Coindesk

Darknet markets are increasingly returning to bitcoin (BTC) as their primary cryptocurrency because of rising liquidity and accessibility challenges associated with privacy-focused coins like monero (XMR), according to Eric Jardine, cybercrime research lead at Chainalysis."After major exchanges delisted XMR, we observed a significant increase in bitcoin inflows," Jardine said in an interview with CoinDesk. "Reduced accessibility is steering users back toward bitcoin."Many Western markets on the darknet — a part of the internet hosted within an encrypted network and accessible only through specialized anonymity-providing tools — had either fully moved to monero or operated with it in parallel with bitcoin before the delistings. XMR dropped off after it was removed from major exchanges.OKX removed XMR and other privacy-focused tokens...

Archax, a U.K.-regulated crypto exchange and custodian focusing on tokenized assets, has acquired a U.S. broker-dealer in an effort to enter the booming institutional market in the country after recent positive changes on the regulatory environment.Globacap Private Markets Inc, a broker-dealer and alternative trading system (ATS) regulated by FINRA and the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), is being bought by Archax and being renamed to Archax Markets US. The new entity will serve as the company's foothold on American soil and serve the institutions and professional investors in the country, two Archax executives told CoinDesk.Asset tokenization is a fast-growing sector in crypto as global banks, asset managers and digital asset firms are increasingly using blockchain rails to move traditional financial...

CoinShares' Valkyrie Bitcoin Mining (WGMI) exchange-traded fund (ETF) is the worst-performing ETF of 2025, down 43% year-to-date, according to Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. The ETF is made up of several publicly traded bitcoin (BTC) miners. IREN (IREN) is the largest holding at 15%, which is down 42%. Core Scientific (CORZ) follows with a 14% weighting and a 48% decline, while Cipher Mining (CIFR), the third-largest holding at 9.6%, is down 52%. Even NVIDIA (NVDA), the sixth-largest holding at 5%, has dropped over 20% this year.According to its investment strategy, "The ETF will invest in companies that derive at least 50% of their revenue or profits from bitcoin mining operations and/or from providing specialized chips, hardware, software, or other...

The Trump family is deepening its involvement in cryptocurrency with a major move into bitcoin (BTC) mining, according to a Wall Street Journal report.Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are merging their firm, American Data Centers, with a new mining venture called American Bitcoin, taking a 20% stake in the company. The remaining 80% will be owned by Hut 8, a publicly traded crypto infrastructure firm, which is contributing nearly 61,000 mining machines to the new entity. According to the report, no cash changed hands in the deal. Eric Trump, who will serve as American Bitcoin’s chief strategy officer, describes the initiative as aligned with the family’s focus on hard assets, likening digital currencies to real estate. He emphasized plans...

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, has dropped 39% this year relative to bitcoin (BTC), the largest, taking the ratio between the two to the lowest in almost five years.At the current level, 1 ETH is the equivalent of 0.02191 BTC. That's the least since May 2020, when ether was trading around $200 and bitcoin just under $10,000. Today the ETH price is about $1,800 and the BTC price around $82,000.The underperformance is notable because it's the first time ether has weakened against bitcoin in the 12 months after a BTC reward halving. On April 20, 2024, the payment Bitcoin miners received for confirming blocks on the blockchain was reduced by 50% to 3.125 BTC.In previous halving cycles, ether outperformed...