MSTR earnings came out May 1. My morning media stops last Thursday (here and here) asked for a preview. We don’t talk about stocks, so I planned to zoom out and hit themes. While preparing, I had to suppress the eye-roll reflexes that MSTR triggers. MSTR, of course, is the ticker symbol for MicroStrategy, or … Read more
Crypto’s big show in the U.S. Congress has been unveiled in the form of a discussion draft of legislation that would establish for the first time a comprehensive domestic regime for regulating digital assets. The House Financial Services Committee and House Agriculture Committee — both sharing responsibility for the jurisdiction-hoping assets — released a working … Read more
Corporate treasury buying of bitcoin (BTC) could reach $330 billion by the end of 2029, broker Bernstein said in a research report Monday. Strategy (MSTR) is likely to be the largest buyer, with an additional $124 billion of the world’s largest crypto, in the broker’s bull case. The company led by Michael Saylor announced a … Read more
A militia group in Burma that allegedly runs a large-scale haven for cyber scammers, the Karen National Army, has been blocked from the U.S. financial system by the Department of the Treasury. The U.S. authorities said Monday that the organization has provided a haven for transnational criminal organizations who use the border region controlled by … Read more
Bitcoin-holding public companies may be sitting on a powerful market catalyst: untapped issuance capacity that could meaningfully raise bitcoin’s (BTC) price, according to new research from NYDIG. In a report published this week, Greg Cipolaro, the firm’s global head of research, points to the “dry powder” in the form of share issuance potential among bitcoin … Read more
Ethereum developers are preparing for Wednesday’s much anticipated Pectra upgrade, set to bring the biggest code change to the blockchain since the Merge in 2022. Pectra – a blend of the names Prague + Electra – consists of two upgrades happening on Ethereum’s consensus and execution layers at the same time. The upgrade is focused … Read more
Chainlink is rolling out a new community rewards program to incentivize participation in its ecosystem, starting with a token distribution from decentralized data platform Space and Time (SXT). The program, called Chainlink Rewards, allows those projects based on the network to reward eligible Chainlink node operators and community members who help secure the network. Founded … Read more
This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole. Bitcoin’s (BTC) weekend price movement has brought attention to the $88,800 support level, while XRP, the payments-focused cryptocurrency, seems close to confirming a bearish chart pattern known as the “death cross.” BTC fell 1.5% on Sunday (UTC), diving out of … Read more
CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index. The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2699.5, down 2.9% (-80.53) since 4 p.m. ET on Friday. Three of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: SUI (+0.7%) and LTC (+0.7%). Laggards: NEAR (-7.4%) and AVAX (-7.4%). … Read more
Bitcoin (BTC) slipped below $95,000 on Monday, with traders now eyeing a possible retreat to $90,000 or lower amid growing macro uncertainty and a shift in market focus to this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The pullback follows a strong two-week rally, during which BTC briefly pushed past $98,000, drawing in retail interest and institutional flows. … Read more
Semler Scientific (SMLR) added to its bitcoin (BTC) holdings last week. The company acquired 167 BTC for $16.2 million, or an average price of about $97,000 each, according to a Monday morning SEC filing. The purchases appeared to be mostly or totally funded via sales of common stock, with the company disclosing it’s sold 1.166 … Read more
A relic of Bitcoin’s earliest days is making a comeback, potentially reviving a tradition that once handed out bitcoin (BTC) for free to anyone who could solve a simple CAPTCHA. Charlie Shrem, an early Bitcoin developer and entrepreneur, teased the relaunch of the Bitcoin Faucet earlier Monday, posting a link to the page that mimicked … Read more
Led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, Strategy (MSTR) added modestly to its bitcoin holdings last week. The company purchased 1,895 BTC for $180.3 million, or an average price of $95,167 each, according to a Monday morning SEC filing. The buys were funded via sales $128.5 million of common stock and $51.8 million of STRK preferred … Read more
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is calling for a major simplification of the protocol, aiming to reduce its complexity to a level closer to Bitcoin’s while preserving its unique strengths in programmability and scalability. In a blog post published Saturday, Buterin argued that Ethereum’s growing technical sprawl — from its consensus mechanisms to its virtual machine … Read more
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) The outlook for bitcoin (BTC) looks bullish even after the largest cryptocurrency pulled back to $95,000 from Friday’s highs above $98,000 and the total crypto market capitalization dropped under $3 trillion Among the signals, U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs are rapidly absorbing supply. Last week, the 11 … Read more
Tether is about to enter the $25 billion crypto artificial intelligence sector, according to a post by its CEO Paolo Ardoino on X. Tether AI, according to Ardoino, is a “fully open-source AI runtime, capable of adapting and evolving on any hardware and device, no API keys, no central point of failure, fully modular and … Read more
Crypto traders aiming to profit from a volatility surge should watch the Binance-listed ether-bitcoin (ETH/BTC) ratio, which could soon experience wild swings, according to a key indicator called Bollinger Bands. Bollinger Bands are volatility bands placed two standard deviations above and below the 20-day simple moving average of an asset’s price. The so-called Bollinger band … Read more
Donald Trump is pushing back against claims that he’s profiting from the TRUMP memecoin, his official cryptocurrency that launched days before his presidential inauguration. Chainalysis recently reported that the TRUMP token earned $900,000 in fees in a two day span for its backers. The wallets of the largest holders of the token are controlled by … Read more
The Solana Foundation has disclosed a previously unknown vulnerability in its privacy-focused token system that could have allowed attackers to forge fake zero-knowledge proofs, enabling unauthorized minting or withdrawals of tokens. The vulnerability was first reported on April 16 through Anza’s GitHub security advisory, accompanied by a working proof-of-concept. Engineers from Solana development teams Anza, … Read more
Central Asian country Kyrgyzstan plans to debut the Gold Dollar, or USDKG, the gold-backed stablecoin pegged 1:1 with the U.S. dollar in the third quarter, project’s advisor Gabriel Guerra told CoinDesk at the Token2049 conference in Dubai. The stablecoin, backed by $500 million in gold from the Kyrgyz Ministry of Finance, is designed to facilitate … Read more
Honeymoons and luxury vacations could soon be outpaced by crypto as the main draw for the island nation of Maldives. A Dubai-based family office plans to invest up to $8.8 billion in a blockchain-focused financial hub in the Maldives, part of an effort by the island nation to expand beyond its reliance on tourism and … Read more
Bitcoin (BTC) opened the trading week flat above $94,000 as traders waited for news from Beijing on the progress of a trade deal with the U.S. The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a measure of the performance of major digital assets, was down 1.5%, trading below 2,700. “XRP and Bitcoin bounced back from the tariff shocks in … Read more
In the crypto market, bold predictions aren’t just talk – they’re backed by real dollars, often through option plays that resemble lottery tickets offering outsized upside for relatively small costs. The stand-out as of writing is the Deribit-listed $300,000 strike bitcoin call option expiring on June 26. Theoretically, this call is a bet that BTC’s … Read more
Adopting Michael Saylor’s strategy of buying for the balance sheet has clearly taken off among many publicly traded firms, substantially enriching their stock prices and shareholders. But what does it mean for the future of the bitcoin price? NYDIG Research crunched the numbers, and the results are striking. “If we apply a 10x “money multiplier”—a … Read more
The gold market is seeing a shift in activity, with central bank buying slowing and demand from exchange-traded funds and gold-backed cryptocurrencies growing. The latter recently moved to a three-year high, as measured by the net minting volume for tokens backed by the precious metal. Over $80 million worth of these tokens were minted over … Read more
Freight Technologies (FRGT), a $4.8 million market cap logistics tech firm focused on cross-border trade between the U.S. and Mexico, has entered an agreement to buy up to $20 million in the Official Trump Token (TRUMP) to build out its crypto treasury. The company said it secured the funding through a convertible note facility with … Read more
Arizona will not be investing in bitcoin (BTC), at least not this year. Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill on Friday that would have allowed the state to hold the digital asset as part of its official reserves. The legislation, known as Senate Bill 1025, proposed using seized funds to invest in BTC and create … Read more
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino is sounding the alarm on Europe’s financial system, warning that a wave of bank failures could hit the continent in the near future due to the intersection of risky lending and new cryptocurrency rules. Ardoino, during an interview with the Less Noise More Signal podcast, took aim at the European Union’s … Read more
CME Group’s cryptocurrency derivatives market posted a steep increase in trading activity in April, reaching a new average daily volume (ADV) of 183,000 contracts worth $8.9 billion in notional terms, the firm reported. That marks a 129% jump compared to the same month last year, suggesting growing institutional interest in crypto markets. Ether led the … Read more
The IRS, alongside many other regulators, has been pretty active in the crypto world over recent years. On Friday, two directors left. You’re reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions. Deferred resignations The narrative Over 20,000 IRS employees accepted … Read more