CoinDesk

Raoul Pal, founder of Global Macro Investor, has drawn attention to a widely circulated chart that compares bitcoin’s (BTC) movements with global M2 money supply. The chart shows that since early 2023, bitcoin has tended to track global M2 money supply with a consistent 12-week lag, implying that changes in liquidity conditions filter through to … Read more

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) warned investors it has not approved any stablecoin issuers, labeling the marketing of such products as illegal, the SCMP reports. The statement came after Hong Kong-based AnchorX announced the introduction of AxCNH, a stablecoin pegged to the offshore Chinese yuan. The company said it held a license from Kazakhstan’s … Read more

RedotPay, a Hong Kong-based payments fintech, said it raised $47 million in strategic investment, bringing in Coinbase Ventures as a new backer in a round that lifted its valuation above $1 billion, giving it so-called unicorn status. The round included contributions from existing investors Galaxy Ventures and Vertex Ventures, the company said in a Thursday … Read more

M2 Capital Limited, the investment arm of UAE-based M2 Holdings, has invested $20 million in Ethena’s governance token, ENA. The move underscores a push to connect Middle Eastern investors with new digital asset infrastructure at a time when the region is seeking a larger role in global finance. Ethena is best known for its crypto-native … Read more

An ether (ETH) whale took a multi-million dollar loss on its bullish bet on Thursday after the cryptocurrency’s price dipped below $4,000 for the first time since Aug. 8. The whale address labelled 0xa523 had its leveraged bullish position worth 9,152 ETH ($36.4 million) forcibly liquidated by the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, according to blockchain analyst … Read more

Nine major european banks have joined forces to launch a euro-denominated stablecoin regulated under the trading block’s Markets in Crypto Assets regime (MiCA). The banking giants involved are: ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, DekaBank, UniCredit, SEB, CaixaBank and Raiffeisen Bank International. Earlier this year, CoinDesk reported that Dutch bank ING was working on a … Read more

The Australian treasury revealed a new draft proposal for crypto firms in the country, requiring them to hold licenses and be treated as financial products. The proposal would require crypto firms to hold financial service licenses, effectively bringing them under the wing of the country’s securities regulator, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Digital asset … Read more

Ether (ETH) led major cryptocurrencies lower during Thursday’s Asian trading hours, as odds of a U.S. government shutdown hit record highs on the decentralized betting platform Polymarket. The price of Yes-side shares for the betting contract “U.S. government shutdown in 2025?” rose to 77%, the highest since the contract’s launch in January. Traders are essentially … Read more

South Korean crypto exchange Upbit is about to be acquired by internet giant Naver, according to a report. The deal would bring Upbit’s parent Dunamu under the umbrella of Naver Financial, making Dunamu a full subsidiary of Naver’s financial arm, the report said. Upbit is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the crypto friendly … Read more

Crypto exchange Gate has launched Gate Layer, a proprietary Layer 2 blockchain designed to boost transaction throughput and reduce costs, while simultaneously rolling out a major upgrade to the GT (GateToken) ecosystem Built on the OP Stack and fully compatible with Ethereum, Gate Layer is anchored by GateChain as its settlement layer, the company said … Read more

The global population of crypto millionaires has reached 241,700, up 40% in the past year, according to the Crypto Wealth Report 2025 by Henley & Partners. The surge coincides with a broader rally that lifted total digital asset market capitalization to $3.3 trillion in June, a 45% increase year-on-year, the report, featuring data from global … Read more

“What”: a simple reply by crypto influencer Gainzy pretty much summed up the sentiment when the notorious convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF, seemingly posted on social media after a long hiatus (and despite being in jail). To make matters worse, the token linked to defunct crypto exchange FTX surged nearly 24% in the last … Read more

Apparently there’s not enough money in markets these days for simultaneous bull moves in gold and its digital counterpart bitcoin (BTC). To wit, gold has seen what seems like new record highs on a daily basis for the past few weeks. Bitcoin, meanwhile, despite living in a world with the same bullish catalysts — easing … Read more

Stellar’s native token XLM weathered intense volatility over the past 24 hours, plunging to key support levels before staging a robust rebound. The moves, marked by unusually heavy institutional trading activity, underscored the market’s focus on the $0.36–$0.37 support zone as traders weigh the prospects of a breakout toward higher targets. During the Asian trading … Read more

Validators on BNB Chain have proposed lowering the minimum gas price from 0.1 Gwei to 0.05 Gwei while reducing block intervals from 750 milliseconds to 450 milliseconds. The goal is to drive average transaction costs down to around $0.005, making the network competitive with low-cost chains such as Solana and Base. The proposal follows a … Read more

Melee, a new prediction market startup that says speculation and betting should be as open as online discussion, has raised $3.5 million from Variant, DBA and a group of angel investors to roll out what it calls “Viral Markets.” Crypto native companies have witnessed the runaway success of Polymarket, the digital asset betting platform that … Read more

More than ever we are at the mercy of platform-based giants like Google and Amazon, who act as digital landlords. We have become cloud-serfs, giving our data and producing trillions in value for algorithms we will never own. Over 80% of Netflix viewing is dictated by its recommendation algorithm, and Amazon is far from a … Read more

Private credit, namely asset-backed finance (ABF), is among the fastest-growing corners of global finance. Already a $6.1 trillion market, Apollo Global Management sizes the addressable opportunity at over $20 trillion. Yet despite its scale and growing role in financing businesses and consumers worldwide, the industry still runs on excel sheets. The result? Middle- and back-office … Read more

HBAR traded with sharp volatility over a 23-hour window from September 23 to 24, gaining just 0.90% despite wide intraday swings. The token ranged between $0.217 and $0.225, with the critical 04:00 session on September 24 marking a steep drop to $0.217 before a strong rebound. That zone now acts as support, while $0.225 remains … Read more

Bitwise Asset Management says ether (ETH) is rapidly cementing its place as a treasury asset. Digital asset treasuries (DATs), once largely bitcoin-centric, are now allocating to ether at scale, creating structural demand that exceeds net new supply, the firm said in a Monday report. “ETH treasuries are no longer a side story. They are becoming … Read more

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk. In this issue: Ethereum Developers Target December for Fusaka Hard For Plasma to Launch Mainnet Beta Blockchain for Stablecoins XRP Holders Can Now Earn Up to 8% Through New Liquid Staking Token … Read more

Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has refuted a report by the Financial Times which said YZi Labs could be opened up to external investors. Zhao said the Tuesday report was “false news…with with fake/wrong/made-up info and negative narrative,” in a post on X. “As far as I know…YZi Labs is not raising an external fund,” … Read more

The price of bitcoin (BTC) remains stuck in the mud and corporate bitcoin treasury firms have gone through a full boom-and-bust cycle in a matter of weeks, but the BTC miners have been in major bull mode thanks to artificial intelligence and high-performance computing as a new growth driver. The action continued on Wednesday, with … Read more

IREN (IREN), one of the largest self-operated bitcoin (BTC) miners in the U.S., is breaking away from the pack, and Wall Street is taking notice. Bernstein analysts raised their price target on IREN to $75 from $20, implying about 80% upside, as the miner doubles down on building its own AI cloud business rather than … 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 4045.46, up 0.5% (+21.74) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Nineteen of the 20 assets is trading higher. Leaders: DOT (+2.1%) and HBAR (+2.0%). Laggards: SOL (-1.4%) and LTC … Read more

Stablecoin infrastructure startup Bastion has raised $14.6 million in a new funding round led by Coinbase Ventures, Fortune reports. Bastion builds white-label stablecoin systems that let companies issue digital dollars without writing code or applying for regulatory licenses. The round included participation from the venture arms of Sony and Samsung, as well as Andreessen Horowitz’s … Read more

Canton Network, a blockchain built for regulated finance, has struck a strategic partnership with Chainlink to broaden institutional adoption. The agreement, announced Wednesday, will see Canton integrate Chainlink’s suite of services, including Data Streams, Proof of Reserve, and its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol. Canton has also joined the Chainlink Scale program, which helps cover the costs … Read more

Franklin Templeton, the global investment powerhouse managing $1.6 trillion in assets, is expanding its proprietary Benji Technology Platform to the BNB Chain ecosystem. The move amplifies Benji’s institutional-grade tokenization expertise by leveraging BNB Chain’s technological strengths, including its scalable, low-cost infrastructure and high transaction throughput, to create a new class of on-chain financial assets. “Our … Read more

Crypto has never needed “safe havens.” It needs safe markets. The difference is more than semantics. A safe haven is a place to hide; a safe market is a place to build. Jurisdictions that understand this distinction will be the ones that capture the next significant wave of serious capital. The crypto industry has been … Read more

Hyperliquid’s very own stablecoin USDHL, developed by Native Markets, debuted Wednesday, generating over $2 million in early volume. As of writing, the Hyperliquid-listed USDH/USDC pair traded at 1.001, with a total trading volume of 2,244,932.79 USDC. Last week, the Hyperliquid validator community selected Native Markets to receive the USDH ticker following a lengthy bidding war … Read more