CoinDesk

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday sanctioned a network of companies, exchanges and executives linked to shuttered Russian crypto exchange Garantex and the ruble-backed stablecoin A7A5, accusing them of helping Moscow skirt international sanctions. Garantex, founded in 2019 and once licensed in Estonia, processed more than $100 million in transactions … Read more

Polygon’s POL token tumbled 6% on Thursday, falling through key support levels as higher-than-expected U.S. inflation data shook risk assets. POL traded in a wide 10% range over the past 24 hours, climbing from $0.25 to $0.26 in early trading before reversing sharply, data from CoinDesk Analytics shows. A burst of selling sent the token … Read more

Crypto prices slipped Thursday after an unexpectedly hot PPI inflation print, but analysts said it’s just a pullback within the rally. The CoinDesk 20 Index of largest cryptocurrencies fell 2.1% over the past 24 hours, with bitcoin (BTC) dropping 2.3%. XRP (XRP) lost 4.6% with ether (ETH) outperforming by edging down 0.7%. “The pullback is, … Read more

NEAR Protocol saw heightened volatility in the 24 hours ending August 14 at 14:00 UTC, with prices fluctuating between $2.78 and $3.05 before settling at $2.82. The decline from the $3.05 resistance to $2.75 support was driven by heavy institutional selling, totaling nearly 20 million tokens during peak pressure. Despite this, the asset’s fundamentals remain … Read more

ATOM-USD saw sharp volatility between 13 August 15:00 and 14 August 14:00, trading between $4.49 and $4.91 with volume spiking to 5.62M units—over 322% above average. After holding in the $4.82–$4.85 range and briefly hitting $4.91, the asset faced an aggressive selloff from 06:00 on 14 August, bottoming at $4.53 at 12:00 on heavy volume, … Read more

Ripple Senior Vice President Markus Infanger, the head of RippleX, argues the XRP Ledger (XRPL) is built for the next phase of real-world-asset tokenization and says today’s SPV-heavy market is only a bridge to “native issuance.” From immobilization to native issuance In an Aug. 12 blog post, Infanger draws a direct line from the 1970s … Read more

Ark Invest said it bought more than 2.5 million shares of crypto platform Bullish (BLSH) on the day of the company’s explosive debut on the New York Stock Exchange, securing a stake valued at more than $170 million by the end of the day. Shares of the company, which owns CoinDesk, surged to as high … Read more

Nations around the world are at differing stages of evaluating or establishing centralized bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In today’s Crypto for Advisors newsletter, we look to the East, as Dr Sangmin Seo, chairman, Kaia DLT Foundation, compares and contrasts South Korea’s closed and controlled CBDC strategy to Japan’s open framework. Then, Patrick Murphy from Eightcap … Read more

Mysten Labs, the developer behind the Sui blockchain, has appointed former Goldman Sachs (GS) executive Mustafa Al Niama as head of capital markets, a move aimed at deepening the firm’s reach into traditional finance through tokenization and real-world asset (RWA) integration, the company said in a Thursday press release. Al Niama, who spent over 15 … Read more

Lido, whose share of the Ethereum staking market was once so large it raised concerns the protocol was nearing a level considered a dangerous concentration of power, has dropped to a record low as competition from rivals intensifies and the development of infrastructure tailored for institutional finance opens new avenues into the industry. While it’s … Read more

One of the hallmarks of new technology is that, at first, it’s often worse than the one it replaces. I remember sitting in my apartment sometime in the late-1990s and spending a weekend ripping my CDs into MP3s only to get a hard-drive crash and lose all my data on Sunday night. I had a … Read more

Stablecoin payment volumes are projected to exceed $1 trillion annually by the end of this decade, according to a Thursday joint report from crypto market maker Keyrock and Latin American exchange Bitso. That growth will be driven by institutional adoption across business-to-business (B2B), peer-to-peer (P2P) and card payment rails, sectors which have already showed signs … Read more

The crypto market staged a sharp rebound in July, with total market capitalization climbing 14% from the previous month to $3.7 trillion, Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Thursday. Average market cap rose 12% in the same period, driven by broad-based gains across tokens, decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) 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 4274.67, down 2.7% (-117.53) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday. One of 20 assets is trading higher. Leaders: ADA (+5.3%) and SOL (-1.6%). Laggards: UNI (-8.2%) and XLM (-6.0%). … Read more

Stablecoin protocol USD.AI, which provides credit to artificial intelligence (AI) companies, has raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Framework Ventures. USD.AI, developed by Permian Labs, issues loans to emerging AI firms using graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware as collateral, cutting approval times by more than 90% compared with traditional lenders. The on-chain … Read more

Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has launched the Gemini Wallet, a new self-custodial smart wallet that aims to streamline user access to Web3 protocols, decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, and onchain applications, the company said in a blog post Thursday. Available at onchain.gemini.com, the Gemini Wallet allows users to move seamlessly … Read more

Dinari, a U.S.-based provider of tokenized public securities, is set to launch its own blockchain, joining the latest wave of firms to build their own infrastructure. The chain, called the Dinari Financial Network, aims to serve as a coordination and settlement layer for the securities issued on other networks like Arbitrum (ARB), Base, Plume (PLUME) … Read more

Inflation concerns were re-ignited during U.S. morning hours Thursday, sending risk assets — crypto among them — sharply lower. The July Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.9%, blowing past estimates for 0.2% and 0.0% in June. On a year-over-year basis, PPI was higher by 3.3% versus forecasts for 2.5% and June’s 2.4%. Core PPI, which … Read more

Around $48 million worth of cryptocurrency has been moved from wallets tied to Turkish exchange BtcTurk, raising fears of a potential hack. The incident involved large transfers of ether (ETH), Avalanche’s AVAX (AVAX), Arbitrum’s ARB (ARB), Base (BASE), Optimism’s OP (OP), Mantle (MANTLE), and Polygon’s MATIC (MATIC), with the bulk of the funds consolidating into … Read more

Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) saw a volatile 24 hours, climbing from $5.84 to a session high of $6.08 before succumbing to selling pressure. The 5% swing unfolded within a $0.28 trading corridor, reflecting both strong buying interest and swift profit-taking, according to CoinDesk Research’s technical analysis data model. Early momentum carried ICP through multiple resistance … Read more

Pepe (PEPE), the frog-themed memecoin that surged in popularity earlier this year, fell roughly 4% in the past 24 hours. The decline came as trading activity across the meme token sector cooled from highs seen earlier this week. The wider memecoin market, based on the CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME) saw a 3% decline in the … Read more

Institutional DeFi platform Sentora published a new report on Thursday, arguing that the corporate adoption of bitcoin (BTC) as a treasury asset, while popular, resembles a “balance sheet roulette.” “Bitcoin’s scarcity and programmability make it an unprecedented corporate asset — but without scalable yield and durable financing, most current adopters are playing a dangerous game … Read more

TeraWulf (WULF), has signed two 10-year high-performance computing (HPC) colocation agreements with AI cloud platform Fluidstack. The agreements lock in approximately $3.7 billion in contracted revenue, with potential to rise to $8.7 billion if two five-year extension options are exercised. Google will support the project by backstopping $1.8 billion of Fluidstack’s lease obligations, facilitating project … Read more

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) The cryptocurrency market is still enjoying a rally on the back of Tuesday’s higher-than-expected core inflation reading that boosted chances of a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut next month. Some traders are even calling for a 50 bps cut. The euphoria has lifted the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) … Read more

Bitcoin (BTC) hit a record high above $124,000, and momentum has since eased off. Analysts said profit-taking by long-term holders has been capping gains above $120,000 since mid-July. The bull market remains concentrated at the top, as evident from the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Index, which has risen over 1% in 24 hours. The CoinDesk 80 … Read more

Bitcoin (BTC) surged past $124,000, setting its fourth all-time high of 2025. On-chain data from Glassnode suggests this could mark the early stages of a continued bull market. A key metric underpinning this view is the realized price, which measures the total value of all bitcoins at the price they were last moved on-chain, divided … Read more

The yen (JPY) strengthened against the dollar (USD) and bitcoin (BTC) after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Bank of Japan is behind the curve on inflation and will probably have to raise interest rates. “The Japanese have an inflation problem  … They’re behind the curve, so they are going to be hiking, and … Read more

Dogecoin surged over 7% in the past 24 hours, fueled by more than $200 million in whale purchases and a sharp uptick in derivatives positioning. The memecoin broke through the $0.25 resistance level, triggering a volume-led breakout and sending futures open interest above $3 billion. Large-holder ownership now sits just shy of 50%, underscoring growing … Read more

Since mid-July, bitcoin’s (BTC) ascent has slowed above $120,000. Prices hit a new high of $124,157 early Thursday but have since pulled back to $123,000, lacking momentum. This raises a question: who is cashing out of bitcoin and adding selling pressure to the market? According to observers, the answer lies in blockchain data, which shows … Read more

Crypto exchange Coinbase lost roughly $300,000 in token fees after a misconfigured interaction with decentralized exchange protocol 0x’s “swapper” contract allowed MEV bots to siphon funds from one of its corporate wallets. Coinbase’s chief security officer Philip Martin confirmed the mishap and called it an “an isolated issue” tied to a change in one of … Read more