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U.S. spot-listed bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen three consecutive days of outflows totaling $494 million. Wednesday's outflows were the largest of the three, with $251 million, which saw BlackRock's iShares Trust (IBIT) register a $22.1 million outflow, with Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) registering the largest outflow of $102 million, according to Farside data.The outflows coincided with low volume in the ETFs, and Wednesday saw a total of just $2.58 billion in volume. IBIT registered less than $2 billion in volume, which put it as the tenth most traded U.S. ETF, according to Coinglass data. IBIT typically falls into the top 5 most traded ETFs when bitcoin surges or gains momentum.The lack of demand shown in the...

Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) is holding talks with Indian authorities in an effort to secure approval to return to the country it quit in 2023, Tech Crunch reported on Wednesday.The exchange is in talks with regulators including the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Tech Crunch said, citing two people familiar with the matter."Coinbase is excited by the opportunities in the Indian market, and intends to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, but we have nothing to announce regarding a FIU registration at this time," a spokesperson for the U.S. company told CoinDesk. Coinbase suspended operations in India in 2022, days after starting up due to "informal pressure" from the Reserve Bank of India. In 2023, the exchange said it stopped allowing...

Metaplanet (3350), a Japanese bitcoin (BTC) acquirer, will be added to the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Japan index at the end of Feb. 28, according to the firm's CEO Simon Gerovich.The MSCI index tracks mid-to-large-cap Japanese stocks, which serve as a key benchmark for institutional investors worldwide. As a result of inclusion, Metaplanet will benefit from increased exposure to global investment funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track MSCI indices.Gerovich on X highlighted the positive news that comes from inclusion, which includes increased visibility, passive inflows and validation of growth. "This milestone further solidifies Metaplanet’s position as Asia’s leading Bitcoin Treasury Company and expands our reach in global markets", Gerovich says. In addition, Metaplanet confirmed they had completed a raise...

Bitcoin (BTC) miner Riot Platforms appointed three new directors to its board as it explores potential opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC).The additions include Michael Turner, former president of Oxford Properties and global head of real estate at OMERS, one of Canada's largest pension funds, alongside Jaime Leverton, ex-CEO of Hut 8 Mining (HUT), and Doug Mouton, a data center development veteran from Microsoft and Meta, the company said in a release on Thursday.The appointments come as Riot considers repurposing its mining infrastructure, particularly its Corsicana Facility in Texas, for AI workloads, and has tapped investment banks Evercore and Northland Capital Markets to assist with this transition.Riot’s move follows a broader industry trend as miners seek new...

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I'm Ben Schiller, CoinDesk’s Opinion and Features editor.In this issue:Can Based Rollups solve Ethereum’s problem?Lido goes modularUniswap finally unveils UnichainEthereum’s Pectra upgrade is comingNetwork newsBASED ROLLUPS TO THE RESCUE: In recent years, Ethereum has embraced a layer-2 scaling roadmap—a plan that encouraged the development of third-party auxiliary networks called "layer-2 rollups"—to help scale the base Ethereum ecosystem. Offloading activity to these upstart networks has helped bring down fees and improve speeds for end-users, but it has led to a massive, deeply fragmented ecosystem of layer 2s. But while layer-2 networks all post data back down to Ethereum, they often struggle to communicate directly with...