2024-11-13 21:21
"This is obvious political retribution," said a Polymarket spokesperson. Bloomberg reported that DOJ is investigating the company for letting U.S. users access the site. Federal law enforcement officials raided the home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Wednesday. The prediction market was a breakout success in the U.S. presidential election, a platform where billions of dollars worth of bets were placed on the outcome. Polymarket traders viewed Donald Trump as the likely winner, as indeed he was. The raid was confirmed by a Polymarket spokesperson. The New York Post and Axios reported the news earlier. According to the Post, the feds took Coplan's phone and other electronic devices. By all accounts, Coplan has not been arrested or charged with any wrongdoing. Bloomberg later reported that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Polymarket for allegedly letting U.S. users access the site. "This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections." Polymarket is supposed to block U.S. persons from accessing its services, after coming to a settlement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2022. A CFTC spokesperson told CoinDesk on Oct. 30 that, "Polymarket is required to adhere to the terms of the settlement they reached with the CFTC. Full stop. That means they cannot accept any business from people living in the United States or US persons as we write in the order. It’s pretty clear. It is incumbent on the company to comply with the law." Despite this ban, Americans can trade on the platform though virtual private networks, or VPNs, which can be used to circumvent that prohibition. CoinDesk confirmed at least two Americans were able to place trades ahead of the 2024 election from locations in the U.S. Last month, responding to a question from CoinDesk about price discrepancies between Polymarket and U.S.-regulated prediction market platforms, attorney Aaron Brogan said: "Legally, these markets should have limited user overlap, but anecdotally I’ve heard enough stories about individuals in the US using VPNs to access Polymarket that I doubt this is a practical barrier to efficient pricing between the markets." Coplan seemed to be in good spirits late Wednesday afternoon, making a wry reference to the morning's events in a post on X. Marc Hochstein contributed reporting. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/11/13/fbi-reportedly-raids-polymarket-ceos-home/
2024-11-13 17:17
Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari, who previously called the cryptocurrency industry "worthless" and "nonsense," still isn't an uber-bull, though. Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari has been one of the loudest opponents of crypto for years but after a lengthy conversation with CoinDesk, he said he'll keep an open mind. Nevertheless, the former banker struggles to see crypto's real-life use cases, especially given how the industry has been pushing for mainstream adoption — without success in his opinion. Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari has long been a loud critic of bitcoin (BTC) and the rest of cryptocurrencies, calling them "worthless," "fraudulent" and "nonsense." But now, he says his view could be swayed. "I will have an open mind," Kashkari told CoinDesk during a brief conversation in New York City on Tuesday. Despite that pledge, the Ohio-born-and-raised banker continued to question the point of cryptocurrencies during the conversation. The industry has been around a long time without reaching widespread adoption, showing a lack of utility, he said. "Other than as a speculative asset, what does it actually do in the real economy?" Kashkari said. "It's been a dozen years." (The Bitcoin white paper that sparked the crypto revolution came out 16 years ago.) Crypto has struggled to gain a foothold in the U.S. (besides serving as an asset in investment portfolios). The federal government's stiff resistance has made it hard to connect crypto to the conventional financial system, which is partly overseen by the Fed. That might be poised to change. Last week, Donald Trump won the presidential election, promising to support the crypto industry in the U.S. and fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who is widely viewed by crypto insiders as an impediment. Some in Trump's circle, including crypto-fan Elon Musk, reportedly want him to dramatically weaken Kashkari's employer, the Fed. Trump tried to fire current Fed Chair Jerome Powell in 2018, causing stocks to tank. Asked whether he would resign under Trump's new administration, which begins in January, Powell said "no" last week. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/11/13/senior-federal-reserve-official-who-blasted-bitcoin-now-says-hell-have-an-open-mind/
2024-11-13 16:43
The move came as U.S. markets opened for trade, suggesting strong demand from American investors. Bitcoin blasted through the $90,000 resistance level early in the U.S. trading day and then quickly pushed even higher to top $93,000. The surge was fueled by heavy demand, with the Coinbase Premium Index at its highest level since April. Blackrock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) was the fourth-most traded product across all ETFs, with $1.2 billion volume in the first hour of the session. After bouncing off the $90,000 level multiple occasions earlier this week, bitcoin {BTC}} moved through that resistance during U.S. morning hours Wednesday. Once through, further gains ensured, with the price quickly rising past $93,000. The breakthrough over the key price level happened right as U.S. traditional markets opened at 9:30 am E.T., indicating that strong demand from U.S. investors propelled prices higher. Bitcoin's Coinbase Premium Index, a key gauge of U.S. demand, has jumped to 0.2, its highest reading since April, CryptoQuant data showed, underscoring the heavy buying pressure coming from U.S. players. The metric measures the price difference for the leading crypto asset on Coinbase, widely used by U.S.-based investors and institutions, compared to prices on off-shore Binance, the most popular global exchange by trading volume. While it was not immediately clear what type of market participants are buying, U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) started the day with strong trading volumes. Shares of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, IBIT, the largest spot ETF with $40 billion of assets, traded around $1.2 billion in the first hour of the session, making it the fourth most-traded product across all ETFs, per Barchart data. Bitcoin at press time had pulled back a bit and was changing hands at $92,200, up almost 7% over the past 24 hours and leading over the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index's 3.5% rise. Ethereum's ether (ETH) and solana (SOL) gained 1.6% and 2.7%, respectively, during the same period. Spot buying drives the rally Spot cumulative volume delta (CVD) — defined as the net difference between buying and selling trade volumes — continues to show strong flows with the majority of the net volume coming from buyers. Each time there's been a spike in spot CVD, it has corresponded to a rise in the asset's price, which suggests this rally is more sustainable as the buying is not futures-market based, said CoinDesk analyst James Van Straten. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/11/13/bitcoin-surges-to-new-record-over-93k-as-strong-us-demand-crushes-resistance-level/
2024-11-13 16:40
Warren will be the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee that crypto legislation must clear – the most senior role for the opposition party on digital assets matters. Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the chief U.S. critics of the crypto industry, confirmed she'd be taking the role as the most senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. That panel will be responsible for handling crypto legislation in the coming months. If Democrats can manage to wrest back Senate control in two years, she could become the committee's next chairwoman. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has long been held up as the crypto industry's chief opponent in Congress, and she's now ascending to the role as the top Democrat in the Senate Banking Committee, where she'll be heard from on the digital assets legislation that likely needs a sign-off from that panel. The Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee has been under the chairmanship of Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat that the cryptocurrency industry spent tens of millions of dollars on defeating in this month's elections. In his tenure, Brown allowed no significant legislative debate on digital assets legislation, though even as he ran the committee, Massachusetts Democrat Warren often managed to be the more prominent naysayer on crypto matters. Now that the Republicans won the Senate majority and will take the gavel, Warren confirmed she'll step up as the ranking Democrat there. "This new role means a better chance to advance solutions like building more housing to lower prices and protecting consumers from private equity greed and special interest scams," she said in a Wednesday statement. While the Republicans will control the committee's agenda and hearing schedule, she'll have a prominent platform to criticize the group's work on crypto, which she has often argued is riddled with criminality and has introduced legislation to try to apply tight U.S. constraints on the sector. Warren just won a third term in office, opposed by a prominent crypto lawyer, John Deaton, who only managed to secure 40% of the vote. Control of the Senate could possibly change hands again in two years. In midterm elections, the sitting president's party usually experiences setbacks in its Senate strength, and the 2026 contest will see far more Republicans' seats up for grabs than Democrats' seats. If Democrats do reclaim the majority, Warren would likely become the chair of the committee, where she would set the direction and tone for crypto legislation past that point. Read More: Crypto PACs Dominate Ohio Senate Race, Spending $40M on Sherrod Brown's Foe https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/11/13/us-senator-elizabeth-warren-rises-into-role-where-crypto-sector-wont-shake-her/
2024-11-13 16:14
BTC blasted through the $90,000 resistance level on Wednesday, defying the dollar strength. Bitcoin traders appear to be scooping up the $100,000 call option on the CME, CF Benchmarks told CoinDesk. Similar bullish flows are being observed on Deribit. There seems to be no stopping the bitcoin (BTC) freight train. The largest cryptocurrency blasted through the $90,000 resistance level, hitting a new record above $93,000 while traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) loaded up on bets that stand to profit on prices rising into six figures. According to CF Benchmarks, traders are flocking to the $100,000 call option on the CME, a location favored by institutional investors, following the lead of their Deribit-based counterparts. A call option gives the purchaser the right, but not the obligation, to purchase the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. A call buyer is implicitly bullish on the market. "Per CF Benchmarks' data, the 30-day constant maturity 25 delta skew has now breached the 5 vol threshold, a near YTD high, which implies that there is much greater demand for upside exposure," Thomas Erdösi, head of product at CF Benchmarks, told CoinDesk in an email. The 25 delta skew measures the relative richness of call options relative to puts, providing a glimpse of the market sentiment. A positive reading, in this case, the 5 vol (volatility) threshold, indicates that calls are pricier than puts, which give the right to sell at a set price, and traders are preparing for BTC to rise even futher. Strikes above $100,000 are also witnessing a surge in demand, as evident from the elevated implied volatility for these options, CF Benchmarks data shows. CME's derivatives track CF Benchmarks Bitcoin Reference Rate – New York (BRRNY) variant. The bullish positioning is consistent with the offshore giant Deribit, where traders have been piling into the $100,000 call option since at least late September. Bitcoin's rally seems to be ignoring the continued rise in the dollar index. BTC prices have surged over 36% since pro-crypto Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election held on Nov. 5. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/11/13/bitcoin-traders-make-100k-price-bets-through-cme-options-cf-benchmarks/
2024-11-13 15:02
Crypto-friendly Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential race will likely result in a change in leadership at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Trading app Robinhood has added Solana, Pepe, Cardano and XRP to the list of cryptocurrencies available to trade on its platform. Coinbase, which has previously offered the trading of Solana, Cardano and XRP, also added Pepe on Wednesday. The move comes one week after crypto-friendly Donald Trump's win in the presidential election and the promises of a more welcoming regulatory environment. Stock and crypto trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) has added sizably to the number of cryptocurrencies available to trade for U.S. customers just one week after elections appeared to usher in a far friendlier regulatory environment for the industry. With the introduction of Solana (SOL), Pepe (PEPE), Cardano (ADA) and XRP (XRP), Robinhood will now offer trading in 19 cryptocurrencies for its American clientele, the company said in a blog post Wednesday morning. Coinbase (COIN) — which already offered all of the HOOD additions — joined Robinhood in adding PEPE to its platform. All of the named cryptos moved modestly higher alongside the announcements, as did bitcoin, which printed a new record high above $91,000. “We’ve consistently heard from our customers that they want access to more digital assets, and we’re excited to continue expanding our crypto offering,” Johann Kerbrat, vice president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto, said. The news comes as President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to take office in January, is expected to push very little against crypto-related innovation. Among his pre-election promises was the firing of crypto-gadfly U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler. Last year, Robinhood ended support for several tokens, including SOL and ADA, after some of them were named as securities in a lawsuit by the SEC against Binance and Coinbase. Industry leaders are hoping for more clarity from the SEC on which tokens will be considered a security and which won’t. The current SEC under chair Gary Gensler has not given firms any guidance on the topic. It has, however, sued crypto exchanges for allegedly violating federal securities laws by offering unregistered securities. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/11/13/robinhood-adds-sol-pepe-ada-xrp-following-trump-victory/
