Coindesk

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap-up of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I'm Marc Hochstein, CoinDesk's deputy editor-in-chief for features, opinion and standards.In this issue:What does Google's quantum computing chip mean for Bitcoin?Dev's defection highlights Ethereum's growing Solana problemOrdinalsBot inscribes largest-ever file on Bitcoin blockchainPolygon touts speed of Plonky3 proving systemCrypto's most influential techies of 2024Network NewsNEED FOR SPEED: Polygon Labs claims its newest proving system, Plonky3, is the fastest on the market. (Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's creator, apparently agrees.) A proving system is at the core of zero-knowledge rollups, and a crucial component for transactions that rely on cryptographic security. It is the main piece of technology that creates proofs that summarize off-chain transactions, which are...

The booming stablecoin market hit another milestone Wednesday, crossing the $200 billion total market value mark for the first time ever as demand accelerates and adoption expands for the assets.The asset class as a whole added $10 billion market value in only two weeks since it surpassed the 2022 bull cycle record of $190 billion, according to CCData and DefiLlama.Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies designed to hold a steady price, predominantly pegged to the U.S. dollar. They are a key piece of infrastructure for the digital assets space, serving as the main source of liquidity for trading crypto assets on exchanges and move value on blockchain rails.Demand for stablecoins grew steadily through the past year as crypto markets emerged from a brutal...

The crypto market is in recovery mode on Wednesday following a cascade of selling earlier in the week that for now appears to have flushed out much of the long leverage.The move higher comes alongside a sizable rally in the U.S. stock market following this morning's Consumer Price Index report that matched economist forecasts. The news was enough to convince traders that the Federal Reserve is certain to trim its benchmark fed funds rate another 25 basis points at its meeting next week. The Nasdaq is ahead 1.5% and the S&P 500 just shy of 1%.After having fallen to as low as $94,100 at one point earlier this week, bitcoin (BTC) has recovered to $101,000, up more than 6% over...

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 3744.31, up 5.2% (+185.86) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.All 20 assets are trading higher.Leaders: RENDER (+13.5%) and ETC (+11.3%).Laggards: BTC (+2.4%) and ETH (+2.6%).The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.Source link

XRP is hot and it is probably setting up for another big rally. That's the message from the price chart and options market.The payments-focused cryptocurrency is down 10% this week. The pullback, however, has taken the shape of a bull flag. This technical analysis pattern usually slopes in the opposite direction of the preceding sharp uptrend and, more often than not, recharges bulls' engines for further gains."The breakout should be expected in the direction of the preceding trend, provided it is steep and sharp," Charles Kirkpatrick, a chartered market technician and the president of Kirkpatrick & Company, Inc, said in the book "Technical Analysis, the Complete Resource For Finance Market Technicians.""Flags preceded by a rise of 90% or more have almost...