rather than relying on futures, derivatives, or leverage, according to the registration statement.
The move places Morgan Stanley alongside asset managers that have dominated the bitcoin ETF market since regulators approved the first U.S. spot products in early 2024.
Those funds now manage more than $120 billion in assets, representing a meaningful share of bitcoin’s total market value. Much of that growth has flowed into bitcoin-only products from firms such as BlackRock and Fidelity.
Morgan Stanley’s entry signals a shift by large banks from distributing third-party crypto products toward issuing their own.
Until recently, U.S. banks largely limited their role to custody and brokerage services, citing regulatory uncertainty and risk controls. That stance has begun to change as federal agencies clarified how banks can engage with digital assets.
In December, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said banks may act as intermediaries for crypto transactions, narrowing the divide between traditional finance and digital markets. The SEC has also adjusted listing standards for spot crypto ETFs, smoothing the approval path for new issuers.
The proposed bitcoin trust would be sponsored by Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Shares would be created and redeemed in large blocks by authorized participants, either in cash or in kind.
The fund’s net asset value would be calculated daily using a pricing benchmark based on activity across major spot bitcoin exchanges. Retail investors would trade shares on a secondary market through standard brokerage accounts.
For Morgan Stanley, the filing builds on steps taken last year to expand crypto access across its wealth management business. In October, the bank widened eligibility for crypto investments to include all clients and account types.
By offering a proprietary bitcoin ETF, the firm can integrate the product directly into client portfolios and retain management fees that might otherwise go to rival issuers.
The move also reflects the economics of the bitcoin ETF market. Spot bitcoin funds have become some of the fastest-growing products in the U.S. ETF industry, with steady inflows even during periods of price volatility. BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF emerged as one of the firm’s top revenue contributors within its first year.
Morgan Stanley also filed paperwork for a similar fund tied to Solana, but bitcoin remains the core focus of institutional demand. Most assets in U.S. crypto ETFs are concentrated in bitcoin products, while funds linked to other tokens have drawn limited capital.
This post Morgan Stanley Seeks SEC Approval for Spot Bitcoin ETF first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.
This move puts Morgan Stanley head-to-head with BlackRock and Fidelity in the exploding crypto ETF arena.
The post Morgan Stanley Files Bitcoin and Solana ETF Applications appeared first on TechRepublic.
This move puts Morgan Stanley head-to-head with BlackRock and Fidelity in the exploding crypto ETF arena.
The post Morgan Stanley Files Bitcoin and Solana ETF Applications appeared first on TechRepublic.
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