Coindesk

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)It was only a matter of time before the bitcoin bull market reignited excitement in the DeFi sector, and guess what? Chatter is heating up about a potential “carry trade” that uses DeFi protocol Ethena's yield-bearing staked USDe (sUSDe) to borrow stablecoins like USDC and USDT from the lending giant Aave.Those stablecoins are then flipped back for USDe, yielding a sweet return from the juicy spread between sUSDe's near 30% annualized yield and AAVE's variable borrowing rates, currently less than 20%. The return is way better than ether's staking yield of under 4% and the U.S. 10-year Treasury's 4.24%.If the trade becomes popular, the arbitrage window could eventually close, with borrowing rates...

Financial conditions in the U.S. are the loosest they have been in three years, according to the Chicago Fed's National Conditions Index (NFCI), a weekly gauge that takes into account factors such as leverage, debt and equity markets and traditional banking.The readings provide insight into three specific areas: risk, credit and leverage. For the week ended Nov. 22, the index dropped to -0.64, a level not seen since August 2021 in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.A negative reading suggests financial conditions are looser than average indicating that liquidity is readily available. A positive reading, in contrast, means tighter-than-average conditions with capital hard to come by, as during the 2008 global financial crisis.Zooming out, we're in one of the most...

Digital Currency Group (DCG) owned mining pool Foundry has laid off 16% of its U.S.-based employees and a "small team in India."“We are continuously refining our strategy to ensure long-term success and growth in a dynamic market. We recently made the strategic decision to focus Foundry on our core business – operating the #1 Bitcoin mining pool in the world and growing our site operations business – while we supported the development of DCG’s newest subsidiaries, including Yuma and the spinout of Foundry’s successful self-mining business," a DCG spokesperson said via email.A spokesperson for the company said that DCG's most recent shareholder letter already disclosed plans for this realignment."As part of this realignment, we made the difficult decision to reduce...

When we think of altcoins like XRP and their sudden price bursts, the first thing that comes to mind is South Korea, which has a reputation for heavily engaging with alternative coins.While Korean investors have contributed to XRP's impressive 30-day price surge of over 400% to $2.60, they're not the only game in town. The stateside investors have been hyperactive through the Nasdaq-listed Coinbase exchange.The XRP/USD pair on Coinbase has been consistently pricier than Binance's XRP/USDT pair in the past 30 days, with minute-level premiums ranging from 3% to 13%, according to data from analytics firm CryptoQuant.It's a sign of whales being active on Coinbase, according to CryptoQuant's CEO Ki Young Ju. In the meantime, prices have not seen a...

Grayscale has become the latest entrant into the Solana ETF sweepstakes as it looks to convert its existing Solana Trust (GSOL) into an exchange-traded fund.A 19b-4 filing submitted by NYSE Arca, the exchange that would list the fund, was made on Tuesday evening. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires exchanges to submit such a filing to inform the SEC of a proposed rule change by a self-regulatory organization (SRO) such as an exchange.Grayscale is now the fifth asset manager that has filed to launch a Solana ETF, following Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares and newly formed Canary Capital, all of which announced plans earlier this year.Grayscale already successfully converted its flagship Ethereum and Bitcoin trusts into ETFs earlier this year....