BITCOIN

The outperformance of ether (ETH) over the past year relative to bitcoin (BTC) appears to have reversed since the Chicago-based commodities exchange CME launched its new ether futures contract in early February, an analysis of chart patterns shows. ETH put in a relative bottom versus BTC around the end of 2019. The near 700% increase in ETH versus BTC’s 500% rise over the past year could reflect investor enthusiasm for decentralized finance (DeFi), which seeks to transform traditional financial products in a decentralized manner and largely sits atop the Ethereum blockchain. ETH has underperformed…

Recently,according to official news,CoinSeaEX digital asset trading platform has obtained the MSB digital asset exchange license issued by the U.S. Treasury agency FinCEN,and the global compliance operation has reached a new level again. According to reports,this is CoinSeaEX in the world obtained the fifth compliance business license. MSB is the abbreviation of the Money Services Business,the U.S. Treasury and Securities Regulatory Commission have clearly stressed that digital money exchanges and their managers,engaged in digital assets related business in the United States,must be registered in the FinCEN MSB license. A licence…

Fei Labs, a project building a more capital-efficient decentralized stablecoin, raised $19 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Framework Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and AngelList founder Naval Ravikant, among others. The raise, disclosed Monday, is another sign competition is heating up among issuers of stablecoins. These cryptocurrencies are designed to hold their value against some mainstream asset, usually (as in Fei’s case) the U.S. dollar. Stablecoins play a linchpin role in the crypto ecosystem, allowing traders to quickly move fiat currency (or the next best thing) between global exchanges to take advantage of…

Bitcoin has erased Sunday’s gains as stock markets struggle to cheer progress on U.S. fiscal stimulus efforts. The cryptocurrency is changing hands just over $50,150 at press time, representing a 1.55% drop on the day, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Prices had jumped from roughly $49,000 to $51,800 on Sunday as the U.S. Senate approved President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. The bill now heads back to the House of Representatives so it can be reconciled with the House-passed version and then sent on to President Biden to sign. Traditional markets had mixed…

Bitcoin developers have been debating the best way to activate the Taproot upgrade for at least a year. Some are hopeful a new proposal called “Speedy Trial” might put an end to the debate, by bringing forth a solution that more developers can get behind. Ideated by Blockstream developer Russell O’Connor and written up on the Bitcoin developer email list by technical Bitcoin writer David Harding, “Speedy Trial,” would take a quicker approach than some of the other proposals in determining if miners are ready for activation of Taproot. All of the largest…

Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $51,800.08 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 3.48% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $49,390.18-$51.982.31 (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 TradingViewSource: TradingView Bitcoin’s price in recent weeks has retreated from February’s all-time highs, declining alongside U.S. stocks as investors grew increasingly concerned rising U.S. government bond yields might prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy, curtailing the easy-money era that has boosted risky assets from…

U.S. mega-bank JPMorgan has 34 open blockchain job positions posted on its website. It’s quite possibly a record for any company in the space (JPMorgan has been noted for its enthusiastic blockchain hiring in the past). The majority of the job openings, posted this month and last, are spread across the U.S., India and Singapore. Many of the jobs relate directly to Onyx, the division created in October of last year to oversee JPM Coin, the bank’s wholesale payments token. By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to…

A Goldman Sachs executive predicts there may be consolidation coming for cryptocurrency infrastructure providers as the market matures. In a recent company podcast, Matt McDermott, global head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs Global Markets Division, hinted that “incumbent banks” – like Goldman – could face pressure to increase their crypto business lines, with one obvious path being mergers and acquisitions. “This is a fast-evolving landscape where the crypto incumbents have certainly made huge progress over the last couple of years,” McDermott said. “There is an expectation from clients now that…