Coindesk

BlackRock's spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF), tickered IBIT on Nasdaq, dropped on Tuesday as the overheated crypto market cooled and unfounded concern that bitcoin's security might be compromised by quantum computing percolated across social media.IBIT's price fell 5.3% to $54.73, the biggest single-day drop since early August, according to data source Investing.com. The bitcoin price fell over 4%, hitting lows under $94,300, as overleveraged altcoin traders were liquidated, leading to bigger losses in the broader market.While such pullbacks are typical in a bull market, Monday's losses are noteworthy because they came alongside Google's announcement of its Willow quantum-computing chip, which can solve in just five minutes a problem that would take the world's fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years to...

The European Union’s wide-ranging regulatory regime for cryptocurrency firms, the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), is set to take effect at year-end, but, with just three weeks to go, almost a quarter of the 27 countries that constitute the bloc aren't ready.For the regulation to apply in the country, EU members have to align local laws with MiCA. Those yet to do so include Belgium, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Luxembourg and Romania, according to a document created by the Electronic Money Association, a trade body, which was shared with CoinDesk.Trade associations representing the crypto industry say this state of unreadiness is being taken too lightly by overarching authorities at the European Commission and European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which are...

It's raining options, CoinDesk said last week, pointing to growing demand for derivatives tied to bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Now, additional evidence has emerged in the form of record activity on decentralized finance (DeFi), which offers unique and programmable onchain options, perpetuals, and structured products.The total dollar value of crypto tokens locked (TVL) on Derive has risen past $100 million, alongside a record-setting trading volume and monthly active traders.“Derive.xyz's latest market insights reveal remarkable growth and heightened activity, with its total value locked surpassing $100 million for the first time, amid record-setting weeks for trading volume and active traders," Sean Dawson, head of research at Derive, told CoinDesk in an email.“Yield on all USDC deposits has reached 10% on...

Major tokens and midcaps registered one of their worst days in recent months with a sharp drop during early Asian hours on Tuesday, even as bitcoin (BTC) was relatively little changed.XRP, dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano’s ADA fell as much as 15% in the past 24 hours, data shows, as selling pressure mounted in late U.S. hours and amplified in early Asian time. Bitcoin dropped 3%, while ether (ETH) and Solana’s SOL fell 7%, as tron's TRX nearly reversed all of last week’s gains with a 17% haircut.Overall market capitalization dropped by 6.5%, largest drop since October, while the broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index slumped 7%.No immediate reason spurred the selling pressure, but it came on the back of internet giant...

Ethereum's place near the top of the crypto market is unquestioned from the perspective of market cap. But beneath the surface – at the product, developer and decision-making levels – the original smart contracts platform continues to take a beating from Solana, one of its closest competitors.The threat may not yet be existential. Ethereum and its many closely-linked networks are still the most important, influential, and largest platforms for decentralized finance. That lead is beginning to erode, however, with many newcomers to crypto choosing Solana's speed and low fees.It's enough for some of Ethereum's most vocal backers to muse if the network needs to shift to a war footing."Ethereum has been at peacetime its entire life," ETH maximalist David Hoffman...