Coindesk

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)The cryptocurrency market pulled back over the last 24 hours, led by declines in major coins as retail investors switched out of large-cap tokens and into smaller, more speculative assets.Both bitcoin BTC and ether ETH dropped around 2% and the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), a measure of the broad market, fell 2.7%."We’ve observed a significant week-on-week increase in retail participation, reinforcing the broader narrative of rising optimism," said Jake O., an over-the-counter trader at Wintermute. “The shift down the risk curve is most evident in retail screen flows.”Institutional investors, for their part, have been more conservative. They're still stocking up on bitcoin, ether and XRP, while easing off positions in solana...

Telegram has shut down the illicit marketplace Haowang Guarantee, formerly Huione Guarantee, which has facilitated transactions totaling over $27 billion in stablecoins since 2021.Haowang was shut down based on insights provided by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic on Tuesday.The closure took place amidst a crackdown on thousands of suspected Chinese crypto-crime channels operating on Telegram, following Elliptic's report into marketplace Xinbi Guarantee.Telegram has now shut down both Huione and Xinbi, which processed a combined $35 billion of illicit transactions in stablecoins, Elliptic wrote in a web post on Wednesday."Our analysis indicates that Huione Guarantee has facilitated transactions totalling more than $27 billion since launching in 2021, making it the largest illicit online marketplace to have ever operated," Elliptic wrote.Xinbi was the...

Bitcoin's (BTC) dominance rate has dropped notably this month, sparking hopes for a full-blown alt season or period where the bull market spreads beyond BTC, lifting valuations in other sectors of the digital assets market.Joao Wedson, CEO and founder of crypto data analysis platform Alphractal, expects a full-blown alt season to unfold in June.Bitcoin's dominance rate, which measures the leading cryptocurrency's share of the total digital assets market, has dropped from roughly 65% to 62% in one week, ending a prolonged five-month uptrend, according to data source TradingView.During the same time, the total crypto market capitalization has increased from $2.90 trillion to $3.24 trillion.The contrast suggests a shift in investor interest from bitcoin toward alternative cryptocurrencies.Per Wedson, the altcoin season...

Jim Chanos, the veteran investor who made his name shorting Enron, is betting on bitcoin (BTC) trade while shorting Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of the biggest cryptocurrency.In an interview at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York with CNBC, Chanos detailed the bet. “We’re selling MicroStrategy stock and buying bitcoin,” Chanos said, calling it an arbitrage move: “Basically buying something for $1, selling it for $2.50.”Strategy started acquiring bitcoin in 2020 and has since morphed into a bitcoin proxy for investors. The firm has issued debt and equity to accumulate the cryptocurrency, and now has a 568,840 BTC hoard bought at an average cost of $69,287 per coin.The aggressive bitcoin accumulation, backed by Wall Street analysts, has made...

Major tokens such as dogecoin (DOGE), cardano (ADA), and solana (SOL) slipped more than 5% in the past 24 hours as traders moved to lock in some profits after a strong week-long rally.The broader crypto market surged alongside risk assets last week, fueled by macroeconomic tailwinds and renewed investor optimism, but signs are emerging that some overheated segments may be due for a pause.“Bitcoin has been hovering around the $104,000 level for the sixth day, experiencing increased rotation,” FxPro’s Alex Kuptsikevich told CoinDesk in an email. “This is quite expected behaviour as we approach the all-time highs of December and January, which served as turning points.”“Ether is trading around $2615, having failed to consolidate above the $2700 mark, around which...