Coindesk

Cryptocurrency options exchange Deribit is still talking to Kraken for a potential acquisition, contrary to reports that the U.S. exchange had walked away from a potential deal to buy Deribit, a person familiar with the matter said.Recent reports also confirmed the crypto options platform was working with FT Partners to assess takeover bids, but Deribit CEO Luuk Strijers ruled out a takeover situation. The firm could be valued at $4 billion- $5 billion or even more, according to Bloomberg.A second source said listed U.S. exchange Coinbase (COIN) has also been kicking the tires of Deribit.Deribit is an appealing takeover target because it’s the overwhelming market-leading exchange for digital asset options trading, which Kraken would be looking to add to its...

The LIBRA memecoin scandal that rocked Argentina over the weekend destroyed millions of dollars in investor wealth, according to research by Nansen.On-chain data tracked by Nansen show 86% of traders lost a total of $251 million, while the winners secured just $180 million in profits. In other words, it was a "net-negative wealth-generating" event that potentially sucked out liquidity from the market.The episode is a stark reminder that tokens associated with political figures can be just as risky as random memecoins and celebrity cryptocurrencies in making or breaking fortunes within minutes.LIBRA debuted on Meteora, a Solana-based decentralized exchange, last Friday and quickly surged to a market cap of over $4.5 billion after Argentina's President Javier Milei said on X that...

LayerZero, the bridging protocol that allows different crypto networks to communicate with each other, plans to connect to Bitcoin sidechain Rootstock in what would be its first integration with the world's original blockchain.Rootstock aims to end Bitcoin's "isolation" from other blockchains due to its lack of native smart contracts, a barrier that LayerZero is able to address, according an emailed announcement shared with CoinDesk on TK. The Bitcoin blockchain lacks the functionality to offer smart contracts that other blockchains have and which are fundamental building decentralized finance (DeFi) services.This lack of provision for DeFi on Bitcoin, which holds more value that every other blockchain combined, is an impediment to even greater adoption. That's prompting developers to seeking ways of tapping...

Layer 1 blockchain MANTRA has launched a startup accelerator program aimed at advancing the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), with backing from Google Cloud. The initiative, dubbed RWAccelerator, offers startups funding, expert mentorship, AI-driven resources and technical support as they build solutions in sectors like real estate, financial products and alternative assets, the companies announced at Consensus Hong Kong. The RWAccelerator comes at a pivotal time for the tokenized asset space. The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2027, 10% of the world’s GDP — around $10 trillion — could be stored on blockchain networks, with RWAs playing a major role in this shift."Our mission is really to build that bridge between kind of the large, planetary scale businesses that...

Metaplanet (3350) has now accumulated 2,100 bitcoin (BTC), now holding 0.01% of the total BTC supply that will ever be mined, which is 21 million BTC. Metaplanet purchased 68.59 BTC for $6.6 million at an average purchase price of $96,335 per bitcoin.According to Dylan Le Clair, Metaplanet has raised $20 million in equity capital in the first two trading days of its "21 million plan". Metaplanet also announced on Feb. 18 that they will execute a 10-1 stock split on April 1. This comes just eight months after a reverse a 1-for-10 reverse split.Metaplanet shares are up over 1% in the current market trading; shares are trading at 6,260 JPY.Source link