Coindesk

Bitcoin (BTC) is not the only one setting milestones. HyperLiquid, the leading on-chain perpetuals trading protocol operating on its custom-built layer 1 blockchain, is setting impressive records, too, with the platform seeing more activity in ether (ETH) than bitcoin.The cumulative perpetuals volume on the platform has surged past $500 billion, registering a staggering 15-fold year-to-date rise, according to DefiLlama.The platform has seen an average daily volume of over $5 billion in the past seven days, accounting for over 45% of the total onchain perpetuals market activity of the past 24 hours.What's more interesting is that ether, not bitcoin, is leading the boom in activity this week. Since Monday, ether perpetuals have registered a cumulative trading volume of $7 billion. That's...

Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial just increased its holdings of Chainlink’s LINK token.The project purchased another $1 million worth of LINK late Thursday, data shows, for the second straight day, increasing its LINK stash to $2 million worth of tokens. It additionally brought $246,000 worth of Aave’s AAVE, taking total token holdings to $1.2 million.LINK is now World Liberty Financial’s fourth-largest holding after ether (ETH), bitcoin (BTC) and tether (USDT).Backed by the Trump family, World Liberty Financial is a unified platform where users can borrow and lend cryptocurrencies, create liquidity pools and transact with stablecoins. WLFI serves as a governance token for the platform.It uses data provider Chainlink's services for better integrating with the wider crypto ecosystem. Chainlink supports the...

The ranks of cryptocurrency developers held steady in 2024, as some recent entrants left the industry while veterans mostly stuck around, according to a report released Thursday by Electric Capital.The total developers working in crypto worldwide was basically flat, declining a statistically insignificant 7% from a year earlier, and the number of monthly active developers went to 23,613 in November, the report said.Meanwhile, the Solana ecosystem, ground zero for the memecoin craze, was the most popular blockchain among new developers, an 83% increase in its ecosystem compared to a year earlier. In July, this community became the first since 2016 to bring on board more devs than Ethereum. Solana attracted 7,625 new developers in 2024, the most of any chain...

Congressman French Hill will be the next chair of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, Punchbowl News reported Thursday.The Arkansas Republican was named to the role Thursday by the party's Steering Committee, which named the leaders of the various committees ahead of the 119th Congress's start next year. Hill will succeed North Carolina's Patrick McHenry, who will retire after 20 years in Congress and multiple terms leading Republicans on the Financial Services Committee.Hill has chaired the Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion subcommittee over the past few years and cosponsored the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), a market structure bill that much of the cryptocurrency industry hoped would become law. He's also introduced or cosponsored...

Memecoins, whether people want to accept it or not, have become big business. Without delving into statistics, anyone immersed in the crypto space this year can confirm that memecoins have dominated conversations. Critics often argue that memecoins are just a rehash of Jordan Belfort’s “Wolf of Wall Street” era — a world of unregulated securities and insider trading. This time, however, the penny stocks have been replaced by on-chain memes financialized in ways that make it seem like anyone can create and profit from them.Yet, this perception of memecoins as a quick, easy way to win a digital lottery and become an overnight millionaire is deeply flawed. While they may be marketed as accessible and egalitarian, the reality is far...