Coindesk

World Liberty Financial, backed by the family of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, on Wednesday exchanged about $10 million worth of Coinbase's (COIN) wrapped bitcoin, cbBTC, for rival WBTC.Wrapped bitcoin is a form of the world's largest cryptocurrency that can be used in decentralized finance (DeFi) on blockchains other than Bitcoin.Coinbase introduced cbBTC in September, and in November said it would delist WBTC, citing its listing standards. That action prompted BiT Global, a custodian involved in WBTC, to sue the crypto exchange to prevent the removal. A court ruled against BiT Global on Wednesday.There's one more link in the chain: Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain and one of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024. In its defense, Coinbase cited BiT...

Crypto traders initial worries about a hawkish Fed materialized Wednesday as Chairman Jerome Powell cut interest rates but expressed uncertainty about the speed and extent of future easing. And now the sentiment has deteriorated. Bitcoin's seven-day call-put skew shows that Deribit-listed put options offering downside protection and expiring in one week are trading at the highest implied volatility premium to call options since September, according to data source Amberdata. In other words, put options are the most expensive relative to calls in three months.Its a sign of traders scrambling to hedge their bullish bets against a potential continuation of Wednesday's price slide, triggered by a hawkish Fed.The dour sentiment is also evident from the negative one-month skew, reflecting a bias...

A bitcoin (BTC) slump spiraled into over $700 million worth of liquidations across futures tracking major tokens, with XRP and dogecoin (DOGE) products recording unusually high losses.BTC fell under $100,000 in late U.S. hours before slightly recovering during early Asian hours Thursday, as the Federal Reserve hinted at a few rate cuts in 2025. Fed chair Jerome Powell then said at a post-FOMC press conference that the central bank wasn’t allowed to own bitcoin under current regulations — in response to a question about President-elect Donald Trump’s strategic reserve promises."That's the kind of thing that Congress should consider, but we are not looking for a law change," Powell said. In a July campaign, Trump said the government would keep 100%...

As 2024 draws to a close, cryptocurrency stands at a turning point. Bitcoin has crossed the $100,000 mark and digital assets have solidified their place in investment portfolios of all sizes. Yet, amid these milestones, a critical, yet overlooked issue remains: the estate planning challenges unique to cryptocurrency and other digital assets.A Looming Crisis: Estate Planning in a Digital EraUnlike traditional assets, cryptocurrencies and digital assets operate outside established estate planning frameworks. Their decentralized nature, reliance on private keys, and pseudonymity make them revolutionary. Butwithout proper planning, crypto holdings can be lost forever, become embroiled in legal disputes, or heavily taxed.This vulnerability is not hypothetical. Chainalysis reports that nearly 20% of all bitcoin is lost or stranded, much of it...

When Michael Saylor announced MicroStrategy's conversion of $250 million in Treasury reserves to bitcoin in August 2020, Wall Street analysts dismissed it as a reckless gamble. "Superior to cash," Saylor declared of bitcoin at the time, drawing skepticism from traditional banking circles.Yet today, those same banks that sneered at bitcoin's corporate adoption are now scrambling to participate in bitcoin-collateralized lending as they race to capitalize on its superior characteristics as institutional-grade collateral and a thriving product-market fit.Traditional collateral, such as real estate, requires manual appraisals, subjective valuations and complex legal frameworks that vary by jurisdiction. Bitcoin, by contrast, offers instant verification of collateral backing through public blockchain data, 24/7 real-time settlement and liquidation capabilities, uniform quality regardless of geography or...