Coindesk

Bitcoin (BTC) rose to nearly $82,000 early Thursday to usher gains across the crypto market after a U-turn on tariffs led to relief in broader equity markets on Wednesday, prompted by President Donald Trump changing course on a steep tariff levy globally.XRP and ether (ETH) led gains among crypto majors with a 12% surge, while Cardano’s ADA, BNB Chain’s BNB, Solana’s SOL and dogecoin (DOGE) zoomed as much as 10%. Overall market capitalization rose 6%. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) showed a 7% increase.Crypto-tracked futures showed short liquidations of over $350 million, the highest since early March, which helped ease losses from Monday and Tuesday as bitcoin dove to nearly $75,000 at one point.Such liquidation events often present a market...

Remember the old days when calling or sending a message via text outside the country cost money? With the help of modern messaging apps like WhatsApp, paying for cross-border calls and texts is now obsolete. For money transfers, stablecoins might do just that: democratize the payments industry by eliminating historical gatekeepers, says venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)."Just as WhatsApp disrupted costly international phone calls, blockchain payments and stablecoins are transforming global money transfers," the firm said in a blog post on Wednesday. The current global payment infrastructure is a complex web involving points of sale, payment processors, acquiring banks, issuing banks, correspondent banks, foreign exchanges, and card networks. Read more: What Is a Stablecoin?To make matters more difficult, each of...

Paul Atkins is just one oath away from taking over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as President Donald Trump's pick to oversee the nation's securities sector — including whatever role the crypto sector plays in that.A swearing-in ceremony will soon put the former SEC commission in charge of the high-profile regulator — a matter cheered on by the digital assets sector that sees him as a strong ally after his significant background advising crypto firms as a financial-services consultant in Washington. Atkins' Senate confirmation was easily cleared on Wednesday in a 52-44 vote.The longtime figure in U.S. financial policy — both in government and as an outside adviser — was generally expected to easily move through confirmation, though the...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave the green light for the trading of options tied to ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs).On Wednesday, the regulator approved a filing from Nasdaq ISE, filed last July, which asked to list options contracts on the BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA). Options are a popular trading vehicle to leverage and hedge risk and are especially attractive to institutional investors who are looking to control large amounts of shares.The Commission had until today to make a decision. James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said the approval was “100% expected.”The options apply specifically to ETHA, meaning that BlackRock’s product is the only spot ether ETF that options can be traded on.Other funds are listed on...

Ukraine’s top financial regulator is floating the idea of taxing cryptocurrency as personal income, with possible carveouts for certain foreign asset-backed stablecoins, under a newly proposed taxation matrix published on Tuesday.In a translated letter introducing the potential new approach, Ruslan Magomedov, head of Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission, said that effective tax policy is a necessary step in preventing financial abuse and facilitating the “legal and responsible use of digital assets.”“Establishing fair and understandable taxation rules is also a prerequisite for attracting investment and integrating the Ukrainian virtual asset market into the global financial market,” Magomedov added.Under the NSSMC’s suggested tax scheme, certain crypto transactions — essentially those in which non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies are cashed out for fiat currency or...