VIRTUAL, the native token of the AI agent generator platform Virtuals Protocol, climbed during European trading hours after Upbit, South Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, said it would list the coin. The price surged 28% to $2.61, almost testing the downtrend line that characterizes the sell-off from the Jan. 2 record high of around $5.25, data … Read more
Elon Musk’s dad is promoting a memecoin that capitalizes on the family name to raise upto $200 million for various engineering projects, despite the father-son duo apparently being estranged. Errol Musk, alongside business partner Nathan Browne, will officially back the “MUSK IT” token with the ambitious goal of establishing the Musk Institute, a new for-profit … Read more
Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda said Friday the central bank must maintain an accommodative monetary policy to support economic growth and ensure the underlying inflation gradually moves to the 2% target. Ueda told the Parliament that the recent increase in the consumer price index above the 2% target has been led by cost-push … Read more
The parents of prisoned crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried are reportedly exploring how to secure a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump for their son, according to a Bloomberg report. Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both professors at Stanford Law School and part of FTX’s inner circle, are reportedly engaging with individuals connected to Trump’s inner … Read more
So close yet so far – that’s the story for bitcoin (BTC) this Friday morning, as its price rally has stalled just shy of record highs amidst a continued rally in gold (XAU), a traditional risk asset, and crypto tokens associated with it. BTC, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, changed hands near $104,400 at … Read more
Crypto fund behemoth Grayscale Investments has filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to convert its XRP Trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF), which will listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The existing product operates as a Delaware statutory trust, managing over $16 million XRP as of Friday. The proposed … Read more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved another joint bitcoin and ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) Thursday, letting investors gain exposure to the two digital assets in one regulated financial product. The SEC announced it had granted accelerated approval to Bitwise’s Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF, just over a month after approving similar products filed by Hashdex … Read more
Coinbase Derivatives, a subsidiary of the crypto exchange, has filed documents with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to list Solana (SOL) and Hedera (HBAR) futures. The exchange plans to launch the product on Feb 18., with new contracts being cash-settled on a monthly basis, according to the filing. The contract size for the Solana … Read more
San Salvador — Tether, the crypto company behind the largest stablecoin, is introducing its $140 billion USDT token to Bitcoin — the blockchain that underpins the largest and oldest cryptocurrency — and Bitcoin-based scaling service Lightning Network, the company posted on X on Thursday. Stablecoins are a $200 billion digital asset class with their prices … Read more
Memecoin generator Pump.fun was hit with another proposed class action lawsuit on Thursday, accusing the company and its executives of raking in nearly $500 million in fees while violating U.S. securities laws. The suit, filed in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), hinges on the crypto industry’s biggest lingering question — when is a token … Read more
Last week, through Executive Order, President Trump took a significant step toward reshaping the future of digital assets by establishing a Crypto Council led by investor and entrepreneur David Sacks. This Executive Order, coupled with the recent reversal of SAB 121 – an ill-conceived policy that made it prohibitively difficult for banks to custody crypto … Read more
Could Bitcoin (BTC) soon find its way on to the balance sheet of a European central bank? That possibility took at least a small step forward on Thursday after the board of the Czech National Bank (CNB) approved a proposal to consider investing reserves in other assets. Put forth by the central bank Governor Aleš … Read more
The telecommunications industry stands at a critical juncture. As global data consumption skyrockets, traditional telecom operators face a perfect storm of challenges: stagnant subscriber growth, costly infrastructure maintenance and an insatiable demand for bandwidth. This capacity crunch is not just a problem for carriers; it’s a looming crisis for consumers who increasingly rely on seamless … Read more
In today’s issue, Miguel Kudry from L1 Advisors breaks down direct ownership of cryptocurrency vs. exchange-traded and wrapped funds and how they are expected to evolve through 2025. Then, Crews Enochs from Index Coop answers questions on the topic in Ask and Expert. – Sarah Morton You’re reading Crypto for Advisors, CoinDesk’s weekly newsletter that … Read more
This week, in a Washington Post op-ed, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev called for a new approach to capital markets in the United States. He suggested a number of policies – modernizing accredited investor standards is an old favorite among finance wonks – but one stood out. “[T]here needs to exist a security token registration regime, … Read more
Kraken, one of the longest-standing crypto exchanges, has reinstated blockchain staking products for many of its American customers, another sign that the previously sclerotic environment for crypto assets in the U.S. is rapidly thawing. Customers across 39 eligible states will be able to use Kraken Pro to take part in bonded staking, where tokens are … 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 3829.35, up 1.8% (+68.29) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Twenty of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: LTC (+16.7%) and DOT (+4.8%). Laggards: XRP (+0.1%) and XLM (+0.5%). … Read more
Elastos, a project looking to turn Bitcoin into a more fruitful base for decentralized finance (DeFi), has raised $20 million towards that goal. Elastos, a decentralized infrastructure provider, aims to scale its Bitcoin DeFi protocol BeL2 as a utility layer for the world’s original blockchain. The firm has raised $20 million from private investment company … Read more
Apollo, an investment firm with over $730 billion in assets under management, is offering investors a new tokenized private credit fund with the help of security token specialist Securitize. Accessed via the Apollo Diversified Credit Securitize Fund (ACRED) feeder fund, the token is the first public on-chain offering for accredited investors of Apollo and also … Read more
Staunch crypto skeptic and disgraced former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Wednesday on charges of bribery and acting as an agent for Egypt, the Associated Press reported. Menendez was a Democrat from New Jersey and famous for taking shots at crypto. He once called bitcoin (BTC) an “ideal … Read more
The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), has amassed $356.7 million in indirect bitcoin (BTC) exposure, according to K33 Research. At the end of 2024, the fund indirectly held 3,821 BTC, reflecting a 153% year-over-year increase from 1,507 BTC, according to K33. The data highlight the fund’s evolving indirect bitcoin … Read more
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) The crypto market is trading positively with the Fed risk event out of the way, focusing on positives such as the crypto-friendly president in the White House, the renewed upswing in Tether’s market, and the bullish Chinese New Year effect. Among cryptocurrencies with $5 billion-plus market … Read more
Institution-focused digital asset technology and trading firm BlockFills is collaborating with CoinDesk Indices to launch options tied to the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20). The CoinDesk 20 Index, which debuted a year ago, measures the performance of leading digital assets, catering to institutional demand for diverse tradable products beyond bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH). The availability … Read more
Bitcoin traded around the $105,000 level in European morning hours Thursday as the year’s first U.S. FOMC meeting concluded with keeping rates steady, bumping sentiment across stock equities and crypto markets. Jerome Powell-led FOMC maintained the policy rate steady at 4.25-4.50 per cent in the first decision of Trump’s presidency after reducing the rates for … Read more
Bernstein remains bullish on Core Scientific (CORZ) even after the shares tumbled 30% earlier this week as Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek challenged the idea that bitcoin (BTC) miners had value as data center plays. The slide means the stock is now available at a deep discount, the broker said in a research report … Read more
Swap volumes on XRP Ledger’s decentralized exchange (DEX) crossed the $400 million mark in January as the network gains traction among larger players, Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in a community call on Wednesday, Volumes average over $17 million daily this month, with over $1 billion since its 2024 launch. The rapid expansion of … Read more
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group announced it will introduce options on Bitcoin Friday Futures (BFF) starting on Feb. 24, pending regulatory approval. According to the press release, BFF was CME Group’s most successful cryptocurrency launch. More than 775,000 contracts traded since launch on Sept. 29. The average daily volume was 9,700 contracts and 44% of contracts … Read more
The cost of using Avalanche, a DeFi-focused smart-contract blockchain, has slumped since the implementation of the Avalanche9000 upgrade on Dec. 16, sending the number of transactions up by more than a third. Since the upgrade, the proof-of-stake blockchain’s usage fees known as gas have averaged roughly 75% less than in the months beforehand, data from … Read more
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, has fallen out of investor relative to bitcoin (BTC), returning the worst bull-cycle performance against its larger rival since the Ethereum blockchain’s inception in 2015. A comparison of the ether to bitcoin ratio across past cycles from the tokens’ respective lows shows consistent underperformance. The black line in the chart … Read more
Dutch bank ABN AMRO has conducted an onchain trade of tokenized assets against stablecoins alongside Germany-regulated 21X. The two firms completed a joint proof of concept (PoC) for the issuing of a token on the Polygon Amoy Testnet, which was listed as a trading pair with an e-money token, according to an emailed announcement on … Read more