2024-10-01 06:57

The yen losses suggest the market is not worried about Ishiba's hawkish image and potential for faster BOJ rate hikes, offering positive cues to risk assets, including BTC. BTC dropped over 3% on Monday, with analysts blaming Japan's incoming PM Ishiba's hawkish bias and Nikkei's slide for the losses. The yen, however, depreciated across the board Monday, contradicting the Ishiba link. Bitcoin (BTC) fell 3.5% Monday, with at least half of the losses occurring during the European trading hours. Market pundits jumped the gun, attributing the entire slide mainly to early morning losses in Japan's Nikkei index, which tanked after Shigeru Ishiba, seen as a monetary policy hawk, won the leadership race to become Japan's prime minister. It's common for BTC to take cues from major regional equity market indices. However, on Monday, the Japanese yen, barring a minor early morning bid, weakened across the board, challenging the narrative that hawkish Ishiba weighed over risk assets, including BTC. Hawkish/dovish developments typically have a greater bearing on national currency. The USD/JPY pair rose 1% on Monday, and the AUD/JPY cross, seen as a risk barometer by analysts, rose 1.15%, offering positive cues to bitcoin and other riskier assets. Both pairs are up at press time, hinting at continued yen depreciation and risk-on environment. Besides, on Sunday, Ishiba said monetary policy must remain accommodative as a trend, suggesting the bias for lower borrowing costs as opposed to faster rate hikes. Clearly, markets currently do not seem worried about Ishiba's supposed pro-monetary tightening image and potential faster rate hikes by the Bank of Japan (BOJ). The central bank raised rates in late July, triggering a broad-based unwinding of the risk-on trades funded by cheap JPY-denominated loans. Back then, BTC dropped from roughly $65,000 to $50,000 in a matter of days. It appears other dynamics were at play on Monday rather than just Ishiba and Nikkei's influence. Perhaps, BTC was simply overbought and due for a good old bull market pullback after a near 90-degree rally from lows under $53,000. Looking ahead, the yen and not Nikkei warrants attention, as the Japanese currency is a "U.S. recession trade," according to Amundi Investment Solutions. In a recent blog post, the firm said that "repatriation of Japanese foreign assets is not a material risk for now, but its potential for a large market impact always warrants attention." https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/01/bitcoins-link-to-ishiba-led-swoon-in-nikkei-comes-into-question-as-yen-declines/

2024-10-01 06:24

PoliFi tokens are rallying as election countdown clock clicks on, and DeSci protocol BIO looks to raise $13 million in a public token sale. BTC and ETH are flat as Asia's market is quiet and traders mull over Fed comments that the next rate cut won't be large. PoliFi tokens are having a good week, with the Trump-themed MAGA token up 70% in the last seven days. Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) were flat for the first half of the east Asia trading day as markets around the region were quiet owing to public holidays in China, Hong Kong, and Korea. China and Hong Kong are both off for China's national holiday, which is a week-long affair in mainland China known as Golden Week and one-day in Hong Kong. Korea is closed for Armed Forces day, a new holiday the government proposed earlier this year. BTC is trading above $63,700, down 1%, according to CoinDesk Indices data, while ETH is trading above $2,600. The CoinDesk 20, a measure of the world's most liquid digital assets, is down 0.7%. Markets are also mixed after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cooled expectations that another mega rate cut is coming. “Looking forward, if the economy evolves broadly as expected, policy will move over time toward a more neutral stance. But we are not on any preset course,” Powell said. “The risks are two-sided, and we will continue to make our decisions meeting by meeting.” "This is not a committee that feels like it’s in a hurry to cut rates quickly,” he continued. Bettors on Polymarket are putting their money behind a 25bps rate decrease in November, giving it a 63% chance of happening, up from 42% last week. Bitcoin ETFs see inflows, PoliFi tokens in the green In the U.S, BTC ETF inflows continued their positive streak, now in the green on their eighth day, clocking in at $61 million Monday, according to data from SoSoValue. Most of that flow went into BlackRock's IBIT, which currently leads in net inflow since its inception at $21.5 billion. In Japan, MetaPlanet, which aims to be a locally listed crypto proxy stock like MicroStrategy announced it had purchased another 107 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 507 BTC worth $32.2 million. As the U.S. election gets closer, political finance (PoliFi) tokens are enjoying a solid week in the green as the U.S. election ticks closer. Data from CoinGecko says the marketcap of the category is nearly $700 million. In the last week, the MAGA token which trades under the ticket TRUMP is up 70%, while its Solana counterpart TREMP is up 33%. Kamala Harris' token KAMA is up 61%. Harris leads Donald Trump by 1 percentage point on Polymarket. Given the popularity of prediction markets and crypto election betting, with election betting volume on Polymarket crossing well over $1 billion, Woo X announced today that it is adding HARRIS and TRUMP tokens from Outcome Market, a decentralized prediction market backed by Wintermute. Elsewhere in crypto, the BIO Association, a Swiss nonprofit that looks to expand the reach of Decentralized Science (DeSci) announced the launch of its public token sale. The Association's BIO tokens support its decentralized biotech network, enabling community-led BioDAOs to finance and develop scientific research through DeSci. "With DeSci, you can bypass Big Pharma and these massive gatekeepers that sometimes stop science from happening, and stop science from making new inventions and drugs that could really impact the world in a good way," BIO protocol founder Paul Kohlhaas said in an interview with CoinDesk. BIO's first token sale, which saw Sora Ventures and other crypto venture capitals take part, raised over $5 million. "Bio is essentially creating a large-scale funding model to boil the ocean for super early-stage science and make the discovery of early-stage science community-driven," Kohlhaas continued. The team is looking to raise $13 million with this second round. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/01/bitcoin-etfs-continue-inflow-streak-as-btc-remains-flat-amid-china-holiday/

2024-10-01 05:31

Pollak will also be joining Coinbase's executive team. Base creator Jesse Pollak has been tapped to lead the team responsible for Coinbase Wallet Pollak was named one of CoinDesk's most influential for 2023 for his work on Base. Jesse Pollak, creator of the Layer 2 blockchain Base, says he's been asked to lead the Coinbase team responsible for the exchange's wallet. "I’m really excited to take on this new mandate and to accelerate our mission of bringing a billion people and a million builders on-chain," he said on a post on X. "Coinbase Wallet will continue to work across the entire onchain economy, and we’ll start the work of embodying the other Base values in even more ways." Coinbase first launched its self-custody wallet in 2017 for mobile, then in 2021 for the desktop as an extension for Google's Chrome browser. The app has climbed the rankings of free finance apps in Apple's App Store this year, beginning September at #99 and starting October at #79. Pollak was named one of CoinDesk's most influential in 2023 for his work on Base. The blockchain, which recently crossed the $2.2 billion mark in total value locked (TVL), launched a wrapped version of bitcoin on the protocol in mid-August. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/01/base-creator-jesse-pollak-tapped-to-lead-coinbases-wallet-team/

2024-10-01 05:27

The token initially rose to $4.26 but has since fallen back to $3.77. At press time, EIGEN is trading at $4.26 or an FDV of $7.16 billion. The token will be listed on Binance and other exchanges on Oct. 1. TVL on EigenLayer has dropped by 50% since June. Restaking protocol EigenLayer's native token (EIGEN) is now transferrable and trading at a fully diluted value (FDV) of $6.37 billion. It was listed on several centralized exchanges including Binance and MEXC on Oct. 1 at 05:00 UTC. The token debuted at $3.9 billion with an FDV of $6.51 billion. EIGEN initially rose by over 13% to $4.26 but has since fallen back to $3.77. The total supply of EIGEN is 1.68 billion tokens, with an initial circulating supply of 185 million, which includes 86 million tokens that were airdropped to users that interacted with the protocol earlier this year. Unlike commonly-issued governance tokens, EigenLayer's approach to EIGEN is different as it labels it the "Universal Intersubjective Work Token." A blog post states that the token will solve challenges of "universality, isolation, metering and compensation." It will also use social consensus and forking to execute a variety of digital tasks. EigenLayer has experienced outflows in recent months with its total value locked (TVL) dropping from $20 billion in June to around the current $10 billion. This is partly due to stakers exiting their positions after meeting the criteria to receive an airdrop. The protocol is built on Ethereum, it accepts ether (ETH) deposits and gives users to ability to secure additional networks in return for additional yield. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/10/01/eigenlayers-eigen-token-debuts-at-651-fdv/

2024-10-01 05:16

Response to Swan’s lawsuit says that the mining company at the center of the controversy was only minority-owned by the company, and not a full-fledged subsidiary. Proton Management argues that Swan Bitcoin never owned the mining business in question, as it was part of 2040 Energy, a separate entity funded by Tether in which Swan holds only a minority stake. Proton claims it is enhancing the value of 2040 Energy, and not harming Swan. Proton Management argued in a court filing that Swan Bitcoin does not own any mining business of its own. Proton responded to Swan Bitcoin’s allegations that Proton and six ex-employees of Swan conspired to “steal” its mining business. “Swan does not have a mining business of its own,” counsel for Proton wrote in a filing Monday. “Rather, as Swan admits in its complaint and publicly, what Swan has called its mining business is really just the separate entity called 2040 Energy, which is fully funded by Tether.” Tether is not a named defendant in the suit, and spokesperson for the company has denied any and all implications of wrongdoing in prior comments to CoinDesk. “2040 Energy is not controlled by Swan, although Swan maintains a minority stake in the business. Through the work and ingenuity of the Individual Defendants, 2040 Energy successfully developed mining operations,” the response continues. Proton says that due to Swan’s precarious financial situation, it conducted a large round of layoffs in July 2024. In early August, several key employees voluntarily resigned from Swan due to their belief that the company was being mismanaged, the court filing says, and were subsequently hired by Proton to continue working on 2040 Energy, in which Swan holds a minority financial stake. “Far from damaging Swan, Proton is enhancing the value of its minority stake in 2040 Energy," Proton wrote in its filing. Proton also denied using any of Swan’s alleged proprietary information or trade secrets, and argued if the information the information in question even belongs to Swan, as it may actually belong to 2040 Energy. “Swan has suffered no damage by Proton’s activities,” Proton wrote. Proton is also seeking dismal of the case, claiming that it hasn’t been properly served. It argues that courts in California have no jurisdiction over it as its a British Virgin Islands-based company with no commercial ties to the state. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/10/01/proton-management-says-swan-bitcoin-does-not-have-mining-business-of-its-own/

2024-09-30 20:25

Brito and senior policy counsel, Robin Weisman, are both leaving their roles, putting Peter Van Valkenburgh in charge. The top officials at the crypto think tank Coin Center are leaving as the group celebrates its first decade. Executive Director Jerry Brito and Senior Policy Counsel Robin Weisman are out at the end of the year, and Peter Van Valkenburgh will take the helm. Jerry Brito, the founding executive director of the venerable-for-crypto advocacy and research organization Coin Center will step down by the end of the year, he wrote in a post on the group's website, adding that he'll be retaining a board seat. The same goes for Robin Weisman, Coin Center's senior policy counsel, who will also stay on the board of directors for the crypto research group, which since its first days in 2014 had been characterized more as a "think tank" than a lobbying organization. The new executive director will be Peter Van Valkenburgh, and Landon Zinda will move into a role as policy director. The note didn't mention a next career step for Brito or Weisman, and a Coin Center spokesman said neither has shared any plans. "Peter groks Coin Center’s mission better than anyone, and his depth of knowledge and experience at the intersection of crypto and constitutional law is unmatched," noted Brito, a familiar face over the years at Washington congressional hearings and other policy events. "Our goal at the outset was to secure time for Bitcoin to reach ‘escape velocity,’ and on that score, I think we succeeded," Brito wrote. "The struggle is not over yet, though." The top Coin Center officials leave as the organization is still fighting the Internal Revenue Service's effort to institute crypto tax reporting rules. The change to the U.S. tax code – coming from 2021's Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act – would demand that crypto users exchanging digital assets worth more than $10,000 gather and share information that includes real names, Social Security numbers and addresses. Coin Center first filed a lawsuit in 2022 challenging its constitutionality and is still arguing it amounts to "overbearing surveillance." A judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit gave the case a second shot last month after it had been dismissed earlier. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/30/founding-coin-center-chief-jerry-brito-stepping-down-after-decade/