Coindesk

There is more to SEC’s recent memecoin guidance than meets the eye. On Feb. 27, the staff of the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance issued guidance explaining that memecoins — which the SEC described as digital assets “inspired by internet memes, characters, current events, or trends for which the promoter seeks to attract an enthusiastic online community” — are generally not sold as securities.This is consistent with the SEC’s shift away from efforts under former Chair Gary Gensler to claim regulatory power over virtually the entire digital-asset industry, and it could have implications for the industry that go far beyond memecoins.The SEC’s attempts to regulate digital assets during the Biden Administration largely hinged on the Supreme Court’s so-called “Howey test”...

Ethereum's ETH has been spiraling on Monday, jeopardizing a large decentralized finance (DeFi) loan on lending platform Sky (formerly Maker) of being liquidated.The borrower in danger took out a $74 million loan in DAI stablecoin by pledging 65,680 ETH as collateral, worth nearly $130 million earlier today, per a Sky vault data dashboard.In an already weak crypto prices, ETH plunged nearly 10% during the day to $1,820, below the loan's liquidation level slightly above $1,900.Blockchain data by Debank shows that the borrower withdrew 2,000 ETH, worth nearly $4 million at current prices, from crypto exchange Bitfinex earlier Monday and deposited the assets to the Maker vault, propping up the loan's collateral to avoid liquidation.Following the deposit, the liquidation level for...

One of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's regulation proposals that was meant to grab segments of the crypto space under the agency's jurisdiction had sought to expand what trading venues it believes need to register in a way that included digital assets businesses, and Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda is looking to reverse that effort.The rule has been years in the making and is waiting to be finalized at the agency, but Uyeda has asked staff at the SEC to put the brakes on that."In my view, it was a mistake for the commission to link together regulation of the Treasury markets with a heavy-handed attempt to tamp down the crypto market," he said in remarks set for delivery on...

Deribit-listed bitcoin (BTC) futures set to expire this Friday now trade marginally below the exchange’s index price, flashing a discount in a sign of weak demand for the cryptocurrency.“What we have seen is that near-tenor (7d and shorter) yields have dipped to the negative for the first time in over a year,” Andrew Melville, a research analyst at Block Scholes told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat. “This means that futures prices are trading below spot, which we take as a significantly bearish indicator.”Deribit is the world’s leading crypto options exchange and a preferred venue for sophisticated traders looking to employ synthetic strategies involving futures, options and spot markets.Source link

The bitcoin (BTC) perpetual futures funding rate is fluctuating between positive and negative, reflecting market uncertainty. As bitcoin declines and hovers around $80,000, traders are seeking direction, especially after bitcoin lost its 200-day moving average.The funding rate, set by exchanges for perpetual futures contracts, determines periodic payments between long and short positions. A positive rate means long positions pay shorts, while a negative rate means shorts pay longs.Over the past two weeks, the funding rate has oscillated between positive and negative, indicating indecision. In bull markets, the rate typically remains positive. Recently, the daily funding rate hit a negative -0.006%, equivalent to an annualized rate of -2%, according to Glassnode data. Historically, bitcoin bottoms have coincided with sustained negative funding...