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Agora, a blockchain governance startup, is set to acquire its competitor Boardroom. The company framed the acquisition as a strategic move to enhance governance within the broader Ethereum ecosystem, citing expectations of renewed growth in decentralized governance due to President Trump's promise of regulatory clarity for the blockchain industry. "2025 is the year we make good governance the standard for all protocols in Ethereum," Agora co-founder Yitong Zhang told CoinDesk.Agora was founded in 2022 by Zhang, Charlie Feng, and Kent Fenwick. The trio initially started working on governance tooling at Nouns DAO, one of the buzzier blockchain protocols to emerge from 2021's DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) and NFT hype cycle.The term "DAO" generally describes crypto communities that are governed by...

Bitcoin continues to trade at record levels. According to checkonchain data, Wednesday's $130 billion bitcoin (BTC) volume was one of the highest in its history. Trade volume has soared since President Trump won the U.S. election at the start of November, doubling from a daily average of $65 billion.The futures market (the total traded in futures contracts) yesterday saw $110 billion worth of volume. This was the fifth-highest futures trade volume recorded, only bettered on a handful of days in November and December last year.The spot market saw roughly $15 billion of traded volume, which is approaching an all-time high. Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs saw around $5 billion worth of trade volume, which is around half the all-time high seen in...

The builders of Solana-based crypto derivatives exchange Ranger Protocol are jumping on the AI train, too, after raising $1.9 million from venture investors.Ranger's eponymous trading venue pools crypto perps (the most popular investment contract in DeFi for trading tokens like SOL) from multiple protocols to secure good deals for traders. Since launching in late December, it has facilitated $25 million in trades, a drop in the bucket of Solana's total perps landscape.The protocol is now planning to add new product lines that give customers access to AI-assisted trading strategies, co-founder Coby Lim told CoinDesk. A press release described vaults managed by AI agents who mix programmatic trading strategies with social media and data insights.DeFAI (a portmanteau of DeFi and AI)...

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX has won approval from the Singapore High Court to restructure after the $230 million hack last year.The High Court has allowed WazirX to convene a scheme meeting with users in a "significant step" towards distributing funds lost in the attack and reviving the platform's operations, the exchange announced via email on Thursday. Should the restructuring plan be approved, funds would then be distributed to creditors within 10 business days. WazirX was hacked by attackers by the North Korean group Lazarus in July, which over 45% of the exchange's $500 million in holdings stolen. Over the ensuing months, the hackers laundered their ill-gotten gains using privacy-focused crypto mixer Tornado Cash.The Court has found that there was no...

In today’s issue, Alec Beckman from Advantage Blockchain explains stablecoins and their growing use cases for institutions and advisors.Then, CK Zheng from ZX Squared Capital shares tips on preparing for tax season in Ask and Expert.- Sarah MortonYou’re reading Crypto for Advisors, CoinDesk’s weekly newsletter that unpacks digital assets for financial advisors. Subscribe here to get it every Thursday.Stablecoin Use Case for AdvisorsOne of the primary hurdles for blockchain adoption to date has been utility, especially when looking through the lens of financial advisors and how these public blockchains and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols can impact their clients.Stablecoins - digital currencies pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar - have emerged as a powerful tool for modernizing savings, payments,...