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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 2805.5, down 0.0% (-0.17) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.Fourteen of 20 assets are trading higher.Leaders: POL (+7.4%) and SUI (+6.0%).Laggards: AVAX (-2.0%) and NEAR (-1.0%).The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.... Read more

As bitcoin's (BTC) recovery rally continues, $90,000 is now the key level where things could get interesting. The projection is based mainly on the current positioning of options market makers.Market makers, also known as dealers or MMs, are responsible for providing liquidity to the order book. They occupy the opposite side of investors' trades and work to maintain a market-neutral exposure by hedging in spot and futures markets. They make money off the difference between what they pay for an asset and how much they sell it for, known as the bid-ask spread.Deribit bitcoin options data tracked by Amberdata shows market makers are "short gamma" at the $90,000 strike. What that means is that as the bitcoin price moves closer to that level, market makers will need sell when the spot price drops and buy when it rises to keep a market-neutral position. These hedging activities could add to market volatility."Considering that negative gamma will still significantly impact the market after settlement, the hedging behavior of MMs may further promote price fluctuations," Griffin Ardern, the chief author of BloFin Academy and head of BloFin Research and Options, told CoinDesk. "But the possibility of upward price movement seems to be greater for now."Gamma represents the rate of change in delta, which itself measures the sensitivity of an option's price to changes in the underlying asset's price. Holding short gamma means holding a short position in options, which can lead to financial loss, especially during periods of high volatility. So when market makers are short gamma, they must trade in the market's direction to maintain a market-neutral book.The opposite is the case when market makers are long gamma. Toward the end of last year, market makers were long gamma at $90,000 and $100,000, which led to consolidation between these levels.The chart shows gamma levels at strike prices across expirations. It's clear that the $90,000 strike will remain the one with the most negative delta following the quarterly settlement due this Friday.In other words, the hedging behavior of dealers could add to market swings at around $90,000.According to Ardern, the dealer gamma profile of BTC following Friday's expiration will look similar to the gold-backed PAXG token."After removing the impact of options about to be settled, PAXG has a similar GEX distribution to BTC. The price gets support after a significant price decline and encounters resistance when it rises significantly, that is, a wide range of fluctuations," Ardern said.... Read more

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)The sun shone on crypto markets early Wednesday, with bitcoin having another go at $88,000 amid growing chatter about bullish seasonality factors as March draws to a close and the second quarter looms.The last 10 years of price data tracked by analyst Miles Deutscher show April as the turning point for the market, with a 75% chance of upside between now and year-end. The pattern was noted by QCP Capital as well, which pointed to the second quarter, and April in particular, as bullish for crypto."The S&P 500 has delivered an average annualized return of 19.6% in Q2, while Bitcoin has also recorded its second-best median performance during this stretch - again, trailing only Q4," the Singapore-based firm said on Telegram.Seasonality factors are not as reliable as standalone indicators, but when coupled with other signs, such as the recent halt in selling by long-term holders, they appear credible.The so-called 1Y+HODL wave indicator, which tracks the proportion of Bitcoin addresses (or wallets) that have kept their BTC for at least one year, has turned upward, signaling a shift into a holding strategy, according to data source Bitbo Charts. See Chart of the Day, below, too.Reports that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is drafting rules to remove reputational risk from its bank supervision were labeled “a big win for crypto" by White House crypto czar David Sacks. "In practice, this vague and subjective criteria was used to justify the debanking of lawful crypto businesses through Operation Chokepoint 2.0," Sacks said on X.Speaking of the wider market, social media talk about stablecoins has picked up, with observers pointing to $31.8 billion in stablecoins sitting on the sidelines on Binance as potential dry powder waiting for a catalyst. BlackRock's decision to debut a physical bitcoin exchange-traded product in Europe with a reduced total expense ratio of 15 bps is seen as highly positive as well, considering fees are generally higher there than in the U.S., capping widespread adoption.Still, macroeconomic uncertainty has the potential to play spoilsport and keep animal spirits at bay. While recent media reports suggest President Donald Trump's expected reciprocal tariffs on April 2 may be softer than expected, there is still considerable confusion concerning the legality of the tariffs and the countries and sectors that will be targeted.The deeper slide in U.S. consumer confidence in March and the death cross in the USD/JPY pair, indicating a strengthening of the yen, a haven currency, ahead, don't help matters either. So stay alert! What to WatchCrypto:March 26, 10:37 a.m.: Ethereum’s Hoodi testnet will activate the Pectra hard fork network upgrade at epoch 2048.March 27: Walrus (WAL) mainnet goes live.April 1: Metaplanet (3350) 10-for-1 stock split becomes effective.MacroMarch 27, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis releases (Final) Q4 GDP data.GDP Growth Rate QoQ Est. 2.3% vs. Prev. 3.1%Core PCE Prices QoQ Est. 2.7% vs. Prev. 2.2%PCE Prices QoQ Est. 2.4% vs. Prev. 1.5%Real Consumer Spending QoQ Est. 4.2% vs. Prev. 3.7%March 27, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment insurance data for the week ended March 22.Initial Jobless Claims Est. 225K vs. Prev. 223KMarch 27, 10:00 a.m.: The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Paul Atkins to the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Livesteam link.March 27, 3:00 p.m.: Mexico's central bank announces its interest rate decision.Target Rate Est. 9% vs. Prev. 9.5%March 28, 8:00 a.m.: The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) releases February unemployment rate data.Unemployment Rate Est. 6.8% vs. Prev. 6.5%March 28, 8:00 a.m.: Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography releases February unemployment rate data.Unemployment Rate Est. 2.6% vs. Prev. 2.7%March 28, 8:30 a.m.: Statistics Canada releases January GDP data.GDP MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.2%March 28, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis releases February consumer income and expenditure data.Core PCE Price Index MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.3%Core PCE Price Index YoY Est. 2.7% vs. Prev. 2.6%PCE Price Index MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.3%PCE Price Index YoY Est. 2.5% vs. Prev. 2.5%Personal Income MoM Est. 0.4% vs. Prev. 0.9%Personal Spending MoM Est. 0.5% vs. Prev. -0.2%April 2, 12:01 a.m.: The Trump administration's reciprocal tariffs plan goes live.Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)March 27: KULR Technology Group (KULR), post-market, $-0.02March 28: Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY), pre-market, C$0.38Token EventsGovernance votes & callsSky DAO is discussing redirecting the Boost program’s budget to promote USDS on non-Ethereum networks and stop Sky token buybacks to instead direct surplus toward Sky takers.DYdX DAO is discussing the allocation of $10 million to fund the most profitable traders on the platform in a bid to attract talent. The DAO is also voting on creating a new liquidity tier designed for markets introduced through the Instant Market Listings feature.Venus DAO is discussing the potential acquisition of a 33% stake in Thena.fi for $4.5 million to position Venus to “build a comprehensive DeFi SuperApp on the BNB Chain.”Balancer DAO is discussing the establishment of a Balancer Alliance Program, which would see the protocol share a portion of the revenue it generates with key ecosystem partners in the form of USDC as veBAL.March 26, 8 a.m.: Kaia Chain to hold a Community Town Hall to discuss its next moves and latest business and governance insights.March 26, 10 a.m.: Conflux Network to host its quarterly Community Call with founders Fan Long and YanJie Zhang.March 26, 12 p.m.: Helium Foundation to hold a Community Call to discuss the protocol and key ecosystem updates.March 27, 9 a.m.: PancakeSwap and EOS Network Foundation to host an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session.March 27, 12 p.m.: Cardano Foundation to hold a livestream with its CTO breaking down the project’s roadmap.UnlocksMarch 31: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.93% of its circulating supply worth $28.88 million.April 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 2.03% of its circulating supply worth $164.34 million.April 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 6.05% of its circulating supply worth $14.39 million.April 2: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 0.77% of its circulating supply worth $17.29 million.April 3: Wormhole (W) to unlock 47.64% of its circulating supply worth $143.5 million.April 7: Kaspa (KAS) to unlock 0.59% of its circulating supply worth $11.98 million.April 9: Movement (MOVE) to unlock 2.04% of its circulating supply worth $27.29 million.Token ListingsMarch 27: Walrus (WAL) to be listed on Gate.io and Bybit.March 28: Binance to delist Aergo (AERGO).March 31: Binance to delist USDT, FDUSD, TUSD, USDP, DAI, AEUR, UST, USTC, and PAXG.ConferencesCoinDesk's Consensus is taking place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes. Day 3 of 3: Merge Buenos AiresDay 2 of 2: PAY360 2025 (London)Day 2 of 3: Mining Disrupt (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)Day 2 of 4: Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2025 (Boao, China)March 26: Crypto Assets Conference (Frankfurt)March 26: DC Blockchain Summit 2025 (Washington)Day 1 of 3: Real World Crypto Symposium 2025 (Sofia, Bulgaria)March 27: Building Blocks (Tel Aviv)March 27: Digital Euro Conference 2025 (Frankfurt)March 27: Web3 Banking Symposium 2.0 (Lugano, Switzerland)March 27: WIKI Finance EXPO Hong Kong 2025March 27-28: Money Motion 2025 (Zagreb, Croatia)Token TalkBy Shaurya MalwaPumpSwap has rapidly gained new users and over $1.2 billion in trading volumes just days after going live and now accounts for nearly 15% of on-chain trading activity on Solana.Pump Fun introduced PumpSwap last week as its own decentralized exchange (DEX), aiming to streamline token migrations and trading. Pump Fun, a prominent Solana-blockchain platform, gained traction for enabling rapid token creation and deployment, often associated with memecoins. It has facilitated over 1.5 million token launches since its early 2024 debut, finding an audience looking to trade microcap tokens on Solana’s low-cost, high-speed network.Tokens migrated to Solana DEX Raydium after they hit a $69,000 market capitalization on Pump.Fun. With PumpSwap, the tokens (and trading fees) never leave the broader Pump ecosystem.Abracadabra Money’s gmCauldrons suite suffered a hack on Tuesday. resulting in a $13 million MIM loss. The rest of the Abracadabra product ecosystem was not affected, with the DAO outlining a recovery plan in "Abracadabra Money: The Path Forward."The DAO treasury, holding $19 million in assets, has already acquired 6.5 million MIM to repay 50% of the loss, with plans to cover the remaining amount in the coming months, demonstrating a proactive response to mitigate the impact.Derivatives PositioningSHIB's perpetual futures open interest has risen by 14%, outpacing other major cryptocurrencies, while BTC and ETH open interest has dropped by under 1% in the past 24 hours.A meme token receiving more net inflows than other assets is often a precursor to a market correction. Perpetual funding rates for most major tokens, excluding TRX, BNB and SUI, remain positive, but below an annualized 10%, signifying a moderately bullish positioning. Deribit's BTC and ETH options continue to cast doubts on the recent price recovery, sporting a bullish call bias only after May expiries. Block flows featured a BTC bull call spread in the September expiry involving $90K and $125K strikes. In ETH's case, flows leaned slightly bearish with outright longs in put options at $1.9K and $2K strikes.... Read more

A rogue actor operating from an Ethereum wallet 'BornTooLate.Eth' has engaged in a governance attack on UMA, a decision-making oracle used by Polymarket, to attack the outcome of a Ukraine-themed contract by becoming one of the largest holders of UMA tokens.UMA is a decentralized "optimistic" oracle protocol that resolves disputes in prediction markets by allowing UMA token holders to vote on contentious outcomes. It has faced its share of controversy for resolving disputed markets, such as Barron Trump's involvement in a Presidential meme coin, the nature of 'finding' the OceanGate submarine, and Venezuela's contested election, drawing criticism due to subjective decisions that frustrated certain market participants.On-chain data shows that BornTooLate.eth has approximately 1.3 million UMA tokens, making them a top-5 governance staker and giving them significant sway over the resolution of UMA disputes.In the case of this Ukraine-themed market that was attacked, the contract asked bettors to speculate on the possibility of a deal being signed involving U.S. access to the country's rate earth resources by the end of March.A deal is in the works, reports say, but nothing has been signed. And yet on Polymarket, it resolved to 'yes' after BornTooLate.Eth used his staked UMA tokens to vote 'yes' on the resolution.A Very Unprofitable Trading StrategyCuriously, this attack doesn't seem to have netted a large payday for any of the participants.Market data from on-chain curator Polymarket Analytics shows that the largest winner from the contract took home just over $55,000.Likewise, the losses were quite moderate compared to other closely-watched Polymarket contracts with the biggest loser forfeiting around $73,000.An etherscan page for BornTooLate.Eth shows that the actor began accumulating UMA tokens over a year ago. Given their holdings of over 1.3 million tokens, building that sort of treasury for the attack would have cost over $2 million.For its part, Polymarket says no refunds will be issued because this isn't a "market failure" and said in a statement on Discord it is working with the UMA oracle team to prevent it from happening again."This market resolved against the expectations of our users and our clarification," a spokesperson posted on Discord. "We’re committed to building the future of prediction markets, which requires building resilient systems in which everyone can trust."Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.... Read more

Fidelity Investments is in advanced stages of developing its own stablecoin, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.The Boston-based financial services giant plans for the token to serve as a form of digital cash, according to the report, which cites two people close to the matter.The token would form part of company's strategy to enter the tokenized government bonds market. Stablecoins are a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a real-world asset such as the U.S. dollar or gold. They provide a convenient way for crypto traders to preserve their fiat value without having to cash out of the market.The news emerges just days after Fidelity filed paperwork to register a blockchain-based version of its U.S. dollar money market fund. The company seeks to register an "OnChain" share class of its Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX), which holds cash and U.S. Treasury securities and is available only to Fidelity's hedge fund and institutional clients. A Fidelity stablecoin could fill the role of cash in this fund.The stablecoin would enter an already crowded market dominated by the likes of Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC. The report comes a day after World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance protocol backed by President Donald Trump, confirmed it too has plans to offer a stablecoin.Fidelity did not immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for further comment. ... Read more

Bitcoin remained steady above $87,000 in Asian afternoon hours Wednesday as traders continued to monitor U.S. data releases and how the levy of U.S. tariffs will play out starting April 2, with most in wait-and-watch mode.Majors were little-changed in the past 24 hours as Solana’s SOL, xrp (XRP), BNB Chain’s BNB, and ether (ETH) rose under 3%, while memecoin dogecoin (DOGE) outperformed with a 5.5% jump.That was the second-straight day for gains for DOGE, alongside continued bumps in pepe (PEPE) and mog (MOG), as a tendency among these tokens to act as a “beta bet” on ether’s strength showed no signs of reverting.Elsewhere, shiba inu (SHIB) zoomed 11%, buoyed by a rotation to riskier memes and a 228% jump in its native ShibaSwap exchange in the last 30 days. Open interest on SHIB-tracked futures has risen upward of 20% since Sunday, data shows, indicative of expectations of further volatility.Concerns about a U.S. economic slowdown remain, however, while a rapid unwinding of momentum trades in equities has led to money managers retreating to full defensive mode, some day.“We expect markets to continue their soft rebound from last week into month-end, with the next major catalyst being the 'liberation day' reciprocal tariff announcement from Trump scheduled for April 2nd,” Augustine Fan, Head of Insights at SignalPlus, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message. “Rumors of a softer tariff response will go a long way to recover some of the recent technical damage in US stocks, helping to spark a global rally along with the recent jump in EU/China stocks.”“Crypto will remain a close proxy of equities in the foreseeable future as we don't see a unique catalyst in the meantime, though the recent M&A announcements with Coinbase/Kraken give us faith that the long-term bull market remains alive and well,” Fan added.Meanwhile, traders at QCP Capital said in a Tuesday broadcast that the upcoming quarter and April in particular, have historically been one of the best periods for risk assets, second only to the festive December rally.“The S&P 500 has delivered an average annualized return of 19.6% in Q2, while Bitcoin has also recorded its second-best median performance during this stretch - again, trailing only Q4, QCP said, pointing out caution among options traders.“Options markets remain cautious. Call skew hasn’t meaningfully shifted toward calls, with call skew only emerging from June onwards, suggesting traders are waiting to see how the tariff situation develops,” they said, adding that attention is turning to the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) data, which could become the “next key catalyst.”The PCE index captures inflation (or deflation) across a wide range of consumer expenses and reflects changes in consumer behavior.Released monthly, the PCE is said to influence Fed interest rate decisions. High PCE readings signal rising inflation, potentially prompting rate hikes to cool the economy, which can reduce risk appetite and pressure bitcoin prices downward as investors favor safer assets. Conversely, low PCE data suggests tame inflation, possibly leading to rate cuts or steady policy, boosting liquidity and supporting Bitcoin’s price as a speculative asset or inflation hedge.The next release is on March 28 and could sway market sentiment, with bitcoin’s reaction tied to how the data shapes Fed expectations — volatility often follows as traders adjust positions.... Read more

Bitcoin's (BTC) recovery looks to have run out of steam with an emergence of a double top bearish reversal pattern on the short duration price charts. BTC peaked near $87,400 last week, with prices pulling back to around $84,000 on Friday and staging a recovery to above $87,000 before stalling again. This sequence of two prominent peaks at roughly the same level, separated by a trough, hints at a classic double top formation. This bearish pattern often signals the end of an uptrend.The double top pattern typically requires confirmation through a decisive drop below the "neckline," the support level between the two peaks, which lies at around $86,000. Should this occur, BTC could decline toward $75,000 or lower in the short term. However, long-term charts continue to indicate the asset remains in an ascending range.Traders reacted positively to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s dovish stance on inflation and a cooldown in concerns around the upcoming U.S. tariffs, which have supported gains in the past week.However, the lack of altcoin correlation with BTC’s recent moves hints that the current price action might lack broad market support, raising the possibility of a “fakeout” rally.A potential drop in BTC will likely spread over to major tokens, denting recent gains and hopes of a lasting rally. Dogecoin (DOGE), heavily influenced by market sentiment and speculative trading, could see amplified losses if bitcoin’s bearish pattern plays out, while XRP might see reduced momentum, especially given its sensitivity to market sentiment and regulatory developments.Solana could be particularly sensitive due to its recent volatility and technical indicators — with it coming close to forming a “death cross” (a bearish signal where the 50-day moving average crosses below the 200-day) in mid-April, a pattern that historically leads to deeper losses.For now, bitcoin hovers in a critical zone. A weekly close below $84,000 could confirm the bearish double top scenario, while a push above $87,500 might invalidate it, potentially reigniting bullish momentum.... Read more

Crypto start-up Plasma unveiled technical features of its stablecoin-specific blockchain, promising fast and efficient global stablecoin transfers by employing a "HotStuff-inspired" consensus mechanism.The HotStuff consensus is an example of Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) for blockchains that allows consensus even when some nodes are faulty or malicious. Imagine a group of friends planning a picnic who must agree on a date, location and duration. If the majority agrees, they can successfully move forward while bypassing potential disruptions from a few unreliable friends.The HotStuff blockchain consensus mechanism takes this further by allowing seamless leader replacement if the decision-maker or the leader node behaves erratically, thereby reducing delays and improving efficiency.Besides, in traditional BFT systems, every node sends multiple back-and-forth confirmations, which causes delays. The HotStuff mechanism streamlines the process where a leader node proposes a decision and validator nodes confirm in a single step. "At its core, Plasma leverages PlasmaBFT, a Fast HotStuff–inspired consensus protocol optimized for rapid finality and low latency, supporting high‑frequency global stablecoin transfers," Plasma announced on X.Finality in blockchain means the speed at which transactions are confirmed and added to blocks, following which they become irreversible. Meanwhile, low latency refers to the quickness in processing transactions.Plasma's blockchain is purpose-built for tether, the world's largest dollar-pegged stablecoin with a market capitalization of $144 billion. Tether accounts for over 60% of the total stablecoin market, according to data source Coingecko, and its issuer made $13.7 billion in profits last year. The early backers of the project include prominent industry names like venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Tether's CEO Paolo Ardoino and Split Capital's Zaheer Ebtikar.Plasma is designed to be a Bitcoin sidechain with full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVM). Most stablecoin activity happens on smart contract blockchains such as Ethereum, Tron and Solana.Plasma's execution layer is built on Rust Ethereum, also known as Reth, a modular engine compatible with the EVM, allowing Plasma to run any Ethereum smart contract.The stablecoin project also has a built-in bitcoin bridge that uses the same group of decentralized validators as the BFT mechanism and periodically links to updates on the Bitcoin blockchain. This allows Ethereum applications to work easily with Bitcoin, using the latter as the settlement layer."By periodically anchoring state diffs on Bitcoin, Plasma achieves seamless interoperability and uses Bitcoin as a settlement layer—delivering permissionless finality, stronger censorship resistance, and a universally verifiable source of truth," Plasma said.Steven Lubka, head of Swan Bitcoin said the new stablecoin infrastructure seems to be "betting on the thesis that other blockchains are only good for stablecoins and they need Bitcoin security properties to be inherited."Other key features of Plasma include custom gas tokens, allowing fee payments in USDT or BTC, zero-charge USDT transfers and confidential transactions while ensuring compliance.... Read more

The Celo blockchain's long-awaited plan of becoming an Ethereum layer-2 chain has been completed, ending an almost two-year process, the main organizations behind the network said Wednesday.The transition ends a long journey beginning back in July 2023 for the layer-1 blockchain that included a community vote in July 2024 and a fierce competition, won by Optimism, among layer-2 networks out to convince the Celo ecosystem to build with their technology.The improved network — like other layer 2s — offers faster and cheaper transactions on top of Ethereum's mainnet. The blockchain is powered by Optimism’s OP Stack, a customizable framework that lets developers build layer-2 networks based off of Optimism’s technology.“You know, whenever people ask us, we always recommend the OP stack, because the team there has been so helpful and so supportive,” said Marek Olszewski, the CEO at cLabs, the main developer firm supporting the Celo blockchain.A blueprint for other layer 1sAccording to Rene Reisberg, the CEO of the Celo Foundation, the migration is the first of its kind in the Ethereum ecosystem, and will probably be used as a blueprint for other EVM-compatible blockchains that are looking to become a layer-2 network.“This path of not just spinning up a new chain, but actually maintaining that history, and having everyone be on the new chain, while it's a lot more work, is great from a Celo perspective. It's becoming this kind of great case study for Ethereum,” Rene Reinsberg, the president at the Celo Foundation, said in an interview.“Even just based on outreach I've been getting from other L1 founders that are like, ‘hey, so what does it actually feel like on the inside of going through this transition, and how much work is it, and how you're thinking about it?’ And so it definitely feels like there's increased interest now,” Reinsberg added.Despite Ethereum's leaders experiencing backlash from the community because of the clunky experience of operating between the plethora of layer-2 blockchains, the lagging price of ether (ETH) relative to other cryptocurrencies and the blockchain losing mindshare and new talent to competitors like Solana, Reinsberg said other layer 1s similar to Celo are watching the transition and also considering moving into the layer-2 ecosystem.“As some of these short-term storms come down and sentiment starts to shift, I think you'll start seeing a series of layer 1s that will likely be more public about that,” Reisberg said. “But we're definitely already seeing these early conversations happening.”Celo’s new homeAccording to the team, Celo end users won’t notice much of a difference in their setups, and will still be able to access key features like SocialConnect, a protocol that connects users' phone numbers or X handles to their Celo wallet addresses to make payments. Nevertheless, there are protocol-level changes.“Validator responsibilities have evolved from operating the consensus protocol to temporarily running community RPC nodes, with validator rewards now distributed via smart contract execution rather than at epoch blocks,” the team said in a press release. “Additionally, transaction sequencing — previously determined by validators running the consensus protocol — will initially be handled by a centralized sequencer, with a roadmap in place for transitioning to decentralized sequencing in the future.”Read more: Celo Community Ratifies Plan to Use Optimism's OP Stack for New Layer-2 Chain ... Read more

Movement's MOVE token was the market leader during East Asia's morning trading hours, up over 25%, according to CoinDesk market data, as the market reacted favorably to Movement's plan to create a Strategic Reserve.MOVE is outperforming the CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a measure of the performance of the largest digital assets, which is trading flat. Market majors like bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are both up less than 1%.In a March 24 blog post, Movement explained it was creating the "Strategic Reserve" because they wanted to proactively rectify the disruption caused by the illicit actions of a market maker, who breached contractual obligations by conducting one-sided market-making activities and profiting $38 million without properly providing liquidity."All cash proceeds recovered from the Market Maker will be used by the Movement Network Foundation to establish the Movement Strategic Reserve: a 38M $USDT buyback program to purchase $MOVE for long-term use and to return the USDT liquidity to the Movement ecosystem,” Movement said in a post.As CoinDesk previously reported, crypto exchange Binance removed the market maker because it was placing substantial sell orders without meaningful buy orders, violating the exchange's rules requiring balanced liquidity provision.Binance said in a post that market makers must place balanced bid-ask orders, have sufficient market depth, stable spreads, and cautioned against disruptive high-frequency trading practices.“Any project-authorized market makers who do not comply with or breach such principles and rules, Binance will take further actions against such market makers to best protect our users,” the exchange said.... Read more

Crypto prime broker FalconX has seen the departure of several senior staff recently, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.Among those resigning was Tommy Doyle, FalconX's European head, according to the sources. The global chief compliance officer, general counsel, and head of credit at FalconX have also resigned, the sources said, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is private. Two traders also exited the business, the people added.Two of the people said the total number of departures was a combination of resignations and firings, and numbered between 10 and 15 people. "Our headcount approximately doubled last year and we continue to grow. We do not comment on personnel matters," a FalconX spokesperson said in an emailed comments.Doyle declined to comment.Prime brokers are essential to financial markets. They provide trading, financing and custody services to large institutions. Before this wave of exits, Brian Strugats, head of trading at FalconX, had recently left the business, as reported by CoinDesk. He had worked for the firm for more than three years and was based in New York.FalconX describes itself as the largest, most reliable digital assets prime brokerage for the world's leading institutions. The company employed 243 people as of February 2023 according to PitchBook data.The crypto firm was founded in 2018 and was valued at $8 billion at the time of a mid-2022 funding round.Read more: Binance, FalconX and the Curious Case of 1.35M Missing Solana Tokens... Read more

In a conversation at the Exchange conference in Las Vegas, which has brought together about 2,000 investment advisors and asset managers, Dominic Rizzo, global technology portfolio manager at R. Rowe Price—the firm that handles over $1 trillion in assets—said that now is a good time to have exposure to bitcoin.He likened the price of bitcoin to a commodity and how investors should think about investing in it. “Bitcoin itself has traded very close to its average cost of mine. So if you think about it like a traditional commodity, that's actually historically a really good time to have exposure to it when it's close to its cost of mine,” he said.In traditional commodity investing, when the cost of mining or extracting a commodity is close to the spot price, it often signals that the commodity's price might have found the floor or has a limited downside. This is something contrarian investors look for when investing in commodities, as the bearish sentiment could be priced in when such an event occurs. Rizzo seems to be alluding to such a dynamic in play for bitcoin as well if one compares commodity cycles to bitcoin price.According to MacroMicro blog, the current average price of mining bitcoin is around $84,770, while the spot price is hovering near $87,000.How to play blockchain and AI revolutionRizzo also said that he sees blockchain and digital payments as an integral part of fintech and artificial intelligence (AI).“The world is getting more global, we're moving from cash to digital payments … so, I think digital payments is really at the nexus of moving money cheaply and taking a software-driven approach to areas that have historically been not software-driven,” according to Rizzo.He said part of this movement is blockchain, which he believes every investor should have some exposure to, whether through holding stocks of companies like Coinbase (COIN) or Robinhood (HOOD) or those of crypto miners profiting from the evolution of AI.... Read more

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Crypto Task Force will host four more roundtable discussions with the industry this spring, on topics ranging from tokenization to decentralized finance (DeFi).The Crypto Task Force’s first roundtable discussion — the kick-off to what Commissioner Hester Peirce, the task force’s leader, has dubbed the SEC’s “Spring Sprint Toward Crypto Clarity” — was held in Washington, D.C., last Friday. A dozen industry lawyers spoke about issues related to the security status of tokens.Read more: SEC ‘Earnest’ About Finding Workable Crypto Policy, Commissioners Say at Roundtable“The Crypto Task Force roundtables are an opportunity for us to hear a lively discussion among experts about what the regulatory issues are and what the Commission can do to solve them,” Peirce said in a Tuesday announcement.The roundtable discussions are just one example of the SEC’s radical overhaul of its approach to crypto regulation. As the agency moves away from the so-called “regulation by enforcement” practiced by former Chair Gary Gensler, its new leadership — including Pierce and Acting Chair Mark Uyeda — have signaled a desire to improve their working relationship with the crypto industry and provide clearer regulatory guidelines to industry participants.The next roundtable discussion in the series, “Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading” is slated for April 11. The following discussions will cover topics including crypto custody (April 25), tokenization (May 12), and decentralized finance (June 6). Each of the roundtable discussions will take place in Washington, D.C., and will also be livestreamed.... Read more

The market value of tokenized U.S. Treasuries this week surpassed the $5 billion for the first time, rwa.xyz data shows, as demand for blockchain-based real-world assets (RWAs) accelerates.The asset class grew by $1 billion through just two weeks, led by inflows into asset management giant BlackRock's and digital asset firm Securitize's market leading BUIDL.Crypto tokens backed by U.S. Treasuries are at the forefront of the tokenization trend, which have captivated a host of global financial behemoths and digital asset firms. Fidelity Investments is the latest large U.S. asset manager seeking to create a tokenized money market fund, filing for regulatory approval last week to launch its Fidelity Treasury Digital Liquidity on the Ethereum blockchain."We see promise in tokenization and its ability to be transformative to the financial services industry by driving transactional efficiencies with access and allocation of capital across markets," Cynthia Lo Bessette, head of Fidelity Digital Asset Management, told CoinDesk in a statement.Tokenized Treasuries allow investors to park idle cash on blockchains to earn a yield — like with a money market fund. Increasingly, they are also used as a reserve asset for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Another use case with significant potential is using these tokens as collateral in trading and asset management."In looking at use-cases, posting a tokenized asset as non-cash collateral to satisfy margin requirements could improve operational infrastructures and enhance capital efficiency,” she added.Her words echo Donna Milrod's, chief product officer of State Street, another Boston-based asset management and banking giant that is exploring tokenization of bonds and money market funds. She said in an earlier interview that collateral tokens could have helped avoid or alleviate, for example, the "liability-driven" crisis in 2022, allowing pension funds and asset managers to use money market fund tokens for margin calls instead of liquidating their assets to raise cash.Read more: Tokenization Allows More Efficient Collateral Transfers, Digital Asset, Euroclear and World Gold Council Found in Pilot ProjectThe growth trend won't stop anytime soon.Securitize said earlier today that BUIDL is on track to surpass $2 billion in assets by early April from $1.7 billion currently. Meanwhile, Spark, the ecosystem partner of DAI stablecoin issuer Sky (formerly MakerDAO), plans to allocate $1 billion to BUIDL, Superstate's USTB and Centrifuge's fund managed with Anemoy and Janus Henderson.... Read more

GameStop (GME) has added its name to the quickly-growing roster of publicly-traded companies adopting a bitcoin treasury strategy.Alongside its fourth quarter earnings report, the company said its board unanimously approved adding bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset.CEO Ryan Cohen in early February got tongues wagging when he posted a picture of himself and Strategy (MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago.Several days later, Strive Asset Management CEO Matt Cole sent a letter to Cohen urging GME to use at least part of its nearly $5 billion of cash on hand to purchase bitcoin. Co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, Strive is an owner of GME through its ETFs."We believe GameStop has an incredible opportunity to transform its financial future by becoming the premier bitcoin treasury company in the gaming sector," wrote Cole.Cohen further raised eyebrows when he tweeted out, "Letter received."GME shares are up 5.7% in after hours trading. Bitcoin has gained modestly on the news, now trading at $88,500, ahead about 0.2% from 24 hours ago.... Read more