Coindesk

The relationship between stocks and crypto markets is likely to weaken in the future, Wall Street bank Citi (C) said in a research report Monday.While equities have been and remain the most important macro driver of crypto markets, the "equity-crypto correlation is likely to fall over time as the nascent asset class matures, the investor base grows, technology advances and adoption progresses," the report said.Still, the speculative nature of cryptocurrency markets means that risk asset correlations may be inflated, especially during risk-off events, the bank said."A more transparent regulatory regime in the U.S. will also lead to more idiosyncratic price action," analysts led by Alex Saunders wrote.Bitcoin (BTC) volatility is expected to continue to fall in the long term...

Ondo Finance, a leading tokenized real-world asset (RWA) issuer, has unveiled a new offering to accelerate the onboarding of traditional assets to blockchain technology.Ondo on Tuesday introduced Ondo Global Markets (Ondo GM), a platform dedicated to providing onchain access to stocks, bonds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The specific details regarding which stocks, bonds, and ETFs will be available is not known yet. Ondo, with a market cap of over $600 million, is already the world's third-largest tokenized Treasury issuer, according to data source rwa.xyz.The new offering will help bypass what Ondo calls a broken investment ecosystem characterized by high fees, restricted access, platform fragmentation that locks millions out of capital markets and stifles innovation."By leveraging blockchain technology, we can bring...

Since early 2023, Bitcoin (BTC) has chalked out a classic stairstep bull run, characterized by incremental price increases followed by periods of consolidation that set the stage for the next move higher.The cryptocurrency's ongoing price consolidation between $90,000 and $100,000 is the third of the broader bull run from $20,000. The consensus is that it will end in a bull breakout, just as those in mid-2024 and 2023 did.However, the following three developments, suggest otherwise.Tightening USD liquidityIf there's one thing that any asset class, not just crypto, typically dislikes, it's the tightening of fiat liquidity, particularly the global reserve currency, the U.S. Dollar (USD). To the dismay of BTC bulls, the dollar liquidity is tightening due to several factors, as...

Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Bitdeer announced today that it had acquired a 101-MW gas-fired power plant near Fox Creek, Alberta, to build a "vertically integrated" BTC mining operation.“We are really excited about planting roots in Alberta, our first site in Canada. This acquisition is the culmination of extensive collaboration with multiple government agencies and the Canadian Blockchain Consortium," Haris Basit, chief strategy officer at Bitdeer, said in a press release. "It marks a significant step in our strategy to become the first fully-vertically integrated Bitcoin miner, giving us unmatched control over costs, energy efficiency, and scalability."Bitdeer says they plan to build out a 99 MW datacenter on the site. The site has the capacity to scale to 1 GW. Energy...

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Acting Chair Caroline Pham said Tuesday the regulatory agency has reorganized its enforcement division to “refocus” on fraud and “stop regulation by enforcement.”Under former Chairman Rostin Behnam, the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement had a variety of task forces, including one focused on insider trading, another focused on cybersecurity and emerging technologies and a third aimed at combatting environmental fraud. The new reorganization slims the number of task forces down to just two.The newly-created Complex Fraud Task Force is tasked with handling the enforcement, from preliminary inquiries to litigations, of complex fraud and manipulation across all asset classes. Paul Hayeck, deputy director of the enforcement division, will be the Complex Fraud Task Force’s acting chief....