Solana’s network activity lit up on Tuesday as the Pudgy Penguins NFT project debuted its native token, PENGU, on the programmable blockchain. The layer 1 blockchain, considered a cheap alternative to Ethereum, registered a total transaction tally of 66.9 million, the highest since its inception in 2020, according to data source Artemis. To highlight how … 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 3834.16, down 2.9% (-116.36) since 4 pm ET. One of 20 assets is trading higher. Leaders: HBAR (+0.8%) and BTC (-1.6%). Laggards: LTC (-7.6%) and FIL (-6.2%). The CoinDesk … Read more
Crypto degens have a new – and, if all goes according to plan, faster, cheaper and safer – way to trade Runes, the Bitcoin ecosystem’s answer to memecoins. An automated-market maker (AMM) for the Runes protocol is being deployed on Stacks. It’s the first AMM for such tokens on that Bitcoin layer-2 network. The AMM … Read more
Patchwork, a startup focused on simplifying blockchain and smart-contract development founded by former Coinbase employees, has released the next version of its low-to-no-code tools for building decentralized applications (dapps). Currently linked to Coinbase’s popular Ethereum layer-2 network Base and backed by Coinbase Ventures, the “Create-Patchwork” picks-and-shovels approach lowers the barriers to building blockchain applications and … Read more
Plume, a blockchain network focused on real-world assets, raked in $20 million in fresh funds in a Series A fundraising round, the platform told CoinDesk on Wednesday. Investors participating in the round included Brevan Howard Digital, Haun Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, Lightspeed Faction, Superscrypt, Hashkey, Nomura’s crypto arm Laser Digital, A Capital, 280 Capital, SV Angel, … Read more
Swiss cryptocurrency custody specialist Taurus is collaborating with Temenos, a firm that provides core banking software to many of the world’s largest financial institutions, allowing those banks to quickly and easily create crypto wallets and transfer a wide range of digital assets. This collaboration is important as the Geneva-headquartered Temenos is quite big: the firm … Read more
A Binance delisting decision sent prices of defunct crypto exchange WazirX’s WRX tokens down 60% in an hour, even as the exchange hopes for a “fresh start” of its platform. Binance said Wednesday that it was delisting WazirX’s WRX, along with Kaon (AKRO) and Bluzelle (BLZ), as part of a regular review of tokens that … Read more
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) The crypto market is derisking ahead of today’s Fed rate decision. Everyone’s buzzing about the likelihood of another rate cut that will supposedly galvanize risk-taking in the economy and financial markets. Here’s the twist: The central bank is expected to signal three rate cuts for 2025, … Read more
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance posted a list of “alpha watchlist tokens” to one of its Telegram channels on Wednesday, causing a spike in the mentioned tokens, however it then clarified that the information was “false” which led to the tokens giving up their newfound gains. The post read: “Ready to explore early stage crypto projects?” before … Read more
An intellectual property (IP) ownership could soon end up in a fight of digital dogs. Own The Doge DAO, a collective that holds the original ‘doge’ meme, on Tuesday said it had acquired the rights to use pet shiba inu Neiro’s images and was holding a community discussion on which NEIRO token can continue to … Read more
ZBD, a payment platform powered by the Bitcoin Lightning network, said the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) approved its application for a European Union MiCA license. When MiCA takes effect and the license is granted on Dec. 30, ZBD will be able to offer a wide range of crypto custody and crypto exchange … Read more
The non-fungible token (NFT) market is showing signs of recovery, Galaxy Research said in a report Monday. NFTs are digital assets on a blockchain that represent ownership of virtual or physical items and can be sold or traded. NFT volumes had been declining for most of the year, but began to reverse in November following … Read more
Bitcoin (BTC) is taking a breather, experiencing selling pressure after Tuesday’s indecisive price action marked by a Doji candle. This seems to be a classic case of traders de-risking in anticipation of an expected hawkish Fed rate cut later Wednesday. The leading cryptocurrency by market value traded around $103,750, marking a 2% drop for the … Read more
The Web3 ecosystem is often regarded as the next infrastructure of the internet. However, nearly 10 years after the release of the Ethereum white paper, we have very few mainstream applications running on that infrastructure. Meanwhile, we continue to see the emergence of new infrastructure building blocks everywhere: L1, L2, and L3 blockchains, rollups, ZK … Read more
Coinbase delisted wBTC “due to the unacceptable risk” that the top bitcoin stand-in on Ethereum “would fall into the hands of Justin Sun,” the exchange said Tuesday in response to a lawsuit over its decision. Market observers had previously read between the lines of Coinbase’s November nixing of wBTC. At the time, the exchange cited … Read more
Wall Street’s rate cut outlook is overly pessimistic. This week brings an important update for investors everywhere. The Federal Reserve will update its interest rate policy on Wednesday Dec. 18. The consensus expectation is for a 25 basis point cut, lowering the effective rate to 4.4% from the current level of 4.7%. The more important … Read more
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The crypto industry got a promise for action Tuesday from the Republican U.S. lawmakers who will have the authority to move digital assets legislation, with key members of the Senate and House of Representatives saying the sector will finally get what it’s awaited for years. The incoming Republican chair of the U.S. … Read more
The analyst who co-wrote this piece owns shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Semler Scientific (SMLR). Have Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy (MSTR) stumbled onto an infinite money glitch? It would be hard to blame anyone for thinking so. While the Saylor-led company began buying bitcoin (BTC) more than four years ago, over the past 10 months … Read more
Telegram’s gaming ecosystem is thriving, with tap-to-earn and clicker games leveraging the platform’s established base of over 950 million users. According to the Q3 2024 Telegram Games Report, top games like Hamster Kombat and Catizan pulled in hundreds of thousands of active users within weeks, underscoring the appeal of the “mini-app” approach originally pioneered by … Read more
Bitcoin has historically been used for two main things: as a store of value and a medium of exchange. These two use cases have served the burgeoning digital economy well, as evidenced by bitcoin’s roughly $2 trillion market cap and millions of institutional and retail users around the globe. These two use cases can be … Read more
Stablecoin infrastructure platform BVNK has raised $50 million in Series B funding as it seeks to expand its U.S. operations. Formed in late 2021, BVNK raised $40 million in Series A funding the following May and won registration in Spain a few months later. For the past year, the London-based company has been expanding in … Read more
The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday said it had shut down a North Korean money laundering network that used crypto to clean millions of dollars for the hermit kingdom, a global leader in crypto crime. A front company in the UAE called Green Alpine Trading, LLC, had been converting crypto into cash for North Korea, … Read more
Fuel, a layer-2 network built on Ethereum, has announced that airdrop claims for its native token will open on Dec. 19, with ten percent of the total supply being allocated to more than 200,000 eligible wallets. The window for airdrop claims will run for one month. 28% of the airdrop allocation will go to phase-1 … Read more
Nigeria arrested 792 people following a raid at a building where people allegedly committed crypto-related scams, Reuters reported on Monday. The suspects would lure victims, typically from America and Europe, with romantic offers before asking them to hand over money for fake crypto investments, the report said. The people, who included Chinese and Filipino nationals, … Read more
The last four years were focused on fighting for the survival of the crypto industry in the United States. Against a hostile administration and unprecedented lawfare, the industry fought back boldly – and won. But now, the industry faces a more pressing task: Helping to shape the legislation and policies that will govern it for … Read more
PENGU, the native token of non-fungible token (NFT) project Pudgy Penguins, has debuted at a $2.3 billion market cap after the token was distributed to NFT holders via an airdrop. The Solana-based token has a total supply of 88.88 billion and has racked up around $90 million in trading volume in the first hour since … 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 3997.96, up 2.1% (+82.3) since 4 pm ET on Monday. Eight of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: XRP (+7.9%) and XLM (+6.7%). Laggards: LINK (-4.2%) and UNI (-2.3%). … Read more
ENS Labs, the company behind the Ethereum Name Service, said Tuesday that it picked Linea’s technology to build its upcoming layer-2 network, Namechain. Linea is a zero-knowledge rollup that came out in July 2023 and was built by Ethereum infrastructure giant Consensys. It is the seventh-largest rollup network, according to L2Beat, with $1 billion locked … Read more
The analyst who wrote this piece owns shares of Semler Scientific (SMLR) and MicroStrategy (MSTR). Shares of Semler Scientific (SMLR), the small-cap medical device maker that adopted a bitcoin treasury strategy earlier this year, are now available for options trading. This comes after six months of share-price growth for the company driven by its bitcoin … Read more
Fintech giant Revolut plans to extend its battle-tested security wrapper, Revolut Pay, to crypto customers from the start of 2025 to improve protection against fraudulent attacks. As it stands, Revolut says, there is limited visibility into card transactions and bank transfers its crypto customers make with exchanges, potentially exposing them to higher levels of fraud … Read more