Author: Coindesk

Solana is conducting pilots with Visa and Shopify, but it’s unclear whether the blockchain can break into more mainstream consumer and business-to-business payments, which would require a massive jump in scalability, the note said.“Scalability requirements for consumer payments would require 15-20 fold growth from here (Solana ~700 TPS versus 10K+ for payment networks), and general purpose blockchains are yet to cross that chasm,” the report added.Read more: Stablecoin USDC Is Making a Comeback: Coinbase Read the full article here

As ether (ETH) prices rallied and bitcoin (BTC) fell during the early hours of the East Asia trading day, Toncoin (TON) outperformed the market, climbing almost 17% and displacing Cardano as the 10th-largest token by market capitalization. A trader on X said the token could be rallying due to positive ecosystem news. He said USDT on TON is expected to be announced at the Token 2049 conference in Dubai next week. The Ton Network was initially a spinoff from Telegram, with development starting as early as 2018. Telegram stopped work on the network in 2020 following legal action from the…

The fundraising also involved Multicoin, Hack VC, ParaFi Capital, Nascent, Draper Associates, Primitive Ventures, Asymmetric Ventures and Dan Held, and DCF God, Thesis said Tuesday. Mezo is a “permissionless Bitcoin economic layer that leverages a neutral smart contract infrastructure” to offer a wide range of applications for users, Thesis said. It is designed to amplify the Bitcoin blockchain’s infrastructure and provide cheap and fast transactions by allowing users “to access applications that use Bitcoin for everything, enabling a thriving circular economy,” the venture firm said. Mezo will go live with support from Thesis’ bitcoin-backed Ethereum token tBTC, which allows users…

On Monday, 12.95 million BTC, equating to 65.84% of the circulating supply of 19.67 million BTC, remained unchanged for over a year, the lowest percentage since October 2022. The metric peaked above 70% with the debut of nearly a dozen spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. in mid-January and has been falling ever since. Read the full article here

“If we look at demand generally since the ETFs have launched, it has created tremendous supply shock already,” said Brian Dixon, CEO of investment firm Off the Chain Capital. “Once the halving occurs, and that supply is further reduced, it’s only logical to think that the price will appreciate.” Read the full article here

Pump lets anyone issue a token for $2 in capital, after which they choose the number of tokens, theme, and meme picture to accompany it. When the market capitalization of any token reaches $69,000, a portion of liquidity is deposited to the Solana-based exchange Raydium and burned. Last week, the platform also extended support to the Blast and Base networks. Read the full article here

“We continue to empower new global financial ecosystems, by connecting the global crypto industry,” Oliver Tonkin, BCB’s co-founder and CEO, said in the release. “Our collaboration with Ripple, Metaco and IBM Cloud is a paramount step in that direction, as it enables BCB Group to continue delivering superior top tier services to the digital asset ecosystem, in a seamless, secure and affordable way.” Read the full article here

“A close election is a given,” said Abel Seow, the Seoul-based BitGo Asia-Pacific director. “But it’s hard to say whether crypto will be a deciding factor. What I can say is that with the passage of time and each cycle, the market has become bigger and bigger. Not only the involvement of investors but also traditional corporations. So, at some stage when these traditional corporations come in, and they have a crypto angle, elections could be impacted by the space.” Read the full article here

Some traders were positioned for bitcoin leadership after the ether-bitcoin ratio dipped below key support last week. As such, ETH’s market-beating rise has brought rapid adjustment in market positioning, leading to a sharp uptick in the perpetual funding rates or cost of holding long/short positions, Singapore-based QCP capital explained in a note on Telegram. The upside volatility has also led to a significant short covering in ETH front-end call options. Read the full article here

During her closing arguments on Friday, SEC attorney Laura Meehan told the jury that during a prior de-peg in May 2021, Kwon and Terraform Labs made a “secret agreement” with Jump, a trading shop that acted as a market maker for Terraform Labs, to step in and buy millions of dollars of UST off-chain to inflate the value and bring it back to parity with the dollar. Read the full article here