Author: Coindesk

OKX has appointed Linda Lacewell as its new chief legal officer (CLO) after the departure of Mauricio Beugelmans.Lacewell joined the crypto exchange as a board member last year having previously served as Superintendent and head of the New York Department of Financial Services, according to an announcement on Tuesday.”Her leadership comes at a pivotal time as we expand into key markets such as Europe and U.A.E,” OKX said.The announcement comes the day after CoinDesk reported that Lacewell’s predecessor Mauricio Beugelmans had left OKX, with his departure related to the exchange’s penalties of over $500 million paid to the U.S. Department…

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)Bitcoin is building momentum, rising over 2% on the day to over $84,000, with memecoins leading the market higher, followed by tokens associated with artificial intelligence and gaming. In traditional markets, gold set another record, surpassing $3,140, and futures linked to major U.S. equity indices are pointing to a positive open.President Donald Trump pledged a “very kind” yet firm approach toward all trading partners ahead of Wednesday’s planned reciprocal tariffs announcement.Still, market flows reveal nervousness likely stemming from tariff uncertainty. An aggressive move could ratchet up inflation expectations, which would lower risk…

Bitcoin (BTC) was inching towards 85,000 during European trading hours on Tuesday as traders largely await the impact of U.S. tariffs slated for Wednesday.Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano (ADA) rose over 7% to lead muted gains among majors, with ether (ETH), XRP, Solana’s SOL and BNB Chain’s BNB were up nearly 5%.Overall market capitalization decreased 3%, CoinGecko data shows, with the broad-based CoinDesk 20 bumped 3% in the past 24 hours.The movements come amid a broader risk-off mood gripping markets, with U.S. equities stumbling — the S&P 500 logged a 3% drop last week, its worst since September 2023, and a…

Japanese hotel company Metaplanet (3350) has purchased an additional 696 BTC ($58.5 million), taking its total stash to 4,046 BTC. Metaplanet purchased the bitcoin for an average purchase price of nearly 14.6 million yen ($97,500) for a total spend of 10.15 billion yen.The company’s total BTC holdings were bought for an average price of around $86,500.57 per coin.Metaplanet financed its purchases in Q1 through the sale of cash secured BTC put options – futures contracts which bet on the price of the underlying asset going down.These options were written at the beginning of the quarter, when BTC was scaling all-time…

By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)With trade tensions escalating, Asian and European stocks extended last week’s declines. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 4%, taking it into correction territory after dropping more than 10% from its record high and European indexes including the FTSE 100, DAX, and CAC 40 opened in the red alongside falling U.S. stock futures.The backdrop is President Donald Trump’s new tariffs, set to be revealed to the world on April 2 in an event he has dubbed “Liberation Day.” The president plans to impose levies and tariffs on any country deemed to have an…

Last month, Ethereum reclaimed its title as the leading smart contract blockchain for decentralized exchange (DEX) trading, as the market swoon dampened activity on Solana, the go-to platform for memecoin traders.Ethereum-based DEXes registered an industry-leading cumulative trading volume of $64.616 billion in March, beating Solana’s tally of $52.62 billion by 22%, according to data source DefiLama. That’s the first time since September that Ethereum topped the charts, pushing Solana to the number two spot.Top blockchains by DEX trading volumes. (DefiLlama) The change in leadership happened as the total crypto market capitalization fell 4.2% to $2.63 trillion, extending February’s 20% loss,…

Archax, a U.K.-regulated crypto exchange and custodian focusing on tokenized assets, has acquired a U.S. broker-dealer in an effort to enter the booming institutional market in the country after recent positive changes on the regulatory environment.Globacap Private Markets Inc, a broker-dealer and alternative trading system (ATS) regulated by FINRA and the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), is being bought by Archax and being renamed to Archax Markets US. The new entity will serve as the company’s foothold on American soil and serve the institutions and professional investors in the country, two Archax executives told CoinDesk.Asset tokenization is a fast-growing sector…

The Strategy (MSTR) bitcoin (BTC) acquisition machine continued to roll on last week.The company added 22,048 BTC for $1.92 billion, or an average price of $86,969 each, per a Monday morning filing. Total holdings are now 528,185 bitcoin purchased for $35.63 billion, or an average price of $67,458 each.At the current price around $82,000, those holdings are worth more than $43 billion.This latest purchase appeared to be funded mostly by additional common share issuance, a total of $1.2 billion worth in the week ended March 30, according to the filing. Strategy also tapped its STRK preferred share ATM for $18.52…

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 2496.42, down 3.0% (-78.53) since 4 p.m. ET on Friday.None of the 20 assets are trading higher.Leaders: BTC (-1.4%) and BCH (-1.9%).Laggards: HBAR (-10.8%) and SUI (-10.2%).The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally. Read the full article here

Hashgraph, the blockchain development firm focusing on the Hedera (HBAR) network, is building a private, permissioned blockchain for enterprises in highly regulated industries with plans to debut in the third quarter of 2025.HashSphere, built with Hedera’s technology, aims to bridge private and public distributed ledgers, ensuring compliance with regulations while maintaining interoperability, the company said Monday. Hashgraph is looking to provide services to asset managers, banks and payment providers seeking secure, low-cost cross-border transactions with stablecoins.While public blockchains offer security and transparency, enterprises in industries like finance and payments often face compliance challenges, particularly with know your customer (KYC) and…