2024-10-14 16:26

The vice president touted her "opportunity agenda" but did not drill down on what it would mean for digital assets during an appearance in Erie, Pa. Vice President Kamala Harris touted her "opportunity agenda" during a campaign speech Monday evening without elaborating on what it would mean for digital assets. Earlier in the day, the campaign unveiled the broad agenda, which included the first thing resembling a substantive policy position from her on cryptocurrencies. But anyone hoping for more details from her speech in Erie, Pa., was left disappointed. Harris didn't even mention "blockchain" or "digital assets" in passing, as she's done in prior appearances, much less crypto. "We will build a future where we have what I call an opportunity economy, where everyone can compete and have a real chance to not just to get by, but to get ahead," she said early in her remarks Monday evening. The Harris campaign said earlier in the day that the "opportunity agenda" was aimed at bolstering support for her among Black men. "Vice President Harris knows that more than 20% of Black Americans own or have owned cryptocurrency assets, which is why her plans will make sure owners of and investors in digital assets benefit from a regulatory framework so that Black men and others who participate in this market are protected," a press release said. An attached document echoed that message. "Vice President Harris appreciates the ways in which new technologies can broaden access to banking and financial services," the document read, before repeating the press release's statement about the framework. In contrast to Harris' near-silence on the topic, former President Donald Trump has made a number of overtures to the crypto industry, promising friendly regulators and saying he would appoint a "bitcoin and crypto advisory council" at Bitcoin Nashville, an industry conference. Last month, Trump visited PubKey, a Bitcoin bar in New York City, and bought burgers using bitcoin with assistance from the bar's staff. Crypto industry participants have commissioned a number of polls gauging voters' interest in the sector. A Harris Poll (no relation to the Vice President) funded by crypto asset manager Grayscale suggests 77% of likely voters want candidates to be informed about crypto, with 21% of the respondents holding at least some crypto. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/10/14/kamala-harris-to-back-crypto-reg-framework-in-speech-today-campaign-says/

2024-10-14 15:08

In 2013, Howells accidentally threw out the hard drive his bitcoin stash that he had mined in 2009, worth around $1 million at the time but which now would be worth over $520 million A British man has filed a legal claim against a local council in an attempt to retrieve a hard drive containing 8,000 BTC he accidentally threw out in 2013. Howells assembled a team to carry out a $13 million excavation of the landfill, which would take between 18 and 36 months to carry out with a further year of remediation work. The council has rejected the request out of environmental concerns. A British man has filed a legal claim against a local council in Wales in an attempt to retrieve a hard drive containing 8,000 BTC that he accidentally threw out in 2013, according to news website WalesOnline. The story of James Howells, 39, is well known in Bitcoin lore. In 2013, Howells accidentally threw out a nhard drive containing his bitcoin stash that he had mined in 2009, worth around $1 million at the time but now worth about $527 million. Over the last decade, Howells has made requests to Newport Council – proprietors of the landfill where the hard drive ended up – to retrieve it, but he claims he has been "largely ignored." He is now suing the council for damages of 495 million pounds ($646 million), representing the peak valuation that 8,000 BTC reached earlier this year. The case is due to be heard in December this year, but Howells said that his aim is to "leverage" the council into agreeing to an excavation of the site in order to avoid a legal battle, according to the report. Howells assembled a team to carry out a $13 million excavation of the site, which includes the council's former head of landfill, who claims to know the particular area where the hard drive is now located. The excavation would take between 18 and 36 months to carry out with a further year of remediation work, which the council has rejected out of environmental concerns. "I'm still allocating 10% of the value for the council even though they have been problematic throughout," Howells said, according to the report. "That would be 41 million pounds based on today's rate but in the future it could be hundreds of millions." Read More: 'Satoshi Era' Wallets Move $16M in Bitcoin After 15 Years of Dormancy https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/10/14/man-who-accidentally-sent-527m-in-bitcoins-to-dump-sues-local-council-to-retrieve-them-report/

2024-10-14 14:26

Trading firm QCP Capital said the move was similar to BTC's price action in 2016 and 2020 before the U.S. elections. Bitcoin (BTC) climbed above $65,000, marking a 4% increase in 24 hours, influenced by positive movements in the S&P 500 and expectations of stimulus in China. Trading firm QCP Capital highlighted similarities between current price actions and those seen before U.S. elections in 2016 and 2020, suggesting a pattern where Bitcoin sees significant gains in the weeks leading up to the election, fueling 'Uptober' optimism. The S&P 500 also opened at a new high, indicating a bullish market trend, which often correlates with cryptocurrency performance. Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $65,000 in U.S. morning trading hours Monday as the S&P 500 index opened to fresh highs, with some traders arguing that historical price patterns witnessed ahead of prior U.S. presidential elections might offer a reason to be bullish ahead of November's upcoming vote. BTC is up 4% in the past 24 hours, data shows, with the broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a liquid fund tracking the largest tokens, up 3.1%. SPX rose 14.8 points, or 0.25%, at the open to 5,829.81 ahead of a week packed with corporate earnings and economic data, per Reuters. BTC rallied from $62,000 to $65,000 since early Asian hours Monday, liquidating over $80 million of BTC and ether (ETH) leveraged shorts – or bets against the tokens. The early move came on renewed hopes of a future stimulus for Chinese markets, which tends to move riskier assets, including cryptocurrencies. Trading firm QCP Capital said the move was similar to BTC's price action in 2016 and 2020 before the U.S. elections. “If we look back to 2016, BTC traded in a very tight range for over 3 months," QCP traders said in a broadcast message. "It wasn't until three weeks before U.S. Election day that BTC began its rally from $600 and finally doubling its price by the first week of January.” “Similarly, in 2020, BTC was stuck in a boring range for half a year and only started rallying from $11K just three weeks before U.S. Election day, reaching a high of $42K by January,” they added. “Today's rally has definitely given the market a glimmer of hope just as Uptober optimism was fading,” the traders said, referring to October’s historically bullish seasonality. October has only twice ended in the red since 2013 - chalking gains of as high as 60% and an average of 22% to make it the best for investor returns. However, prices have largely remained stable in the past two weeks, denting investor hopes. The bitcoin price was around $63,330 on Sept. 30, so the largest cryptocurrency is up just a touch on a month-to-date basis. A CoinDesk analysis has shown that most gains in October tend to come in the second half of the month – with price jumps as high as 16% generally appearing after Oct. 15. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/14/bitcoin-breaks-65k-as-price-action-compared-to-prior-us-election-cycles/

2024-10-14 14:02

World Liberty Financial will be a unified platform where users can borrow and lend cryptocurrencies, create liquidity pools and transact with stablecoins, Folkman and Herro added. The Trump family-backed crypto project, World Liberty Financial, is set to launch its WLFI token presale on Tuesday, with over 100,000 accredited U.S. investors whitelisted. The project aims to raise $300 million, valuing the venture at $1.5 billion. WLFI will serve as a governance token for the platform, which will allow users to engage in borrowing, lending, and other DeFi activities. The Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial has whitelisted over 100,000 accredited U.S. investors ahead of its Tuesday token launch, the project said in an X spaces on Monday. The presale of World Liberty Financial’s WLFI token goes live in U.S. morning hours Tuesday, or exactly three weeks before the presidential election where Donald Trump is the Republican candidate. Trump is "chief crypto advocate" of the project. Two of his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., are "web3 ambassadors," while Barron holds the title of "DeFi visionary." In the U.S., an accredited investor is authorized by the Securities and Exchange Commission to invest in unregistered securities such as pre-IPO shares. They must meet specific income and net worth criteria, such as $200,000 in annual earnings and total assets over $1 million. Non-U.S. investors were subject to local regulations before being whitelisted, founders Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro said on the spaces call. Several notable crypto figures attended the spaces including Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave, Sandy Peng, co-founder layer-2 network Scroll and Luke Pearson, senior research cryptographer, Polychain Capital. The project aims to raise $300 million from the token sales at a valuation of $1.5 billion. WLFI will function as the protocol's governance token and users to vote on changes to the protocol and further strategies. World Liberty Financial will be a unified platform where users can borrow and lend cryptocurrencies, create liquidity pools and transact with stablecoins, Folkman and Herro added. All governance decisions, however, will be in line with U.S. regulations to ensure any changes are complaint with laws. Trump - who has previously dabbled in NFTs and held ether (ETH) on a public wallet - has vowed to make America a global powerhouse for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies if elected. Traders largely view a Trump win as bullish for the industry compared to Democrat Kamala Harris, who isn’t perceived as overly crypto friendly. Trump is currently a marginal favorite to win the election, with Polymarket putting his chance at 53.8% compared to 45.6% for Harris. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/14/trump-backed-world-liberty-financial-whitelists-100k-accredited-investors-ahead-of-wlfi-launch/

2024-10-14 12:00

Solv Protocol's SolvBTC product has more than 20,000 BTC staked ($1.24 billion) deployed across 10 major blockchain networks Bitcoin staking platform Solv Protocol has raised $11 million from Nomura subsidiary Laser Digital, Blockchain Capital and OKX Ventures. Various Bitcoin staking platforms and protocols have emerged in recent years aiming to tap the potential of the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of capital held in BTC by putting it to work on other networks. Bitcoin (BTC) staking platform Solv Protocol has raised $11 million at a $200 million valuation from Nomura subsidiary Laser Digital, Blockchain Capital and OKX Ventures, among others. Solv Protocol's SolvBTC product has more than 20,000 BTC staked ($1.3 billion) deployed across 10 major blockchain networks, according to an announcement shared with CoinDesk on Monday. Various Bitcoin staking platforms and protocols have emerged in recent years aiming to tap the potential of the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of capital held in BTC, putting it to work on other networks. Staking refers to offering up digital assets to help finance the operation of a blockchain network and in return for rewards such as yield. In this sense, it is similar to receiving interest on the balance of one's bank account. Fellow Bitcoin staking platform Babylon has drawn over $1.5 billion worth of staked BTC across two rounds totaling a little over two and a half hours, demonstrating the considerable demand for such services. This does however remain well below some staking plaforms on Ethereum, such as Lido, with $23.7 billion of collateral, or EigenLayer at $10.9 billion. “With a market cap over $1.2 trillion, bitcoin holds huge opportunities for growth," Solv's co-founder Ryan Chow said in the announcement. "Its staking rate lags far behind Ethereum’s 28%. If Bitcoin reached similar staking levels, it could unlock $330 billion in value." Read More: Bitcoin Rollup Citrea Deploys BitVM-Based Bridge 'Clementine' on Testnet https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/10/14/solv-raises-11m-to-grow-the-13b-bitcoin-staking-protocol/

2024-10-14 11:49

Former CEO Dmitry Tokarev will continue as the board's founder director. Amar Kuchinad has been hired as Copper's new global CEO. He replaces Dmitry Tokarev who will continue as the board's founder director. Cryptocurrency custody firm Copper has appointed Amar Kuchinad as its new global CEO, the company said in a press release on Monday. Kuchinad will take over from Dmitry Tokarev, who is stepping down from the role of CEO after seven years, the company said. Last week, CoinDesk reported that Tokarev was planning to resign as CEO. The new CEO will be responsible for leading the company's global growth strategy, with a focus on strengthening the firm's U.S. presence, Copper said. Kuchinad was previously employed at investment banks Credit Suisse and Goldmans Sachs (GS). He also worked as a senior policy advisor to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copper secured a Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) license in Hong Kong in July, as part of its global expansion plans. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/10/14/crypto-custodian-copper-appoints-former-sec-advisor-amar-kuchinad-as-new-global-ceo/