2024-02-15 21:19

The crypto exchange's transaction revenue doubled from previous quarter as crypto markets soared. Coinbase (COIN) shares surged after the U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange beat analysts' estimates for fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, benefitting from soaring crypto prices. It earned $1.04 per share, beating the average analyst estimate of $0.02 per share, according to FactSet data. Revenue of $953.8 million also exceeded the analyst forecast of $826.1 million, the company said in a statement. Shares of the crypto exchange rose about 13% in post-market trading after adding about 3% during the regular session. COIN shares had fallen about 4% this year, even as the price of bitcoin (BTC) surged about 23%. "We’re really pleased with the results,” Anil Gupta, vice president of investor relations at Coinbase told CoinDesk in an interview. “Operational rigor that we set forth early in the year really paid off over the course of 2023.” Crypto prices surged for much of 2023, but the rally intensified in the fourth quarter as high hopes for bitcoin ETFs – which were approved last month – sparked renewed interest in digital assets. That seemed to translate into more business at Coinbase. It saw 100% more trading volume during the quarter versus the third quarter. Fourth-quarter volume amounted to $154 billion, ahead of the estimate of $142.7 billion. "The ETFs are really a win-win for Coinbase, I think we’re already starting to see that play out on the platform,” Gupta said. The crypto exchange provides custodial services to 8 out of the ten spot bitcoin ETFs, making it a key player in the business. "Custody is obviously a relatively small part of the business today but the great news about ETFs is that it’s invigorating the entire sector … so you’re seeing a lot of activity and engagement on the platform,” he said. Coinbase also posted 2023 adjusted Ebitda of $964 million after previously forecasting "meaningful" positive adjusted Ebitda generation for the year. The company expects to generate about $410 million to $480 million in subscription and service revenue in the first quarter of 2024, after already earnings about $320 million through Feb. 13. As for the share move, “our stock performance has sometimes been better, sometimes lower, sometimes in line, I think the markets will figure that out,” Gupta said. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/02/15/coinbase-shares-surge-after-beating-fourth-quarter-profit-estimates/

2024-02-15 20:20

Despite some fears in government circles that crypto could undermine the dollar, the Fed governor said that the use of dollar-dependent stablecoins can boost the dollar's reach. Fed Gov. Christopher Waller, one of seven on the central bank's board, says the crypto industry's effect on the dollar seems to actually be a help, so far. As long as stablecoins are tied to the dollar – as 99% of those tokens are now – they're increasing the U.S. currency's global strength. Crypto critics often warn of digital currencies' potential to destabilize the U.S. dollar, but Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller argued that stablecoins' dependence on the dollar could actually strengthen the U.S. fiat currency as decentralized finance (DeFi) catches on. "People often conjecture that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin may replace the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency," Waller said at an event Thursday in the Bahamas. But he noted that most DeFi trading uses stablecoins, and 99% of the market value of those tokens is tied to the value of the dollar. "So it is likely that any expansion of trading in the DeFi world will simply strengthen the dominant role of the dollar." Waller, who was appointed to the board in 2020 by then-President Donald Trump, did acknowledge that a future in which people shifted from using dollars to using digital currencies could still be a monetary-policy danger. But he argued Thursday that the repeated rhetoric about the decline of the dollar as the global reserve currency is hollow. "Recent developments that some have warned could threaten that status have, if anything, strengthened it, at least so far," he said. The stablecoin sector – dominated by Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) – is at the center of crypto trading, acting as steady assets used to trade in and out of more volatile tokens. And some expect those utilitarian digital assets to balloon dramatically in the coming years, potentially into the trillions of dollars. The strength of the dollar is vital to the U.S. economy and its foreign-policy interests, though that kind of government-based monetary dominance would be good to undermine, according to many crypto enthusiasts. Read More: Secure America’s Financial Strength With Stablecoins, Not Central Banks https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/02/15/us-federal-reserve-gov-waller-says-defi-could-boost-dollars-global-strength/

2024-02-15 19:39

Massive inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs made headlines recently, but other metrics showcase U.S. investors' appetite for the asset. Bitcoin's price premium on Coinbase hit a 9-month high, indicating demand from U.S. investors, CryptoQuant data showed. The recent price rally to $52,000 occurred mostly during U.S. trading sessions, with modest price appreciation during Asian and European hours, 10xResearch's Markus Thielen noted. Bitcoin's (BTC) latest surge to $52,000 was mainly driven by U.S. investor's strong demand for the largest digital asset, trading data shows. While massive inflows into the new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) dominated the headlines, BTC has also been trading at the highest premium in 9 months on the U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase. The so-called "Coinbase Premium Index" – which measures the price difference for bitcoin on Coinbase compared to Binance, the leading exchange by trading volume – rose to 0.12 Thursday, its highest reading since May 2023, according to data from analytics firm CryptoQuant. "High premium values could indicate US investors' strong buying pressure in Coinbase," CryptoQuant said. Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, also noted that the bulk of bitcoin's price appreciation happened during U.S. trading hours, "During the last 30 days, BTC has rallied +17%, with 11% of those 17% occurring during US trading hours," Thielen said in a Thursday market report, adding that both Asian and European hours accounted only for a 3% price increase. Bitcoin surpassed $52,000 this week regaining the $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time since Dec. 2021, while spot BTC ETFs attracted nearly $500 million daily net inflows. BTC is up 22% over the past month, CoinDesk data shows, outperforming the broad-market CoinDesk20 Index's (CD20) 15% advance. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/02/15/bitcoins-rise-to-52k-is-driven-by-strong-us-demand-the-coinbase-price-premium-suggests/

2024-02-15 19:14

Whether the divergence means a migration from gold to bitcoin is a separate question. Gold ETFs have seen heavy outflows since the 10 spot bitcoin ETFs launched on Jan. 11. The bitcoin ETFs have seen huge inflows, with the two largest sporting nearly $10 billion in AUM just more than a month after opening. This doesn't necessarily mean money is leaving gold for bitcoin. While the new spot bitcoin ETFs, partly pitched as a modern substitute for investing in gold, have received billions in net inflows since opening for business on Jan. 11, a sizable amount of money has been exiting gold ETFs. The two largest gold ETFs based on assets under management – the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), which began 2024 with $58 billion in AUM, and the iShares Gold Trust (IAU), which started the year with $26 billion – have each experienced net outflows. From Jan. 11 to Feb. 14, investors pulled roughly $2.6 billion out of GLD and about $507 million out of IAU, according to ETF.com. This is in contrast to the same period a year ago when both funds saw solid inflows, GLD attracting about $241 million and IAU $86 million. Out of 14 gold ETFs checked on ETF.com, 11 have seen net outflows since the start of the year. The two largest new spot bitcoin ETFs (not including Grayscale's GBTC, which already existed as a closed-end fund) – BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC – together had garnered just shy of $10 billion of AUM since launching in January. Including outflows at GBTC, the spot ETFs as a group have seen roughly $5 billion in net inflows. “It’s a pretty bad scene right now in the gold ETFs category,” said Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas in a post on X. “To be sure, I don’t think these people are migrating to bitcoin ETFs,” he wrote, although he said it could partly be a reason for the ugly numbers. Bitcoin is often compared to gold since both are seen as a haven asset by investors looking to keep their money protected from inflation and that can’t be touched by the government. Because bitcoin is still a relatively new form of money – especially compared to gold which has been around for more than 5,000 years – it was difficult for people outside of the crypto industry to invest in it, but that changed when ten issuers launched spot bitcoin ETFs. Performance is surely a factor as well. The price of gold is lower by more than 2% thus far in 2024, while bitcoin is higher by 23% year-to-date. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/02/15/gold-funds-see-big-outflows-alongside-rush-of-money-into-bitcoin-etfs/

2024-02-15 17:56

Airdrop riches and FOMO are fueling a run on Apple's pricey VR headset at mtnDAO, the Solana blockchain's largest community-run coworking meetup, in Salt Lake City. SALT LAKE CITY – Looking for a glimpse of what an office might look if everyone's wearing Apple's Vision Pro headsets? You can find it here in Salt Lake City, at an in-person gathering of developers focused on the Solana blockchain, known as "mtnDAO." The common theme? They're geeks, and they're rich – a natural demographic for testing out the newly released devices, which can cost upwards of $5,000 including accessories. Over 20 attendees of this month-long coworking event have purchased Apple's Vision Pro. They spend their days staring into sleek goggles, slipping between its digital recreations of reality and the massive workspaces that only they can see. MtnDAO might offer a glimpse of Apple CEO Tim Cook's "era of spatial computing" – where the meatspace environment is enhanced by the digital goggles. Everyone is simultaneously using them to work, play and even socialize, and maybe even physically eat alongside each other, while still wearing them. Cook unveiled the Vision Pro in June 2023. What's perhaps most interesting of all is that the whole thing is completely organic – a future-of-work laboratory that has just popped up, without influencers or corporate sponsorships. These people don't work for a single company developing VR technology. They're nearly all independent tech workers in the crypto industry. They spend their days building products for the "future of finance:" a world built on cryptocurrencies, NFTs and the Solana blockchain. That so many 20- and 30-somethings can afford Vision Pros might be possible only because of crypto riches, or with Solana specifically. Since October the blockchain's flagship token SOL rallied over 10-fold to become the best-performing large-cap crypto of 2023. Believers in Solana aplenty, the mtnDAO attendees have plenty of SOL to spend. And then there's the airdrops – essentially token giveaways by blockchain projects to incentivize early users. In the past few months a parade of financial applications built on Solana have created their own tokens and rewarded power-users with princely sums. Just by trading tokens on platforms like Jupiter, some of the Vision Pro buyers said they received airdrops worth tens of thousands of dollars. "I know it's a $5,000 impulse buy, but f_ck it, I just got a $5,000 impulse airdrop," said ZenLlama, a pseudonymous Solana contributor and mtnDAO attendee who does developer relations for the Monad blockchain. Mass adoption "We legitimately think that we have the largest amount of Vision Pros in one area anywhere," said MJ, a former animator for Netflix and Disney and one of the few headset owners here at mtnDAO actually building a product for the Vision Pro. The headset owners' purchases are fueled by jealousy as much as curiosity. Only a handful preordered the Vision Pro. Most of the rest bought their pairs because of FOMO. Their friends had one at mtnDAO. So they, too, made the one mile pilgrimage to Apple's downtown store and got their own. The result: a WeWork bustling with headset-wearers staring off at who-knows-what and the "normies" around them, experiencing regular old reality. These two groups mingle frequently. Normies chat with headsetters, headsetters chat with other headsetters. The front of their headsets display purplish digital eyes that mimic the real ones they're covering. Their real ones are staring at invisible screens even though they're typing on actual keyboards. "Time to get some real work done," said Marbius, a product manager for a crypto fitness game, as he entered "the box." He said he goes entire days in his Vision Pro. He sets up a few desktops within the VR and allows just a smidge of reality to pass through around them. "I'm spending more time in it than I expected," said Anders Jorgensen, the head of growth at crypto borrow and lend protocol MarginFi, one of mtnDAO's hosts. He pre-ordered his Vision Pro months ago and then brought it to the WeWork where mtnDAO's crypto workers gather every weekday in February. 'Fully immersed setup – no distractions' Inside his Vision Pro Jorgensen opts for a "fully immersed setup – no distractions," with his Airpod Pros providing extra noise-cancellation. Instead of inside busy WeWork he types away atop mountains and moonscapes. Jorgensen and another regular at mtnDAO, T.J. Littlejohn, a former Apple employee who also pre-ordered his headset, says they inspired "a lot" of other people at the coworking event to buy their own Vision Pros. Two others went with Littlejohn to the Apple store when he picked him up and came back with pairs of their own. That spawned a local run on Vision Pros. By mid-February the rumor at mtnDAO was that Apple's local store had sold out. Which reality? Not every Vision Pro owner at mtnDAO is a crypto developer. Two of them are building programs for the device itself. Littlejohn and MJ, the animator were some of the earliest mtnDAOers to own the headsets and helped seed the FOMO that set off the buying frenzy. "Our whole operating vibe right now is finding these really compelling experiences that we can make that would be so dope on the Vision Pro," said Littlejohn, who now runs a VR gaming studio startup called Middle Curve with MJ. Their short term plan is to build spatial video games for the Vision Pro and then leverage that tech for other applications in the "professional" space, perhaps by building character-avatars that Vision Pro's users can consult in lieu of menus. Littlejohn said he was surprised so many other mtnDAO attendees bought Vision Pros. It's been a bigger hit among professionals than he expected – plenty of people spending their entire days in mixed reality. There's something powerful about using the Vision Pro in an office environment, attendees told CoinDesk. It lets them toggle between immersion in their work and the myriad distractions around them in seconds. "Part of me wonders if I'm only gonna like it at a place like this," said Marbius. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/02/15/apple-vision-pros-are-practically-dress-code-at-this-crypto-hacker-house/

2024-02-15 16:19

Lawyers for the Crypto Open Patent Alliance declared that the recollection of the witnesses today was "hazy" and "confused." Craig Wright witnesses Ignatius Pang, Robert Jenkins and Shoaib Yousef took to the stand on Thursday. Lawyers for the Crypto Open Patent Alliance questioned the soundness of the three witnesses' memories. The trial on whether or not Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin's creator, is still ongoing. Lawyers for the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) questioned the soundness of Craig Wright's witnesses' memories on Thursday in an ongoing trial probing whether or not he is – as Wright claims – Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Three witnesses testified virtually, including Ignatius Pang, who has known Wright since 2007. His statement centered around a memory of Wright asking him to build a LEGO blockchain in 2008, which Wright likened to a Chinese recursive chain puzzle. Another witness, Robert Jenkins, testified that he had conversations with Wright around 2009 or 2010 about concepts tied to bitcoin and blockchains. Shoaib Yousef, the last witness to testify Thursday, said he discussed digital currency with Wright in the late 2000s. Jonathan Moss, an attorney representing COPA, questioned whether the witnesses could accurately recall events from "16 years ago." Both Jenkins and Yousef agreed it may be difficult to recount events from that far back. "I would suggest to you that you have confused these dates and details as you are looking back with the hindsight of what you now know," Moss told Jenkins. Jonathan Hough, another COPA attorney, made a similar statement to Pang: "All I am saying to you is this hazy recollection is not a reliable recollection." Wright was taken to court by COPA in the beginning of February in an effort to prove he is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin (BTC). Wright himself took the stand last week and faced a week’s worth of questioning, which came to a close on Wednesday. The trial is set to continue on Friday, when three additional witnesses will take the stand. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/02/15/craig-wright-witnesses-face-questions-about-their-memories-in-copa-trial/