Coindesk

Bitcoin BTC is back near $108,000, marking a full recovery from last week’s dip to six figures driven by Middle east tensions, as macro signals turn risk-on and crypto bulls regain technical footing.The market is now betting on a convergence of two trends: dovish Fed commentary and retail’s accelerating rotation into digital assets, traders say.“Crypto will continue its bullish trend,” said Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research. “Institutional purchases are picking up, and Jerome Powell’s comments hinting at rate cuts have flipped investor sentiment quickly.”Powell this week said rate adjustments remain on the table, contingent on successful trade deals and softening inflation, words that markets took as code for a late-2025 pivot.At press time, bitcoin was trading over $107,800, up...

Good Morning, Asia. Here's what's making news in the markets:Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk's Crypto Daybook Americas.As Asia begins the Thursday trading day, BTC is changing hands above $107K, according to CoinDesk Market data, and the CoinDesk 20, a measure of the largest digital assets, is trading just shy of 3000, up 0.7%.Looking back at the week that was, analysts and market observers are looking at what began as a selloff on Middle East tensions, with Israel and Iran trading rocket fire, and a U.S. bombing campaign on Iran's nuclear facilities, turned into a...

Bit Digital (BTBT) is changing course to become a dedicated ether ETH staking and treasury operation, the company said Wednesday. The New York-based firm will exit the bitcoin BTC mining business entirely, repurposing its assets and capital into its growing ETH strategy.The company began building its ether position and Ethereum staking infrastructure in 2022. As of March 31, Bit Digital held 24,434.2 ETH, valued at $44.6 million, and 417.6 BTC worth $34.5 million. It plans to convert the remaining bitcoin into ether over time.To fund the transition, Bit Digital has started a process to sell or wind down its bitcoin mining operations. Net proceeds from the divestiture will be reinvested in ether. No specific timeline was given for the sale...

Bitcoin BTC continued its gentle rise on Wednesday as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which play a pivotal role in issuing mortgages to U.S. homeowners — were ordered by the William Pulte, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), to prepare to accept cryptocurrencies as part of applicants' assets.Back above $107,000, the top cryptocurrency is up 2.2% in the last 24 hours, and outperforming the CoinDesk 20's 0.5% advance. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was a notable outperformer, rising 7.4%.Alongside, BTC’s dominance keeps going up, now with almost 66% of the total crypto market value now parked in the orange coin, up from 39% in November 2023.Today’s move may be partially due to FHFA Director William Pulte sharing on social...

U.S.-based fintech platform SoFi (SOFI) said on Wednesday it will introduce international remittances through blockchain and stablecoins and allow users to invest in cryptocurrencies this year, making good on its promised digital asset push.The upcoming remittance service will let users send U.S. dollars and select stablecoins to recipients abroad with "well-known" blockchain networks processing the transactions, allowing funds to be sent around the clock, converted into local currencies and deposited quickly into recipients' accounts, according to the press release.The company says this will be significantly cheaper and faster than traditional methods such as wire transfers or bank-based remittances.The firm will also relaunch crypto trading services, letting users buy, sell and hold major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin BTC and Ethereum's ether ETH...