A war for on-chain market dominance may be brewing. The question: What will be the collateral of choice in the decentralized finance (DeFi) economy? As of press time, DeFi protocols across all ecosystems have locked in almost $132 billion in value, according to DeFiLlama data, inching closer every day to their 2021 high of $175 … Read more
It took a while, but 2024 was the year bitcoin fulfilled a million end-of-year predictions to finally hit $100,000. Uncork the champagne if you like, but I believe bitcoin’s breach of this historic barrier is the harbinger of something even bigger, and that 2025 will be the long-awaited Year of Decentralization. The reason has very … Read more
Mo Shaikh, co-founder of Aptos Labs, announced that he’s stepping down as CEO of the company. Aptos is a layer-1 blockchain that claims to offer enhanced scalability, security and transaction speeds. The platform leverages a unique blockchain programming language called Move, which was originally created for Facebook’s shuttered “Diem” project. In a lengthy post on … Read more
Over the last few months, AI agents running on crypto rails have captivated the crypto community. Natural memeticists, these agents are becoming social media stars calibrated to thrill, and sometimes enrich, an “audience” of speculators betting on their meme tokens. The original and most famous of them, Truth Terminal, was created by putting instances of … Read more
Crypto asset prices slid on Thursday, building on Wednesday’s market-wide selloff spurred by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell disappointing investors with his comments on U.S. interest rate cut expectations for next year. Bitcoin’s (BTC) attempt to bounce back above $100,000 quickly faded earlier during the day and slid to the low-$97,000s during the U.S. day. … Read more
Every year, my company Emfarsis partners with the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) to conduct an industry-wide survey of blockchain gaming professionals. And every year, the overwhelming majority of respondents agree that digital asset ownership is the single biggest benefit that blockchain can bring to games; this year was no different, with 71.1% ranking it number … Read more
As nations explore the implications of digital currencies, Bitcoin is becoming part of national strategies. El Salvador made headlines as the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, while the United States is considering a national Bitcoin reserve. Even China, despite its cautious stance on cryptocurrency, has embraced blockchain technology to support its digital … Read more
This is our final Crypto for Advisors newsletter of 2024. We are taking a break next week to relax before what we believe will be an action-packed 2025 in the crypto space. This year, we’ve published 51 newsletters dedicated to educating advisors about digital assets. Our readership has nearly doubled from 24K to 44K active … Read more
El Salvador is in the process of securing a $3.5 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund, but is making some concessions around bitcoin (BTC) to get the funding. Stacey Herbert, director of the Bitcoin Office in El Salvador, posted on Thursday that the government-issued Chivo wallet — launched in 2021 in a bid to … Read more
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 3644.43, down 0.3% (-9.33) since 4 pm ET on Wednesday. Four of 20 assets are trading higher. Leaders: HBAR (+3.1%) and APT (+2.9%). Laggards: AVAX (-3.7%) and ICP (-3.7%). … Read more