Coindesk

Gaorong Ventures, a prominent Chinese venture capital firm known for its early backing of internet giants in the country, has invested $30 million into the operator of Hong Kong’s largest licensed crypto exchange, HashKey Group, according to a Bloomberg report.The backing came at a pre-money valuation of over $1 billion, according to the report. A HashKey spokesperson reportedly said that the post-money valuation was close to $1.5 billion.China has banned cryptocurrencies a number of times. Its latest crackdown came in 2021 saw various crypto platforms leave the country, yet Chinese investors are upping their bets on the cryptocurrency space. Tencent Holdings, for example, has recently invested in crypto market maker Wintermute, the outlet reports.Early last year, HashKey Group raised a...

By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)Bitcoin (BTC) continues to climb the wall of worry, pushing above $97,000 despite hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer and producer price inflation reports in the past couple of days. That's a surprise. With prices rising and the likelihood of a Fed rate cut receding, you'd expect risky investments like cryptocurrencies to pause, at the very least.The buoyant behavior is possibly underpinned by signs that inflation is still seen as easing in coming months."Bitcoin could likely get some relief in the short-term judging by the high-frequency U.S. inflation indicator by truflation which suggests a significant decline in headline inflation over the coming months," said Andre Dragosch, the head of European research at Bitwise. The...

Short-term bitcoin (BTC) holders (STHs) have added 1.5 million bitcoin (BTC) since September taking the total to over 4 million bitcoin, according to Glassnode. This equates to an average accumulation of approximately 300,000 BTC per month. During this period, bitcoin surged from $60,000 to $109,000 before pulling back below $100,000. Glassnode defines STHs as those who have held bitcoin for less than 155 days.Historically, in previous bull market cycles, bitcoin's price tends to peak when STHs exhaust their buying momentum, leading to a slowdown in price appreciation. This pattern has played out in 2013, 2017, and 2021. However, STHs held significantly more bitcoin at these cycle peaks: 5 million BTC in 2013, 6.2 million BTC in 2017, and 4.6 million...

Alternative cryptocurrencies, or altcoins, made waves Friday as XRP and dogecoin (DOGE) drew strength from spot ETF optimism and Solana-based decentralized exchange Jupiter's JUP token cheered the platform's buyback program.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has acknowledged Grasycale's applications for XRP and dogecoin (DOGE) spot ETFs, Fed. 13 updates by the market regulator show. These filings will now be submitted to the SEC's federal register, setting off a 240-day deadline to review and decide on the applications.Recently, there has been a wave of filings for altcoins ETFs, including Solana's SOL and Litecoin (LTC), indicating expectations for accelerated integration of cryptocurrencies into mainstream finance under Donald Trump's Presidency.Potential approval of XRP and DOGE spot ETFs, regulated and familiar investment vehicles,...

Historical trends tied to a key indicator suggest that bitcoin (BTC) has plenty of upside left as renewed inflation in the U.S. threatens to challenge the current uptrend.The 200-week simple moving average (SMA) of bitcoin's price, which smooths out short-term market fluctuations to provide a clearer picture of the overall trend, stood at $44,200 at the time of writing, according to TradingView.Although this average is at its highest point ever, it is still significantly below the previous bull market's peak of $69,000 in November 2021.That may be an important point because past data show bull markets end with the 200-week SMA rising to the record prices established in the preceding bull run.For instance, the previous bull market ended in late...