Author: Coindesk

Jonathan Levin has taken over the top job at crypto analytics company Chainalysis two months after co-founder and longtime CEO Michael Gronager went on leave.Chainalysis is a major provider of crypto compliance software to governments and corporations that want to know where their digital money is flowing. Its various tools peel back the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrencies.Demand for such services is only likely to grow if the incoming U.S. administration’s pro-crypto talk sparks a wider adoption boom, said Levin, the company’s former chief strategy officer.”What the company needs right now, given all of the excitement in the market and the…

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3974.18, up 1.8% (+70.68) since yesterday’s close.Ten of 20 assets are trading higher.Leaders: RENDER (+14.7%) and LTC (+9.7%).Laggards: ETC (-5.7%) and ICP (-3.1%).The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally. Read the full article here

Worksport (WKSP), a tiny Nasdaq-listed maker of covers for pickup truck beds, has added its own twist to the newly popular corporate strategy of buying bitcoin that was introduced and made famous by Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy (MSTR).The New York-based company, which has a $20 million market capitalization, is investing up to 10% of its cash reserves into bitcoin (BTC) and also Ripple’s native cryptocurrency, XRP (XRP). At present, that equates to up to $5 million.This shift is intended to protect the company’s assets against inflation and to enhance transaction efficiency, the company said.Since Donald Trump’s election a month ago, at…

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)The wait is over. Bitcoin has surged past $100,000, driven by a number of factors, including President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of supposedly crypto-friendly Paul Atkins to lead the SEC. Most analysts are bullish, anticipating further gains toward $120,000 and higher, and it’s not hard to see why. As Newton’s first law states, an object in motion maintains its speed and direction unless acted on by an outside force.The wider market is poised to benefit from bitcoin’s milestone, especially as the six-digit price may be too steep for many retail investors, prompting them…

Circle Internet Financial, issuer of the world’s second largest stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), has made some layoffs as part of a regular review of its operations, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.The job cuts amount to “less than 6% of Circle’s workforce,” according to the report, citing a company spokesperson.Circle, which filed for an initial public offering in the U.S. in January, said it had 882 employees in June, so 6% would equate to just over 50 people. “Circle regularly reviews our investments and expenses [which] includes investing in teams and operational infrastructure that need to grow, while marginally reducing spend and…

Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market are witnessing strong demand for bullish leveraged plays, a sign the market is overheated. While market makers’ hedging is likely to keep BTC supported at around $100,000, the heightened activity raises the risk of pullbacks for other cryptocurrencies.Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, tapped a record high above $103,000 early Thursday, following President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to appoint pro-crypto Paul Atkins as chairman for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).The breakout sent traders chasing the price rally, pushing funding rates for perpetual futures skywards, a sign of growing demand for and overcrowding…

The bitcoin market is seeing unusual activity, hinting at increased adoption of the U.S.-listed spot ETFs for purely directional plays rather than arbitrage strategies.Since Nov. 20, the ETFs have seen strong daily uptake — other than Nov. 25 and 26 — capturing over $3 billion in net inflows, according to data source Farside Investors. On Tuesday, BlackRock’s IBIT registered a $693.3 million net inflow, the most since in the period, bringing the lifetime tally to $32. 8 billion.Meanwhile, open interest in CME futures has declined by almost 30,000 BTC ($3 billion) to 185,485 BTC, according to data source Glassnode.The divergence…

Botanix Labs, the developer of Bitcoin layer-2 network Spiderchain, which aims to advance the possibilities of decentralized finance (DeFi) on the world’s original blockchain, has moved to its final testnet phase ahead of a 2025 mainnet debut.The testnet, known as Aragog, introduces tools that will form the basis for the mainnet’s DeFi offering, such as bitcoin (BTC)-backed stablecoin Palladium, decentralized exchange Bitzy and lending and borrowing market Spindle.Botanix Labs, which aims to introduce the mainnet in the first quarter, is building Spiderchain to be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the software that powers the Ethereum network. The goal…

After the election, as everyone except for muggles know, the price of BTC rallied to all time highs (ATH) just short of $100,000. At the time of this writing, it’s hovering around $98,000. An interesting question then is: what happened to Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy (MSTR) during this period?The publicly traded stock, synonymous with its unconventional and risk-on co-founder as well as the price of BTC, also rallied to post-election ATH — as one might expect — exceeding $500.Then last week, it took a precipitous ~22% short selling-inspired hit based off of a report expressing concerns about the company’s valuation. The…

Bitcoin broke the landmark $100,000 level earlier Thursday, nearly 15 years after it first went live, in a move that some traders expect to keep continuing.BTC added 7.2% in the past 24 hours, data shows, zooming to a $2 trillion market capitalization for the first time as it set a record just over $103,670. It has since lost ground to $102,500 in Asian afternoon hours as traders took early profits on the move.The asset has gained 50% in the past 30 days on increased institutional demand, rising ETF inflows, improved sentiment among traditional finance circles and optimism around Donald Trump’s…