Coindesk

Fintech giant Revolut plans to extend its battle-tested security wrapper, Revolut Pay, to crypto customers from the start of 2025 to improve protection against fraudulent attacks.As it stands, Revolut says, there is limited visibility into card transactions and bank transfers its crypto customers make with exchanges, potentially exposing them to higher levels of fraud due to card mechanisms having limited anti-scam protections.A 12-month pilot of firms using Revolut Pay’s enhanced due diligence, direct API integration and end-to-end control over the payment process showed crypto customers were exposed to about 50% fewer attempts to defraud them, Revolut said in a statement.These enhancements include know-your-customer (KYC) name matching, fraud warning screens, proof of crypto delivery and the ability for crypto merchants to...

While bitcoin (BTC) continues to reach new lifetime highs, the latest options market trend indicates that traders aren't chasing the uptrend with the same zeal as before.On Monday, BTC's price rose above $107,000, surpassing the previous peak on Dec. 5 and taking the cumulative post-U.S.-election gain to over 50%, CoinDesk data show.The rally follows President-elect Donald Trump's assurance that the U.S. will build a bitcoin strategic reserve similar to its strategic oil reserve. Analysts expect the winning streak to continue next year, with prices ranging between $150K to $200K by the end of the following year.However, the current pricing of options trading on Deribit indicates that traders aren't chasing the rally like they used to, signaling a more cautious outlook...

While Vancouver's City Council has passed a motion to explore becoming a 'bitcoin-friendly city', British Columbia still has a province-wide ban on mining BTC until December 2025.B.C.'s bitcoin mining ban began in December 2022 to address energy concerns, and it faced a legal challenge from Conifex Timber, which the B.C. Supreme Court upheld in early 2024, citing the policy's reasonableness and alignment with public utility regulations.BC Hydro, the largest electricity utility in the province, relies heavily on hydroelectric power, which generates over 90% of its electricity.Vancouver's motion – introduced to the council by Mayor Ken Sim – focuses on bitcoin's financial benefits and mentions the benefits of bitcoin mining, but it can't influence mining because of electricity regulation and BC...

IP-backed memecoin Simon’s Cat (CAT) surged 50% Monday after becoming the first cat-themed token to get a coveted Binance spot listing — amid some meme tokens taking the plagiarism heat.CAT zoomed from $0.000039 to a record peak of $0.000067 in early Asian hours Tuesday, data shows, before paring gains. Trading volumes rose tenfold from $55 million to over $500 million.Open interest in the token’s future products nearly doubled to over $60 million, showing a bump in expectations of further volatility with a bullish bias.Binance said Monday it would offer airdrops of CAT to users of their Earn products who staked specific amounts of BNB tokens last week. It would then list 1000CAT (where a single token holds a thousand CAT)...

Ripple’s upcoming RLUSD stablecoin is attracting bids upto 836 XRP ($2068) on onchain marketplaces ahead of its Tuesday release, a sign of frenzy among enthusiasts who may want to be the first to hold the token.These bids range from 500 XRP ($1237) to as much as 836 XRP ($2068) as of Asian morning hours on Tuesday, CoinDesk viewed on the Xaman application. Each XRP exchanges hands for just under $2.5, data shows.“There actually is someone willing to pay $1,200/RLUSD for a tiny fraction of one RLUSD.,” Ripple Labs CTO David Schwartz said in a Monday post. “Tools will show you the highest price anyone is willing to pay, even if it's just for a tiny bit. Maybe someone wants the...