Author: Coindesk
Back in 2012, as an excited economics undergrad, I decided I wanted to invest some of the money I had into bitcoin (BTC). It was a complicated process that involved driving to Walmart (WMT) and sending a MoneyGram money order to a company called ZipZap, which would then send my money to a company called BitInstant. After a few weeks, BitInstant would deposit my bitcoin into my wallet on the Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. The entire process took over three weeks, and I always wondered how this innovative digital currency would ever replace its competition if this was the process. Shortly…
Web 3 gaming platform metaENGINE announced Friday that it raised $4 million in seed funding in a round co-led by Lemniscap and Jump Crypto. CEO and co-founder Alex Shalash told CoinDesk in an interview that metaENGINE is using the funding to become “the core of future metaverse experiences.” The idea is that metaENGINE will be a platform that helps GameFi developers enter the space through tools that can build gaming experiences in the metaverse. “GameFi is how to push the ownership of games and game assets down to the players so they become the future owners of the IP itself,” Shalash said.…
Aiming to become Europe’s Bitcoin capital, Lugano, Switzerland, has formed a partnership with stablecoin issuer Tether to establish bitcoin, Tether and Lugano’s own LVGA Points token as essentially legal tender in the city. The move goes far beyond the actions of a number of other Swiss localities that for some time have been accepting crypto for tax payments. Somewhat similar to El Salvador, Lugano – in addition to allowing crypto for taxes – is aiming to have all of its businesses seamlessly use crypto for everyday transactions (in El Salvador, only bitcoin qualifies). Tether is describing this as a “de facto” legalization, as…
An analysis of cryptocurrency flows between personal and exchange-based wallets shows a “lack of directional conviction” in the market, Bank of America said in a note entitled “Digital Assets: In the Flow.” Tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve and macroeconomic headwinds are likely to limit upside for cryptocurrencies over the next six months. This won’t, however, be a “crypto winter” given the level of user adoption and growth in development activity, analysts led by Alkesh Shah wrote in the note Friday. Bitcoin exchange outflows suggest that dip-buying is muted, while exchange inflows for ether show the potential for continued price…
Trading volumes between the Russian ruble and bitcoin increased to 9-month highs as the country’s fiat currency plunged to record lows due to the fallout from Ukraine invasion. Data tracked by Kaiko, a Paris-based cryptocurrency research provider, shows that ruble (RUB)-denominated bitcoin volume surged to nearly 1.5 billion RUB on Thursday, hitting the highest since May. “The activity was concentrated on Binance,” Kaiko’s research analyst Clara Medalie told CoinDesk in an email. “Bitcoin-Ukrainian hryvnia volume has also spiked, but not as high as October levels. BTC-UAH only trades on 2 exchanges – Binance and LocalBitcoin.” Similar trends were observed in…
If you thought inflation was the worst thing that could happen economically as the world grapples with a post-pandemic recovery, get ready for stagflation. The term hasn’t been needed much since the 1970s. Stagflation describes an economy with higher-than-normal inflation and unemployment rates but little to no economic growth. The last time the U.S. economy entered such a state was in the 1970s, when former President Richard Nixon took the United States off the gold standard. The term has recently become a hot topic again among economists and analysts, and it’s not something to look forward to. With bitcoin seen by many digital-asset…
Some of the recent selling pressure in cryptocurrencies is due to unanticipated tax positions, hedge fund Pantera Capital said in its February blockchain letter. Tax day, April 18 in the U.S. this year, can influence crypto prices, it said. Some $14 trillion of cryptocurrency capital gains were created last year, the fund said, adding that meeting the resulting tax bill could have caused a “decent chunk” of the recent sales. The money manager noted that after previous big run-ups – in 2013, 2017 and 2020 – bitcoin peaked 35 days before tax day, and then fell as investors sold assets to cover…
European Union (EU) lawmakers are preparing for inter-institutional discussions on proposed regulations for governing crypto assets, and may be set to ban energy-intensive cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory package up for discussion includes a provision that could limit the use of the consensus mechanism known as proof-of-work (PoW) across the union’s 27 member states, according to a draft seen by CoinDesk. Various lawmakers and regulators in the EU have been calling for a ban on cryptocurrency mining since at least November last year. “However, nobody expected it to become a deal-breaker and to make it into the final report,” said Patrick…
Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $40,000 for the first time in two weeks, putting a damper on recent hopes among some digital-asset traders that the cryptocurrency might be poised to rally. The price had already tumbled 7.3% on Thursday, the steepest losses in four weeks as the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its worst day of 2022. A modest decline this morning pushed bitcoin down to as low as $39,700 a few minutes ago. The price has since quickly rebounded to $40,700. Analysts cited the continuing conflict over Ukraine as weighing on sentiment, while traders in traditional markets are reckoning with…
Funds stolen during December’s hack of AscendEX have begun moving some stolen crypto to decentralized exchange Uniswap, according to on-chain data first spotted by security research house PeckShield. In December, hackers stole $77 million from AscendEX, mostly in ether, Binance Smart Chain token and MATIC. So far 516 ether, worth around $1.5 million, have been sent to Uniswap. Until recently, the funds have stayed largely dormant, before beginning to move early Friday morning U.S. time. While many high-profile hacks have seen the funds being sent through a mixer protocol like Tornado Cash, sending the tokens to Uniswap would largely have the same effect. Uniswap doesn’t…