Coindesk

Landlocked between six different neighbors in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia has approximately 120 million inhabitants, making it the second most populous nation on the continent, and a GDP of $163 billion, which puts it in the same economic league as Ukraine, Morocco, Slovakia or Kuwait.However, the country has also suffered from a bloody civil war, with several regions still under the control of anti-government forces, like the ethno-nationalist Amhara militia Fano.But that hasn’t prevented Chinese bitcoin (BTC) mining company BIT Mining (BTCM) from expanding its operations — until now confined to Akron, Ohio — into Ethiopia by signing a $14 million deal to acquire facilities worth 51 megawatts (MW) and almost 18,000 bitcoin mining rigs in the country.In fact,...

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3701.1, down 1.1% (-39.29) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.Four of 20 assets are trading higher.Leaders: APT (+4.6%) and ADA (+2.2%).Laggards: POL (-3.1%) and LINK (-3.1%).The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.Source link

Ripple, an enterprise-focused blockchain service closely related to the XRP Ledger (XRP), said Tuesday that it will use data provider Chainlink's (LINK) services to better integrate its RLUSD stablecoin with decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.This feature, which went live today on the Ethereum blockchain, allows developers to incorporate RLUSD into DeFi protocols for trading, lending and other activities. The company rolled out its U.S. dollar-pegged RLUSD stablecoin to the broader public on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger networks last month. Currently, the token has a $72 million market capitalization, according to CoinGecko data.By adopting the Chainlink standard, Ripple aims to accelerate RLUSD adoption across decentralized finance (DeFi) and boost its appeal for secure, low-cost cross-border payments. DeFi applications often require reliable...

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)It's still early in 2025, and already we're seeing a significant divergence between bitcoin and the S&P 500.BTC is looking to secure a foothold above $100,000, and its Deribit-listed options are indicating a bullish bias. The same can't be said of the S&P 500, which has a history of providing risk-on/off cues to risk assets, including BTC.According to Cboe data, the SPX options skew now reflects greater downside risk than it did a year ago.The defensive positioning in stocks perhaps stems from concerns that President-elect Donald Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration could be a "sell-the-news" event. Risk-taking has picked up across financial markets in the past two months in anticipation of pro-corporate and...

Disclaimer: The analyst who wrote this piece owns shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Semler Scientific (SMLR). As interest in digital assets continues to rise, a new phase of corporate adoption for Bitcoin appears to be taking shape, with publicly listed firms following MicroStrategy's lead by adding BTC to their balance sheets.It all started with MicroStrategy (MSTR) adopting BTC as Treasury asset in 2020. Since then, its share price has jumped almost 2,500%. Over the years, the company has boosted its coin stash through cash, at-the-market (ATM) equity offerings, convertible debt or, more recently, through preferred stock offerings. In 2024, we saw multiple companies follow suit and adopt a bitcoin treasury strategy, such as Metaplanet (3350), Semler Scientific (SMLR), MARA Holdings...