Coindesk

As controversy swirled around the Ethereum Foundation (EF) this winter, one of Ethereum's most respected architects was quietly plotting his next move. Danny Ryan—a key visionary behind Ethereum's most ambitious upgrade, "The Merge"—left the EF in September but entered talks a few months later to rejoin the organization as its new leader."I was in conversation with Vitalik and others to potentially go back to help run the Ethereum Foundation," Ryan revealed in a candid interview with CoinDesk. But as the non-profit behind the second-largest blockchain underwent a dramatic leadership reshuffle, Ryan's trajectory unexpectedly shifted elsewhere — towards bringing Ethereum to Wall Street.The changes at the Ethereum Foundation came amid growing community unrest. Critics blamed the foundation for their perception...

Many investors dismiss BNB as simply "the Binance coin," but that designation fails to recognize its broader value unlocks. While BNB was initially launched as the native token of the Binance Chain (now the BNB Smart Chain), and its early token burns were tied to Binance’s quarterly profits, BNB is evolving into a decentralized asset with multiple use cases and reasons for economic value.While BNB may enjoy some value accrual from the expansion of Binance, its token supply model and the development of the BNB Chain offer two independent sources of value. First, BNB serves as a store of value through quarterly and fixed-ratio BNB burning mechanisms. Second, it powers smart contract functionality via the BNB Smart Chain, which has...

The U.S. Treasury market is experiencing its highest volatility in four months, potentially jeopardizing an expected bitcoin (BTC) price recovery.U.S. inflation data for February came in softer-than-expected, strengthening the case for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts. The reading encouraged some analysts to forecast a bitcoin price recovery to $90,000 and higher. It's currently around $82,000."With inflation cooling and recession fears still looming but not worsening, Bitcoin could be on the verge of its next major breakout, pushing past the stubborn sub-$90K range," Matt Mena, Crypto Research Strategist at 21Shares, said in an email.Any upswing, however, could unfold slower than expected as the Merrill Lynch Option Volatility Estimate Index (MOVE), which measures the expected 30-day volatility in the U.S. Treasuries market, has risen...

The Bank of Russia has submitted proposals to the government for a controlled experiment allowing a “limited group of Russian investors” to trade cryptocurrencies, based on a directive from the country’s President Vladimir Putin.The plan would introduce an experimental legal regime (ELR) lasting three years wherein “particularly qualified” investors would be allowed to conduct cryptocurrency transactions, according to a statement from the central bank.To be considered “particularly qualified,” individual investors would need to have over 100 million rubles ($1.14 million) in investments or an annual income exceeding 50 million rubles ($570,000). Institutions recognized as qualified investors would also be able to trade cryptocurrency.The initiative aims to establish standards for crypto-related services and increase market transparency while expanding investment opportunities for...

MEXC Ventures, the investment arm of crypto exchange MEXC, is investing a total of $36 million into Ethena and its USDe stablecoin, according to a press release. The firm is making a strategic investment of $16 million in Ethena and bought $20 million in USDe stablecoin to expand the adoption of synthetic dollars in decentralized finance (DeFi) and offer an alternative to fiat-backed stablecoins, the statement said. The move comes after Ethena, the developer of USDe, raised $100 million last year, which was backed by Franklin Templeton and Fidelity Investments-affiliated F-Prime Capital, among others. Known as a synthetic stablecoin, USDe is unlike traditional stablecoins like USDT and USDC in that it is not backed 1:1 by fiat assets. Instead, it...