CoinDesk

Donald Trump supporters are getting rewarded with a few dollars worth of his official TRUMP token if they had purchased any of the merchandise from websites associated with the U.S. president. Three TRUMP tokens, worth just over $50 at writing time, will be given to past buyers of Trump’s perfumes, sneakers, cards or watches per … Read more

Core Foundation, the creator of a yield-bearing bitcoin token, has partnered with institutional lending protocol Maple Finance and custody firms BitGo, Copper and Hex Trust to push deep into the BTC staking sector. Core’s IstBTC token lets institutional participants earn yield on bitcoin holdings while staying safely inside trusted custodial partners without the need to … Read more

Ethereum’s ether (ETH) showed strength through the weekend, spurring investor hopes of a break in its lackluster price performance, only to foreshadow a market-wide decline. In a muted trading session due to the U.S. holiday, ether ground as much as 7% higher to a Monday session high of $2,850, outperforming the rest of the crypto … Read more

The Abu Dhabi-based branch of Brevan Howard Digital, the crypto arm of the global investment management firm, has deployed $20 million on Kinto, a blockchain platform designed for institutional participation in decentralized finance (DeFi). The deposit makes Brevan Howard Digital one of the first traditional financial firms to tap into Kinto’s on-chain mining program, the … Read more

As bitcoin (BTC) continues to frustrate traders with lackluster price action below $100,000, here are key events this week that could reignite market activity. FTX payout FTX, formerly the world’s third-largest digital assets exchange, is set to begin its first round of creditor payouts after going bust in late 2022. First up are Convenience class … Read more

Hackers took control of the Saudi Law Conference’s social-media account on X, using it to impersonate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and promote fraudulent cryptocurrencies. In a series of now-deleted posts, the scammers used the name and image of the crown prince, who serves as Saudi Arabia’s prime minister, to promote an “Official Saudi Arabia … Read more

Crypto markets fell Monday as traders locked in profits and looked for new catalysts to determine positioning while the U.S. observed President’s Day. Solana (SOL) and XRP slipped 4% to lead losses among major cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin (BTC) dropping 1.1% and BNB Chain’s bnb down 0.5% in the past 24 hours. Dogecoin (DOGE) lost 3%. … Read more

Bitcoin (BTC) miners listed in the U.S. are growing their share of the network hashrate, broker Bernstein said in a report Monday. The hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain and is a proxy for competition in the industry and mining difficulty. “U.S. listed … Read more

India’s anti-money laundering unit said it seized about 16.5 billion rupees ($190 million) worth of crypto, some cash and a Lexus car during investigations into the collapse of the BitConnect cryptocurrency fraud. BitConnect, founded in 2016 by Satish Kumbhani, raised billions of dollars from investors for a protocol that purportedly paid out 10% in interest … Read more

Metaplanet (3350) said it bought a further 269.43 bitcoin (BTC), strengthening its position as a major corporate holder of the cryptocurrency. The latest purchase, valued at 4 billion yen ($26.4 million), takes the Tokyo-based company’s holdings to 2,031.41 BTC. The purchase is part of the company’s ongoing Bitcoin Treasury Operations; it started buying the largest … Read more

The U.S. crypto task force will focus on starting up a national bitcoin (BTC) reserve, a move that is likely to spur similar efforts worldwide, broker Bernstein said in a research report Monday. “A creation of a U.S. bitcoin reserve could lead to a global race amongst sovereigns to buy bitcoin as one of the … Read more

Bitcoin (BTC) has been relatively listless this month, hunching below $100,000. However, this hasn’t deterred traders from continuing to bet bullishly on the leading cryptocurrency. This month’s most preferred options play has been buying the $110,000 call expiring on March 28, with buyers paying a cumulative net premium of over $6 million for the bullish … Read more

Lawyers in Argentina are pressing charges against the country’s president, Javier Milei, over this weekend’s ‘rug pull’ of the Libra token, the Associated Press reports. The AP says that the plaintiffs are accusing Milei of committing fraud as they claim when Milei withdrew messages supporting the token it lost its value, and this move ‘rug … Read more

Argentina’s President Javier Milei is facing impeachment threats after endorsing a cryptocurrency called LIBRA, purportedly intended to support small businesses, which instead crashed and lost billions of dollars in value within hours, according to Reuters. In a now-deleted late Friday post on X, Milei promoted LIBRA as a privately run project designed to raise money … Read more

Wrapped AVAX (WAVAX) has seen a surge in wallet accumulation on the Avalanche blockchain, even as its price dropped more than 4% over the past 24 hours, data from TheTie shows. A total of 3,898 wallets added to their WAVAX holdings today—nearly twice the recent average of 1,600, the data shows. A wrapped token is … Read more

Cryptocurrencies backed by gold have underperformed over the week as the price of the precious metal saw a significant drop after moving up more than 10% so far this year. The decline came as speculation surrounding Trump’s tariffs being a negotiating tool. Gold-backed tokens, including Paxos gold (PAXG) and Tether gold (XAUT), have declined roughly … Read more

Disclaimer: The analyst who wrote this piece owns shares of Strategy (MSTR) Strategy (MSTR) could be on track for potential S&P 500 inclusion by June 20. Currently, the company meets all eligibility requirements except one: achieving positive GAAP net income over the trailing 12 months (the most recent four quarters combined). To qualify, Q1 2025 … Read more

Memecoin generator Pump.fun has launched a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices, making its platform more accessible to users and effectively doubling down on the ongoing memecoin craze. Pump.fun’s new mobile app has features similar to its web interface. It allows users to create their own Solana-based memecoins for free and trade existing … Read more

The cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider Blockchain.com has taken new steps toward a potential initial public offering (IPO) by appointing two seasoned executives with financial and operational expertise. Blockchain.com hired Justin Evans, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs, as its new chief financial officer, Bloomberg reported. It also appointed Mike Wilcox, previously CFO of Velocity … Read more

This article is part of a four-piece series on El Salvador. You can find the previous dispatch, a story on El Zonte, here. There was formidable energy at this year’s Plan B conference in El Salvador. The event, which took place on Jan. 30-31, was historic for many of its 2,500 attendants. It was the … Read more

Attorneys for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission hinted at a potential settlement with Coinbase in a late Friday court filing, citing the regulator’s new crypto task force. The SEC asked a federal appeals court to extend its deadline to respond to Coinbase, which filed an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling last month. District … Read more

The SafeMoon team is planning on launching a memecoin on Solana (SOL) on Saturday at 1:00 AM UTC. The team has burned 2.2 trillion SFM tokens across the Ethereum, Polygon and Binance Smart Chain networks, the VGX Foundation told CoinDesk. In total, almost the entirety of the Ethereum and Polygon supplies have been eliminated, as well … Read more

Wisconsin’s investment board saw fit to significantly add to its bitcoin (BTC) bet in the last three months of the year. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) disclosed ownership of just over 6 million shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as of the Dec. 31, per a 13F filing on Friday, up from … Read more

Justin Sun wishes he could travel more. But there’s too much to do. “There are too many exciting things happening in crypto every week,” he said in a December interview with CoinDesk at home in Hong Kong. “I don’t really take vacation time. It’s hard to get away for a week.” If Sun did take … Read more

This article is part of a four-piece series on El Salvador. You can find the previous dispatch, a story on Bitcoin City, here. The sun was setting as I rolled into El Zonte, a small surfing village on the coast of El Salvador. It was a late January afternoon. The sky had turned pink and … Read more

Bitcoin (BTC) managed to put in a modest rally early in the U.S. trading session on Friday, but the move was quickly snuffed out. Are bulls lightening up positions ahead of the weekend? They could be forgiven for doing so. In his Friday note, Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick said bitcoin’s price has now declined for … Read more

Leading stablecoin issuer Tether announced earlier today it has invested in Italian football club Juventus FC, leading to a massive price rise not only for the club’s crypto fan token JUV, but also for other crypto fan tokens. The price of Juventus Fan Token surged more than 200% before seeing a correction that brought the … Read more

Crypto exchange Bybit is no longer illegally operating in France in the eyes of the country’s financial regulator, its CEO said Friday. The exchange was on France’s regulatory blacklist for more than two years, Ben Zhou, the CEO of Bybit, said in an X post on Friday. “After more than two years of working with … Read more

The Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has set itself a deadline for a decision on whether it will allow an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the price of XRP (XRP). The SEC acknowledged a 19b-4 filing by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and asset manager Grayscale, which is the first time it has responded to … Read more