Coindesk

David Balland, co-founder of cryptocurrency wallet developer Ledger, was rescued in a police operation after being kidnapped in a ransom attack in France, according to reports, putting an end to days of swirling rumors.Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that Ballard and his wife were kidnapped on early Tuesday from their home in Central France and held captive at two separate addresses, Reuters reported on Friday. The prosecutor said that the kidnappers contacted another Ledger co-founder to demand ransom paid in cryptocurrencies.A police operation involving French elite forces GIGN freed Ballard on Wednesday and his wife was found on Thursday, the prosecutor said. Ballard was taken to hospital to receive treatment to one of his hands, which was mutilated, Beccuau said,...

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3991.46, up 2.5% (+97.0) since 4 p.m. ET on Thursday.Nineteen of 20 assets are trading higher.Leaders: HBAR (+8.0%) and SOL (+4.8%).Laggards: ETC (-0.1%) and BTC (+0.4%).The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.Source link

Some $7.8 billion worth of bitcoin (BTC) options expire at the end of the month and, with the largest cryptocurrency trading well above the so-called max pain point, it's possible market makers looking to maximize their profits will try to force it lower in the coming days.Data from Deribit, the largest decentralized options exchange, show as much as $6 billion in notional value is set to expire out of the money, or without value, when the contracts close on Jan. 31 at 08:00 UTC. A full 50% of those are put options, which give holders the right, but not the obligation, to sell BTC at a predetermined price within a specific timer period."The max pain level for this expiry stands...

By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)The past 24 hours have been among the most hectic in the crypto industry for years, and this was reflected in Thursday's bitcoin (BTC) price, which whipsawed 2% to 3% multiple times in a matter of minutes. Still, it managed to stay above the psychological $100,000 level and is is currently around $105,000.President Trump's rhetoric is continuing to help weaken the dollar, which generally boosts risk assets such as cryptocurrencies. The DXY index, a measure of the U.S. currency against a basket of major trade partners, has dropped to the lowest since Dec. 17, so that should give risk-on assets a feel-good boost. U.S. bond yields and WTI crude oil are...

Singapore and Thailand recently moved to ban Polymarket from their respective jurisdictions, arguing that the site was just another gambling platform.On the surface, that argument seems logical. Polymarket's inclusion of sports prediction markets makes it seem like a competitor to licensed sportsbooks around the world.After all, even prediction market's harshest critics acknowledge that there's some kind of value in an investment mechanism to hedge against events like an election, but the outcome of a sporting match just doesn't have the same material impact as an election or war.But, beneath the surface, the argument that prediction markets are simply a Web3 version of gambling falls short, argues New York-based crypto attorney Aaron Brogan.“If you are a state-licensed gambling product, then you...