Coindesk

Cryptocurrencies continued to this week's decline on Tuesday, with altcoins in near-freefall as bitcoin (BTC) slid further from the $100,000 level.Among the worst-hit cryptos were XRP, Polkadot (DOT), Litecoin (LTC), Aptos (APT) and Cardano (ADA), down 15%-18% over the past 24 hours, extending Monday declines. The CoinDesk 20 — an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding memecoins, stablecoins and exchange coins — tumbled almost 10% Most cryptos in the index plunged by double-digit percentage amount at the minimum, though Ethereum's ether (ETH) and Solana's SOL fell just 8% and 9%, respectively.Bitcoin, in comparison, held up relatively well compared to the rest of the market, dipping to $95,000 and down nearly 3% over the past 24 hours.Cryptocurrencies...

A deputy in the Russian parliament proposed the creation of a strategic bitcoin (BTC) reserve to tackle sanctions imposed on the country, state-owned news agency Ria reported on Monday.Anton Tkachev of the New People party, which formed in 2020 and has 16 out of the 450 seats in the State Duma, asked Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to "assess the feasibility of creating a strategic bitcoin reserve in Russia by analogy with state reserve in traditional currencies."The reserve would help counter the threat posed to Russian financial stability by sanctions, inflation and the volatility of traditional currencies that the country holds, such as the Chinese yuan, U.S. dollars and the euro, according to the proposal."In conditions of limited access to...

For decades, prediction markets were a backwater, a science experiment.In 2024, Shayne Coplan, founder of Polymarket, turned them into a multibillion-dollar business and a popular barometer of the political winds, cited by everyone from Donald Trump to CNN.In so doing, he demonstrated a real-world consumer use case for cryptocurrency – and, some argue, a new model for news media at a time when the public has lost trust in traditional sources of information."Most people I know were checking Polymarket for odds during the election," said Meltem Demirors, a crypto O.G. and early investor in the company. "You're creating so much signal that you're getting people who don't care about crypto, and would never care about crypto" to look at the...

Here's the new political calculus for a U.S. congressional candidate: You nod to crypto and say you're on the pro-innovation side, and chances are, a million dollars (or more) could drop from the sky to pay for TV spots that highlight your strengths or pillory your opponent.In any of hundreds of lesser known districts of the House of Representatives, a few hundred thousand dollars tends to make or break a candidate. When the leading crypto-driven political action committee notices you, a massive influx of cash can pave your way straight to Congress. The Fairshake super PAC isn't subtle. It's nuclear. For a relatively small industry, Fairshake is the biggest corporate money player in U.S. politics. And it's not close to...

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 3581.03, down 3.5% (-128.43) since 4 pm ET on Monday.One of 20 assets is trading higher.Leaders: BTC (+1.0%) and LINK (-1.3%). Laggards: BCH (-10.0%) and APT (-9.9%).The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.Source link