Coindesk

Every year, bulls and bears use short-term case studies to forecast crypto armageddon or exponential growth. And every year, neither group is right.Some notable events this year: Ethereum’s Dencun Upgrade, the U.S. election, crypto ETFs, Wyoming's DUNA, the wBTC controversy, Robinhood’s Well’s notice, Hyperliquid’s near $2 billion airdrop, Bitcoin hitting $100,000, and SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s January resignation announcement.2024 was a year with no major market shocks. And, though it didn’t bring in an explosion of new capital, it proved that a growing number of companies in the crypto ecosystem are sustainable. Bitcoin is worth $1.9 trillion and all other cryptos are worth $1.6 trillion. The market cap of all crypto has doubled since the start of 2024.The diversification of...

Red-hot decentralized finance (DeFi) project Ethena said Monday it is rolling out its new stablecoin that aims to help stabilize the protocol's flagship USDe token when crypto markets turn bearish.The USDtb token aims to keep a steady $1 price and holds 90% of its reserves in BUIDL, the tokenized money market fund issued by asset management behemoth BlackRock and tokenization firm Securitize."In light of the rapidly accelerating demand for different stablecoin options, we saw a clear opportunity to provide a new product that offers users an entirely different risk profile from USDe without them having to leave our trusted ecosystem,” Ethena founder Guy Young said in a statement.Ethena is one of the fastest-growing DeFi platforms this year, attracting nearly $6...

Bitcoin (BTC) mining economics continued to improve this month, as the hashprice, a measure of daily profitability, rose 5% from the end of November, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Monday.The hashprice increased as the rally in the world's largest cryptocurrency outpaced the rise in the network hashrate, the report said. The hashrate is a proxy for competition in the industry and mining difficulty.The network hashrate has increased 6% month-to-date to an average of 773 exahashes per second (EH/s), the bank noted."We note miners earned about $57,300 in daily block reward revenue per EH/s over the first two weeks of December," analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce wrote, adding that this is the highest level in the last seven...

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)Imagine you have a rare collectible. It's aged like fine wine, but only shows the original price tag. That's how U.S. companies have been told to value their bitcoin ... stuck in the past instead of reflecting its true worth. As of today, that changes.Yes, today is when the FASB fair value accounting rule, which passed in 2023, takes effect, allowing companies to report their bitcoin holdings at fair market value instead of the purchase price. The change gives firms more control over how they classify these assets and may accelerate corporate adoption. Note, though, the new standard doesn’t apply to NFTs, wrapped tokens or internally generated digital assets.Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst...

The U.K. intends to prohibit public offers of crypto, the Financial Conduct Authority said in its paper on the incoming crypto regime on Monday.Legislation will be put in place to prohibit public offers of crypto, building on the U.K.'s promotion rules that prevent unregistered crypto firms from reaching out to U.K. clients. Only crypto asset trading platforms and offers qualifying for exemptions may not be subject to this. CoinDesk reached out to the Treasury for input on whether or not this only applies to regulated companies as the FCA could not comment on this.The paper asks for industry input on its market admission and disclosures as well as market abuse regime and is one of many more papers to come...