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
Staking should potentially be added to the menu for crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a bipartisan group of U.S. senators argued in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday. Issuers of crypto ETFs had originally planned to include the staking feature in their fund offerings, but the SEC, under its past leadership, … Read more
State-owned Banco Nacional (BN), the largest commercial bank in Costa Rica and one of the biggest in Central America with over $7 billion in assets, is launching a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund through its investment management arm, BN Fondos, according to local reports. This marks the first time that Costa Ricans will have access to … Read more
Cryptocurrency prices dropped on Friday, reversing early gains on reports that crypto exchange Bybit was seeing $1.5 billion worth of crypto outflows in a potential security incident. Bitcoin (BTC) slid to near $97,000 after hovering near $100,000 earlier during the day, while ether (ETH) slipped nearly 4%, dipping below $2,700. The sudden downturn liquidated roughly … Read more
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has experienced $1.46 billion worth of “suspicious outflows,” according to blockchain sleuth ZachXBT. The wallet in question appears to have sent 401,346 ETH ($1.1 billion) as well as several other iterations of staked ether (stETH) to a fresh wallet, which is now liquidating mETH and stETH on decentralized exchanges, etherscan shows. The … Read more
Major cryptocurrency exchange Bybit said all of its liquidation data is now publicly available through an upgrade to its application programming interface (API). With the upgrade, the API delivers liquidation data updates every 500 milliseconds, twice as fast as the previous version, which provided just one update per second per trading pair, it said. The … 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 3321.84, up 1.4% (+45.53) since 4 p.m. ET on Thursday. 18 of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: LTC (+6.8%) and DOT (+4.9%). Laggards: XRP (-0.5%) and XLM (-0.1%). … Read more
Coinbase (COIN) shares jumped 5% ahead of Friday market opening on news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is poised to drop charges against the crypto exchange. The broader crypto market was also climbing higher with bitcoin (BTC) nearing $100,000 for the first time since early February. The Coindesk 20 Index, a broad-market … Read more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) potentially dropping its Coinbase lawsuit could help boost sentiment for not only crypto tokens that were alleged as securities under the last presidential administration but also popular exchange Robinhood’s (HOOD) shares. Read more: SEC Poised to Drop Coinbase Lawsuit, Marking Big Moment for U.S. Crypto While the SEC hasn’t … Read more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will vote soon on a deal negotiated with Coinbase to entirely drop the agency’s legal pursuit of the crypto exchange, according to the company’s top lawyer. While the SEC has been making moves almost daily to reverse past positions on digital assets, the pending vote would mark a watershed … Read more
By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Cryptocurrency prices are rising after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s former crypto enforcement unit transitioned into the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit and amid dovish comments from Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic. Renaming the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit is significant because it shows the … Read more
Altvest Capital (ALV) became the first listed company in Africa to adopt bitcoin (BTC) as a strategic treasury asset, the company said in a press release Friday. Altvest said it bought one bitcoin for its strategic treasury, following a path set by Strategy (MSTR) in the U.S. and Metaplanet (3350) in Japan. The Johannesburg-based company … Read more
The cryptocurrency market is lacking positive catalysts in the near term, Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM) said in a report Wednesday. The correction in crypto markets in recent months has seen both bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) futures near backwardation, which is a sign of lower demand, the report said. Backwardation occurs when the spot … Read more
HONG KONG—Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West who has repeatedly called himself a “Nazi” in recent weeks, plans to launch a crypto token, according to three sources close to the project. The token, YZY, is designed to help Ye side-step platforms like Shopify that have cut ties with him in response to his … Read more
After months of rapid expansion, Bitcoin’s hashrate growth slowed down in January, according to the latest report from TheMinerMag. The network’s difficulty saw its first decline since September, indicating that even though publicly listed companies have kept increasing their hash power, their growth isn’t enough to compensate for the capitulation of other, probably smaller operators. … Read more
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his disappointment with some ETH community members and thought it was “bad” that the ecosystem was too welcoming for “casinos.” During an ask-me-anything (AMA) on Tako, Buterin responded to a question about whether he had felt disappointed at the Ethereum Foundation, the crypto industry or the community. He answered “of … Read more
The European Central Bank (ECB) said it is looking to develop a way of settling distributed-ledger technology (DLT) transactions with fiat currency as it expands its work on the key feature that underpins the blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The bank plans a two-stage approach to using the technology, which is a decentralized database that is maintained … Read more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission unit tasked with chasing bad guys in the crypto space will be smaller and called something significantly different, the agency said Thursday, further cementing its trend away from an aggressive enforcement stance against the industry. In three years, the same internal group has transitioned from the “Cyber Unit” to … Read more
In the wake of shifting U.S. policy, the crypto landscape is undergoing a fundamental change — from fast-moving speculative bets to long-term, anchored investments, said Bitpanda CEO Eric Demuth during a fireside chat at Consensus Hong Kong on Wednesday. Demuth said the 2024 bull run wasn’t a repeat of the retail-fueled 2021 cycle. Instead, it … Read more
Digital asset marketplace Figure Markets has launched YLDS, the first yield-bearing stablecoin registered as a public security offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said Thursday. The YLDS stablecoin, issued through Figure Certificate Corporation, operates on the Provenance Blockchain and accrues interest daily, paid out every month in either U.S. dollars … Read more
Already losing its legal fight with the crypto industry over a rule that would have expanded the definition of regulated securities dealers to include a wide array of digital assets operations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has given up its appeal. The SEC has been in reset mode on its courtroom entanglements with crypto … Read more
As the Trump administration appears to fully embrace digital assets in the U.S., there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about crypto’s future, but also many areas of uncertainty. In today’s issue, Beth Haddock from Warburton Advisers takes us through the first 30 days of Trump’s term and analyzes the far-reaching impact his administration … Read more
Bitcoin financial services firm Onramp has partnered with lending platform Arch to introduce a bitcoin-backed lending service, the companies announced. The new product allows BTC holders to secure loans while keeping ownership of their assets, a move aimed at investors looking to access liquidity without selling their bitcoin (BTC). The service provides bitcoin-collateralized loans, allowing … 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 3245.42, up 1.3% (+40.73) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday. 18 of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: NEAR (+4.9%) and FIL (+4.6%). Laggards: LTC (-5.9%) and UNI (-3.4%). … Read more
Decentralized derivatives exchange SynFutures has introduced Synthia, an AI trading agent that allows traders to swap or transfer assets using natural language commands. SynFutures is the largest DEX on Coinbase’s layer-2 network Base with 24 hour volume hitting $220 million and liquidity at $768 million. The AI agent will be rolled out in three phases, … Read more
The absence of stablecoin regulation in the U.S. is one of the main hurdles to adoption, S&P Global Ratings said in a Wednesday report. “The lack of regulation is one of the main impediments to stablecoin adoption in the U.S. and has prevented a broader institutional adoption of stablecoins,” analysts led by Mohamed Damak wrote. … Read more
Pi Network, the smartphone mining project that claims to have 60 million users, released its native PI token Thursday giving traders a roller-coaster ride that saw the price rise 18% in minutes before tumbling 50% over the next two hours. PI debuted at $1.70 at 09:00 UTC, rising to as high as $2.00. It was … Read more
Qualified cryptocurrency custodian BitGo and Copper, the firm behind the ClearLoop settlement system, are providing off-exchange settlement for traders using options exchange Deribit, the firms said on Thursday. Clients of BitGo and Copper can now trade spot and derivatives on Deribit while assets are secured off-exchange in qualified custody with BitGo Trust, and automatically settled … Read more
By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Crypto traders are deleveraging after Wednesday’s FOMC minutes showed the Fed is looking to hold rates steady until inflation improves and discussed pausing or slowing the balance sheet runoff. Still, the yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped and the dollar weakened. Cryptocurrencies are higher, with the … Read more