Digital Currency

  • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Trades Well Above $50K, While Ether Outperforms on NFTs, July’s Upgrade

    Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $51,800.08 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 3.48% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $49,390.18-$51.982.31 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading on TradingViewSource: TradingView Bitcoin’s price in recent weeks has retreated from February’s all-time highs, declining alongside U.S. stocks as investors grew increasingly concerned rising U.S. government bond yields might prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy, curtailing the easy-money era that has boosted risky assets from…

    03/08/2021
  • JPMorgan Posts 34 Blockchain Jobs as It Beefs Up JPM Coin

    U.S. mega-bank JPMorgan has 34 open blockchain job positions posted on its website. It’s quite possibly a record for any company in the space (JPMorgan has been noted for its enthusiastic blockchain hiring in the past). The majority of the job openings, posted this month and last, are spread across the U.S., India and Singapore. Many of the jobs relate directly to Onyx, the division created in October of last year to oversee JPM Coin, the bank’s wholesale payments token. By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to…

    03/07/2021
  • Crypto Long & Short: Is ETH Coming to Corporate Balance Sheets?

    MicroStrategy, Tesla and Square have done it. So have many others, although more quietly. I’m talking about holding corporate treasury reserves in bitcoin (BTC, +1.92%). This trend is attracting attention even from trade press. Consultancies and crypto companies are scrambling to launch services to help businesses navigate the process. “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer thinks it’s “almost irresponsible” for companies to not do so. This week, sponsored content from Deloitteexplaining the benefits and risks appeared in the Wall Street Journal. You’re reading Crypto Long & Short, a newsletter that looks closely at the forces driving cryptocurrency markets. Authored…

    03/07/2021
  • How NFTs Became Art, and Everything Became an NFT

    “Today, the physical mural doesn’t exist. But it still exists with NFTs, and with value,” Boyart tells me from Paris. “This is very satisfying.” See also: What Are NFTs and How Do They Work? Subscribe to State of Crypto, our weekly newsletter on policy impact. SUBSCRIBE By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms & conditions and privacy policy. Boyart minted a non-fungible token (NFT) version of the mural, dividing it into 100 pieces and selling each one for 0.5 ETH. He would sell more NFTs. Many more….

    03/07/2021
  • Ban, Minister Says

    India’s Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said the government needs to study national security risks posed by virtual currencies before making any decision on their legality. “We understand there is immense interest in these virtual currencies, but we also need to look at national security and security of Indians and individuals,” Thakur said while addressing an event organized by Entrepreneurs’ Organisation Punjab on Saturday. Thakur took a jab at the high price volatility of cryptocurrencies, saying that these coins often chart 10x price moves in weeks. “That doesn’t happen in…

    03/07/2021
  • Wealth Managers Want Clarity on Bitcoin Rules: Reuters

    Leuthold Group Chief Investment Officer Jim Paulsen told Reuters he is frustrated by not being able to hold bitcoin (BTC, +5.14%) for his clients. Leuthold Group manages $1 billion but regulatory barriers prevent the firm from holding cryptocurrency. “What I like about bitcoin is … its correlation to stocks and other assets is extraordinarily independent,” Paulsen told Reuters. In lieu of holding the asset itself, wealth managers are clamoring for the approval of bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that would meet the legal standards required of traditional investments, according to the report. The U.S. Securities and…

    03/07/2021
  • Ethereum’s ‘EIP 1559’ Fee Market Overhaul Greenlit for July

    One of the most significant and contentious alterations to the Ethereum blockchain in recent memory is now scheduled for inclusion into its codebase. Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559 will be packaged with the London hard fork this coming July regardless of the mining industry’s discontent with the proposal, according to the All Core Developers call Friday. At least five other EIPs are likely to join EIP 1559 in London. EIP 1559 flips a typical blockchain transaction on its head in order to fix numerous issues with Ethereum’s user experience. Traditionally, a user sends a gas…

    Business 03/07/2021
  • Galaxy’s Institutional Ethereum Funds Raise $32M at Launch – From a Select Few

    Galaxy Digital’s institutional-grade ether (ETH) funds have raised over $32 million since their February launch, according to documents filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Early returns – for an “onshore” $22 million fund and its Cayman-domiciled $10 million sibling – reveal a small but deep-pocketed clientele participated in the twin funds’ earliest days. Just five total investors have joined the funds since Galaxy unveiled them in late January. The funds debuted as ETH settled in the $1,500 range, well below highs set February when the native asset of the world computer…

    03/07/2021
  • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Stuck Below $50K, and Blockchain Data May Show Why

    Bitcoin ended the first week of March with little fanfare as the market reset after the prior week’s 21% plunge. There are more signs the global economic recovery might come faster than previously expected, and traders are speculating on what that might mean for the largest cryptocurrency. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $49,196.78 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 1.93% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $46,393.39-$49,462.13 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading…

    03/07/2021
  • Hayek’s public chain

      Hayek’s public chains are open-source public chains independently developed Hayek team based on the blockchain technology. To salute the Nobel Economics Prize winner Hayek, it is named Hayek. Hayek’s public chains apply the unique blockchain data structure and virtual machine design, apply the on-chain upgrading system and off-chain channel technology to realize expandability, high efficiency, usability, and interoperability of Hayek’s public chains, maximize protection of community completeness, solve the impossible trinity problem of the blockchain, and turn into the global top-notch public chains covering different fields including DeFi, payment,…

    Digital Currency 03/05/2021