Author: Coindesk

Japanese messaging app giant Line plans to give its 196 million active users the ability to use decentralized apps (dapps) such as games and utilities.The social network, which is mainly used in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia, will debut with 30 dapps in its portal by the end of January and plans for a further 150 by the end of the first quarter, said Sam Seo, the chairman of Kaia DLT Foundation, whose Kaia blockchain will host the applications.Line’s initiative reflects a growing trend of social media and messaging apps integrating blockchain technology to offer a wider range of services.…

Bitcoin’s (BTC) bullish momentum has hit a snag this week for several reasons, including a weaker stateside demand. Now, the Australian dollar-Japanese yen exchange rate or the AUD/JPY pair, the classic risk barometer, has turned south again, signaling caution to risk asset bulls.The Australian dollar (AUD), a commodity currency, is a proxy for global economic health, particularly for emerging markets and China. On the other hand, the Japanese yen (JPY) is seen as a safe-haven currency that investors turn to during times of stress. Thus, a decline in AUD/JPY is considered a risk-off signal.Matt Simpson, an analyst at The City…

The overwhelming chatter on social media, especially Crypto Twitter is that Ethereum’s ether (ETH) is dead, a narrowly moving token.Still, the market is betting on higher ETH prices as traders pile into derivatives tied to the cryptocurrency alongside a boom in Ethereum’s blob usage.Cumulative open interest in perpetual and standard futures contracts has surged to a record 6.32 million ETH, worth over $27 billion, registering a 17% month-to-date gain, according to data source CoinGlass. An uptick in open interest alongside a price is said to validate an uptrend, and ether’s price has surged 35% to $3,400 this month, matching the…

U.S. sanctions against Tornado Cash, a service that anonymizes crypto transactions, must be abandoned, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.The decision answers a controversial privacy debate on whether the government — via a sanctions list maintained by the U.S. Treasury Department — has a right to target the technology because it’s associated with criminals. The ruling reversed a district court’s August ruling that had sided with the government’s pursuit of what it had characterized as a “notorious” crypto-mixing service.”Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts (the lines of privacy-enabling software code) are not the ‘property’ of a foreign national or entity,” according…

Ripple Labs has kicked in another $25 million to the cryptocurrency industry’s Fairshake political action committee, one of the most aggressive and high-dollar campaign-finance operations in corporate history.The super PAC has made an unprecedented head start on the 2026 election cycle. Between Ripple, crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Fairshake has amassed $73 million in fresh commitments. That’s on top of $30 million held over from the 2024 cycle.The PAC is still awaiting the results in one U.S. congressional contest in the Nov. 5 elections, but Fairshake’s track record includes backing at least 53 members…

Pantera Capital Management’s Bitcoin Fund just hit a milestone: a 1,000-fold gain in the value of its crypto holdings since launch.Started in 2013 as one of the first investment products exposing customers to crypto, the fund has returned 131,165% after expenses and fees. As noted by founder Dan Morehead on X, the fund saw a huge surge following Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president this month.To get started in bitcoin investing, the Bitcoin Fund bought 2% of the world’s bitcoin (BTC) supply when the cryptocurrency’s price was around $74. BTC has skyrocketed over 120% in this past year alone, pushing…

The fall of 2020 was an exciting time for crypto, with bitcoin — after beginning the year around $7,000 and plunging to below $4,000 during the March Covid panic — in the middle of a rollicking bull market and appearing set to push through the $20,000 milestone.Mr. Market had a different idea though and as families began to get together for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, a wave of selling took place. Between East Coast Wednesday morning hours and the first football game early afternoon Thursday afternoon, bitcoin plunged from roughly $19,500 to $16,200, a decline of nearly 17%. The action…

Crypto investing may have allowed lower-income Americans to buy their own homes at a higher rate than the rest of the population, according to a paper released Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research.The rise in cryptocurrency investment in recent years came with a pronounced uptick in debt — most notably mortgages — sought in the areas where digital assets activity was highest, according to the research conducted by the Treasury’s independent arm that sniffs out U.S. economic hazards. It was looking for evidence that such financial stretching may be a danger to U.S. stability, but so far…

Crypto billionaire Justin Sun, who founded the Tron blockchain, has become an adviser to Donald Trump’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial. The Tuesday announcement comes a day after Sun bought $30 million worth of World Liberty’s WLFI tokens. Sales of WLFI had been sluggish before Sun’s purchase.”Justin’s insights and experience will be instrumental as we continue to innovate and grow,” World Liberty said on X.World Liberty seeks to become a player in decentralized finance, or DeFi, the once-bustling lending and borrowing ecosystem. Read the full article here

The North African country of Morocco has drafted regulations for the crypto sector, its central bank’s head said Tuesday.Abdellatif Jouahri, governor of Bank Al-Maghrib, did not provide many details about these regulations in a speech. The country previously banned crypto in 2017.”In this regard, Bank Al-Maghrib, with the participation of all stakeholders and the support of the World Bank, has prepared a draft law regulating cryptoassets, which is currently in the adoption process,” he said at an international conference in Rabat.Morocco will also continue to explore whether or not central bank digital currencies —- which are digital tokens issued by…