Coindesk

This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole.About two weeks ago, I discussed bitcoin's (BTC) bullish breakout above a technical resistance called the Ichimoku cloud and potential for a rally to $100,000. This week, the cryptocurrency obligingly surged into six figures.Now, top alternative cryptocurrencies such as memecoin DOGE, payments-focused XRP, the Ethereum blockchain's ether (ETH) and Solana's SOL have also crossed above the cloud, flashing bullish signals.The analysis, developed by a Japanese journalist in the 1960s, is used to identify support and resistance, momentum and trend change in price actions. The indicator comprises five lines: Leading Span A, Leading Span B, Conversion Line or Tenkan-Sen (T), Base Line or Kijun-Sen (K), and a...

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)As the crypto rally gathers pace ether has widened its lead over bitcoin in terms of volatility expectations, signaling relatively greater action not just in the second-largest cryptocurrency, but in the broader digital asset market as a whole.Deribit's ether implied volatility index (ETH DVOL), which represents the 30-day expected price turbulence, has shot up 11% to an annualized 7% this week while the bitcoin equivalent, BTC DVOL, held steady near multimonth lows around 45%, according to data source TradingView.The divergence has widened the spread between the two to 27%, the most in at least two years. Clearly, traders are anticipating greater volatility in ETH and the broader altcoin market.According to some observers,...

German authorities shut down crypto exchange eXch, seizing 34 million euros ($38 million) in tokens and more than 8 terabytes of data in one of the country’s largest law-enforcement actions targeting suspected crypto laundering.The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) dismantled the eXch's server infrastructure on April 30, just one day before the platform's operators had planned to shut it down, according to statement released on Thursday.The authorities cited the platform’s suspected use in laundering hundreds of millions in stolen crypto from major breaches — including the $1.5 billion Bybit hack, the $243 million Genesis creditor theft and numerous phishing drainer campaigns.The platform "specifically advertised on platforms of the criminal underground economy that it did...

Bitcoin's (BTC) rally is gaining momentum, with institutions stepping up their exposure to the leading cryptocurrency through Deribit's BTC options market."Panning out over just the last week shows a much bigger sign of institutional positioning on BTC," Deribit said on X Friday, noting the bullish flows in the BTC options.The exchange has seen robust buying of call options at the $110,000 strike expiring in June and July and calendar spreads involving a long position in the $140,000 strike call expiring at the end of September and a short position in the $170,000 strike call expiring at the end of the year.The demand for the $110,000 strike call indicates expectations for a continued price rise in the coming weeks, with potential...

A Florida-based pharmaceutical distributor is backing XRP as a treasury and payments asset, putting the token at the center of a $50 million financing deal.Wellgistics Health (WGRX) said Thursday it had secured an equity line of credit to support XRP-based reserves and infrastructure for real-time payments.The company plans to use the blockchain to settle transactions across its pharmacy network, manage vendor payouts, and issue credit lines backed by XRP.The move makes Wellgistics one of the few publicly listed U.S. firms to actively integrate XRP into its financial operations. XRP will help eliminate banking delays and lower settlement costs of fractions of a cent, two key resistance points in pharmaceutical supply chains.“We believe that there are certain advantages to integrating XRP...