BITCOIN

Crypto bank Avanti raised $37 million from Series A investors as it prepares to take its digital banking operations online. In a press release, parent company Avanti Financial Group said Coinbase Ventures, Binance.US, Morgan Creek Digital, Slow Ventures and the University of Wyoming Foundation, among others, participated in the funding round. Avanti has raised $44 million total, the group said. Avanti said it will put the funds toward meeting regulatory capital requirements and further invest in its engineering team. It gained special-purpose depository institution (SPDI) status in October, joining fellow Wyoming-based crypto…

Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $52,184.38 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 4.77% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $50,458.10-$54,762.75 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades between its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a sideways signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading on CoinbaseSource: TradingView Bitcoin traders urged caution as prices for the cryptocurrency slid toward $50,000 for the first time in two weeks while the options market braced for volatility ahead of a record $6 billion contract expiration Friday. “This is a time to make sure that you…

McLaren, the legendary Formula 1 auto racing team, has entered into a long-term partnership with Turkish crypto firm Bitci.com to create an official fan token for the team. The U.K.-based McLaren will launch its fan token – which it says is the first of its kind in Formula 1 racing – through the new partnership. Bitci.com will also become an official partner of the racing team, according to Wednesday’s announcement. Bitci.com is a Turkish cryptocurrency exchange with around $50 million in 24-hour traded volume. McLaren joins other prominent sports teams that have launched fan tokens….

Deutsche Bank’s investor clients mostly see limited upside in bitcoin (BTC) this year and expect a decline towards $20,000-$40,000 in 12 months. Those are the highlights of a monthly market survey conducted by the German lender March 18-22 of 520 market professionals around the world. Bitcoin has been trading in a sideways range over the past week after failing to sustain an all-time-high around $61,000 reached earlier in the month. The 12-month BTC price forecast is more evenly distributed versus the three-month forecast, though a majority (52%) of respondents see prices under…

Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $54,771.18 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 0.63% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $53,577.33-$57,225.30 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades below its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bearish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading on Coinbase.Source: TradingView The “Elon Candle” effect on bitcoin appears to be short-lived. The market jumped early Wednesday after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the electric vehicle maker plans to now accept bitcoin as a payment option, and that it won’t convert any receipts of the cryptocurrency back into…

They call it “max pain” in the bitcoin options market: How to make one’s trading counterparty suffer the most. Although the largest cryptocurrency was changing hands Wednesday around $56,500, traders were handicapping the odds of a plunge to about $44,000 by Friday, when a record $6 billion of options contracts is set to expire. A drop to that price level would inflict “max pain” on buyers of options contracts, and it might be the most profitable price point for options sellers. It’s a remote risk, but not one to be discounted. The…

Canada’s tax authority, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has prevailed in a court battle for access to a trove of high-value customer data held by cryptocurrency exchange Coinsquare. And the CRA seems to be coming for more. Under a federal judge’s March 19 order, Coinsquare must hand over detailed information on its Canadian customers, their crypto trading activity and identifying information to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Coinsquare told CoinDesk that it will disclose information on an estimated 5% to 10% of its 400,000 customers to the CRA, which had originally…

A co-founder of Tether, the $41 billion company behind the tether (USDT, -0.02%) stablecoin, said the company and its reserves should be audited at least quarterly, and maybe even monthly. “Every time you print a tether, you should have a dollar being added to that cash pool,” said William Quigley, who left the project in 2015 and now runs the non-fungible token (NFT) exchange WAX. “Audited once a month, once a quarter.” The comments on CoinDesk TV come after Tether last month agreed to a $18.5 million settlement with the New York Attorney General on charges of an…