Author: Coindesk

A slow bleed in crypto since late in the weekend accelerated into the early evening U.S. hours on Monday, leaving nearly the entirety of the sector sharply lower.With prices in quick retreat, bitcoin (BTC) at press time had fallen back to just above $95,000, down about 5% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH) was down 10% to $3,590.The broader CoinDesk 20 Index was lower by more than 8% over the same time frame, led by roughly 20% dives for Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX), and XRP (XRP).Over $750 million worth of leveraged derivatives positions were liquidated across all digital assets…

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission member Caroline Crenshaw is “even more extreme” than Chair Gary Gensler, according to a digital advertising campaign now being launched by Cedar Innovation Foundation — a dark-money group funded by unnamed crypto interests.Commissioner Crenshaw, who is set to be the lone Democrat atop the SEC when Republicans take over the agency and wider administration in late January, was nominated for another term earlier this year, but the confirmation hadn’t come up for a vote before the November election. Now, the Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday to consider that nomination.Several digital assets…

Bitget, a cryptocurrency exchange that has grown rapidly in recent years to one of the largest, is considering partnerships with U.S. firms to gain a foothold in America, encouraged by the incoming Trump administration’s likely pro-crypto stance.Some of the largest crypto exchanges such as Binance, ByBit, OKX and Bitget are prohibited from serving U.S. citizens. Binance.US, the American arm of the largest exchange, has been all but squeezed out as part of a bruising $4.3 billion settlement between its parent company and U.S. authorities.In early 2022, Bitget, which has daily trading volume of around $8 billion, considered starting the process…

<a href=”https://www.coindesk.com/indices/” target=”_blank”>CoinDesk Indices</a> presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the <a href=”https://www.coindesk.com/indices/cd20/” target=”_blank”>CoinDesk 20 Index</a>.The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3857.2, down 3.7% (-150.02) since 4 pm on Friday.One of 20 assets are trading higher.Leaders: XRP (+1.3%) and LINK (-0.1%).Laggards: FIL (-13.0%) and ETC (-11.7%).The <a href=”https://www.coindesk.com/indices/cd20/” target=”_blank”>CoinDesk 20</a> is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally. Read the full article here

El Salvador may roll back a small aspect of its Bitcoin law as part of a new deal with the International Monetary Fund.The Latin American country may no longer require Salvadorean merchants to accept bitcoin (BTC) as a means of payment across the nation, instead making bitcoin acceptance voluntary, according to a new report from the Financial Times.The legal modification is part of the conditions imposed by the IMF for El Salvador to gain access to a $1.3 billion loan program, the report said. The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank are also expected to lend an extra $1…

November was a monumental month for the crypto market in terms of performance, activity, politics and sentiment, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Monday.”President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection triggered a historic rally and jump in market caps across the crypto ecosystem,” analysts led by Kenneth Worthington wrote. This included tokens, decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins and publicly listed companies with crypto exposure.The bank noted that the crypto ecosystem recorded its best monthly return, with its market cap rising 45%. Total crypto market cap swelled to $3.3 trillion. Volumes across the crypto market more than doubled, with some digital assets witnessing even…

Bitcoin inscriptions project OrdinalsBot has minted what it says is the largest file ever on the oldest and most valuable blockchain: the last in a collection of 1,500 “Pizza Ninjas.”It’s part of a phenomenon in the Bitcoin development community known as “four meggers,” which are files that take up an entire block on the network.They are called four meggers because they are almost 4 megabytes (MB) big (the maximum size of each block of transactions on Bitcoin). Ordinals collectors consider them valuable due to their visibility on the blockchain.”There’s more than just bragging rights behind wanting to have the largest…

Movement, an Ethereum layer-2 network that was built using MoveVM, issued its native token on Monday with a portion of the tokens being airdropped to early users and community members.MOVE is currently trading at 61 cents representing a $1.3 billion market cap on the back of $441 million worth of trading volume in the first 90 minutes since going live.The token, MOVE, was listed on Binance via the exchange’s airdrops portal, and was also be listed on prominent South Korean exchanges Upbit and Bithumb.Movement Labs raised $38 million in a Series A financing round led by Polychain Capital in April.…

Crypto markets started the week in the red as bitcoin (BTC) slumped during the European morning hours after having briefly crossed the $100,000 level.BTC fell 2% from its six-figure landmark causing a dive across majors. XRP, dogecoin (DOGE) and Solana’s SOL fell as much as 5.5%, with BNB Chain’s BNB and ether (ETH) down 2.5%. Cardano’s ADA fared the worst with a 7% drop, which came on the back of the Cardano Foundation’s X account getting temporarily compromised on Sunday.The market slide led to over $300 million in bullish bets liquidated.The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a liquid index tracking the largest…

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)The crypto market has begun the week on a negative note, with bitcoin (BTC) lower after a weekend spent wrestling with the $100,000 mark amid reports that Amazon shareholders are pushing for an allocation to the cryptocurrency. The persistent indecisiveness since Dec. 5 amid increased retail participation has some indicators pointing to a mid-bull cycle top.For example, BTC’s value days destroyed (VDD) indicator, a velocity gauge, has jumped to 2.0 from 0.5, signaling that older coins are being sold. As the founder of 10x Research, Markus Thielen, points out, “This often reflects…