Most investors have their eyes set on President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, which has the potential to be a key catalyst for bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency prices. However, a few days later, there is a potential rate hike on the cards from the Bank of Japan (BoJ). According to a Bloomberg chart shared by … Read more
Coinbase (COIN) is adding bitcoin-backed loans to its U.S. product lineup, leaning on Morpho, the largest lending platform on its Base network, to drive eyeballs and wallets to its growing on-chain economy. The lending product isn’t completely new: those familiar with playing on Base have long been able to borrow USDC against their bitcoin on … Read more
Crypto exchange Upbit may face possible sanctions in South Korea for not complying with the country’s money laundering and know your customer (KYC) obligations, according to a report from local news site Maeil. Upbit which is one of South Korea’s largest exchanges was reportedly notified by the Financial Information Analysis Institute (FIU) under the Financial … Read more
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) The crypto market has had a bullish 24 hours, thanks to Wednesday’s soft U.S. core inflation print that alleviated hawkish Fed concerns. The momentum, however, has slowed. With the inflation data out of the way, crypto traders are refocusing on President-elect Donald Trump’s swearing-in on Jan. … Read more
Malaysia may introduce crypto and blockchain legislation to regulate the sector and keep pace with other jurisdictions, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said during a visit to Abu Dhabi. “I proposed several months ago how our agencies, including security, treasury and Bank Negara study how Malaysia can explore this so we aren’t left behind,” … Read more
Komainu, a crypto custody joint venture between Nomura, Ledger and Coinshares, has raised $75 million in a strategic investment from Blockstream Capital Partners, the company said in a press release on Thursday. The deal is novel in that it is funded with bitcoin (BTC). Komainu will establish its own BTC treasury to manage the crypto … Read more
On Wednesday, bitcoin (BTC) briefly exceeded $100,000 for the fourth time, with trader sentiment switching to greed from fear as the price ranges between $90,000 and the six-figure level. The largest cryptocurrency may take several attempts to push through $100,000, as previous CoinDesk research showed. Since touching an all-time high of around $108,000 on Dec. … Read more
Crypto traders are optimistic again, anticipating bitcoin (BTC) will surpass record highs amid volatile trading as pro-crypto President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 nears. The price of bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency, has risen 11% from Monday’s lows under $90,000. It has jumped nearly 3% in the past 24 hours, topping $100,000 at one point, … Read more
Payments-focussed cryptocurrency XRP, which failed to set new price highs during the 2020-21 bull run due to regulatory struggles, is chalking out its fastest ascent in years, with derivatives tied to the token seeing record activity. The cryptocurrency’s price has surged 50% to seven-year highs above $3 this month, extending the past quarter’s 240% rally, … Read more
Indian telecom and technology company Jio Platforms (JPL) is taking significant steps to enhance the digital experience for its more than 450 million users. Jio Platforms is a wholly-owned subsidiary of energy giant Reliance Industries. Reliance is led by one of Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, and his family. Jio has partnered with with Polygon … Read more
Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Ben Schiller, CoinDesk’s Opinion and Features editor. In this issue: Sony’s blockchain faces memecoin controversy Bubblemaps readies BMT and new intel desk Babylon enhances Bitcoin’s interoperability Prosecutors seek 95k BTC Bitfinex return This article is featured in the … Read more
XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger network closely related to Ripple, surged to a six-year high on Wednesday as bitcoin (BTC) rallied to $100,000, with traders encouraged by this morning’s highly-anticipated U.S. CPI inflation data report. The token briefly topped $3 during early U.S. trading session for the first time since early 2018 … Read more
With only a handful of days remaining until the second inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, crypto policy groups are readying to kick things into higher gear. Blockchain associations from eight U.S. states announced on Tuesday the creation of the North American Blockchain Association (NABA), an organization aiming to provide cohesive crypto policy recommendations to … Read more
On Jan. 20, 2025, the United States will start a new chapter in more ways than one. While the nation will be focused on President Trump’s inauguration as our 47th President, the U.S. financial sector will be celebrating the resignation of Joe Biden’s Securities and Exchange Commission Chair, Gary Gensler. As a member of the … Read more
Last June, a sailing buddy (and aerospace engineer) asked if I could check out a family friend’s “bitcoin.” He forwarded me an image of a plastic bitcoin wallet held with a private key partially obscured. The family friend had received the card as some sort of “gimmick at a conference” and tossed it in a … Read more
The analyst who wrote this piece owns shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR). Since MicroStrategy (MSTR) become a bitcoin treasury company in August 2020, it has used three primary instruments to acquire bitcoin (BTC): cash on hand, at-the-market (ATM) offerings and convertible bond offerings. MicroStrategy’s next method of raising capital is to buy bitcoin through perpetual preferred … Read more
The U.K. government has appointed Emma Reynolds as the new Economic Secretary in charge of overseeing digital assets and central bank digital currencies — alongside the broader financial sector. The appointment was announced on Tuesday following the resignation of Tulip Siddiq, who set out the government’s crypto agenda weeks ago. It is not yet clear … Read more
Decentralization is the foundation of blockchain technology, promising a more resilient and censorship-resistant alternative to centralized systems. But are the industry’s leading protocols as decentralized as they claim to be? Decentralization can be measured across multiple dimensions. At first glance, the number of entities participating in the validation or block-mining process of a network is … Read more
U.S. prosecutors have asked a federal judge to green-light the return of nearly 80% of the 119,754 bitcoins stolen in the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex. In a Tuesday court filing, prosecutors said the 94,643 bitcoins recovered by the government from the original wallet used by the hacker, Ilya Lichtenstein, can be paid to … Read more
Boerse Stuttgart, one of Germany’s leading stock exchanges, has seen its cryptocurrency trading business explode in recent years to now account for approximately 25% of its overall revenue. While not revealing the exact cryptocurrency trading volume, the exchange group shared in a press release at the end of last year that the metric “almost tripled” … Read more
Elroy Cheo, co-founder and architect of influential Web3 collective ARC, is on a mission to redefine the dynamics of digital communities. Cheo and fellow entrepreneur Kiat Lim, the son of billionaire businessman Peter Lim, have made ARC into a hub for collaboration for the global Asian diaspora, enabling members to use a Stellar NFT and … 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 3607.26, up 3.6% (+125.91) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday. All 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: XLM (+9.8%) and HBAR (+7.0%). Laggards: ETC (+0.8%) and POL (+1.3%). The … Read more
While headline inflation came in faster than hoped in December, investors for the moment are in buy mode after an unexpected decline in the year-over-year core rate. The closely-watched Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.4% in December, slightly higher than analyst consensus and the previous month’s 0.3%. On a year-over-year basis, CPI was up 2.9%, … Read more
When inauguration day rolls around in the U.S., the first policy domino to topple could be the industry’s banking roadblocks, though the White House may be the wrong place to watch for the most consequential action. The crypto industry will surely cheer loudly over some of the executive-order fireworks when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn … Read more
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) The market is about to be hit with the first big U.S. economic event of 2025: December CPI data. With hawkish Fed fears in the air and bitcoin strengthening its correlation with tech stocks, Wednesday’s report becomes even more significant for the digital assets market. The … Read more
Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets have dropped as part of a wider macro-driven sell-off in the market and there is a risk that forced selling could lead to further weakness, investment bank Standard Chartered said in a report on Monday. The market downturn was triggered by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkish press conference … Read more
Bitcoin (BTC) adoption by U.S.-listed public companies continues in full steam. The latest purchase comes from NYSE-listed Genius Group (GNS). On Jan. 10, GNS reported increasing its bitcoin holding to $35 million, which was ahead of its scheduled target of $120 million. In the process, it acquired 372 BTC at an average price of $94,047 … Read more
Bitcoin’s (BTC) rapid recovery from below $90,000 since Monday hints at bullish prospects. However, one factor casts doubt on the sustainability of these gains, indicating scope for significant downside volatility if the impending U.S. inflation data comes in hotter-than-expected on Wednesday. That factor is the supply of major stablecoins, which has stalled, indicating the absence … Read more
Crypto derivatives platform Deribit, has received potential acquisition interest, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing sources. The report added that the firm is working with Financial Technology Partners to review the opportunities. Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers told CoinDesk that the options platform had appointed FT Partners as an advisor for general advisory services and potential secondaries, … Read more
Crypto prices bounced from Monday’s wipeout with bitcoin (BTC) rising as high as $97,300 on Tuesday as traders eyed the latest batch of U.S. inflation data with more to come tomorrow. The largest crypto’s dip below $90,000 yesterday was quickly bought up on reports that Donald Trump is preparing first-day executive orders benefitting the crypto … Read more