Coindesk

A short-lived Trump family token frenzy has left hopeful investors with steep losses.Official memecoins of U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania are down as much as 60% in the past 24 hours amid heavy profit-taking after Monday’s inauguration. Futures tracking the two tokens have fared similarly bad for traders — with liquidation losses at nearly $70 million for those betting on higher prices.These are not thinly-traded tokens where prices are easy to shift, either. Data shows TRUMP amassed over $19 billion in volumes over a 24-hour period, while MELANIA saw $4.5 billion exchange hands.Major tokens, such as Tron's TRX and Cardano’s ADA did under $4 billion in volumes in the same period, indicative of the high interest in...

Deribit-listed options show a persistent bullish outlook for bitcoin relative to ether, following President Donald Trump's omission of any crypto mention in his inaugural speech on Monday.As of noon Hong Kong Time, BTC call options, which offer a bullish exposure in the leading cryptocurrency, traded pricier than ETH calls across time frames, according to risk reversals tracked by Amberdata. Risk reversal measures the difference between implied volatility for calls relative to puts, with positive values signaling a bullish sentiment.BTC's risk reversals show short-term and near-term calls trading at a four to five volatility points premium to puts. Meanwhile, ETH calls trade at a relatively lesser volatility premium to puts.In other words, the ether-bitcoin ratio is seen extending the downtrend. The...

Commissioner Mark Uyeda will take over running the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as the agency awaits the Senate confirmation on President Donald Trump's pick for the permanent role, Paul Atkins.Acting Chair Uyeda, who has been a clear supporter of relaxing the regulator's pursuit of the crypto industry alongside fellow Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce, once served Atkins as a counsel at the agency. Atkins, who was formally nominated hours after Trump was sworn in on Monday, is a former commissioner who has developed ties to crypto in his Washington consulting business.Uyeda has expressed his own strong views about the SEC's role regarding digital assets. He's routinely criticized the commission's majority on moves to rein in crypto, such as the so-called...

Arthur Hayes, the chief investment officer of cryptocurrency venture capital firm Maelstrom, says he doubts Donald Trump’s government will get around to creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve, a policy many crypto enthusiasts are pinning their hopes on.“I don't think Trump will get around to doing a bitcoin reserve,” Hayes, the co-founder and former CEO of BitMex, said in an interview. “At the end of the day, I don't know how borrowing money to buy bitcoin helps on any of Trump's platforms.”Trump certainly sees the benefit crypto can bring him, having launched a couple of lucrative meme coins (crypto tokens with no utility other than to be volatile speculative instruments) prior to his inauguration. For hardline Bitcoin supporters, a U.S. strategic...

U.S. President Donald Trump and his entourage have already made tens of billions of dollars in profits (at least on paper) off of the Official Trump (TRUMP) and Melania Meme (MELANIA) tokens that launched on Solana in the last three days.Now trading at $42, TRUMP has surged to a $8.8 billion market capitalization, making it the 25th largest coin in the whole crypto ecosystem, just behind some CoinDesk 20 coins such as polkadot (DOT) and litecoin (LTC). (The CoinDesk 20 is an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap excluding memecoins, stablecoins and exchange coins).MELANIA, for its part, has risen to a $945 million market cap, placing it 121st position among token projects. On-chain data shows that the...