High open interest can lead to increased volatility, especially as contracts near expiration. Traders might rush to close, roll over, or adjust positions, which can lead to significant price movements. Research firm Kaiko said in an X post that while futures showed strong interest from traders, the funding rates for such positions remain well below March highs which indicate tempered demand.
The leading stablecoin issuer is comfortable holding its T-bills at a U.S. institution because it respects international sanctions, CEO Ardoino said in an interview.
The Netherlands launched a consultation on Thursday on a bill that would require crypto services to share their users’ data with tax authorities.
Bitcoin at press time was changing hands at $68,100, ahead 2.9% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH) continued to underperform bitcoin and the broader market, gaining just 1.1% and touching a new 3.5 year low relative to the price of BTC. Solana (SOL) continued to outperform, rising 3.0% and marking a new record high relative to ether.
The number of so-called whales or network entities owning at least 1,000 BTC jumped to 1,678 early this week, reaching the highest since January 2021, according to data tracked by Glassnode and Bitwise. The growing accumulation by large holders alongside solid uptake for alternative vehicles, especially the U.S.-listed spot ETFs, suggests increasing confidence in bitcoin’s price prospects. Meanwhile, retail investor accumulation has slowed, with the cryptocurrency’s price nearing $70,000, according to analytics firm CryptoQuant.”Retail holdings have risen by just 1K Bitcoin in the last thirty days, a historically slow pace,” analysts at CryptoQuant told CoinDesk.
Cryptocurrencies weren’t spared as stocks, bonds, gold and oil all declined on Wednesday.
First, and perhaps foremost, the Fed would be conflicted. As an alternative payment service, stablecoins compete with the Fed’s own payment infrastructure, including FedNow, the central bank’s instant payment service. The Fed’s consideration of a central bank digital currency would leave it further conflicted when regulating privately issued stablecoins, as those two digital representations of the dollar can be seen as substitutes. Any government body, the Fed included, would struggle to objectively analyze private payment innovations that compete with its own services. Giving the Fed the authority to regulate stablecoins unfairly stacks the deck against payment alternatives. Simply put, the fox shouldn’t be allowed to guard the henhouse.
Crypto markets have shown explosive growth, far outpacing traditional asset classes in terms of returns. For example, bitcoin has delivered an annualized return of 230% over the past decade, compared to the S&P 500’s annualized return of around 11%. Ether, another dominant cryptocurrency, has also offered triple-digit annual growth rates in its early years. Even with their volatility, these digital assets provide investors with the potential for significantly higher returns, particularly during periods of market expansion.
The cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems currently lack access to stable, high-quality collateral besides stablecoin. Crypto and DeFi traders typically rely on volatile assets like bitcoin or ether as collateral for loans, staking, and liquidity pools. While effective, this system introduces significant risks, as the value of these assets can fluctuate wildly within short time frames, leading to over collateralization to mitigate risks. The alternative is to post stable coins that only earn a yield to the stablecoin issuers or selected market participants through opaque yield-sharing agreements.
After more than a year of hype and expectation, layer-2 network Scroll’s governance token launch is beginning to fall short of expectations after being plagued by token allocation issues.