U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Caroline Pham, the Republican commissioner who just took over the agency as President Donald Trump returned to the White House, ushered out many of the agency’s top officials under predecessor Rostin Behnam, the Democrat who’d been appointed by Joe Biden. The staff changes — with each departure replaced by … Read more
Dear CoinDesk Community, Starting today, some readers will be asked to register for a free account to continue accessing our content. This change is part of a pilot program to help us better understand the needs of our audience and ensure that we are delivering content that is relevant and tailored to your interests. Registration … Read more
The release of Ross Ulbricht and the lifting of sanctions on Tornado Cash mark pivotal moments for the crypto community. It’s more than symbolic. It’s an opportunity to clearly rebrand the U.S. as a safe place to build the internet of money. Ross’ freedom comes after over a decade of imprisonment — a journey defined … Read more
Payments-focused cryptocurrency XRP and world’s most-used blockchain Solana (SOL) prices spiked on Wednesday afternoon, after report that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is adding futures contracts of both. According to a post on X, CME have posted the futures page for XRP and SOL in their “staging subdomain.” A screenshot of the website shows that … Read more
Among the most vocal critics of TRUMP, the controversial and wildly popular memecoin launched by Donald Trump on the eve of his 2025 inauguration, are the very crypto enthusiasts he may have hoped to court. The TRUMP coin, launched on Jan. 17, saw a dramatic price surge, climbing from $7 to an all-time high of … Read more
Sentiment towards Ethereum’s ether (ETH) has sunk to depressed levels in recent times, but the latest maneuver of President Donald Trump-related crypto platform could spur hope for a reversal. World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform linked to the Trump family, this week deposited a total of 10,000 ether (ETH) worth $33 million … Read more
A new exchange-traded fund (ETF) by global investment management firm Calamos that promises to protect investors from the volatility in bitcoin’s price hit the market on Wednesday. CBOJ, the first of three ETFs, provides investors with 100% downside protection while offering 10% to 11.5% upside potential over a one-year period, according to a press release. … Read more
The crypto industry is waiting for President Donald Trump to issue an executive order that will steer the federal government toward a new, more welcoming era for digital assets oversight. That’ll be good for Trump’s own business, and that’s one of the reasons Democrats in the House of Representatives are already shouting about ethical lapses … Read more
TITLE: Lido Co-Founder Teases ‘Second Foundation’ for Ethereum Amid Community Backlash DEK: Vitalik Butern’s proposal for an Ethereum Foundation restructuring has unveiled rifts within the ecosystem. Konstantin Lomashuk, the founder of the Lido staking protocol, has teased his intention to build a “Second Foundation” to advance Ethereum’s ecosystem. Over the past several days, Ethereum co-founder … Read more
An industry-wide debate over crypto institutional adoption and centralized custody risk will trigger a surge of interest in self-custody, OKX’s President Hong Fang said in a recent interview with CoinDesk. While institutional adoption and the increasing popularity of crypto ETFs are a net positive for the industry, there may be a shift in industry narrative … Read more
Grant Cardone is the founder and CEO of Cardone Capital, a firm that manages about $5 billion in real estate. And he just introduced a new fund that invests property-generated cash flow into bitcoin (BTC). “Nobody else has ever done this to scale. Nobody’s ever done this particular model,” Cardone told CoinDesk in an interview. … Read more
Coinbase has petitioned a U.S. appeals court to rule on whether or not the crypto trading activity on its platform should be subject to securities laws. In a Tuesday court filing, lawyers for Coinbase urged the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to hear its case, arguing that it “presents the single best opportunity to decide … Read more
It’s Thursday, Jan. 16 and sports betting influencer Liam (@bets_liam) has just reviewed the latest “NFL Divisional Round Bets” from The Favorites Podcast, an NFL sports betting show with 70,000+ subscribers. Liam takes to X and tweets his reactions: The twist? He’s an AI agent powered by Memetica.ai, a no code AI agent consumer platform … Read more
The election of Donald Trump promises a new era for digital assets characterized by greater regulatory certainty and a surge in market activity. The question now is whether this shift is sustainable, or a temporary reaction to the political climate. According to CCData’s latest Exchange Review report, aggregated spot and derivatives volumes, the most common … Read more
Tax. The word may make you cringe, but it’s also one you probably don’t want to ignore. Bitcoin (BTC) hit $100,000 for the first time in December 2024, and while you’ve probably had your fair share of “I told you so” moments with the crypto skeptics over the holidays, now is the time to make … Read more
Kingdom Holding, the investment firm of Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, won’t invest in cryptocurrency in the near future because it has not been adopted as a payment method for goods and services, CEO Talal Ibrahim al-Maiman said, Reuters reported. The prince, a senior member of the Saudi royal family is known for his … Read more
For crypto to mature fully, regulated derivatives are non-negotiable. Derivatives already comprise 70-75% of crypto transaction volumes, with institutional players leading the charge. While there is a growing number of regulated offerings, the majority of the volume – about 95% – happens in “offshore” venues, meaning in unregulated or lightly regulated jurisdictions. This exposes investors … 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 3956.13, down 0.5% (-21.14) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Three of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: SOL (+2.8%) and XRP (+0.2%). Laggards: ICP (-5.6%) and HBAR (-4.9%). … Read more
The developers of USDh, a stablecoin built on Bitcoin layer 2 Stacks, have completed a deal to bring around $3 million in liquidity to the token. Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Hermetica has secured the liquidity, which it says will make it the largest stablecoin on Stacks, through collaboration with Bitcoin lending protocol Zest. The two … Read more
Crypto trading and lending platform Nexo has introduced a $5,000 minimum limit to use its services as the firm evolves into a digital assets wealth manager targeting the mass affluent market. The move, which comes into effect in February, is part of the firm’s 2025 growth strategy and recent rebranding, according to a press release … Read more
Dogecoin (DOGE) retraced Tuesday’s gains while Solana’s SOL jumped 8% higher as crypto markets rebounded on Wednesday to reverse some losses from earlier in the week. DOGE fell 7.5% amid profit taking, data shows, to trade at 36 cents in European noon hours, paring gains after a jump from 34 cents to 38 cents on … Read more
Hashprice, a metric coined by Luxor that gauges mining profitability, estimates the daily income of miners relative to their estimated contribution to the Bitcoin network’s hash power. In other words, it is the expected value miners can expect from 1 TH/s of hashing power per day. According to Glassnode, hashprice is hovering above $62 PH/s, … Read more
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Bitcoin remains well supported above $100,000 as it eyes record highs, buoyed by reports that the new SEC leadership has established a task force to develop a framework for crypto assets. Pundits have long said regulatory clarity could pave the way for further price appreciation. Gold’s … Read more
Long-term holders of bitcoin (BTC) seem to ended their selling spree, a change in strategy that’s helped convert the psychological $100,000 resistance price into a support level for the first time. With one, short-lived exception, the largest cryptocurrency has held above $100,000 since Jan. 17. The past few days have been extremely volatile due to … Read more
On Tuesday, bitcoin (BTC) options trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) showed the strongest bullish sentiment since Donald Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory. Traders scrambled to buy calls, or options offering asymmetric upside exposure, driving the skew higher to 4.4%, the most since early November, according to data tracked by digital assets index provider … Read more
Jupiter, a Solana-based decentralized exchange, will airdrop 700 million JUP tokens to its community on Wednesday in what it is calling the “largest airdrop in history.” The airdrop is a part of the project’s annual “Jupuary” event, which was voted into existence alongside another event in 2026 in a governance vote in December. It is … Read more
Bitcoin (BTC) mining is likely to remain profitable this year with the economics of production holding steady, Canaccord Genuity said in a research report Tuesday. The broker said mining fundamentals are strong, “with cost-to-mine sitting somewhere in the ~$26,000-$28,000 range per bitcoin for most leading players.” The world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading around $105,000 at … Read more
Eric Conner, a prominent core developer at Ethereum, has left the ecosystem community after a nearly 11-year affiliation citing network co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s dismissal of a leadership shake-up proposal. Conner is a co-author of EIP-1559, the major network change that shifted how transaction fees worked on Ethereum. He isn’t officially employed by Ethereum but has … Read more
Solana’s validators experienced a record influx of over 100,000 SOL, worth nearly $25.8 million, in fees and tips due to intense trading activity of the TRUMP and MELANIA tokens. The peak occurred on Jan. 20, with validators receiving over 87,000 SOL, driven largely by the TRUMP token’s rally, before MELANIA attracted bets. The surge in … Read more
TRUMP memecoin riches have spurred billions of dollars for the newly sworn-in U.S. President Donald Trump, an amount he termed as “peanuts” compared to corporate bigwigs in his first address of the token since launch. “I don’t know much about it other than when I launched it. I heard it was successful,” Trump said in … Read more