Coindesk

XRP futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) recorded over $19 million in notional trading volume on their first day and at least $10 million on Tuesday, data shows.The inaugural trade, a block transaction, was cleared by Hidden Road on May 18. CME's XRP futures are available in two sizes: standard contracts representing 50,000 XRP and micro contracts representing 2,500 XRP. Both are cash-settled and benchmarked to the CME CF XRP-Dollar Reference Rate, calculated daily at 15:00 UTC. Standard contracts bagged a volume of 7.5 million XRP on Monday and 2.95 million XRP on Tuesday, while micro contracts did 517,000 XRP on Monday and at least 1.2 million XRP on Tuesday.Market participants see the launch of these regulated futures...

Although bitcoin (BTC) can be traded 24/7 its candles open and close daily similar to foreign exchange markets. The latest data from TradingView shows Tuesday's candle ended (UTC) at $106,830, the highest-ever daily closing price.The bullish move came as investors poured money into the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) amid chaotic price action in bond markets that suggested heightened concerns about the fiscal health of major economies, including the U.S.Analysts told CoinDesk last week that the worsening fiscal debt situation could bode well for BTC and other assets such as gold.The Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index, which measures the percentage difference between the price of Bitcoin on Coinbase Pro (USD pair) and the price on Binance (USDT trading pair), remained positive, indicating...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued crypto company Unicoin and three executives on Tuesday night on fraud charges, saying the company raised over $100 million for tokens that were not actually backed by the real estate its executives claimed.The SEC sued Unicoin, CEO Alexander Konanykhin, former board chair Maria Moschini, senior vice president and general counsel Richard Devlin and former chief investment officer and investor relations officer Alejandro Dominguez on securities law violations,Among its allegations, the SEC said Unicoin never actually owned the real estate properties it told investors it had acquired, and that those properties' values were inflated."For example, between September 2023 and January 2024, the Promoting Defendants announced acquisitions of properties in Argentina, Thailand, Antigua, and the...

Apex Group, a financial services provider with more than $3 trillion in assets under administration, said on Tuesday it had acquired a majority stake in Tokeny, a Luxembourg-based firm that helps institutions tokenize real-world assets (RWA) on public blockchains.According to the deal, Apex expects to take full ownership of Tokeny over the next three years, after first investing in the company in late 2023, Apex said in a press release. The companies did not disclose the terms of the acquisition in the press release, and a spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.The acquisition comes as more traditional financial firms are looking at tokenization as the next frontier in capital markets, using blockchain technology for moving assets like...

"Sell in May and go away," goes the Wall Street adage for equity markets every summer. For bitcoin BTC, though, some analysts say this season could mark a break from tradition."As we get into the European summer months, the sense is it's more likely a case of 'buy in May and go away' than any significant headwinds or selling pressure," said Paul Howard, director at crypto trading firm Wincent in a market note.A confluence of positive regulatory developments around digital assets in the U.S. and increasing institutional buying both via exchange-traded funds and spot allocation is poised to push BTC higher in the next months, Howard said.U.S.-traded spot bitcoin ETFs, for example, pulled in $667 million in net inflows on...