Coindesk

Bitcoin BTC stayed steady above $109,500 in Asian morning hours Wednesday, a rebound that started after last week’s profit-taking.However, all eyes are on ether ETH with traders commenting on upside volatility in the weeks to come and reporting record volumes for certain ETH-based products on some exchanges. ETH zoomed 5% in the past 24 hours, leading gains among majors.“Investors are finally recognizing the compelling investment opportunity that Ethereum presents. It’s still trading well below its all-time highs, while bitcoin is already near its ATH levels,” said Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE, in a message to CoinDesk. He pointed to Ethereum's growing role in tokenizing real-world assets like stocks, money-market funds, and U.S. Treasuries, adding that it was “very likely that...

OpenTrade has raised $7 million in a strategic round led by Notion Capital and Mercury Fund, with backing from a16z crypto, AlbionVC, and CMCC Global. The latest funding brings the London-based company’s total haul to $11 million in just six months, a signal of investor confidence in the startup’s push to bring yield-bearing stablecoins to users in unstable economies.The company runs a “yield-as-a-service” platform designed for fintech apps, exchanges, and neobanks. Clients like Criptan in Spain and Littio in Colombia use OpenTrade’s backend to let users earn interest — up to 9% — on USD and EUR holdings.In countries like Argentina or Colombia, where dollar bank accounts are rare and offer negligible interest, apps powered by OpenTrade let users earn...

Decentralized Layer 1 blockchain XRP Ledger's (XRPL) sidechain that's compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is set to go live in the second quarter, Jaazi Cooper, director of product management at Ripple, and David Schwartz, Ripple's chief technology officer said at the ongoing APEX 2025 conference in Singapore.EVM compatibility refers to the ability of the blockchain to run Ethereum-based decentralized applications and smart contracts seamlessly.The XRPL EVM sidechain testnet went live early this year and is experiencing rapid growth, according to Peersyst Technologies."87 new entities – with no prior XRP involvement – are now contributing to the ecosystem: infrastructure, apps, and demand generation," Peersyst said on X. "When mainnet goes live, all of it becomes part of the XRP...

SINGAPORE – Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of crypto company Ripple Labs, stated at the XRP Ledger Apex, the Ripple (XRP) community conference in Singapore, that he remains bullish on stablecoins – a sentiment he said is reinforced by the recent blockbuster Circle CRCL initial public offering (IPO)."Circle IPO's clearly went very well. That's a reflection of investor interest in crypto, both institutions and retail. The financial future will be blockchain-based," Garlinghouse said at Apex.Garlinghouse said that one factor in the success of Circle's IPO is the market's fundamental belief that the GENIUS Act – the U.S. stablecoin legislation – will pass.As CoinDesk previously reported, the GENIUS Act, a stablecoin regulatory bill, is poised for imminent Senate passage with bipartisan support, potentially...

President Donald Trump's pick to be chairman of the U.S. commodities watchdog, Brian Quintenz, fielded crypto questions more than any other topic at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, and he assured the lawmakers that the agency can walk a middle ground between unhampered innovation and robust consumer safeguards.Even as Quintenz awaits the Senate Agriculture Committee's vote on whether to advance his nomination as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Congress is working on market structure legislation that could elevate that agency as the marquee regulator of U.S. crypto activity. Quintenz, a former CFTC commissioner, is no stranger to that sector, having served as venture capital firm a16z's head of policy."I have always viewed market structure legislation as an...