Author: Coindesk

Shaurya MalwaShaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on crypto derivatives, DeFi, market microstructure, and protocol analysis. Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI, CRV, NEAR, YFI, YFII, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, USDC, BNB, MANA, MLN, LINK, XMR, ALGO, VET, CAKE, AAVE, COMP, ROOK, TRX, SNX, RUNE, FTM, ZIL, KSM, ENJ, CKB, JOE, GHST, PERP, BTRFLY, OHM, BANANA, ROME, BURGER, SPIRIT, and ORCA. He provides over $1,000 to liquidity pools on Compound, Curve, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, Orca, AnySwap, SpiritSwap, Rook Protocol, Yearn Finance, Synthetix, Harvest, Redacted Cartel, OlympusDAO, Rome,…

In a dramatic escalation of trade tensions, China has announced an 84% tariff on all imports from the United States, effective from April 10, 2025, according to the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China. The move comes in direct response to the U.S. increasing its own tariffs on Chinese exports from 34% to 84% just a day earlier.The State Council Tariff Commission, under China’s finance ministry, described the U.S. actions as “unilateralism” and “economic bullying,” accusing Washington of violating international trade rules and undermining global economic stability. Citing national laws and international principles, China emphasized its legal…

Crypto exchange Kraken is teaming up with Mastercard to let crypto holders in the UK and Europe spend their digital assets at more than 150 million merchants worldwide, Mastercard announced.Kraken will offer physical and digital debit cards, allowing customers to use crypto and stablecoins in everyday transactions. It’s the latest development in Kraken Pay, a service that debuted earlier this year that enables cross-border payments in over 300 crypto and fiat currencies.More than 200,000 users have already activated their “Kraktag,” a unique identifier tied to their Kraken wallet, simplifying the use of Kraken Pay’s services, according to the press release.David…

Investment manager ARK Invest, which is known for buying the dip when markets go south, has purchased 199,401 Coinbase (COIN) shares in the past three days.The Cathie Wood-run company bought 83,157 shares of the crypto exchange on Friday, followed by 84,514 and 31,730 on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, according to the company’s daily emailed statements. Based on closing prices, the shares would have cost a total of $31.51 million. They are now valued about $29.3 million based Tuesday’s close.The St. Petersburg, Florida-based company aims to avoid having one particular holding account for a weighing of more than 10% of an…

Argentina’s lower house of Congress has approved a series of measures aimed at probing the LIBRA cryptocurrency that rocked the country after being promoted by President Javier Milei earlier this year.In a special session called by the “Democracy Forever” bloc, deputies passed three resolutions: the formation of an investigative commission, the summons of top government officials, and a formal request for information from the executive branch.Among those summoned are Chief of Cabinet Guillermo Francos, Economy Minister Luis Caputo, Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona and the head of the National Securities Commission, Roberto Silva, according to the official release from the…

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped to nearly $75,000 early Wednesday, before slightly recovering, as Trump’s sweeping global tariffs went into effect.Ether (ETH) dived 10%, leading losses among major tokens, with xrp (XRP), dogecoin (DOGE), BNB Chain’s BNB, Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA down more than 5%. Overall market capitalization decreased 6%, extending a 7-day slide to nearly 15%.Smaller tokens showed even deeper losses, with trendy upstart Berachain’s BERA down 20% and memecoins bonk (BONK), pepe (PEPE) and floki (FLOKI) down more than 9%.Traders’ retreat from crypto majors continued, reversing all gains from Tuesday’s relief rally as Trump pushes forward efforts to drastically…

The worst fears for risk assets, including cryptocurrencies, are coming true, and that has raised the risk of bitcoin (BTC) falling below $74,000 in a move that could shake out leveraged long bets.On Sunday, CoinDesk discussed the possibility of pronounced downside volatility in risk assets due to a potential unwinding of the Treasury market arbitrage bets, a dynamic that catalyzed the 2020 crash.Per observers, the unwinding of the so-called carry trades, involving hedge funds exploiting minor price discrepancies between Treasury futures and securities, has begun. That’s evident from the nearly 70 basis points rise in the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield…

Ripple agreed to acquire multi-asset prime brokerage firm Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, marking one of the largest M&A deals in the digital asset industry to date.CoinDesk reported that Hidden Road was in active takeover talks last week. Hidden Road clears over $3 trillion annually across foreign exchange, derivatives, digital assets and fixed income markets, with more than 300 institutional clients, according to a press release, which didn’t specify the funding terms of the deal.The agreement comes hot on the heels of last month’s deal by crypto exchange Kraken to buy NinjaTrader, a U.S. futures trading platform, for $1.5 billion.…

SOL Strategies (HODL), a Canadian company running infrastructure on the Solana network, revealed it acquired 24,000 SOL tokens in March at an average cost of about C$199 ($139.8) each. The purchase, worth around $3.37 million, brought the firm’s total SOL holdings to 267,151 tokens.Nearly all of the company’s SOL—roughly 265,295 tokens—are now staked across four validators that it operates, according to its latest operational update. Since early March, the company’s share price plunged roughly 25% while SOL dropped 27% over the same period.Since the start of the Trump presidency, SOL Strategies’ stock is down 67%, while Solana has fallen 58%.Led…

Plume, a blockchain platform focused on real-world assets (RWAs), said on Tuesday it secured an investment from funds managed by private equity giant Apollo Global Management as it looks to scale up its infrastructure and bring more traditional financial products on-chain.The protocol did not disclose the terms of the funding. A spokesperson for Plume told CoinDesk that it was a “seven-figure” investment.Plume develops a modular, Ethereum-compatible blockchain designed to turn a wide range of assets — from financial instruments to carbon credits and collectibles — into usable tokens. Its goal is to create an environment where users can not only…