Author: Coindesk

Bitcoin (BTC) traded above $79,000 Monday morning Asia time as markets around East Asia opened to chaos and carnage as the global sell-off continued.The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a measure of the performance of the largest digital assets, is down 8%.(CoinDesk Indices) Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is down over 8% during mid-morning trading, while Shanghai’s SSE Composite Index is down 7%, and the Taipei’s TAIEX is down 9%.Major tech stocks across the region were some of the hardest hit. Alibaba shares in Hong Kong were down 12% while Tencent was down 9%. In Taipei, TSMC stocks dipped 10% in the…

“Decoupling” and “safe haven” began to be used late last week as bitcoin (BTC) held its own despite the continuing tumble in stock markets in response to President Trump’s sweeping tariffs against U.S. trading partners. Bitcoin bulls, though, may have spoken too soon.With stock trading closed for the weekend, fearful investors are perhaps turning to the 24/7 crypto markets to place bearish bets. In late Sunday afternoon action, bitcoin is trading just above $79,000 down 5% from 24 hours ago.Other majors are faring far worse, among them ether (ETH), lower by 11% to $1,590 and solana (SOL), down 10% to…

Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management took advantage of the $5.4 trillion U.S. equities market sell-off and purchased over 83,000 shares of Coinbase (COIN), increasing exposure to the crypto exchange even as prices dipped sharply across the board.The total shares purchased were worth more than $13 million, taking Friday’s closing price for Coinbase. According to ARK’s daily trading disclosure for April 4, Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) bought nearly 55,000 Coinbase shares, with additional purchases coming from the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF). The timing is notable. Coinbase shares have slipped more…

Bitcoin just notched its worst first quarter in a decade, falling 11.7% as markets struggled to understand the new administration’s economic agenda. The performance ranked 12th out of the past 15 first quarters, according to NYDIG Research’s data.The drawdown invites a familiar question in crypto circles: is the cycle over? The last time bitcoin started the year this poorly was in 2015, during a prolonged slump following the 2013 peak and after the collapse of Mt. Gox, according to NYDIG. Back then, prices recovered modestly over the rest of the year before surging in 2016.In the first quarter of 2020,…

Credit spreads are widening and have reached their highest levels since August 2024 — a period that coincided with bitcoin (BTC) dropping 33% during the yen carry trade unwind.Widening credit spread via IEI and HYG ratio. (TradingView) One way to track this is through the ratio of the iShares 3–7 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEI) to the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG). This IEI/HYG ratio, highlighted by analyst Caleb Franzen, serves as a proxy for credit spreads and is now showing its sharpest spike since the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in March 2023 — a moment…

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent stability amid Nasdaq turmoil driven by tariffs has generated excitement among market participants regarding the cryptocurrency’s potential as a haven asset. Still, the bulls might want to keep an eye on the bond market where dynamics that characterized the COVID crash of March 2020 may be emerging.Nasdaq, Wall Street’s tech-heavy index known to be positively correlated to bitcoin, has dropped 11% since President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced reciprocal tariffs on 180 nations, escalating trade tensions and drawing retaliatory levies from China. Other U.S. indices and global markets have also taken a beating alongside sharp losses in…

Staff at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are reviewing past crypto-related guidance to determine whether it still reflects the agency’s current priorities, according to a statement from acting chairman Mark Uyeda, posted on social media platform X.Among several key documents, the SEC staff’s statement on funds registered under the Investment Company Act Investing in the bitcoin futures market is under review, according to the X post. Other documents include digital assets “investment contracts,” and custody frameworks. The reviews could result in more clarification for regulatory frameworks around the digital assets sector. The request from Uyeda is related to…

Bitcoin could be headed for its most sweeping cryptographic overhaul yet if a new proposal gains traction.A draft Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) titled Quantum-Resistant Address Migration Protocol (QRAMP) has been introduced by developer Agustin Cruz. It outlines a plan to enforce a network-wide migration of BTC from legacy wallets to ones secured by post-quantum cryptography.Quantum computing involves moving away from a process reliant on binary code, ones and zeros, and exponentially increasing computing power by employing Quantum bits (qubits) that exist in multiple states simultaneously. Such a jump in power is expected to threaten modern computing encryption built by classic…

PayPal has added chainlink (LINK) and solana (SOL) to its growing list of supported cryptocurrencies, giving users of both PayPal and Venmo the ability to buy, hold, sell and transfer the tokens directly from their accounts.The move reflects the payments giant’s continued push into the cryptocurrency space after first launching crypto support in 2020. The new tokens will roll out to U.S. users over the next few weeks.“Offering more tokens on PayPal and Venmo provides users with greater flexibility, choice, and access to digital currencies,” said May Zabaneh, PayPal’s Vice President of Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies, in a press…

President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff unveiling had led to a $5.4 trillion U.S. equities market wipeout in just two days as the S&P 500 index dropped to its lowest level in 11 months and the Nasdaq 100 entered bear market territory.Yet, amidst the chaos, cryptocurrency prices are showing resiliency, with bitcoin (BTC) dropping roughly 6% since the tariffs were unveiled, compared to the Nasdaq’s 11% drop. The broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index, dropped by roughly 4.9% over the same period.To put the sell-off figures into perspective, the total crypto market cap is around $2.65…