Author: Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin suffered yet another brutal bout of risk-aversion on Monday, briefly tumbling by over 5% below $34,000 before staging a recovery as Wall Street rebounded.  Amid the turmoil, some $130 billion was yanked out of cryptocurrencies between Sunday and Monday, according to Alex Tapscott, Managing Director of Ninepoint Partner’s Digital Asset Group. In the last week alone, Bitcoin shed more than 20% at its troughs, with so-called smart contract currencies faring even worse: Ethereum swooned by over 30% within the same period, while Solana has plunged by more than 40%. Outages on the Solana blockchain exacerbated network fees and forced some…

As the push into decentralized finance heats up after growing 12-fold last year, one strategist is warning of two existential threats to the DeFi movement. At a recent Yahoo Finance Plus webinar, Bianco Research President Jim Bianco explained that DeFi developers have pursued efficiency and lower costs at the expense of remaining truly decentralized. He begins by breaking down what a “maximalist” means in the context of crypto. “There’s a phrase that we use in the space called a maximalist, and you’ve probably heard it associated with bitcoin maximalist, which quickly means bitcoin is all you need. It’s perfect — or…

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are off to a record-breaking start in 2022 – and music artists are lining up to capture more of that fanfare. The latest is Brandon “B.” Howard, a multi-platinum producer and singer-songwriter who’s performed in China and Europe, and worked with a long list of chart-topping artists. Howard is creating holographic performances for the fledgling metaverse that will be minted as NFTs. The performances offer virtual promoters the opportunity to purchase his performances, and have Howard perform virtually, anywhere across the digital frontier. “I’m pretty much making a concert — six, seven songs — in different universes where I’ll have different artists…

Iconic auction house Sotheby’s has decided to allow bids in cryptocurrency for its sale of the remarkable 555.55ct black diamond known as ‘The Enigma’. The auction house made the decision to open the doors to bids in USDC, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). It comes fewer than three months after the success of ‘The Key 10138’ diamond auction back in July, which saw Sotheby’s match the diamond with a buyer in Hong Kong that paid $12.3m in cryptocurrency. https://twitter.com/Sothebys/status/1483025461735211008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1483025461735211008%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffinance.yahoo.com%2Fnews%2Fsotheby-555-55ct-enigma-diamond-120804603.html Sotheby’s and Christie’s targeting a new market? Christie’s set the tone for crypto auctions with the now-famous sale of Mike Winkelmann’s…

Visa (V) announced on Thursday that it will expand its crypto services one step further by partnering with blockchain software company Consensys to build an on-ramp for central bank digital currencies (CBDC). The payments giant aims to create a “CBDC sandbox,” available in the spring, where central banks can experiment with distributing the technology after minting on Consensys’ Quorum protocol. The partnership is the latest development in the booming cryptocurrency market, with central banks vying to mint their own digital coins and established financial companies dabbling in crypto payments. “Central banks are moving from research to actually wanting to have a tangible product…

The new year has not been kind to cryptocurrencies, which rose on Wednesday despite about a week of selling that briefly drove Bitcoin below $40,000. A jittery market has begun 2022 on a sour note, with a suddenly hawkish Federal Reserve and the Omicron wave of COVID-19 infections making investors risk-averse. Meanwhile, Bitcoin set a new low at $39,893.62 — having swooned by more than 40% since its November peak. Bitcoin has shed over 8% at its weakest levels this week, while smaller tokens like Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Terra have fallen even harder. All have clawed back within the last day.…

Venture capitalists bet big on crypto in 2021, plowing more cash than ever into emerging companies in the sector. Startups in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space were powered by a record $33 billion in VC funding last year — exceeding flows from all prior years combined and forging at least 43 companies worth more than $1 billion, according to a report from the research arm of crypto financier Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital. To further underscore the magnitude of crypto startup activity, valuations of companies in the digital asset sphere were 141% higher than the rest of the venture capital space in…

Coinbase stock is struggling in its first year of public trading, and Bank of America sees upside as the company evolves. BofA Analyst Jason Kupferberg upgraded Coinbase from neutral to buy while keeping the price target unchanged at $340, which is 45% above where the stock closed on Wednesday. “The main fundamental reason for the rating change is we have been observing increasing signs of revenue diversification beyond retail crypto trading, a trend we think could accelerate in ’22 and beyond,” the note to clients said on Thursday. Coinbase stock is roughly flat of a Thursday midday trading and down…

DoubleLine founder and well-known bond king Jeffrey Gundlach acknowledges he has never personally owned bitcoin (BTC-USD) even though he was bullish on the benchmark crypto when it was around $4,000. “That’s just not in my DNA. I have really gravitated to bonds in my career. I got shoved in there. Bonds were a necessary evil and somebody had to do it. But it turned out that it’s my culture of cowardice if you will. I am not a momentum investor at all. In fact, I am sort of an anti-momentum investor and I think bitcoin is for momentum investors just like at…

Cryptocurrencies boomed in 2021, but Bitcoin’s late year retrenchment left many investors unsure about the same returns in the new year. Buoyed by demand for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi), Ethereum (ETH-USD) and smaller cryptocurrencies ended up stealing the spotlight from Bitcoin. Its market capitalization, currently under 40%, is the second lowest it has ever been according to Trading View data. Trading around $47,300, Bitcoin is down 8% since last week and 31% lower than the all-time high it hit in November near $69,000. While hopes for Bitcoin $100,000 have been dashed in the short-term, bulls remain unflappable — and some aren’t afraid to double down on…