Digital Currency

Thinking about buying some non-fungibles? Maybe you’re even thinking about investing? Maybe you still can’t wrap your brain around the idea of digital art being sold for $69 million, but you’re open-minded, you’ve done your homework and you think the rewards outweigh the risks. And maybe this is money you can afford to lose, so what the hell? [Obligatory disclaimer: Nothing that follows is financial advice. Investing in NFTs – or anything in crypto – is packed with risk and you can lose everything. Proceed with caution.] But if you’re trying to get your…

Bitcoin rose for the first time in three days as traders looked past Friday’s record $6 billion expiration of option contracts to a stronger market next week as April begins. “Returns after prior bitcoin options expiration dates have tended to be positive,” David Grider, strategist at Fundstrat, told clients in an email. “The market is calm based on bitcoin VIX [a volatility index] falling, with room to fall further.”   BTC was changing hands at roughly $52,700 as of 12:03 UTC (8:04 a.m. ET), up 2.9% on the day. An oversold signal on Thursday…

On February 8, CME Group officially launched Ether futures. ETH futures went live just a little more than three years after CME Group began offering Bitcoin futures. In this interview, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products Tim McCourt discusses the origins of ETH futures, what convinced them that the time was right for the product to go live, how institutional investors’ attitudes towards Ethereum (and crypto as a whole) have changed, and how the response from the market has been. When did you start thinking…

On February 8, CME Group officially launched Ether futures. ETH futures went live just a little more than three years after CME Group began offering Bitcoin futures. In this interview, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products Tim McCourt discusses the origins of ETH futures, what convinced them that the time was right for the product to go live, how institutional investors’ attitudes towards Ethereum (and crypto as a whole) have changed, and how the response from the market has been. When did you start thinking…

Here’s some free advice for the Honda Motor Company: Market your cars to the newly bitcoin rich. I’ve already got the ad copy for you. A true bitcoiner is building for the future and deferring gratification. She doesn’t blow her hard-earned savings on flashy toys. She prefers a solid, dependable family car. And a slogan…. Lambos are for losers. HODLers drive Hondas. Marc Hochstein, CoinDesk’s executive editor, owns some bitcoin, and if he were smarter he’d have bought more years ago. This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk’s daily roundup of the…

Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $53,824.22 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 3.22% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $51,267.19-$54,032.05 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading on CoinbaseSource: TradingView What a dud: Friday’s record $6 billion expiry in the bitcoin options market turned to be a nonevent as prices for the largest cryptocurrency climbed steadily, with nary a glimpse of the feared plunge to the “max pain” point of $44,000. For bitcoin bulls, the absence…

Not long after Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, received his $53 million in ether (ETH, +3.76%) (ETH) for selling a non-fungible token (NFT) through Christie’s (after fees), he reportedly converted the cryptocurrency into fiat. What was seen as a vote of confidence for this new technological medium – it was the third-largest art sale ever, right behind Jeff Koons’ “Rabbit” and David Hockney’s “Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures)” – might now be seen as a betrayal. He quite literally sold out. Beeple told The New Yorker on Monday, “I’m not remotely a crypto-purist. I was…

The problem with crypto is not that it is a scam. Or a bubble. Or used in any significant way today to evade taxes and finance terrorism. The problem with crypto is it presents a viable alternative to monetary monopolies by national governments. A viable alternative to banks and other financial institutions. A viable alternative to intermediated exchange. Pondering Durian is a tech-focused investor and writer who explores connections involving the U.S., China, and Emerging Asia (India and Southeast Asia) in the Emerging newsletter and blog. The real problem – for politicians, nation-states…

There is a revealing, albeit slightly morbid, maxim that “safety standards are written in blood.” Humans and human-created systems generally tend to be reactive rather than proactive when it comes to developing protective rules. Nevertheless, today’s construction workers and consumers are more shielded from danger than those of the past because we’ve learned from prior mistakes. Rick McDonell was the executive secretary of the Financial Action Task Force from 2007 until 2016. Prior to that, he was chief of the United Nations Global Program against Money Laundering at the UNODC. He…