Author: Coindesk

“I thought things were cooling off, but no, IBIT just saw $5b in volume today for first time ever. Only 3 ETFs and 8 stocks saw more action today. Up to $13b in 3 days this week. Its peers seeing heightened volume too but smaller scale. FBTC did $1b, biggest day since March”, Balchunas said. Read the full article here

Bitcoin traded either side of $91,000 after recovering from a dip to just above $89,000. BTC is 2% lower than its all-time high of $93,445, which it reached during the U.S. afternoon on Wednesday, but remains over 4% higher in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin ETFs recorded another $510 million of inflows Wednesday, taking the total for the last six days to $4.7 billion. “The Bitcoin ETFs are by far the majority driving force of bitcoin demand right now, soaking up almost all of the selling by Long-Term Holders. CME open interest is not growing meaningfully, reinforcing that this is…

A group of state attorneys general and the DeFi Education Fund filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its five commissioners alleging the regulatory agency was overstepping its bounds in bringing enforcement actions against crypto exchanges. Read the full article here

The idea of the U.S. buying strategic assets isn’t new, reminded Saylor, pointing to the acquisition of Manhattan, the Louisiana Purchase and the buying of California and Alaska in the 19th century. All resulted in multi-trillion dollar returns for the county, he said. There have also been several other strategic purchases made in the history of the nation like gold, oil, grain and helium, noted Saylor. Read the full article here

While an incoming chairman appointed by Trump, a recent crypto convert, could effectively clear the decks of future enforcement actions, dealing with the many cases already being litigated is a stickier prospect. Turning the SEC ship could take several months into 2025 — maybe longer. And even then, the lawyers say, dramatic case dismissals might not even happen. Read the full article here

The price of bitcoin (BTC) fell about 1.5% to $88,300 in the minutes following Powell’s comments. The price at press time had dipped a bit further to $88,000, down 3.2% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH) is down by a similar amount. The broader CoinDesk 20 Index, however, is up 0.5% over the same time frame. It’s being led by a 13% advance for Ripple’s (XRP), perhaps cheered by remarks from Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler which could be interpreted as his planning to quietly exit his job in wake of the Trump victory. Read the full…

The Toronto-based firm, formerly known as Cypherpunk Holdings, will buy the validators from Cogent Crypto, a high-performance validator operating within the Solana ecosystem, according to a statement on Thursday. The total value of the investment is nearly $18 million, broken into three tranches: $1 million cash and about $1 million in company shares at the closing of the deal, and the rest distributed over three years in shares, Sol Strategies said. Read the full article here

The last decade of Web3 has battle-hardened a stack of distributed architecture and incentive games. While too complex for individuals to operate at scale, this technology is primed for AI and the agentic internet, says Outlier Ventures’ founder and Chairman, Jamie Burke. Read the full article here

Finance Minister Rachel Reeves will unveil the digital gilt instrument pilot, a “Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy,” measures to regulate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings providers and measures to regulate pension mega funds during her first Mansion House speech on Thursday. Gilts are U.K. issued government bonds. Read the full article here

Tether’s ambition to venture into asset tokenization, a red-hot trend at the intersection of crypto and traditional finance, has been well-documented as the company strives to diversify from its highly-profitable stablecoin business. The company issues the $126 billion dollar stablecoin USDT and the $600 million gold-backed token XAUT, and reported f $7.7 billion in group-wide net profits this year so far, in large part from the yield on its $80 billion stockpile of U.S. Treasuries. It has used the profits to invest in startups, bitcoin mining, energy production and AI. Read the full article here