Author: Coindesk

The implications of the survey, which asked 2,200 individual investors between the age of 25 and 75 with at least $25,000 to be invested, could be a boost for the nascent and growing class of crypto-focused ETFs, which are being marketed as a diversification tool for traditional investment portfolios of stocks and bonds. Read the full article here

In mid-afternoon U.S. trading, bitcoin (BTC) was lower by about 4% over the past 24 hours. At $59,000, the price has returned to levels not seen since the U.S. Federal Reserve unexpectedly slashed its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points in mid-September. Altcoins outperformed somewhat, with the broad-based crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index declining just under 3% during the same period. Ether (ETH) dropped 3.5%, while only decentralized exchange Uniswaps’s token (UNI) had positive return during the day on news about the platform’s own layer-2 plans. Read the full article here

The opening, nine months after OKX Middle East Fintech FZE was granted full regulatory approval by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), will allow one of the four biggest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume to offer local residents access to a market without involving a broker who buys liquidity from outside the UAE, usually at a higher price, adding time and friction, said Rifad Mahasneh, the exchange’s general manager for the Middle East. Read the full article here

As one example, the SEC alleged, Cumberland promoted ATOM through, “An email sent to counterparties on February 20, 2023 stated: ‘At the moment, one of the smaller gainers in the sector, outside of ETH and EOS, has been ATOM. ATOM is up ‘only’ 53% YTD, despite strong fundamentals and a healthy developer community; it’s a name where we expect to see a catchup rally if crypto remain buoyant.'” Read the full article here

“I don’t think that folks who are paying attention should be much distracted by these efforts to create confusion, because I think the judge got it right, and I think they should welcome the opportunity for the court of appeals to roll on this issue and finally, bring the clarity that we need,” Alderoty said about the appeals court taking up the case – though, he added, the U.S. “really needs a policy solution” from legislators rather than court rulings. Read the full article here

Homeownership has been central to the American dream for decades, but the risks for both borrowers and lenders remain consistent across market cycles. Borrowers face property market volatility, negative equity, illiquidity and the ongoing burden of taxes, insurance and maintenance. Lenders, meanwhile, are exposed to borrower defaults, interest rate risk, prepayment and economic downturns. Read the full article here

The U.S.’s rise and fall with crypto is a cautionary tale that sets the scene for what could be to come in AI. In early crypto days, the U.S. was the promise land with a plethora of startups and investment funding flowing into the space creating room for innovation, growth and mass adoption. In recent years, this has slowed down due to a lack of regulation and policy. The SEC started bringing in lawsuits and regulatory policies based on pre-crypto laws – essentially trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. They went after Consensys, Coinbase, Ripple and…

Over the course of the past year, layer-2s have popped up everywhere, and some in the industry have argued there is a growing fatigue, as well as fragmentation, because of these networks. Some pundits have argued that there could be thousands of layer-2 networks within a matter of years, and teams are already building layer 3s to run atop the layer 2s. Read the full article here

The minutes from the September Fed meeting, released Wednesday, showed policymakers were divided on how aggressive the central bank should be. “A substantial majority of participants” favored cutting the interest rate by half a percentage point, though some expressed misgivings about going that large, the minutes said. “Crypto sentiment has moved back into the fear zone (39), reinforcing the contrast with 72 (greed) in equities,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, a senior analyst at FxPro. “This dynamic is easily explained by the appreciation of the dollar and the increased attractiveness of bonds, which reduces institutional traction in bitcoin.” The dollar index (DXY),…

Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency by market value, traded near $61,000, slightly higher than the overnight low of $60,400 but still down more than 1.5% over 24 hours. Ether (ETH) saw similar price action, trading 1.9% lower at $2,395. Other major alternative cryptocurrencies, BNB and SOL, traded 1% lower, with XRP down 0.6%, according to CoinDesk data. Read the full article here