Coindesk

Bitcoin just notched its worst first quarter in a decade, falling 11.7% as markets struggled to understand the new administration’s economic agenda. The performance ranked 12th out of the past 15 first quarters, according to NYDIG Research's data.The drawdown invites a familiar question in crypto circles: is the cycle over? The last time bitcoin started the year this poorly was in 2015, during a prolonged slump following the 2013 peak and after the collapse of Mt. Gox, according to NYDIG. Back then, prices recovered modestly over the rest of the year before surging in 2016.In the first quarter of 2020, amid a market sell-off tied to fears surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, BTC saw a 9.4% drawdown but then recovered to...

Credit spreads are widening and have reached their highest levels since August 2024 — a period that coincided with bitcoin (BTC) dropping 33% during the yen carry trade unwind.One way to track this is through the ratio of the iShares 3–7 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEI) to the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG). This IEI/HYG ratio, highlighted by analyst Caleb Franzen, serves as a proxy for credit spreads and is now showing its sharpest spike since the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in March 2023 — a moment that marked a local bottom in bitcoin just below $20,000.Historically, bitcoin and other risk assets tend to fall during sharp credit spread expansions. The key question now is whether...

Bitcoin's (BTC) recent stability amid Nasdaq turmoil driven by tariffs has generated excitement among market participants regarding the cryptocurrency's potential as a haven asset. Still, the bulls might want to keep an eye on the bond market where dynamics that characterized the COVID crash of March 2020 may be emerging.Nasdaq, Wall Street's tech-heavy index known to be positively correlated to bitcoin, has dropped 11% since President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced reciprocal tariffs on 180 nations, escalating trade tensions and drawing retaliatory levies from China. Other U.S. indices and global markets have also taken a beating alongside sharp losses in the risk currencies like the Australian dollar and a pullback in gold.BTC has largely remained stable, continuing to trade above...

Staff at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are reviewing past crypto-related guidance to determine whether it still reflects the agency’s current priorities, according to a statement from acting chairman Mark Uyeda, posted on social media platform X.Among several key documents, the SEC staff's statement on funds registered under the Investment Company Act Investing in the bitcoin futures market is under review, according to the X post. Other documents include digital assets "investment contracts," and custody frameworks. The reviews could result in more clarification for regulatory frameworks around the digital assets sector. The request from Uyeda is related to Executive Order 14192, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation and comes after a recommendation from Elon Musk's D.O.G.E.It is worth noting that...

Bitcoin could be headed for its most sweeping cryptographic overhaul yet if a new proposal gains traction.A draft Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) titled Quantum-Resistant Address Migration Protocol (QRAMP) has been introduced by developer Agustin Cruz. It outlines a plan to enforce a network-wide migration of BTC from legacy wallets to ones secured by post-quantum cryptography.Quantum computing involves moving away from a process reliant on binary code, ones and zeros, and exponentially increasing computing power by employing Quantum bits (qubits) that exist in multiple states simultaneously. Such a jump in power is expected to threaten modern computing encryption built by classic machines.The proposal suggests that after a predetermined block height, nodes running the updated software would reject any transaction trying to...