CoinDesk

Solana’s dominant automated market maker (AMM) Raydium hit back Monday on rumors that major volume driver Pump.Fun was preparing to launch its own AMM. Abandoning Raydium whole hog would be a “strategic miscalculation” for the massively popular — and profitable — memecoin factory, core contributor InfraRAY said in a post on X. He cast doubt … Read more

U.S. authorities have seized about $31 million in crypto tied to the 2021 hack of Uranium Finance, according to a Monday X post from the Southern District of New York (SDNY). According to the post, the seizure was the result of a joint effort between SDNY and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Diego. A … Read more

Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade went live on the Holesky testnet on Monday but failed to finalize in the expected time. Pectra was activated on the Holesky testnet at 21:55 UTC (4:55 p.m. ET), but did not initially finalize according to blockchain data. Finality is the state in which, once a transaction is confirmed and added to … Read more

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to slide on Monday, hurt by not just by massive bearish price action in most of the rest of crypto, but also as U.S. stocks struggle to pull out of their recent downturn. Falling to about $93,900 as stocks closed, bitcoin is down 1.9% in the last 24 hours. Ether (ETH) is … Read more

OKX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, settled with U.S. authorities over failing to obtain a license to operate as a money transmitter, the exchange announced Monday. Aux Cayes FinTech Co. Ltd., an OKX affiliate, is the specific party that settled with the U.S. Department of Justice, paying over $500 million in penalties and forfeited … Read more

Infini, a prepaid payments card issuer that offers interest on deposited dollar stablecoins, warned a hacker it had “gathered critical IP and device information” after losing almost all the value locked in its wallets. The attacker drained $49.5 million from the Hong Kong-based neobank’s wallets, according to Peckshield. The company said only on Sunday it … Read more

RealNOI, a company focused on transforming real estate income into a tradable asset, has rolled out its blockchain-powered rental income platform build on top of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization service Chintai. The platform gives investors access to cash flows worth $570 million from nearly 1,900 apartments with projected annual returns exceeding 5%. Unlike traditional real … Read more

DekaBank, a German investment bank with 377 billion euros ($395 billion) in assets under management, introduced cryptocurrency trading and custody services for institutional clients after almost two years of development. The Frankfurt-based company’s move follows regulatory approval for a crypto custody license from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), while operating under the supervision 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 3106.99, down 0.8% (-25.47) since last Friday at 4 p.m. ET. 5 of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: HBAR (+7.8%) and NEAR (+2.1%). Laggards: SOL (-6.0%) and DOT … Read more

EDX Markets, which is backed by Fidelity Digital Assets, Charles Schwab and Citadel Securities, is adding 17 new cryptocurrencies to its platform, transforming its previously limited selection into a more robust trading platform as it gets ready to absorb growing institutional demand for crypto. “From the outset, we were designed and built for institutions for … Read more

Ethena, developer of the synthetic stablecoin USDe, has raised $100 million to finance a similar token targeted at traditional financial (TradFi) institutions, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The funding round was completed in December, with Franklin Templeton and Fidelity Investments-affiliated F-Prime Capital among the backers, the report added, citing a person familiar with the matter. Founder … Read more

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Bitcoin and ether, the two largest digital assets by market value, remain largely within their recent trading ranges two days after the $1.5 billion hack of Bybit, one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges. Perpetual funding rates for both are positive, indicating a bias for long positions … Read more

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent narrow price range between $94,000 and $100,000 has perplexed many market participants. While the largest cryptocurrency historically shows strong directional moves followed by months-long consolidations, known as stair-step price movements, this time feels different. Usually consolidations are followed by a breakout. In contrast, now the range has narrowed. In December it was … Read more

Germany’s Centre Right Alliance (CDU/CSU) managed to secure the most seats in the country’s parliamentary election on Sunday, suggesting a more innovation-friendly environment awaits. Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU secured 28.52% of the vote while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) secured 20.8% of the vote. There are 733 seats in the German Bundestag and no party … Read more

Solana-based token issuance platform Pump.Fun may soon be launching its own automated market maker (AMM), according to a URL connected to the site. However, there has been no public announcement yet. AMM is a exchange system in crypto markets that makes trading easy by using a liquidity pool of usually, and at least, two tokens. … Read more

Deribit’s options market for Solana’s SOL token has become active, with whales engaging in bearish bets as the token’s price continues to decline ahead of an impending multi-billion dollar unlock. Last week, SOL block trades totaling $32.39 million in notional value crossed the tape on Deribit, representing nearly 25% of the total options activity of … Read more

Bybit has returned to a 1:1 backing of client assets and has fully closed the “ether gap” it faced after an unprecedented $1.4 billion hack hit the exchange late Friday. The exchange has received 446,870 ether (ETH), worth $1.23 billion at current prices, through loans, large deposits, and ether purchases in the past two days, … Read more

On Friday, cryptocurrency exchange Bybit was allegedly hacked by North Korea’s Lazarus group, which drained nearly $1.4 billion in ether (ETH) from the exchange. Following the hack, Arthur Hayes, BitMEX co-founder and claiming to be a major ether (ETH) holder, wrote a post on X to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on whether he will “advocate … Read more

A vast majority of Latin American cryptocurrency users—95%—plan to expand their holdings in 2025, according to a Binance Research survey of more than 10,000 investors in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. The findings show that 40.1% of respondents are expecting to buy more crypto within the next three months, 15.3% are looking to do so … Read more

The price of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), has risen by more than 2.3% in the last 24 hours, while the broader CoinDesk 20 Index has risen by just 0.76% during the same period. Bitcoin is down around 0.3%. The rise comes amid reports that Bybit, the cryptocurrency exchange that was hacked for $1.5 … Read more

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is closing its investigation into major non-fungible token marketplace OpenSea, the platform’s founder and CEO Devin Finzer said on social media. The regulator issued a Wells notice against OpenSea in August 2024, indicating it was planning on pursuing an enforcement action against it. The regulator alleged the platform … Read more

The Bybit hacker, supposedly a North Korean entity, is now one of the world’s largest ether holders, which may have bullish implications for the cryptocurrency’s spot price. According to data from Arkham Intelligence and Coinbase executive Connor Grogan, this malicious actor holds 489,000 ETH, valued at approximately $1.34 billion, constituting about 0.4% of ether’s total … Read more

Crypto exchange Bitget has transferred 40,000 ether (ETH), worth $105 million, to Bybit, offering crucial support to its industry counterpart in the wake of the over billion-dollar hack suffered by the exchange. The funds transferred are from Bitget’s own reserves, not user deposits, which remain securely stored on the platform and can be cross checked … Read more

Arthur Hayes, BitMEX co-founder and major ether (ETH) holder, asked Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to rollback the network in order to assist hacked exchange Bybit, which lost nearly $1.4 billion in ether (ETH) on Friday. “@VitalikButerin will you advocate to roll back the chain to help @Bybit_Official. My own view as a mega $ETH bag … Read more

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said Thursday that his exchange will not list the Pi Network’s PI token, which was controversially released on Thursday, citing a Chinese police warning from 2023 that alleged the project was a scam targeting elderly people, leaking their personal information and leading to the loss of their pensions. “There are multiple … Read more

Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence said North Korea’s Lazarus Group was behind Bybit’s $1.46 billion hack. In an earlier post on social media platform X, Arkham offered a bounty of 50,000 ARKM tokens for anyone who could identify the attackers for Friday’s hack. Later, the platform said onchain sleuth ZachXBT submitted “definitive proof” that the … Read more

Only a handful of hours ago crypto markets were buoyed as the Securities and Exchange Commission signaled its intent its dismiss a lawsuit against Coinbase (COIN). The welcome regulatory news sparked 5% gains for COIN and the likes of increasingly important crypto trading platform Robinhood (HOOD), and sent bitcoin (BTC) breaking out of its recent … Read more

The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) is tasked with managing assets seized by law enforcement in the course of criminal investigations, like real estate, cash, jewelry, antiques or vehicles. It is also supposed to be handling cryptocurrencies — for example, the billions of dollars worth of bitcoin (BTC) seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) … Read more

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has recommended that Bybit should halt withdrawals as a security precaution following Friday’s $1.5 billion hack. “Not an easy situation to deal with. Might suggest to halt all withdrawals for a bit as a standard security precaution. Will provide any assistance if needed. Good luck,” he wrote in an X … Read more

For far too long, the U.S. has been falling behind the rest of the world on staking policy. Now, in just the first 30 days of the Trump Administration, staking has been mentioned in Congressional hearings, listed as a top priority by the SEC’s newly created crypto task force and is today the focus of … Read more