Author: Coindesk

Investment bank Compass Point downgraded MARA Holdings (MARA) to a sell rating from neutral on Tuesday, citing unsustainable cash burn. “There’s better ways to get BTC beta,” analysts wrote in the research note, pointing to Marathon’s hash price, now below 5.5 cents, as a signal of declining profitability. At current operational levels, Compass Point estimates the company is facing significant cash burn that could lead to shareholder dilution.The bank also slashed MARA’s price target to $9.50 from $25, suggesting more than 25% downside from the current price near $13.Marathon’s business relies on bitcoin mining, a process that earns BTC in…

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives derailed what was supposed to be a joint hearing on crypto policy efforts on Tuesday, insisting that President Donald Trump’s personal crypto dealings were too urgent to allow other discussion on instituting industry regulations.”I object to this joint hearing because of the corruption of the president of the United States and his ownership of crypto and his oversight of all the agencies,” said Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, effectively robbing the gathering of its official status that required unanimous consent to proceed with the panel’s joint hearing…

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has dropped its appeal in its case against Kalshi, a New York-based prediction market, according to a Monday court filing, finally clearing the way for the platform to offer political event contracts.Under the conditions of the motion for voluntary dismissal, which is still subject to court approval, both parties will pay their own legal costs and Kalshi waives any right to sue the CFTC for the litigation.”Today is historic. We have always believed that doing things the right way, no matter how hard, no matter how painful, pays off. This result is proof…

New Hampshire has become the first state to allow the investment of its public funds into crypto assets with its governor signing the new law on Tuesday.The state beat a number of others to the punch this year as what had started as a surge in state lawmaker momentum had run into roadblocks over recent weeks. As the first to authorize its treasurer to set up such a reserve, New Hampshire could very well beat the U.S. government in forming a stockpile, too.”New Hampshire is once again first in the Nation,” New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who’s in…

Eight decades of dollar history can be read as a three-act play.Act I was the Eurodollar—off-shore bank deposits that sprang up in 1950s London so the Soviet bloc, European exporters, and eventually every multinational could hold dollars outside U.S. regulation, spawning a multi-trillion-dollar shadow banking base.Act II was the Petrodollar. After 1974, OPEC’s decision to price crude in dollars hard-wired global energy demand to U.S. currency and gave Washington an automatic bid for its Treasury bills.John deVadoss will appear in the “IEEE x Consensus Research Symposium: What’s next in Agentic AI?” at Consensus 2025 on May 16 at 11:00am-12:30pm.Act III…

Formerly known as Janover (JNVR), DeFi Development Corporation (DFDV has added an additional 82,404 solana (SOL) tokens to its treasury, pushing its total holdings to 400,091 SOL.At SOL’s current price of $143, the company stack is worth more than $57 million.The newly acquired tokens include locked SOL, purchased through BitGo’s over-the-counter desk, according to a press release. These tokens can’t be moved on-chain until unlocked, but they can still be traded over-the-counter between institutions, the firm said.The company said it plans to stake these assets to generate yield.The accumulation follows the acquisition of a validator operation earlier this week, which…

The European Central Bank (ECB) said it set up an innovation hub with 70 participants to test its digital euro project.The participants included start-ups, banks and payment services including global professional services company Accenture, Swiss telecommunications company Swisscom, Spanish bank CaixaBank and audit and tax firm KPMG, it said in a Monday release. The companies have signed up to work with the ECB to explore the central bank digital currency’s payment functionalities and use cases, the release said.The ECB issued a call to small and large merchants, banks and payment-service providers last year. The central bank’s President Christine Lagarde said…

VanEck has filed paperwork to sell shares in an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking crypto exchange Binance’s blockchain.The asset manager submitted an S-1 document with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday for a BNB ETF, becoming the first prospective issuer to file for such a fund in the U.S. BNB is the native token for the BNB Chain, launched in 2017 by Binance.Investors in the fund — if approved — would also be able to earn staking rewards and additional tokens as well as other income, according to the filing. The SEC under former chair Gary Gensler had a…

Singapore-based developer of bitcoin mining ASIC chips and rigs Canaan (CAN) has had a rough run, but could be a five-bagger, suggests Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer.Palmer on Tuesday initiated coverage of the ADRs with a buy rating and a $3 price target. The shares closed yesterday at $0.62, lower by 72% year-to-date.Canaan’s dual strategy is focused on the development of ASIC bitcoin chips and rigs, and the expansion of its self-mining operations, especially in the United States, said Palmer.”CAN’s vertically integrated approach differentiates it within the bitcoin mining space while positioning it to capitalize on both chip/rig sales and proprietary…

Banking giant Citi and SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), the digital assets-focused arm of Switzerland’s main stock exchange, are teaming up to tokenize non-publicly traded shares in a move to streamline a $75 billion market that’s littered with PDFs and paper documents.Citi will act as a custodian and issuer agent for tokenized versions of late stage, pre-IPO equities on SDX’s regulated blockchain-based Central Securities Depository (CSD) platform, the companies said on Tuesday.Citi said the platform, which is expected to go live in the third quarter, will exclude U.S. investors, but is otherwise global with an initial focus on Switzerland, Singapore and…