Digital Currency

Based on earnings estimates announced Tuesday, nothing else in the financial services industry really compares to Coinbase right now. Wedded to the rising fortunes of cryptocurrencies themselves, soon-to-list Coinbase expects to make more money in the first quarter of this year than in all of 2020, and has seen an exponential rise in engaged customers. Coinbase’s revenue for the first three months of 2021 is expected to be $1.8 billion with earnings of about $800 million, compared with $1.3 billion in revenue and earnings of $322 million for all of 2020. Crypto is…

Bitcoin trading on CoinbaseSource: TradingView Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $56,140.49 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 3.72% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $55,541.91-$58,645.77 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades below its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bearish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin slid for a second day as the No. 1 cryptocurrency saw flat trading volume, typical of a rangebound market. Bitcoin’s spot trading volume on eight U.S.-focused crypto exchanges tracked by CoinDesk was largely unchanged on Wednesday. The trading volume has been around or…

Someone appears to have gone to odd lengths to impersonate digital asset manager Grayscale Investments, possibly in an effort to drive up the prices of two lesser-known cryptocurrencies. To be clear: Grayscale said it has no intention of creating a financial instrument around Nahmii, an Ethereum scaling project, or Theta, a video platform. Nevertheless, there is a pair of registered trusts, one for each obscure coin, in the state of Delaware (the trust for Nahmii misspells the coin’s name with one “i”). Each of these trusts bears Grayscale’s name, and…

The $1 billion Fei Protocol stablecoin project has gotten off to a very rocky start. The most important data point is this: Fei was built to maintain a 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar but it has not quite hit the mark over this first week of its existence. Backed by major VCs, Fei aimed to create a stablecoin protocol that would outright buy assets with its token, rather than holding them as collateral for loans. It appears the team underestimated the demand it would see to participate in the launch. It…

O mercado de touro de moeda criptográfica trazido pela Bitcoin é ainda forte, que está cheio de fundos, investidores, e vários projectos. No entanto, existe apenas uma escassez de pessoas que trabalham arduamente para o desenvolvimento. A Panda Miner é exactamente um dos poucos intervenientes pragmáticos no mercado de touros. Ao contrário dos impetuosos participantes no mercado secundário, a Panda Miner opta por se desenvolver mais no campo do “cloud hashpower” em que é melhor. Aproveitando a tendência mineira, aumenta continuamente o investimento para conquistar o mercado, expandir os negócios,…

The founder of a security token startup has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a minor, Canadian authorities said. Trevor Koverko, former CEO of Polymath, was taken into custody on March 14 by Toronto police, a spokesperson for the department, Caroline de Kloet, told CoinDesk Wednesday. He has apparently deleted his Twitter. Koverko has been charged with “sexual interference with a person under 16 years of age” (Section 151 of Canada’s Criminal Code) and “sexual assault” (C.C. 271), said de Kloet. Chris Housser, Polymath’s other founder and interim CEO, said Koverko resigned from…

U.S. lawmaker Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a member of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus who has put his name to a handful of pro-blockchain bills and letters, is under investigation by the Department of Justice, which is looking into whether he had a sexual relationship with a minor, the New York Times reported Tuesday. According to the report, which cited “three people briefed on the matter,” Gaetz is also being investigated over whether or not he violated federal sex trafficking laws. He allegedly may have paid for a 17-year-old to travel with him. The investigation is part…

An Australian cryptocurrency company is being sued in federal court for fraud in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the country. According to a report by ABC News on Sunday, French national Alexandre Raffin, 28, has brought a compensation claim against crypto company Modern Assets Australia for an alleged breach in duty of care. Raffin claims Modern Assets and its directors, Jonathan Allison and Carlo Sciubba, failed in their obligation to him as an intermediary in facilitating an exchange of cash for a South Korean cryptocurrency…

A young defensive back with the Los Angeles Rams is the latest pro athlete launching a non-fungible token (NFT), hoping to use the sale to raise money, and awareness, to combat the wave of anti-Asian hate crimes this year. Taylor Rapp, the free safety entering his third season in the National Football League, completely lacks the star power of a Rob Gronkowski or a Patrick Mahomes, marquee players who leveraged their splashy brands into multimillion-dollar NFT sales earlier this month. But the backfield starter, who said he’s been hustling with his co-creators for…

Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $58,800 as of 20:17 UTC (4:17 p.m. ET). Climbing 2.1% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $57,069-$59,380 (CoinDesk 20) Bitcoin has climbed on four of the past five days, and the price is now pushing back toward $60,000 for the first time in a couple weeks. “It wasn’t with the fanfare and fireworks, but instead just a standard grind higher, helped in part by the continued positive adoption news flow,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading with the digital-asset firm Equos, wrote Tuesday in…