Coindesk

Howard Lutnick, the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald and President Donald Trump's pick for U.S. Commerce Secretary, was recently playing defense during another nomination hearing in front of Senate Democrats about the financial services giant's investment in Tether, the company that issues the world's largest stablecoin, USDT.Lutnick appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Jan. 29, the day after his testimony at the Senate Banking Committee.Cantor Fitzgerald serves as Tether’s primary custodian for U.S. Treasuries, manages a significant portion of its reserves, and holds convertible debt issued by Tether’s parent company. The nature of the reserves backing USDT has been of concern to the crypto industry for years. In 2023, Lutnick tried to downplay those concerns by...

Decentralized lending protocol Aave processed millions in liquidations Monday without accruing any new bad debt, showcasing its resilience during market volatility, data from Chaos Labs shows.The crypto market wilted early Monday, with the price of bitcoin (BTC) falling to nearly $91,000 from $100,000 as concerns of a renewed trade war between the U.S. and its top partners Canada, Mexico and China sent shockwaves through financial markets. The slide reversed later in the day after President Donald Trump paused tariffs on Mexico for 30 days.The solid two-way price action led to margin shortages, resulting in massive liquidations, the forced closure of positions on centralized and decentralized trading avenues. Aave alone processed $210 million in liquidations, its highest single-day tally since...

Crypto majors zoomed as much as 20%, before reversing, in the past 24 hours as a buy-the-dip strategy following Monday’s $2.2 billion turned profitable for risk-takers, although gains were wiped as China announced retaliatory tariffs on the U.S.The bump saw a pull back during the Asian morning hours as the deadline for the U.S. to impose additional tariffs on China passed without an agreement. XRP, dogecoin (DOGE), Solana’s SOL, and Cardano’s ADA are up nearly 3%. Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) are nearly 4% higher."The U.S.-China tariff conflict could decrease the appetite for risk assets and further impact the positive sentiment that has been fueling a bull market in the crypto industry over the past year," Ben El-Baz, Managing Director...

The recent probe of Crypto.com and Kalshi's sports contracts all comes down to a single question — are event contracts premised on sports “gaming” within the meaning of the Commodities Exchange Act, said crypto lawyer Aaron Brogan.The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is probing the Super Bowl events contracts on Crypto.com and Kalshi, according to a Bloomberg report."If sports does not constitute gaming, then, given the CFTC’s current legal posture, the CFTC likely does not have the power to prohibit Crypto.com and Kalshi from self-certifying these contracts," Brogan told CoinDesk.However, all of this is a bit more complicated than it seems on the surface."This is a surprisingly thorny question, which was addressed in the Kalshi ruling," Brogan said, referring to...

Bitcoin (BTC) and Nasdaq futures faced renewed selling pressure during Asia trading hours on Tuesday as China imposed retaliatory tariffs against the U.S.Beijing imposed a 15% duty on U.S. coal and LNG and a 10% tax on crude oil, agricultural machinery, pickup trucks and large-engine cars. The move came after U.S. President Donald Trump's new 10% tariffs on China came into effect.On Monday, Trump agreed to a 30-day pause on his tariff threats against Mexico and Canada, offering a relief to BTC. The cryptocurrency's price staged a remarkable recovery from nearly $92,000 to over $102,000 in hopes that the trade war would be short-lived.China's fresh action, however, has dented the recovery, sending BTC down to $98,500 at press time. The...