Author: Max Bauer
While Bitcoin (BTC) has demonstrated strong performance following the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut, altcoins have emerged as the real winners in the cryptocurrency market. Total3, an index tracking the top 125 cryptocurrencies excluding Bitcoin and Ether (ETH), has surged by 5.68% since the central bank’s announcement of a 50 basis point rate reduction. In contrast, Bitcoin’s market capitalization has only increased by 4.4%. Bob Wallden, head of trading at Abra, explained that this outperformance is not surprising. “Altcoins are higher beta than Bitcoin and Ether, making them a leveraged play on the broader crypto market similar to tech stocks…
Cryptocurrency analyst James Van Straten sees a potential silver lining for Bitcoin, suggesting a divergence between its price and hashrate could be setting the stage for a rally. Hashrate refers to the total computing power of the Bitcoin network, and according to Van Straten, historical data reveals that such divergences have often preceded price increases. “These divergences have occurred only a few times in the past three years,” Van Straten noted. “In some cases, Bitcoin prices have reached a local bottom during these events, followed by a rally as the market catches up with the rising hash rate.” Hashrate fluctuations…
Avalanche, once a rising star in the blockchain space, is now facing a significant uphill battle to attract and retain users. The number of active addresses on Avalanche’s C-Chain has plummeted to a 12-month low of 31,000, a stark contrast to the network’s peak of 99,000 active addresses in December 2023. This decline is particularly notable considering the surge in activity related to inscriptions that occurred in December, inspired by similar trends on other blockchains like Bitcoin’s Ordinals. Designed to address scalability issues, Avalanche’s unique consensus mechanism and multi-chain architecture aim to deliver decentralization, scalability, and security. Despite its potential,…
Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX, has faced criticism after seemingly selling a significant portion of his holdings in the crypto project Pendle, which he heavily promoted at the recent Token2049 conference in Singapore. According to attendees, Hayes dedicated nearly 30 minutes of his speech to promoting Pendle, a project he has publicly expressed enthusiasm for. However, shortly after the conference, he transferred over a million dollars worth of Pendle tokens to his accounts on centralized exchanges Binance and ByBit. Many interpreted this transfer as an indication that Hayes was selling the tokens, despite the difficulty in confirming this…
According to the official document published by the SEC, options for BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF have been approved. In a filing released on Friday, the SEC announced its approval of the world’s largest asset manager’s request to list options for the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). Nasdaq ISE, LLC would be responsible for listing and trading these options. The SEC’s decision to approve the options trading comes eight months after the initial launch of spot bitcoin ETFs, including BlackRock’s, Grayscale’s, and Fidelity’s. Other firms, such as Grayscale and Bitwise, are also seeking approval to list options for their respective spot bitcoin…
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ordered William Koo Ichioka, a New York resident formerly of San Francisco, to pay over $36 million in monetary relief. The order includes $31 million in restitution to defrauded victims and a $5 million civil monetary penalty. Ichioka was found guilty of engaging in a fraudulent foreign currency (forex) and digital asset scheme that began in 2018. He solicited investments from participants with false promises of a 10% return every 30 business days. However, instead of…
As the cryptocurrency market continues to rally following the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut, analysts are anticipating a significant increase in Ethereum’s on-chain activity. Jasper De Maere, Research Lead at Outlier Ventures, suggested that a sustained bull market could drive a surge in Ethereum’s on-chain activity, primarily fueled by speculation and increased engagement in decentralized applications (dApps). De Maere highlighted the pent-up demand for projects seeking to launch on Ethereum, indicating that a wave of new offerings could emerge as market conditions improve, boosting activity across various cryptocurrency sectors. Regarding the potential for renewed adoption of the Ethereum network, De…
Analysts at Presto Research, Peter Chung and Min Jung, are predicting a resurgence of altcoin activity following the Federal Reserve’s recent decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage point. In a research note published on Friday, Chung and Jung argued that while altcoins have underperformed in the early part of 2025, the Fed’s rate-cut cycle could ignite a long-awaited altcoin season. The analysts attributed the subdued performance of altcoins to higher yields in traditional finance, which have diverted investor attention from riskier crypto assets. However, they anticipate that as on-chain yields become more competitive, it could spark a…
Visa’s Head of Crypto, Cuy Sheffield, has predicted a surge in non-dollar stablecoins in the coming years. Speaking at the Solana Breakpoint event in Singapore on Friday, Sheffield emphasized the importance of these stablecoins for cross-border transactions. While US dollar stablecoins currently dominate the market, Sheffield anticipates that every major fiat currency will eventually have its own on-chain representation. This shift will enable more efficient and localized payments. Sheffield also expressed excitement about the growing number of stablecoins that aim to differentiate themselves from the market leaders, USDT and USDC. He highlighted the increasing consumer awareness of stablecoins and their…
The official YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India, a platform used to livestream important legal proceedings, was compromised on Friday. Hackers reportedly exploited the channel to broadcast advertisements for cryptocurrency products and upload related videos. The entire YouTube channel has since been taken down. The Supreme Court has been utilizing the platform to allow the public to witness cases of constitutional significance in real-time. While the channel has been deleted, archived videos of previous court proceedings were also affected. These videos have been made private, limiting public access. The channel’s homepage now displays a blank video with a…