Coindesk

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)While bitcoin (BTC) is little changed over the past 24 hours, down just 0.7%, the broader market is in a bearish mood following the Libra token debacle, which has led to accusations of fraud and calls for the impeachment of Argentina's President Javier Milei.The CoinDesk 20 Index is down around 2.3% over the past day, and the near- to medium-term market movement probably hinges on how the U.S.-Russia negotiations in Riyadh go. The talks are focusing not only on ending the conflict in Ukraine, but also on “normalization” of ties between the countries.An additional layer of uncertainty comes from FTX Digital Markets, the Bahamas-based subsidiary of FTX, which starts repaying creditors today....

The apparent LIBRA token rug pull is the the latest incident to negatively affect the Solana memecoin ecosystem, Galaxy Research said in a report on Monday.The narrative had already began to sour following the TRUMP token's introduction in January and the ensuing "liquidity suck" that it caused. LIBRA could lead to more damage to the memecoin complex, the report said. This could reduce the need for investors to hold Solana's sol (SOL), Galaxy said, noting that sol's rise has been driven mainly by demand for SOL-denominated assets such as memecoins.Galaxy noted that the cryptocurrency has plummeted in U.S. dollar terms and versus rival ether (ETH), since the launch of LIBRA. Solana was trading 8.6% lower over 24 hours at $168.73...

U.S.-based art collective Kanbas made the largest non-fungible token (NFT) purchase in three years last week, scooping up a 1-of-1 artwork by Sam Spratt for $3 million.The artwork is called "X.Masquerade" and is the sixth chapter in the "Story of Luci." It ties into into an upcoming invite-only event that allows supporters to participate in a game by purchasing a "Mask of Luci" for 2.56 ETH ($6,800)."We’re proud to stand beside him and help share Masquerade with the world. It is our way of honoring Sam’s trust, the monumental work he’s created, and—above all—the shared values that underpin it," Kanbus posted on XThe purchase comes alongside a timely boost to the NFT sector following a marketing push from NFT...

Kelsier CEO Hayden Davis, the brains behind the controversial LIBRA memecoin, said he also launched the MELANIA memecoin and that his team sniped both tokens as soon as the contract addresses went live.LIBRA was released on Friday, sparking a now-deleted tweet of support from Argentina's President Javier Milei saying it would support small and mid-sized businesses in the country. His backtracking on the project prompted a 95% plunge in the token's value.Sniping is when people use bots to buy memecoins seconds after the smart contract goes live. Wallets that snipe funds are often those that end up with the majority of profit.The token was "not a rug pull," Davis insisted in an interview with crypto scam hunter Coffeezilla. "It's...

If you believed that ether's (ETH) early-month price crash to $2,000 on some exchanges would drive investors away, think again. Activity in the U.S.-listed spot ETFs indicates that traders have strongly pivoted to ether from bitcoin (BTC).This month, the nine ether spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in the U.S. have recorded a cumulative net inflow of $393 million, according to data from Farside Investors. This figure is also seven times larger than the inflows seen in January, as reported by Glassnode. Notably, these funds experienced outflows on only two trading days.In contrast, the 11 bitcoin ETFs have faced a net outflow of $376 million this month. Sentiment has been so weak that these funds have recorded inflows on just four...