Author: Coindesk

A project aiming to expand Bitcoin’s utility is tackling the collateral requirements of bridging the blockchain to programmable layer 2s.Rollup project Citrea deployed its Clementine Bridge on the Bitcoin testnet. The bridge uses the BitVM2 programming language to expand the provision for decentralized finance (DeFi) on Bitcoin, by using it to verify layer 2s and sidechains that are fully programable in the way Bitcoin isn’t. “A secure bridge between Bitcoin and a secondary layer has always been a bottleneck for using BTC in a programmable environment,” Citrea said on Monday.Clementine is designed to solve this by providing a trust-minimized way…

Shaurya 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, Trader Joe, and…

Bitcoin (BTC) miner Riot Platforms (RIOT) has struck a $100 million credit agreement with Coinbase’s credit arm, using bitcoin as collateral to secure short-term funding for its ongoing expansion.The publicly traded mining firm said in a press release it would draw on the facility over the next two months. The deal offers Riot, which currently holds 19,223 BTC worth over $1.8 billion, a line of credit that avoids issuing new shares.“This credit facility is a key part of our efforts to diversify sources of financing to support our operations and strategic growth initiatives, with a view towards long-term stockholder value…

The team behind the Symbiotic network, the restaking protocol meant to rival EigenLayer, shared Wednesday that it had raised $29 million in a Series A round.The funding will expand the current team and contribute to the protocol’s Universal Staking framework, broadening its efforts from just restaking to including providing support for other staking activities. “Rather than focusing solely on shared security, Symbiotic enables any combination of assets to secure any class of network—modular or monolithic, L1 or L2—while supporting use cases that extend well beyond traditional staking, including insurance and other financial products,” the team shared in a press release.Pantera…

Shaurya 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, Trader Joe, and…

A threat actor seemingly exploited an XRP Ledger’s developer access token to publish illicit code to the burgeoning network in a move that could have been “catastrophic” for the network, the security team that spotted the issue said in an update.Charlie Eriksen, a researcher at Aikido Security who first spotted the problem, said a hidden issue was added to recent versions of a new toolkit used to build apps that work with the XRP Ledger.“A developer’s NPM access token was stolen by the threat actors,” Aikido said on X. “It is unclear how right now. It is also unclear who…

Bitcoin (BTC) has become the fifth-largest asset by market capitalization, reaching $1.86 trillion and surpassing Google (GOOG) as it breaks through $94,000. This marks the highest position bitcoin has ever attained in the rankings, even though its market cap previously exceeded $2 trillion when its price was over $109,000. At that time, however, tech stocks were significantly more elevated than they are at the moment.Bitcoin has just broken above $94,000, turning positive for the year. Renewed optimism is emerging amid easing tensions in the U.S.–China tariff trade war, which has fueled gains for both bitcoin and tech stocks, with Nasdaq…

As bitcoin (BTC) and ether’s (ETH) recovery rally gathered momentum Tuesday, the perpetual futures market saw an even more pronounced increase in open interest, pointing to growing investor confidence as the Trump administration dialed back on its trade-tariff, anti-Fed rhetoric.BTC, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, rose 6.79% nearly topping $94,000 for the first time since March, CoinDesk data show. That’s the most significant single-day percentage gain since April 9. The Ethereum blockchain’s ether token jumped 11% to $1,1175, it’s best performance since April 2.The rally came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed de-escalation in U.S.-China trade tensions, followed…

Shaurya 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, Trader Joe, and…

Futures bets against higher crypto prices lost over $500 million in the past 24 hours as a surge higher, buoyed by a possible cooldown of China tariffs by the U.S., led to the largest short liquidations since October.Bitcoin (BTC) rose from Tuesday’s low of $88,000 to above $93,500 in Asian morning hours, data shows, leading a jump in the broader market with ether (ETH), Cardano’s ADA and dogecoin (DOGE) up 14%. Solana’s SOL and XRP rose 7%, with all tokens in the top hundred by market cap in the green.Meanwhile, Sui Network’s SUI, UniSwap’s UNI and Near Protocol’s showed strength…