Author: Coindesk

Wall Street giant JPMorgan (JPM) turned more bullish on some bitcoin (BTC) mining stocks in its coverage following third quarter results and recent gains in bitcoin price and the network hashrate, the bank said in a report on Tuesday.The bank upgraded Cipher Mining (CIFR) and CleanSpark (CLSK) to overweight from neutral. JPMorgan also introduced a new price $8 price target for Cipher, and raised its CleanSpark price target to $17 from $10.50.MARA Holdings (MARA) was also upgraded to neutral from underweight and raised its price target on the stock to $23 from $12.The U.S. bank downgraded IREN (IREN) to neutral…

Relai, a bitcoin (BTC) buy, sell and self-custody application, has raised $12 million Series A funding.The Switzerland-based company’s Series A was led by Ego Death Capital, a bitcoin only VC, which committed $4 million to the raise. Other participants included Plan B Bitcoin Fund, Timechain, and Solit Group.Following the maxim of “not your keys, not your coins,” trusted self-custody has proved popular in Switzerland, even among newcomers to crypto, according to Relai, which has had over 400,000 downloads.The plan is to use the new funding to expand further into Europe and become licensed under the new Markets in Crypto Assets…

BlackRock’s spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF), tickered IBIT on Nasdaq, dropped on Tuesday as the overheated crypto market cooled and unfounded concern that bitcoin’s security might be compromised by quantum computing percolated across social media.IBIT’s price fell 5.3% to $54.73, the biggest single-day drop since early August, according to data source Investing.com. The bitcoin price fell over 4%, hitting lows under $94,300, as overleveraged altcoin traders were liquidated, leading to bigger losses in the broader market.While such pullbacks are typical in a bull market, Monday’s losses are noteworthy because they came alongside Google’s announcement of its Willow quantum-computing chip,…

Google’s new quantum computing chip could mean bitcoin (BTC) is finished. That was the sentiment for some on Monday as the internet giant unveiled Willow, a quantum supercomputer that can perform certain computational tasks in just five minutes that would take classical supercomputers an astronomical amount of time—specifically, 10 septillion years (or one followed by 24 zeroes; a trillion trillion).10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.Such an amount of time is greater than the existence of the entire universe at 13.8 billion years. In superficial theory, such a powerful computer could mean no passwords are safe, encrypted messages are intercepted, nuclear weapons codes are found out,…

The European Union’s wide-ranging regulatory regime for cryptocurrency firms, the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), is set to take effect at year-end, but, with just three weeks to go, almost a quarter of the 27 countries that constitute the bloc aren’t ready.For the regulation to apply in the country, EU members have to align local laws with MiCA. Those yet to do so include Belgium, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Luxembourg and Romania, according to a document created by the Electronic Money Association, a trade body, which was shared with CoinDesk.Trade associations representing the crypto industry say this state of unreadiness is…

It’s raining options, CoinDesk said last week, pointing to growing demand for derivatives tied to bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Now, additional evidence has emerged in the form of record activity on decentralized finance (DeFi), which offers unique and programmable onchain options, perpetuals, and structured products.The total dollar value of crypto tokens locked (TVL) on Derive has risen past $100 million, alongside a record-setting trading volume and monthly active traders.“Derive.xyz’s latest market insights reveal remarkable growth and heightened activity, with its total value locked surpassing $100 million for the first time, amid record-setting weeks for trading volume and active traders,”…

Major tokens and midcaps registered one of their worst days in recent months with a sharp drop during early Asian hours on Tuesday, even as bitcoin (BTC) was relatively little changed.XRP, dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano’s ADA fell as much as 15% in the past 24 hours, data shows, as selling pressure mounted in late U.S. hours and amplified in early Asian time. Bitcoin dropped 3%, while ether (ETH) and Solana’s SOL fell 7%, as tron’s TRX nearly reversed all of last week’s gains with a 17% haircut.Overall market capitalization dropped by 6.5%, largest drop since October, while the broad-based CoinDesk…

The community group governing decisions on Solana-based decentralized exchange Jupiter on Sunday passed a long-awaited vote to allow two incentives of $860 million (worth of tokens at current prices) each over two years, shifting the related JUP token’s fundamentals.The proposal was part of the <a href=”https://www.jupresear.ch/t/j4j-3-jupuary-vote-2/28451″ target=”_blank”>“Jupuary” vote #2</a>, which was changed and refloated after the initial vote failed to gain community favor. Jupuary is the protocol’s name for an annual JUP token airdrop in January to users based on how they interacted with it in the preceding year.The revised vote changed how tokens would be distributed to users with…

Bitcoin Development Company MicroStrategy (MSTR) added to its mammoth bitcoin (BTC) holdings last week with the purchase of another 21,550 tokens.The buys were made over the week ended Dec. 8 and the firm paid an average price of $98,783 each, totaling $2.1 billion, according to a Monday regulatory filing. It funded the acquisition by selling roughly $2.13 billion shares during the same period. The company now has an additional $9.19 billion remaining from its previously existing $21 billion at-the-market (ATM) share sales facility.The latest buying spree brought the firm’s BTC holdings to 423,650, or nearly $42 billion worth at current…

Ethereum’s place near the top of the crypto market is unquestioned from the perspective of market cap. But beneath the surface – at the product, developer and decision-making levels – the original smart contracts platform continues to take a beating from Solana, one of its closest competitors.The threat may not yet be existential. Ethereum and its many closely-linked networks are still the most important, influential, and largest platforms for decentralized finance. That lead is beginning to erode, however, with many newcomers to crypto choosing Solana’s speed and low fees.It’s enough for some of Ethereum’s most vocal backers to muse if…