The NFT party is over and everybody now owes storage rent
In 2021, Christie’s sold a Beeple NFT for $69.35 million, and Sotheby’s took another $24.40 million for 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, giving cartoon primates the kind of auction-house treatment usually reserved for Fabergé eggs. But now, not…
Washington has $114 billion reasons to want Tether around
Not that long ago, Washington fined Tether for misleading people about the dollars behind its tokens. Today, the company’s insatiable appetite for American debt is the main argument for sending those tokens further around the world. The distance…
Bitcoin survives a 5.2% Treasury shock as traders slash $1.7 billion in leverage
Bitcoin is holding near $84,000 even as a historic US bond selloff pushes Treasury yields to decades-high levels. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.22%, extending a move that has taken borrowing costs to their highest level since 2007.…
XRP volume explodes to $7.4B, and a massive CME short squeeze is blamed
XRP registered an intraday high of $1.60 on Sept. 22, with roughly $7.4 billion in reported volume. The move was strong, but the latest public data on regulated futures showed different positioning shifts across venues. The Commodity Futures Trading…
Why keeping your private keys safe won’t always stop crypto theft
Almost 4,000 Bitcoin left Liquid’s reserve on Sept. 6 through a withdrawal the network approved, even though the private keys used to authorize it hadn’t been stolen. Software had accepted a withdrawal that should never have qualified. Liquid…
Offshore Bitcoin futures crash 97% as traders abandon traditional risk
A strange thing has happened to Bitcoin’s derivatives market over the past five years. The market is larger, institutions play a much bigger role, exchanges offer more sophisticated products, and traders have become far better at moving risk…
EU staking review threatens crypto yields and network security could pay the price
Some of the most consequential financial rules begin with surprisingly little text. For example, on page 36 of the European Commission’s current MiCA review, item 66 asks whether Europe’s treatment of staking is adequate and, if it…
Why Trump backed a crypto ethics rule that stopped at the family business
Washington came surprisingly close this week to writing a dollar amount into one of its thorniest crypto ethics rule debates. Under the final Senate draft of the CLARITY Act, senior federal officials holding equity worth at least $15,000 in certain…
Circle wants you to love USDC a little like you love Chelsea
Chelsea has found a cool new shirt sponsor whose main product is…a stablecoin? USDC is designed to be worth one dollar. Today, tomorrow, next Tuesday: one dollar. If everything is working properly, absolutely nothing should happen to its price, so there…
XRP holders could earn new yield, but getting out may take up to 60 days
Firelight is preparing to turn XRP-linked assets into capital that backs protection for DeFi users, offering holders a new source of yield in exchange for putting their collateral at risk. The Flare-based protocol lets holders deposit FXRP, an XRP-linked…