Coindesk

Bitcoin's BTC upward trend continued to show signs of weakness early Wednesday, even as Wall Street tech stocks surged overnight in anticipation of upbeat earnings from AI giant Nvidia (NVDA).The leading cryptocurrency by market value traded near $108,900 at press time, teasing a downside break of a trendline characterizing the uptrend from early April lows, according to data source Coingecko.Bullish trendlines indicate areas of strong demand, thus a move below one is generally seen as a sign of a potential reversal and a possible start of a downward move.Prices have not been able to make significant gains this week despite a flurry of positive news, including stablecoin issuer Circle's plans to file for an IPO and Trump Media's plans to...

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.Ethereum surged past $2,600 in early Asia hours, up 3.7%, breaking decisively above its previous resistance level of around $2,500 following a prolonged consolidation period, according to CoinDesk Research's AI-assisted technical analysis model. The rally is supported by robust trading volume and significant institutional confidence, underscored by $248 million in net inflows into spot Ethereum ETFs last week, led prominently by BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust. DeFi activity is also strengthening, with Ethereum's total value locked (TVL) rising 3.59%...

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The U.S. Senate seems to be getting close to passing its landmark stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act — a battle its champion Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said has been incredibly hard-fought.“It has been extremely difficult,” Lummis said during a fireside chat with Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “I had no idea how hard this was going to be.”Last week, the Senate voted to advance the bill, easily clearing the 60-vote threshold required to kick the bill to its last discussion phase before the final vote to pass it out of the body entirely. An earlier attempt failed on a bipartisan basis after Senate Democrats, led by long-time crypto sceptic Elizabeth...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated on Tuesday that "efforts will continue" to make sure that the total amount of bitcoin BTC held by El Salvador's government does not change.Back in March, El Salvador reached an agreement with the IMF to receive a $3.5 billion loan package. Some of the conditions of that deal concerned bitcoin: for example, the cryptocurrency officially lost its status as legal tender, meaning that merchants no longer need to accept the currency on a mandatory basis.One of the conditions of the package, according to the IMF, was the prohibition of "voluntary accumulation of bitcoin by the public sector." In theory, that should mean that Bukele's government wouldn't be permitted to keep accumulating bitcoin if it...

Jack Dorsey’s Square has taken bitcoin BTC payments a step further at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas this week.For three days, the company is piloting a program where attendees can make purchases with their bitcoin by scanning a barcode. Payments are then settled in near real-time via the Lighting Network while Square handles real-time exchange rate calculations and confirmation notifications, according to a press release.Square hopes to make the feature available to a broader audience later this year and to all customers by 2026, pending regulatory approval.“We believe in an open, decentralized, fair, fast, and low-cost money system for everyone, and that’s exactly what we want to bring to Square sellers,” said Miles Suter, Bitcoin Product Lead at...