Coindesk

It’s only a matter of time until every cryptocurrency exchange and fintech firm is running its own blockchain, according to OP Labs, builder of Ethereum overlay protocol Optimism.The logic is straightforward and simple, says OP Labs head of product, Sam McIngvale, pointing to the runaway success of Coinbase’s layer-2 (L2) network Base since its debut in 2023.For a start, Base has accrued an incredible ecosystem of users and developers to back the exchange, McIngvale said. But the biggest no-brainer is how a system like Base, combined with Coinbase’s bitcoin-backed loans, allows dormant crypto assets sitting in custody to be monetized by lending them out, he added.Base was built using Optimism's OP Stack, a software product that helps users to develop...

The Blockchain Group (ALTBG), a Paris-listed tech firm that brands itself as Europe’s first bitcoin BTC treasury company, said it bought 182 BTC for 17 million euros ($19.6 million), bringing its total stash to 1,653 BTC valued at nearly 149 million euros.The purchase follows a series of convertible bond issuances totaling over 18 million euros, subscribed by UTXO Management, Moonlight Capital, Ludovic Chechin-Laurans and asset manager TOBAM. It also converted share warrants into nearly 3 million ordinary shares, raising another 1.6 million euros for bitcoin purchases.The company said it achieved a 1,173% BTC yield so far this year. The metric is defined as the ratio of total BTC held to fully diluted shares outstanding. Several companies use the term to...

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest sold a combined 300,108 shares of Circle Internet Group CRCL on Tuesday across three of its ETFs, continuing to take profit for a second day in a row, this time to the tune of $44.7 million.The move came as CRCL closed in New York Tuesday at $149.15 as it continues to maintain investor momentum after a monster rally during its first days of trading earlier this month. ARK's trimming of its CRCL position coincided with a major policy milestone: the U.S. Senate’s bipartisan passage of the GENIUS Act, a bill designed to regulate stablecoin issuers like Circle. The Act is considered an industry win, and was welcomed by Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, who called it...

The Federal Reserve's (Fed) Open Market Committee, comprising 12 officials, is scheduled to announce its decision on interest rates at 18:00 UTC on Wednesday, followed by Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference half an hour later.The CME Group's FedWatch tool indicates that the central bank is again likely to hold ground and keep interest rates unchanged in the range of 4.25%-4.50% despite President Donald Trump's repeated demands for lower borrowing costs.The rate decision, therefore, is a foregone conclusion and crypto traders are likely to focus on the interest rate dot plot – the graphical representation that records each Fed official's projections for interest rates."With rates expected to stay on hold, traders are focused on the dot‑plot: fewer than two projected cuts...

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 its trading day, ETH is trading above $2500 as the U.S. Senate passes the GENIUS Act with bipartisan support.While the Senate was busy passing the GENIUS Act, Vivek Raman, founder of Ethereum advocacy firm Etherealize, was even busier, making the rounds on Wall Street to explain why ETH is suddenly at the center of institutional finance.Of course, Ethereum is nothing new. It's almost a decade old. But finally, in its almost 10 years of existence,...