CoinDesk

A year ago, restaking was one of the hottest areas of crypto, and projects like EigenLayer were heralded as the next big thing. Fast forward to mid-2025 and total value locked (TVL) has fallen across the sector and the hype that surrounded point farms has withered away. Through it all, Ether.fi, the market leader, has … Read more

The Walrus protocol, a blockchain-based data storage platform, said it raised $140 million in a private sale of its native token, WAL, led by Standard Crypto. The mainnet of the protocol, originally developed by Mysten Labs and built on layer-1 blockchain Sui, will debut on March 27, the Walrus Foundation said Thursday. Walrus plans to … Read more

Another company has elected to add bitcoin (BTC) to its balance sheet. Christian Angermayer, the chairman of Germany-based biopharmaceutical company atai Life Sciences (ATAI) announced today that the firm would develop its own bitcoin treasury strategy. “In an era of persistent inflation and volatile markets, I find myself asking an important question for biotech companies … Read more

Gotbit founder Aleksei Andriunin struck a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday that will see him serve no more than 24 months behind bars for his role in what prosecutors described as a “wide-ranging conspiracy” to manipulate token prices for paying clients. Andriunin, a 26-year-old Russian national, was extradited to the U.S. from Portugal … Read more

The chief economist at the European Central Bank (ECB), Philip Lane, said Europe needs a digital euro to counter the foothold that dollar-linked stablecoins and U.S. electronic payments systems are gaining in region’s the financial system. The prevalence of electronic payments provided by Big Tech firms, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal, “exposes … Read more

Solana’s most profitable protocol Pump.fun is gunning for an even greater share of the chain’s DeFi economy. The massively popular memecoin launchpad on Thursday unveiled a token swaps service powered by the protocol’s liquidity pools. Called PumpSwap, it puts the project in direct competition with Solana’s coterie of automated market makers (AMMs) that facilitate on-chain … Read more

Bitcoin developers looking to expand the blockchain’s decentralized finance (DeFi) capabilities are likely to be considering zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, functionality that’s not currently available and which require a so-called soft fork, or new version of the software, to introduce them. That’s a problem, according Edan Yago, a Bitcoin veteran of over a decade and core … Read more

Toncoin (TON), the native token of the Telegram-adjacent TON blockchain, spiked on Thursday as ecosystem organization The Open Network Foundation said several venture capital firms invested $400 million in the token. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Ribbit, Benchmark and Kingsway, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk. Vy Capital, Draper Associates and Libertus Capital, CoinFund, … Read more

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump dropped a video into a crypto event on Thursday, amping up his pro-crypto sentiment with an assertion that crypto will spark economic growth, though he didn’t offer any of the new policies attendees had hoped he might announce. Crypto is “as big as you can get,” he said during … Read more

While the crypto sector’s eyes are drawn to the policy fireworks in the White House and Congress, the financial agencies have been taking consequential bites out of the Biden Administration’s digital assets stance. One move at a time, the stand-in chiefs of the banking and securities regulators are cutting away policies and significant enforcement work … Read more

In today’s crypto for advisors, André Dragosch from Bitwise Europe provides an update on the global crypto regulatory landscape and suggests we may be entering a golden age for crypto. Then, Beth Haddock from Warburton Advisers answers questions about the impact of regulatory clarity on the crypto market in Ask an Expert. – Sarah Morton … 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 2712.19, down 1.0% (-26.22) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Three of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: BCH (+1.0%) and LINK (+0.6%). Laggards: AVAX (-4.5%) and DOT (-3.7%). … Read more

Spot ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. posted their 11th straight day of net outflows, losing some $358.1 million of investor funds as the price of ether fell almost 7%. On Tuesday, BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) saw $12.9 million of outflows, losing a net $137.6 million over the period. Fidelity’s FETH … Read more

Copper, recognized as a reliable economic indicator for decades, is nearing record highs. Seasoned crypto traders may recall periods when bitcoin (BTC) and copper exhibited a strong positive correlation and may quickly draw bullish conclusions from the recent rally in the red metal. If that’s not enough, BTC’s best years have been characterized by a … Read more

Prosecutors in South Korea have launched an investigation into Bithumb, one of the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, over claims that company funds were improperly used to assist a former executive in purchasing an apartment. Officials from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office raided Bithumb’s headquarters in Yeoksam-dong and other locations on Wednesday., according to local … Read more

Alex Dolesky thought his startup’s push to “financialize” the sleepy uranium spot market would be a hit as nuclear energy stages a global comeback. All that tokenized yellowcake’s looking more like gold. Months after netting its first $1.7 million from venture investors, Uranium Digital raised another $6.1 million in a seed round led by Framework … Read more

The Uniswap community has greenlit two governance proposals to propel the growth of the Unichain network and Uniswap V4 protocol. The initiatives, dubbed “Uniswap Unleashed,” introduced a new grants program and liquidity incentives while hinting at initial steps for a “fee switch,” a long-contested protocol vote that would pay out a portion of trading fees … Read more

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and the broader crypto market are facing renewed pressure, reversing some of gains made after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell downplayed concerns about tariff-driven inflation . President Donald Trump is reportedly scheduled to speak at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in New York … Read more

Pro-crypto Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election over four months ago, and since then, the period has been characterized by financial market turbulence and global uncertainties surrounding tariffs, geopolitical tensions, and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and between Ukraine and Russia. Bitcoin (BTC) has surged over 23% since the Nov. 5 election, reaching … Read more

Coinbase (COIN) sold 12,652 ether ($25 million at the current price) in the fourth quarter, when it was valued about double the level now, according to Geoffrey Kendrick, the global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered Bank. In a note, Kendrick said he analyzed the crypto exchange’s quarterly filings, which show it holds … Read more

Bitcoin (BTC) inched toward $86,000 while XRP jumped 10% to lead gains among majors as crypto markets staged a broader recovery in the past 24 hours. BTC rose in early Asian hours on Thursday following the Wednesday Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, where the Fed kept rates intact but lowered growth outlooks until 2027. … Read more

Bitcoin (BTC) punters are looking at topside options bets in a bullish shift in price expectations after the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) meeting, but ether (ETH) continues to lag sentiment. As of writing, BTC’s short-term and long-term risk reversals, which show the implied volatility premium (demand) for bullish bets or calls versus puts, were positive, implying … Read more

Kraken is nearing a $1.5 billion deal for U.S. futures trading platform NinjaTrader, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The deal could be a way for the crypto exchange to move into another asset class and increase its users, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. The report added that Kraken could … Read more

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse sees closely related XRP as part of the White House’s proposed digital asset stockpile and anticipates the launch of an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) before the end of 2025, per a Bloomberg Markets interview. Garlinghouse’s optimism came after the resolution of Ripple’s long-standing legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange … Read more

Crypto markets are experiencing a modest move to the upside following today’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, in which the U.S. central bank left interest rates steady at 4.25%-4.50% Bitcoin (BTC) has risen 4.5% in the last 24 hours and is now trading for $85,500, its highest point since March 9. The CoinDesk 20 … Read more

Two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking futures in Solana (SOL) are coming on the market on Thursday. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Volatility Shares LLC is launching two ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) which will track Solana futures and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT), which offers … Read more

As expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve left its benchmark fed funds rate range steady at 4.25%-4.50% on Wednesday, the second consecutive pause since three straight rate cuts to end 2024. The Fed’s quarterly economic projections, though, showed a sharp decline in expectations for economic growth, with the GDP increase in 2025 now seen at just … Read more

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, CoinDesk’s Ethereum Reporter. In this issue: Hello, Hoodi: Ethereum Welcomes a New Testnet Microsoft Raises Alarm of Malware Targeting Coinbase, MetaMask Wallets Halliday Raises $20M for AI Protocol to Eliminate Writing Smart Contracts for DeFi Sam … Read more

The Dubai Land Department (DLD), a government agency for the real estate industry, said it started a real estate tokenization pilot program, claiming to be the first property registration authority in the Middle East to use blockchain technology for property title deeds. The initiative was developed with the digital assets watchdog Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority … Read more

Privy, a provider of cryptocurrency wallet infrastructure, raised an estimated $15 million in a funding round led by Ribbit Capital. The company, which announced the funding on Wednesday, offers application programming interfaces (APIs) for developers to manage and integrate user data, allowing its customers to offer crypto services and other on-chain functions so that end … Read more