Author: Coindesk

When assets surge to lifetime highs or multimonth peaks, traders are often faced with the challenge of identifying key resistance levels, the price targets where the market could next take a breather. That’s precisely the situation facing bitcoin (BTC) and XRP (XRP) traders. Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, is trading at record highs near $100,000, meaning it’s now in uncharted waters. XRP trades at $2.44, with the 2018 record high around $3.30 as the only chart resistance before we enter the price discovery mode like BTC.One way to identify key resistances is to study the distribution of open…

DeFi protocol Radiant Capital has attributed a $50 million exploit it suffered in October to North Korean hackers.According to a report published on Dec. 6, the attackers started laying the groundwork for the Oct. 16 attack in mid-September, when a Telegram message from what appeared to be a trusted former contractor was sent to a Radiant Capital developer.The message said the contractor was pursuing a new career opportunity related to smart contract auditing and was seeking feedback. It included a link to a zipped PDF file, which the developer opened and shared with other colleagues.The message is now believed to…

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse in an interview with 60 Minutes, said that the 2024 election was a “major victory” for crypto as the majority of Fairshake, a crypto political action committee (PAC), backed candidates, won their seats.And this was a non-partisan effort, as crypto, itself is non-partisan, he argued, pointing to the cross-aisle support for the digital assets bill FIT21.“Of the 29 Republicans and 33 Democrats the industry backed in congressional races, 85% won. It’s incredible,” he said.“We absolutely helped supercharge the candidates with the money in the coffers… That’s absolutely right,” he said, arguing that, like other industries, they…

Amazon’s (AMZN) shareholders are urging the company to take a page from MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) playbook by diversifying its reserves into bitcoin (BTC) to beat inflation and boost shareholder value.”Though bitcoin is currently a volatile asset – as Amazon stock has been at times throughout its history – corporations have a responsibility to maximize shareholder value over the long-term as well as the short-term. Diversifying the balance sheet by including some bitcoin solves this problem without taking on too much volatility,” according to a shareholder proposal shared by conservative think tank the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR).”At minimum, Amazon…

The Financial Stability Oversight Council published its 2024 annual report Friday, addressing various risks and areas of concern within the U.S. and global financial system. As it has done for the past few years, the report highlighted the role of stablecoins and the digital asset sector more broadly — though it stopped short of suggesting FSOC would take any concrete steps toward curbing these concerns.You’re reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions.The narrativeFor yet another year in a row, the Financial Stability Oversight Council…

Cryptocurrency users who crave privacy protections had a lot to be thankful for this past Thanksgiving.Two days before the holiday, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner not supported by substantial evidence when it “overstepped its congressionally defined authority” in sanctioning “Tornado Cash’s open-source, self-executing software” instead of “the rogue persons and entities who abuse it.”In plain English, Congress didn’t give OFAC the power to do what it did: sanction software code owned by no one.But let’s back up. As…

One bitcoin is worth $100,000 — a milestone that has crypto OGs in a tizzy. Donald Trump is selling DOGE T-shirts. It’s a frenetic time for crypto.But what are my non-crypto friends texting me about?”Hawk Tuah” coin. Yep, in a very unscientific sample size of the seven friends who texted me — unsolicited — about crypto this week, six essentially asked: “What’s the deal with Hawk Tuah coin?” (The seventh asked about litecoin).That a low-level celebrity’s dalliance with memecoins would dominate the groupchat’s mindshare at the same time the original cryptocurrency smashed through a historic level points to a chasm…

The price of Ethereum’s ether (ETH) broke above the $4,000 mark on Friday for the first time since March.The second-largest cryptocurrency is up 2.4% in the last 24 hours and 8.4% in the last seven days, outperforming bitcoin (BTC) in both timeframes. The move comes as spot ether exchange-traded funds saw record inflows on Thursday.As of writing, ether is trading for $4,033, just 2% away from setting a fresh 2024 high. It’s also a mere 20% away from its all-time high of $4,868. The ETH/BTC ratio, which has been getting hammered since September 2022, has reached 0.04 again — a…

Solana’s memecoin factory Pump.fun shut off access to U.K. crypto traders Friday, citing “laws and regulations” affecting the runaway hit.The geoblock comes three days after the nation’s main financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, warned the platform “may be providing or promoting financial services or products without our permission.” One of Pump.fun’s founders confirmed a blockade had taken effect but declined to comment further.Since debuting earlier this year, Pump.fun has become the de facto launchpad for memecoins on the Solana blockchain. It spawned multibillion-dollar hits including PNUT and WIF. Along the way, it generated over $250 million for its founders,…

Crypto banking activity was paused or prevented by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. at a large number of U.S. banks in 2022, according to communications pried loose by a research firm hired by Coinbase Inc. (COIN).Coinbase’s hired help, History Associates Inc., had taken the FDIC and the Securities and Exchange Commission to court in June and finally won access to certain internal FDIC communications. The heavily-redacted documents emerged on Friday, showing the banking regulator slamming the brakes on lenders offering or considering products and services in the digital assets sector.”We respectfully ask that you pause all crypto asset-related activity,” the…