Coindesk

Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump is widely expected to be a positive catalyst for the crypto market, but his promises are already bumping business for locally-based crypto firms.Financial firm Ripple Labs, which offers payment rails and the RLUSD stablecoin using the XRP Ledger, is reporting a bump in local deals and hiring efforts ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 — pinning growth on the upcoming administration’s campaign promises.“2025 is here and the Trump bull market is real,” CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in an X post late Sunday. “For Ripple, this is even more personal after Gensler's SEC effectively froze our business opportunities here at home for years. The optimism is obvious and very deserved.”“We signed more US deals in...

Two of the biggest corporate bitcoin (BTC) holders plan to continue adding more BTC to their already sizeable coffers.Per tweets over the weekend, Bitcoin development firm MicroStrategy (MSTR) plans to raise up to $2 billion through preferred stock offerings to fuel more bitcoin purchases in the first quarter of 2025.Elsewhere in Japan, investment firm Metaplanet said it aimed to purchase 10,000 bitcoin (worth nearly a billion dollars at current prices), in the year, alongside several activities to ramp up general bitcoin usage.“In 2025, we aim to expand our Bitcoin holdings to 10,000 BTC by utilizing the most accretive capital market tools available to us, CEO Simon Gerovich said in an X post.“Leverage our partnerships to advance Bitcoin adoption in Japan...

Bitcoin (BTC) market trends indicate expectations for prices to reach record highs following President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.On Saturday, a trader on crypto exchange Deribit spent over $6 million to purchase the $100,000 strike call options set to expire on March 28, according to data source Amberdata."This trade anticipates that new highs for bitcoin will be broken just a few months after Trump officially takes office," Amberdata said on X.Traders are also net buyers at the $120,000 strike, indicating strong anticipation of a rally pushing prices above that level. The $120,000 call is the most popular option on Deribit, boasting a notional open interest of $1.52 billion at press time.A call option gives the buyer the right to buy...

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) will get to keep the big gavel after his fellow Republicans voted to re-elect him House Speaker on Friday afternoon.Johnson, who has been publicly backed by President-elect Donald Trump, was able to garner the minimum 218 votes needed to win the job in the first round of voting, though he had to persuade two of his fellow Republicans – Rep. Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina) and Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) – who initially voted for other candidates to change their votes to him.With Republicans only having a razor-thin margin of control of the House, Johnson could only afford to lose one vote – which he did, to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky). Massie's "no" vote came as no surprise; he previously...

As the co-founder and general partner at early stage venture capital fund Race Capital, Edith Yeung has had a front-row seat on the development of the crypto sector, particularly in Hong Kong, where she was born and raised. Most notably, she was a seed investor in Solana, investing $250,000 when SOL was valued at just $0.04, and also was an early investor in Lightning Network. Since 2017, Yeung has also authored the China Internet report, an influential annual survey of technology trends in China.Here, Yeung, who will be a speaker at Consensus Hong Kong, discusses Hong Kong’s ongoing development as a crypto hub, her take on China’s stance towards crypto, what she foresees for Solana and one big crypto prediction...