2024-09-19 06:14

Crypto custodianship has been in the spotlight since the collapse of FTX. The new CEO of OKX Singapore says getting a custodian bank was the most important, and most challenging part of obtaining a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Singapore crypto traders are HODLers she also said, preferring to buy-and-hold instead of trade actively. The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s crypto licensing regime is considered one of Asia's gold standards, and getting a Major Payment Institution (MPI) isn’t meant to be easy. In a recent interview with CoinDesk, OKX Singapore’s new CEO, Gracie Lin, whom the exchange recently hired from Grab, talked about the exchange’s journey in getting this license – which it was awarded earlier this month – and what makes the Singapore market unique. Obtaining a custodial bank account was one of the most important conditions OKX needed to fulfill to transition from in-principle approval to a full license, Lin explained. "The most important condition, and in some cases the most difficult, is that the bank has to become comfortable with you: what you bring to the table, your plans, and the controls you have in place,” Lin said. “Fulfilling that requirement was a major step toward obtaining the full license and completing the conversion process." One doesn’t have to look back very far to see the need for custodians. Japan was the safest place to be an FTX customer, thanks to rules written in the aftermath of the Mt. Gox and Coincheck hacks requiring the use of independent third-party custodians. Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles said in a recent interview that the collapse of his exchange simply wouldn’t have happened if, at the time, they had modern tools, like custodians, available to them. Quick KYC During the interview, Lin also talked about what makes the Singapore market unique. Within Singapore, OKX is able to use the government’s digital identity system, Singpass, to expedite the know-your-customer process that might take hours or days in other jurisdictions. For their part, Singapore traders are described as generally passive, Lin said, with a preference for buying and holding their crypto assets rather than actively trading. Not every token is available on this regulated platform, Lin explained, as they have to be pre-vetted by MAS. "We have to provide a legal opinion that the token is not a security, along with our due diligence and risk assessment, which we submit to MAS,” Lin said. “Initially, we had 21 tokens available. As of September 2nd, we've expanded that to over 50 tokens, and we've submitted additional tokens to MAS. Once they're comfortable, we'll list those as well," she continued. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/09/19/okx-singapores-new-ceo-says-custodian-arrangements-were-most-important-most-difficult-part-of-mpi-license/

2024-09-19 05:57

The CoinDesk 20, a measure of the largest digital assets, is up 3.4%. Plus: Polymarket traders have their money on four to five more rate cuts this year. The Federal Reserve implemented a 50 basis point rate cut, with expectations of further reductions to bring the median benchmark rate to 4.4% by year-end. Despite the rate cut, market sentiments are mixed with some skepticism about the sustainability of the crypto market rally. Major cryptocurrencies like Solana's SOL, BNB, XRP, and Cardano's ADA saw gains, with SOL leading at a 6% increase. Additionally, there's a notable interest in further rate cuts, with market bets on Polymarket indicating expectations of continued monetary easing by the Fed. A 50 basis point cut by the Fed, and the first bitcoin (BTC) buy by a presidential candidate, kept digital assets in the green during the East Asia trading day, even though some market watchers are skeptical if the rally has any sort of legs. Fed members expect median benchmark rates to come down to 4.4% by year-end, as reported, reflecting some 50 basis points (bps) more cuts in the next two Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings, according to the Fed's quarterly economic projection. Bitcoin is trading near $62K, up 2.4% in the last 24 hours. The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a measure of the largest digital assets, is up 3.4%. The broader crypto market moved higher. Solana’s SOL rose 6% to lead gains among majors, with BNB Chain’s BNB, xrp (XRP) and Cardano’s ADA rising as much as 4.5%. Memecoins dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB) rose 4%. Traders expect rally to be short-lived In emailed comments, Chris Aruliah, ByBit’s Head of Institution, had a mixed view bout the rate cut’s impact on the crypto market. “The broader global economic slowdown stipulated by softer economic indicators and geopolitical complexities is tempering investor sentiment,” Aruliah wrote in an emailed statement. “Therefore, while a 0.5% reduction in the Fed’s policy rate may provide a short-term boost to the cryptocurrency market, it is crucial to remain vigilant regarding the potential challenges posed by economic uncertainty and market fluctuations.” In an interview with CoinDesk TV, Maelstrom’s Arthur Hayes argued that rate cuts as a whole aren’t necessary, and a 50 basis point rate cut would trigger a brief market rally but ultimately reveal deeper issues in the global financial system, leading to more depressed prices. “At a high level, I think that they should not be raising rates. I believe that the U.S. economy is quite strong. If you've seen the GDP prints over the last eight or nine quarters, it's been consistent growth,” he said during the interview. “Inflation is going to accelerate into the fourth quarter if they decide to continue cutting rates.” The U.S. government's heavy spending is driving rapid economic growth, which benefits Kamala Harris's election chances, but cutting rates amid high inflation is seen as a mistake, he argued. “I think that the response is going to be if the markets start to falter, they're just going to do more of it and they’re going to make the problem even worse,” he continued. In a note, Presto Research wrote that the market remains divided on the implications of the Fed's 50 bps cut, with mixed reactions across asset classes, as concerns over growth and potential recession weigh on investor sentiment. “Judging by last night’s market confusion, growth concerns clearly exist, and the market needs relief from them to rally. We are now firmly in ‘good news is good news’ territory,” Presto wrote. More cuts ahead On Polymarket, traders are confident that the Fed is nowhere close to being done cutting rates. Bettors are giving a 41% chance of a 100 bps cut by the end of the year (meaning there’s another 50 bps cut in the bag), and a 38% chance of a 125 bps cut. They are also putting their money on a 65% chance of a 25 bps cut in November and a 26% chance of a 50 bps cut during the same time. For December, the consensus is that there’s a high chance of a further cut with a 50% chance of a 25 bps decrease, and a 33% chance of a 50 bps cut. Elsewhere in crypto, Aleo, the native token of the Hashkey-backed privacy-focused zero-knowledge proof layer 1 blockchain is up over 14% after being listed on Coinbase. Sui's SUI and Fantom’s FTM are also up double digits, alongside a general recovery in AI tokens. The correlation between AI tokens and Nvidia appears to be weakening, as the chipmakers stock is down 3% over the last five days. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/19/bitcoin-broke-62k-after-fed-rate-cuts-heres-what-traders-say-will-happen-next/

2024-09-19 05:17

"We still haven't decided" how the partnership with Lionel Messi, which ends this year, will evolve, Bitget has sealed a "multi-million dollar deal" with La Liga for a period of two years. Bitget's partnership with Lionel Messi is ending later this year. SINGAPORE –– Crypto exchange Bitget has sealed a partnership with La Liga, Spanish football's premier football league, as its official crypto crypto partner, Gracy Chen, Bitget CEO told CoinDesk in an interview on Thursday at the sidelines of the Token2049 conference. The "multi-million dollar" deal may impact the renewal of Bitget's partnership with football superstar and world cup winning captain with Argentina, Lionel Messi, which is ending later this year. "We still haven't decided" how the partnership with Lionel Messi will evolve but the La Liga deal is "slightly cheaper" and "gives us a lot more freedom and more deeper collaborations" because now we can invite "some of the star footballers to join our events" including Kylian Mbappé. The partnership is limited to Eastern and South East Asia, as well as LATAM regions for two years. “Over the last decade, digitalization and innovation have been among La Liga's priorities," said Javier Tebas, President of La Liga in an announcement. "Last season, we made this a priority under the umbrella of our New Era, which put the emphasis on technology: we want to be pioneers and we are committed to it,." The development comes in the same week that Bitget, along with Web3 investor Foresight Ventures increased their exposure to The Open Network (TON) by $30 million through a deal with a number of unnamed whales of the TON ecosystem. Chen also touted the exchange surpassing 45 million users worldwide earlier this week. "Even with the Telegram founder being arrested in Paris, the TON foundation is not losing the momentum. We are very bullish." Read More: Bitget, Foresight Ventures Buy $30M TON Tokens From Whales https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/09/19/crypto-exchange-bitget-seals-multi-million-dollar-deal-with-la-liga/

2024-09-19 03:50

Seeker will launch in 2025. SINGAPORE –– Solana Labs's phone designing subsidiary is slated to ship its second crypto phone in 2025, Solana Mobile announced at the Token 2049 conference on Thursday. Called Seeker, the upcoming handheld will be a major hardware improvement over Solana's first mobile phone, with better battery, a stronger camera and a lighter design than the Saga, said Emmet Hollyer, who runs Solana Labs' phonemaking project. It will also incorporate improvements specific to crypto. Units will ship with a specialty-built crypto wallet that ties into the device's partitioned Seed Vault key storage. Users of the wallet will be able to execute crypto transactions more seamlessly on Seeker than they could on Saga, Hollyer said. Seeker represents Solana's second big bet on a product line that at one time was approaching the precipice of failure. Its predecessor Saga was bailed out from piddling sales figures last year when crypto traders realized they could buy units to collect token airdrops worth more than the device itself. Saga's turabout into a sellout rejuvenated Solana Labs' interest in pushing crypto deeper into mobile devices by creating custom hardware and software. Saga and now Seeker are built on Android-enabled devices that have their own app store for crypto developers in the Solana ecosystem. Anticipation of the new model has been intense. Solana committed to building a second phone after securing over 100,000 in pre-orders in early 2024. The capital infusion and buyer commitments helped Solana Mobile access better supply chain deals than was possible with the first edition, Hollyer said. Solana Dapp store One of the Saga's big appeals as a smartphone alternative to iPhone and off-the-shelf androids was its debut of an independent app store, called the dapp store. Developers could build highly-tailored crypto apps and then launch it through the dapp store without incurring the high fees of Apple's App Store and Google Play. Seeker's Dapp store improves on its predecessor with better discoverability of different apps, Hollyer said. That variance is possible only because of a surge in interest among builders. While a handful of teams built apps for Solana's first phone, "tons of teams are reaching out" for guidance on building for Seeker, according to Hollyer. "When we announced this phone and people saw that we had presold 100,000 of them, ecosystem teams have been chomping at the bit." The store will also better track toke rewards users are accruing, he said. Hollyer anticipates Seeker will have plenty of payday potential from the many teams planning to issue rewards to owners of the phone. New capabilities Seeker will be more permissive about third-party apps gaining access to its "digital exhaust" like GPS data, cellular data and compute that device manufacturers usually lock down, said Hollyer. This comes with tradeoffs. Usually, devices treat this internal intelvery carefully for privacy and other concerns. But all that data is valuable, especially for crypto projects building decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN). Solana Mobile consulted with user-bootstrapped cellular network Helium and other Solana DePIN teams to figure out what sensor data they might want to harness in Seeker. Otherwise forgettable "digital exhaust" data points might help a team better track the growth and performance of their physical infrastructure, for example. "We think that those are going to be unbelievable opportunities for our users to earn and engage and interact," Hollyer said. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/19/solana-unveils-details-of-second-crypto-phone-seeker/

2024-09-18 21:44

The former president and Republican nominee sent the transaction with the help of PubKey staff. Former U.S. President Donald Trump continued his overtures to the cryptocurrency industry Wednesday when he sent a Bitcoin transaction during a stop at PubKey, a crypto-themed bar in New York. Trump made the stop at the Manhattan bar ahead of his rally in Long Island on Wednesday. A Fox News video shows the Republican nominee entering the pub and then, with PubKey staff's assistance, completing a transaction, becoming the first U.S. president, sitting or former, to publicly use the Bitcoin network. Trump bought burgers at the bar, according to a PubKey social media post. The PubKey appearance comes two days after Trump spoke in support of World Liberty Financial, a crypto project he and several of his children are involved in. World Liberty formally launched Monday, and confirmed it will issue a governance token called WLFI. Trump, who is running for president a third time, has sought the crypto industry's support over the past few months, speaking at an industry conference and promising to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet." CORRECTION (Sept. 18, 22:03 UTC): Corrects subheadline and second paragraph to say PubKey staff, not a Trump aide, assisted the former president with the transaction. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/09/18/trump-buys-burgers-with-bitcoin-at-nyc-crypto-hangout-pubkey/

2024-09-18 18:10

Market participants were uncertain about the size of the rate cut prior to the Fed meeting, laying the groundwork for market volatility. Bitcoin traded near $60,000 after Fed cut rates by 50 basis points. Fed members expect median benchmark rates to come down to 4.4% by year-end. Markets' appetite for risk assets would be key to watch , analysts say The U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark fed funds rate by 50 basis points to 4.75%-5% on Wednesday, marking the first rate cut in four years after the central bank's most aggressive hiking cycle. "The Committee has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance," the press release said. "The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate." Fed members expect median benchmark rates to come down to 4.4% by year-end, reflecting some 50 bps more cuts in the next two Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings, according to the Fed's quarterly economic projection. That's up from only one cut projected in June. "The U.S. economy is in a good place and our decision today is designed to keep it there," Powell said during the press conference following the meeting. He said that the unemployment rate standing at "anywhere in the low-4% is a good labor market," and he doesn't see any evidence that the "likelihood of a recession or downturn is elevated." He added that the Fed is still not declaring victory over inflation, and further 50 bps should not be considered as "the new pace" for further rate cuts, reiterating the Fed's data dependent approach. In the minutes following the FOMC decision, the price of bitcoin (BTC) shot up 1.2% to $61,000, then fell below $60,000, mostly flat over the past 24 hours. U.S. equities erased all their early gains on the Fed decision, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 closing the session lower by 0.3%. Gold first surged to hit a new all-time high over $2,600, then retraced to end the day in the red. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) tumbled to 100.3, its weakest level since July 2023, then shot back up to 101. It's a key metric to watch for gauging risk asset prices, according to CoinDesk analyst James Van Straten. Cryptocurrency-related stocks also gave up their gains. MicroStrategy (MSTR) shares gained 1.5% through the day, while crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) and investment firm Galaxy (GLXY) were flat to negative, similarly to most bitcoin miners including Marathon Digital (MARA) and Riot Platform (RIOT). "The Fed has given the market what it was looking for with the bigger 50-basis point rate cut," said Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX Group. "Our concern from here will be the market’s ability to continue to feel good about buying risk assets on future accommodative Fed gestures now that the accommodation has been priced to this extent." Crypto correlations with broader risk assets surged to their highest levels in roughly 18 months, David Lawant, head of research at FalconX, noted in an email. This highlights how macro has been an increasingly important factor, especially during regime shifts like the one we're witnessing now," he said. Markets universally expected looser monetary policy from September as Chairman Jerome Powell said at last month's Jackson Hole symposium that "the time has come for policy to adjust" with cooling inflation and rising unemployment rate. Traders, however, were divided on whether the Fed would lower rates by 25 bps or opt for a larger, 50 bps cut. Prior to Wednesday's decision, the market priced in 40% chance for a smaller and 60% probability for a bigger cut, the CME FedWatch Tool showed. The uncertainty laid the groundwork for a volatile session. Crypto market maker Wintermute predicted 2%- 3% price swings for bitcoin in either direction following today's decision. Arthur Hayes, BitMEX co-founder and Maelstrom CIO, said in an interview with CoinDesk that the Fed's rate cuts might crash markets due to narrowing borrowing rate differentials between the U.S. dollar and Japanese Yen. This would lead to investors unwinding their yen-based carry trades en masse. Notably, the same dynamic triggered the August 5 crash for stocks and digital assets, which briefly pushed BTC below $50,000. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/09/18/fed-cuts-interest-rates-by-50-basis-points-bitcoin-briefly-hits-61k/