Coindesk

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)Despite the increasing rhetoric surrounding President Donald Trump's tariffs, bitcoin (BTC) is holding steady alongside positive cues from foreign exchange risk barometers like AUD/JPY. Later today, Trump is due to impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on top of additional metal duties.This market stance ahead of an impending tariff escalation contrasts starkly with the risk aversion observed a week ago, when Trump fired the first tariff shot. Perhaps market participants think he's using aggressive tactics to negotiate trade deals rather than committing to sustained tariffs. This notion has gained traction following lat Monday's decision to suspend tariffs on Mexico and Canada for 30 days, hinting at a more strategic approach...

A member of layer 2 scaling solution Base has refuted rumors that its sequencer Coinbase has been selling ether (ETH)."Coinbase has accumulated $300M+ in ETH, which is more than 2x all of Base's ETH earnings over time," Base member Kabir.base.eth said on X Sunday. "Base and Coinbase have and continue to hold ETH and publicly disclose our long term holdings (100K ETH+, $300M+)." Kabir added that Base uses offchain custody for security and audit reasons (that's why funds move to Coinbase), stressing that the Ethereum layer 2 solution earns and spends as much as possible in ETH, using it for Layer 1 costs and granting support. CoinDesk reached out Coinbase for a comment on the matter.Kabir's comments came after pseudonymous...

Metaplanet (3350) announced full-year 2024 financial results and is now sitting on an unrealized gain of approximately $36 million (5.46 billion yen) on a total of 1,761 BTC, acquired for $137 million.The bitcoin investor said it increased its shareholder base by 500% to 50,000 in 2024.Metaplanet has several ways of increasing bitcoin holdings per share. The first is debt issuance, which is achieved through secured bonds, convertible bonds, and the use of bitcoin as collateral. The second is equity issuance through private placement, preference shares, convertible bonds and warrants on top of cash flow from business operations, according to the presentation. The firm plans to acquire 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025 and 21,000 BTC by 2026-end. This will...

Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets are still recovering from last week's bloodbath, but it appears that the memecoin fever is alive and well as three big tokens were issued over the weekend.BNB Chain-based TST token, issued as a memecoin by the blockchain’s community following a tutorial video on how to issue tokens, zoomed to a $300 million market capitalization as Binance founder Changpeng Zhao referred to the token in several X posts — with it even gaining a coveted Binance listing on Sunday.Zhao, who stepped from a formal role at the company last year, said Sunday that he wasn’t for or against memecoins, and the category’s “fun” element makes it appealing for short-term traders.“Things with clear tangible value are harder...

A momentum indicator that presaged bitcoin's (BTC) post-election price surge has now turned negative, coinciding with President Donald Trump's tariff rhetoric, which threatens to destabilize markets. Still, there's no need to panic just yet.That indicator is the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) histogram, which is used to gauge trend strength and changes. It's calculated by subtracting bitcoin's average price level during the past 26 periods (weeks in this case) from the average over the past 12 weeks. The signal line is then calculated as a nine-week average of the MACD and the difference between the MACD and signal lines is plotted as a histogram.The MACD on bitcoin's weekly chart has crossed below zero, which is said to represent a bearish...