News

Ethereum’s Ether Headed to $5K as Activity, Institutional Demand Grows
December 12, 2024 13:26

Investor demand, onchain metrics and network activity are setting up ether (ETH) to reach a $5,000 level for the first time, CryptoQuant analysts said in a report.

Ether spot ETFs posted a 13-day inflow streak on Wednesday to reach nearly $2 billion in cumulative net inflows. The funds attracted their first billion from July to early December, but SoSoValue data shows that they needed only five trading days to capture the next billion.

Total daily transactions hovered around the 6.5 million to 7.5 million level in the past few months, compared to about 5 million through 2023, indicative of higher network activity.

Meanwhile, the total supply of ETH has reached its highest level since April 2023, but the amount of ETH burned via fees has been growing since September. The total supply of ETH has reached 120 million, marking the highest level since April 2023.

Burns refers to permanently removing tokens from circulating supply by sending them to a wallet that no one controls. As the network sees higher activity and demand, the burn rate increases, limiting the growth of ETH supply and creating deflationary pressure.

Higher network activity on Ethereum signifies increased usage and demand for the network's capabilities, reflecting the growing adoption of decentralized applications. Moreover, it leads to greater ETH burned via transaction fees, which can create deflationary pressure on the total ETH supply, as the burn rate can outpace issuance during periods of high activity.

These factors cumulatively set up ETH to retake its all-time highs from 2021 and beyond.

“ETH could be heading above $5k if current demand and supply dynamics continue,” CryptoQuant said. “According to ETH’s realized price—the average price at which holders purchased their ETH—the current upper limit for ETH’s price stands around $5.2k.”

“This upper limit marked the top for ETH in the 2021 bull run. However, as new market participants buy ETH at higher prices, this upper price band continues to rise,” they added.

The recent surge in Ethereum's price has significantly increased the total value of assets locked within its ecosystem, reaching $77 billion on Thursday, the highest level since January 2022.

The lion's share of these assets is managed by just three key applications: Lido, which dominates with over $38 billion in staked ether, making it the largest liquid staking protocol; Aave, with $19 billion spread across various assets, functioning as a lending platform; and EigenLayer, a restaking platform, holding $18 billion.

The Ethereum network has witnessed a notable uptick in several key metrics in November. There's been an increase in revenue, transaction fees, new wallet creations, and on-chain volume, all indicating heightened activity when compared to the quieter months from May to September, as a <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/11/27/think-ethereum-s-eth-is-dead-surging-metrics-show-otherwise" target="_blank">CoinDesk analysis</a> previously noted.

Ether largely underperformed bitcoin and other major tokens since 2022 but saw a return in bullish sentiment after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential elections in November, rekindling hopes for a DeFi bull run among investors.

Trump's campaign has signaled a potential softening of regulatory pressures on cryptocurrencies, which could ease operations for DeFi platforms within the country. This anticipation has been a <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/11/07/ether-surges-10-as-trump-victory-brings-back-defi-bullishness" target="_blank">catalyst for increased demand</a> for ETH and has propelled the growth of major DeFi tokens since early November.

Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Bulls, Remember to Zoom Out When in Doubt
December 12, 2024 12:00

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

The crypto market is looking to maintain the <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/11/bitcoin-crosses-above-101-k-as-xrp-ai-tokens-lead-crypto-rally" target="_blank">bullish momentum ignited by</a> Wednesday's U.S. CPI report, which matched estimates and cleared the path for another <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-cautious-fed-on-track-for-one-last-2024-cut-followed-by-a-slowing-down-in-2025-144848267.html" target="_blank">Federal Reserve rate cut next week</a>.

BTC has retaken $100,000 and ether is again eyeing $4,000. A number of tokens, including AAVE and LINK, are trading 10% higher on the back of accumulation by wallets tied to World Liberty Financial, the project supported by President-elect Donald Trump's family.

The key question now is whether BTC's rally will be long-lasting. It could be, thanks to bitcoin's consistent price <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/11/06/bitcoins-coinbase-premium-jumps-to-two-month-high-as-prices-top-71k-amid-trumps-early-lead" target="_blank">premium on Coinbase</a> compared with global exchanges and healthier leverage levels in the broader market. The upside may be capped, however, if the producer price index shows hotter inflation in the pipeline.

"Any upside surprise — and what it means for next Friday's release of the core PCE deflator — could prove a minor dollar positive," ING said.

For cues on whether $100K is a major top, my advice is simple: when in doubt, zoom out.

At $100,000, the annualized three-month BTC futures basis on major exchanges hovers around 15%, way below the 30%-plus witnessed at the height of 2021's bull market. That's a sign the gain is driven by genuine buying in the spot market, which is longer-lasting than speculative leverage-led bull runs.

Zooming out also brings the second half of 2021 into the frame. That's when college kids in their late teens worldwide traded tokens like DOT, SOL, ETH and other cryptocurrencies without any know-how of their use case.

It's also when the bull market topped.

Fast forward to now, and main street is silent on crypto. Remember what Leonardo Di Caprio said in The Wolf of Wall Street: "By the time you read about it in The Wall Street Journal, it's already too late."

If that’s not enough, the $100,000 milestone is also marked by a rise in institutional participation and <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/12/09/crypto-groups-push-ads-letters-to-oppose-democrat-s-sec-commissioner-nomination" target="_blank">active lobbying</a> by crypto community for favorable regulatory environment.

Speaking of bull market continuation, ether looks primed to move above $5,000 as booming on-chain activity burns more of the token, reducing supply in the market, according to CryptoQuant.

"According to ETH's realized price—the average price at which holders purchased their ETH—the current upper limit for ETH's price stands around $5.2k," the firm told CoinDesk.

The bullish outlook for ether is generally seen as good news for other altcoins too, although, according to Delphi Digital, the token supply is "too damn high," thanks to projects like pump.fun. The resulting demand-supply imbalance makes finding the alpha that much more challenging in the altcoin sector. Stay alert!

What to Watch

Crypto:

Dec. 13: Nasdaq announces its annual changes to the Nasdaq-100 index. MicroStrategy (MSTR), the world’s largest corporate holder of bitcoin, is widely expected to be added.

Dec. 18: CleanSpark (CLSK) Q4 FY 2024 earnings. EPS Est. $-0.18 vs Prev. $-1.02.

Macro

Dec. 12, 8:15 a.m.: The European Central Bank (ECB) announces its <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/activities/mopo/html/index.en.html" target="_blank">monetary policy decision</a> (three key interest rates), followed by a <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/press_conference/html/index.en.html" target="_blank">press conference</a> at 8:45 a.m.

Deposit facility interest rate Est. 3.0% vs Prev. 3.25%.

Main refinancing operations interest rate Est. 3.15% vs Prev. 3.4%.

Marginal lending facility interest rate Prev. 3.65%.

Dec. 12, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf" target="_blank">Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report </a>for the week ended Dec. 7. Initial Jobless Claims Est. 220K vs Prev. 224K.

Dec. 16, 9:45 a.m.: December's <a href="https://www.pmi.spglobal.com/Public/Release/PressReleases" target="_blank">S&P Global Flash US PMI </a>data is released. Composite PMI Prev. 54.9.

Token Events

Governance votes & calls

EigenLayer to deploy Rewards v2 upgrade on Holesky testnet following governance vote. Stakers and operators can collect multiple rewards at once, saving on transaction costs.

Moonriver's MR64 proposal meets quorum and would upgrade tokenomics by redirecting 80% of token inflation to the treasury to fund ecosystem growth and operations.

Synapse puts up SIP-41 for voting, and proposes a $3.5 million buyback of SYN tokens over three months. Voting is currently live.

Unlocks

Axie Infinity to unlock 815,000 AXS, worth $6 million at current prices, at 8:10 a.m.

Airdrops

Sonic SVM, Solana's first Layer 2, will hold a token airdrop for Solayer users who delegate to Sonic's Actively Validated Service (AVS). The initiative will reward early supporters, boost liquidity through LSTs, and strengthen Solana's restaking ecosystem.

Conferences:

Day 4 of 4: <a href="https://adfw.com/" target="_blank">Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2024</a> (Abu Dhabi, UAE)

Day 4 of 5: <a href="https://www.blockchainweek.lu/" target="_blank">Luxembourg Blockchain Week 2024</a>

Day 1 of 2: <a href="https://www.globalblockchainshow.com/" target="_blank">Global Blockchain Show</a> (Dubai, UAE)

Day 1 of 3: <a href="https://www.taipeiblockchainweek.com/" target="_blank">Taipei Blockchain Week 2024</a> (Taipei, Taiwan)

Dec. 13: <a href="https://www.limitlesscrypto.com/" target="_blank">Limitless Crypto 2024</a> (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

Jan. 13 - 24: <a href="https://web3fest.ch/swiss-web3fest/" target="_blank">Swiss WEB3FEST Winter Edition 2025</a> (Zug, Zurich, St. Moritz, Davos)

Dec. 16 - 17: <a href="https://theblockchainassociation.org/policy-summit-2024/" target="_blank">Blockchain Association’s Policy Summit</a> (Washington D.C.)

Jan. 17: <a href="https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/about/clubs-and-associations/institutions/entrepreneur-association-ea/unchained" target="_blank">Unchained: Blockchain Business Forum 2025</a> (Los Angeles)

Jan. 18: <a href="https://bitcoinday.io/" target="_blank">BitcoinDay</a> (Napes, Florida)

Jan. 20 - 24: <a href="https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2025/" target="_blank">The 2025 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum</a> (Davos, Switzerland)

Jan. 21: <a href="https://www.tokenizationsummit.de/eng" target="_blank">Frankfurt Tokenization Conference 2025</a>

Token Talk

By Shaurya Malwa An AI agent token fashioned after venture fund a16z has flipped sector leader goat (GOAT) to become the most valued in its category.

Ai16z, a fund based on AI-based trading signals, has crossed an $850 million market capitalization to flip GOAT, which kickstarted the AI agents sector in October. Holders of AI16Z tokens pitch ideas to "AI Marc," an AI agent modeled after Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) partner Marc Andreessen, to influence and suggest investment decisions.

The fund holds upward of $10 million from 30,000 unique “partners,” a feat it has achieved in a little over a month since going live.

The AI16Z price has surged 77% in the past seven days and more than tripled in the past 14 days, <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ai16z" target="_blank">CoinGecko data shows</a>. That's more than GOAT and other AI agent tokens that function solely as memes or online chatbots.

The action shows the market's evolving preferences for projects offering entertainment value and tangible utility — where technical projects masquerading as memes may continue to attract more demand in the coming months.

“$ai16z flipping $goat is a huge signal for the AI agent sector,” crypto trader @Defi0xJeff wrote in <a href="https://x.com/Defi0xJeff/status/1866537754798284916" target="_blank">an X post</a>. “It shows how the new generation of agents is progressing at a much faster pace than the old guard. This is bullish not just for $ai16z but for the entire ecosystem.”

Derivatives Positioning

BTC and ETH implied volatility term structures have steepened alongside price rises.

Calls have become pricier than puts as BTC's move back above $100,000 has reduced fears of a protracted pullback.

A market participant bought a large calendar spread by buying the $110K strike call expiring Jan. 3 while selling the $100K call expiring Dec. 27. The strategy aims to profit from the price decay in the Jan. 27 expiry while being protected from an upside volatility explosion.

In ETH, the notable trade was a bull call spread at $4,300 and $4,500 strikes.

Market Movements:

BTC is up 3.64% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday to $100,599 (24hrs: +2.05%)

ETH is up 6.9% at $3,921.91 (24hrs: +5.41%)

CoinDesk 20 is up 2.14% to 3,905.81 (24hrs: +5.52%)

Ether staking yield is down 30 bps to 3.17%

BTC funding rate is at 0.01% (10.95% annualized) on Binance

DXY is unchanged at 106.63

Gold is up 0.49% at $2,747.10/oz

Silver is up 1.47% to $33.04/oz

Nikkei 225 closed +1.21% at 39,849.14

Hang Seng closed +1.2% at 20,397.05

FTSE is up 0.25% at 8,322.22

Euro Stoxx 50 is unchanged at 4,962.71

DJIA closed on Wednesday -0.22% at 44,148.56

S&P 500 closed +0.82% at 6,084.19

Nasdaq closed +1.77% at 20,034.89

S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.6% at 25,657.70

S&P 40 Latin America closed +1.55% at 2,398.16

U.S. 10-year Treasury is unchanged at 4.3%

E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.16% to 6,082.75

E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.24% to 21,741.50

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.19% at 44,139.00

Bitcoin Stats:

BTC Dominance: 56.18% (24hrs: -1.20%)

Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.03878 (24hrs: -0.83%)

Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 770 EH/s

Hashprice (spot): $61.8

Total Fees: 18.9 BTC/ $1.9M

CME Futures Open Interest: 194,740 BTC

BTC priced in gold: 37.2 oz

BTC vs gold market cap: 10.60%

Bitcoin sitting in over-the-counter desk balances: 431,000 BTC

Basket Performance

Technical Analysis

The ETH/BTC ratio has already scaled the 50-day SMA and is now looking to establish a foothold above the 100-day average.

That would give traders more confidence that the pair has bottomed out and open the door for a test of the 200-day average at 0.044.

Crypto Equities

MicroStrategy (MSTR): closed on Wednesday at $411.4 (+9.03%), down 0.75% at $408.11 in pre-market.

Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $313.81 (+3.77%), up 0.63% at $315.80 in pre-market.

Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$27.29 (+5.04%)

MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $23.27 (+2.02%), up 0.13% at $23.30 in pre-market.

Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $11.77 (+6.04%), down 0.59% at $11.70 in pre-market.

Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $15.86 (+0.51%), up 0.19% at $15.89 in pre-market.

CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $12.83 (-0.85%), up 0.39% at $12.88 in pre-market.

CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $27.89 (+2.8%), up 3.08% at $28.75 in pre-market.

Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $64.53 (+7.86%), down 0.22% at $64.39 in pre-market.

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

Daily net inflow: $223.1 million

Cumulative net inflows: $34.55 billion

Total BTC holdings ~ 1.119 million.

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net inflow: $102 million

Cumulative net inflows: $1.97 billion

Total ETH holdings ~ 3.417 million.

Source: <a href="https://farside.co.uk/btc/" target="_blank">Farside Investors</a>

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

The number of daily transactions on Aptos, a layer-1 blockchain focused on safety and scalability, has almost tripled to 3.1 million in three months.

The increased network usage supports the bull case in the APT token, which has increased 46% this year.

While You Were Sleeping

<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2cf6e79c-8512-47cc-ab0b-beddc36fa109" target="_blank">Dollar’s Surge Sparks Biggest Fall in Emerging Market Currencies in 2 Years</a> (Financial Times): The U.S. dollar's surge, driven by expectations of President-elect Donald Trump's policies, and economic struggles in emerging markets, has sparked the largest sell-off in their currencies since Sept. 2022.

<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/12/less-than-1-of-microsoft-shareholders-voted-for-btc-proposal" target="_blank">Less than 1% of Microsoft Shareholders Voted for BTC Proposal</a> (CoinDesk): Only 0.55% of Microsoft shareholders backed a proposal, advocated by the National Center for Public Policy Research, to include bitcoin in the company's balance sheet.

<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/12/12/vancouver-city-council-passes-pro-bitcoin-motion-citing-fiat-challenges" target="_blank">Vancouver City Council Passes Pro-Bitcoin Motion Citing Fiat Challenges</a> (CoinDesk): Vancouver's city council approved a mayoral motion to explore using bitcoin as a treasury asset and for paying fees and taxes.

<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/12/link-aave-rocket-30-as-trump-s-world-liberty-financial-buys-2-m-tokens" target="_blank">LINK, AAVE Rocket 30% as Trump’s World Liberty Financial Buys $2M Tokens</a> (CoinDesk): Crypto wallets associated with the Trump-supported World Liberty Financial project reportedly purchased millions in ETH, AAVE, and LINK tokens on Thursday, driving up their prices significantly.

<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korean-president-yoon-vows-fight-end-2024-12-12/" target="_blank">South Korean President Yoon Vows to ‘Fight to the End’</a> (Reuters): South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, facing a second impeachment vote on Saturday, defended his Dec. 3 martial law declaration as an attempt to save democracy.

<a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/inflation-prices-trump-president-186fb5cc" target="_blank">Inflation Is Stuck. Can Trump Unstick It?</a> (The Wall Street Journal): Despite some easing, the U.S. year-over-year inflation rate stands at 2.7%, with economists warning that President-elect Donald Trump's planned tariffs and immigration restrictions could further drive up prices.

In the Ether

Bitcoin Is Leaving Exchanges in Batches of $10M or More: Van Straten
December 12, 2024 11:09

Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is fighting a big milestone trying to sustain a $2 trillion market cap and a $100,000 price.

Once bitcoin has conclusively overcome these milestones, there may be clear skies ahead. Bitcoin has rallied over $30,000, since Donald Trump won the U.S. election in November, which coincided with many coins leaving exchanges, but primarily BTC leaving in large chunks.

Glassnode data shows that transactions worth more than $10 million of bitcoin have been leaving exchanges at a rapid rate which signals aggressive buying from an institutional level. Many of these transactions appear to be coming from the exchange Coinbase, which is why we have noticed a <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/11/06/bitcoins-coinbase-premium-jumps-to-two-month-high-as-prices-top-71k-amid-trumps-early-lead" target="_blank">Coinbase premium</a> in recent weeks.

As of yesterday, almost 12,500 BTC ($1.3 billion) left exchanges, with roughly half of this amount leaving Coinbase, according to Glassnode data.

Since the U.S. election, Glassnode data reports that roughly 200,000 BTC have left exchanges, which leaves roughly 2.8 million BTC on exchanges which is the lowest amount in the past seven years.

Hut 8 Rises 12% Pre-Market Amid Social-Media Talk of Partnership With Meta
December 12, 2024 10:49

Shares of bitcoin miner Hut 8 (HUT) <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/HUT/" target="_blank">jumped nearly 12%</a> in pre-market trading amid social media speculation that it is building a data center with Facebook owner Meta Platforms (META).

The shares climbed to just under $30 as of 10:00 UTC. The <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WGMI/" target="_blank">CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF</a> (WGMI), which offers broad exposure to the BTC mining sector, rose about 3% higher.

Neither Miami, Fla.-based Hut nor Menlo Park, Calif.-based Meta has announced a partnership.

Hut 8 is <a href="https://louisianaradionetwork.com/2024/12/09/data-center-coming-to-west-feliciana-parish/" target="_blank">building a data center</a> in West Feliciana Parish, La. at an initial cost of $12 billion, local media has reported.

Earlier this month, Meta said it was planning to build <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/meta-invest-10-billion-louisiana-data-center-2024-12-04/" target="_blank">a $10 billion AI data center</a> in Richland Parish, La., Reuters reported.

There are similarities between bitcoin miners and AI data centers in the required equipment, computing power and energy to run it all. Some bitcoin miners <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/10/23/bitcoin-miners-are-pivoting-to-ai-to-survive-core-scientific-entered-the-race-years-ago" target="_blank">have been dedicating resources to AI computation to diversify</a> their revenue streams.

<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/05/u-s-crypto-stocks-surge-in-pre-market-trading-as-bitcoin-tops-100-k" target="_blank">Hut 8</a> previously announced a $500 million at-the-market (ATM) offering and a $250 million stock-repurchase program. The company has said it mined <a href="https://hut8.com/2024/12/05/hut-8-operations-update-for-november-2024/" target="_blank">94 BTC in November</a>, a 6% month-on-month decrease. It holds <a href="https://bitcointreasuries.net/" target="_blank">9,122 BTC</a> ($921 million) on the balance sheet, the seventh-largest holder of bitcoin of any publicly traded company.

Neither company immediately responded to CoinDesk's request for comment.

Read More: <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/10/bitcoin-miners-cipher-clean-spark-and-maras-upgraded-at-jp-morgan" target="_blank">Bitcoin Miners Cipher, CleanSpark and MARA Upgraded at JPMorgan</a>

This Bitcoin Indicator Echoes Early November Vibe That Presaged a 40% Price Explosion
December 12, 2024 10:05

Bitcoin (BTC) traders could be in for another thrilling ride. A key technical indicator that presaged November's price surge is positioned precisely as it was then, signaling a potential volatility explosion ahead.

That indicator is the Bollinger bandwidth, a tool used to gauge impending changes in market jumpiness. For bitcoin, the bandwidth has narrowed to less than 10%, a level not seen since Nov. 4, the day before the U.S. elections. The largest cryptocurrency subsequently surged to $100,000 from $70,000 in four weeks.

Bollinger bands mark levels two standard deviations above and below the 20-day moving average of an asset's price. The bandwidth refers to the spread between upper and lower bands, with rising figures representing volatility boom and vice versa.

Volatility is typically mean-reverting, and historical data shows that when the daily bandwidth drops below 10%, it often leads to upturns followed by increased turbulence. It's important to note that volatility is price-agnostic, meaning it can manifest in either direction. For example, after the bandwidth dipped below 10% in early June, BTC prices dropped to $54,000 from $69,000 in three weeks.

Seasoned traders wait for the market to confirm a direction by topping either of the two bands. A move above the upper band typically signals a bullish volatility explosion on the horizon, a dip below the lower band suggests the opposite.

At press time, BTC is trading between the two bands, offering little guidance. That said, the prospect of renewed volatility might see savvy traders take derivative bets that profit from increased price swings in either direction.

A Single Pudgy Penguins NFT Now Costs More Than a Bitcoin
December 12, 2024 09:24

The Pudgy Penguins NFT collection is keeping Web3 hopes afloat in a sea of dead NFT projects and a generally muted collectibles market.

The <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-are-nfts-and-how-do-they-work/ " target="_blank">non-fungible token</a> set became the world’s second <a href="https://nftpricefloor.com/?temp=7d" target="_blank">most-valued</a> NFTs on Wednesday, with the minimum — or floor — price for any of the 8,888 comic penguins topping $100,000 and flipping the collections' value above its comic monkey forerunner, the Bored Apes Yacht Club.

That means buying a single NFT now costs more than a bitcoin, which currently trades at just over $100,000.

The floor price has jumped 76% in the past seven days to over 26 ether (ETH), or just above $105,000. Bored Apes and CryptoPunks — the most valued NFTs — both fell 12% in the same period.

Demand for the NFTs surged after a CoinDesk exclusive on Pudgy Penguin’s plans to <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/05/top-nft-brand-pudgy-penguins-to-release-pengu-token" target="_blank">release a PENGU token on the Solana blockchain</a> later this month. The token allocation strategy includes a substantial share for existing NFT holders, which may have incentivized current owners to hold or increase their investments, driving up demand.

Nearly a quarter — 23.5% — of the 88 billion PENGU tokens will be reserved for owners of the project's NFT collections such as Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys and Pudgy Rods. A further 22% will be available to the Solana and Ethereum communities, and 12% will be set aside to provide liquidity on decentralized exchanges.

In the NFT market, the floor price is the cheapest cost of an NFT within a specific collection. It is fixed by the NFT's owner based on market forces such as demand or rarity of traits in the collection. The floor remains in place until a lower one is set.

This is different from the general token or stock market, where demand and supply automatically change prices every second, instead of a single holder deciding the minimum price for an asset.

Pudgy Penguins came into existence in 2021. Each penguin is hand-drawn and features distinctive traits such as backgrounds, body, face, head and skin.

The collection has successfully expanded its presence beyond just digital collectibles into physical products and mainstream branding.

Parent company Igloo last year introduced Pudgy Toys, a toy line based on the digital art collection. It has since sold more than $10 million in collectible igloos and plushies through major retailers including Walmart, Target, Amazon and Walgreens.

Assetera Enables Non-U.S. Investors to Trade Tokenized Nvidia, Coinbase, and S&P 500
December 12, 2024 09:00

Assetera, a Polygon-powered MiFID-licensed trading venue for blockchain-based securities in Europe, has listed Backed Finance's tokenized assets, offering non-U.S. investors to gain exposure to trackers linked to some of the most sought-after U.S. companies.

The initial launch includes tokenized trackers tied to the Nasdaq-listed Coinbase (COIN), one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, the chip-maker Nvidia (NVDA), a bellwether for all things artificial intelligence (AI) and risk assets, and the blue-chip index, the S&P 500 (SPX), the company said in the press release shared with CoinDesk on Thursday.

The platform plans to list tokenized Treasury bills, or short-term U.S. government securities with maturities of one year or less, designed for liquidity-focused investors. Futures plans include a potential listing of money market funds, bonds, stablecoins and private-credit tokens.

When trading these tokenized trackers, Assetera's users will receive Backed's bTokens, representing shares in the underlying assets. These bTokens are fully collateralized and issued under an approved European Union prospectus, ensuring transparent and secure 24/7 trading.

These tokens offer significant flexibility, as they can be stored in any wallet and moved beyond traditional market hours and across chains, with the help of Chainlink Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol.

"This collaboration reflects our commitment to innovation in financial markets and the empowerment of investors globally," Thomas Labenbacher, CEO of Assetera, said, as Adam Levi, co-founder of Backed Finance, said it allows investors to get exposure to traditional financial assets via an onchain and regulated environment.

Asset tokenization is the process of using blockchain technology to convert a traditional asset's value into a digital token, facilitating 24/7 availability, access for all, composability and instant global collateral mobility. A 2022 projection by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) put the value of the tokenized asset market at an astounding $16 trillion in 2030 versus less than $100 billion today.

Regulatory uncertainty and security concerns have long <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/10/17/asian-private-wealth-managers-embrace-crypto-some-foresee-bitcoin-at-100k-by-year-end" target="_blank">hindered</a> the widespread adoption of digital assets, but Assetera is tackling these challenges using rigorous adults to mitigate vulnerabilities.

The company told CoinDesk that it uses AI-powered real-time monitoring systems to detect and address suspicious activity, adding that Backend's robust and scalable infrastructure and expertise in democratizing finance through tokenization solidified the partnership.

LINK, AAVE Rocket 30% as Trump’s World Liberty Financial Buys $2M Tokens
December 12, 2024 06:07

Crypto wallets connected to the Trump family-supported World Liberty Financial project purchased millions of dollars worth of various major tokens early Thursday, causing their prices to rocket.

World Liberty Financial is a unified platform where users can borrow and lend cryptocurrencies, create liquidity pools and transact with stablecoins. WLFI serves as a governance token for the platform.

President-elect Donald 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."

Data shows the project purchased $10 million in ether (ETH), and $1 million each in aave (AAVE) and Chainlink’s LINK tokens early Thursday. ETH prices surged 7% in Asian morning hours after the purchases, while AAVE and LINK prices surged 30% on the bullish sentiment.

The wallet has additionally spent $30 million to buy 8,105 ETH at an average price of $3,700 in the past 12 days, per <a href="https://x.com/spotonchain/status/1867057137500950862" target="_blank">Spot on Chain</a>.

Well-followed crypto trader @TheFlowHorse <a href="https://x.com/TheFlowHorse/status/1867045457697849631" target="_blank">speculated</a> that the tokens were likely part of bigger plans in the coming months: “Trump’s account is buying the crypto pairs that are set to benefit heavily from his plans.”

World Liberty Financial uses data provider Chainlink's services for better integrating with the wider crypto ecosystem. Chainlink supports the platform by providing crucial pricing data and cross-chain interoperability infrastructure, per a November report.

“With Trump’s World Liberty Financial DeFi platform adopting the Chainlink standard for data and cross-chain connectivity earlier this year, the recent onchain purchase of $1M in LINK only further strengthens the long-term alignment between the two ecosystems," Chainlink community liasion Zach Rynes said in a Telegram message to CoinDesk.

"As the new administration brings regulatory clarity for crypto in the US, Chainlink and WLFi are well positioned to scale DeFi to the masses in a way never seen before," Rynes added.

Last week, the platform’s DAO proposed deploying a World Liberty Financial Aave v3 instance. This instance will be managed through external risk managers, built on the existing Aave v3 infrastructure, and released on Ethereum.

An instance refers to a specific deployment or version of a protocol, application, or service on a blockchain network.

The vote has already met quorum ahead of its end date on Dec. 13,<a href="https://vote.worldlibertyfinancial.com/#/proposal/0xce3ff6b195863c2217865ba6f028d2e163d9156a25cb35d923da3a5bc8479483" target="_blank"> governance data shows</a>, and key objectives include attracting first-time users to the platform as well as sharing a piece of revenues with those who provide liquidity.

Less than 1% of Microsoft Shareholders Voted for BTC Proposal
December 12, 2024 05:08

Only 0.55% of Microsoft (MSFT) shareholders voted for a proposal to put bitcoin (BTC) on the company's balance sheet, according to a <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/08/frame-microsoft-shareholders-decide-against-adding-bitcoin-to-its-treasury-bitcoin-dumps" target="_blank">recent company filing</a> with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The proposal to add bitcoin to Microsoft's balance sheet was <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/12/08/frame-microsoft-shareholders-decide-against-adding-bitcoin-to-its-treasury-bitcoin-dumps" target="_blank">put to a shareholder vote</a> on November 10 and was put forward by the National Center for Public Policy Research, which recommended that Microsoft allocate 1% of its total assets to BTC as a potential hedge against inflation.

Microsoft's board opposed the proposal, citing Bitcoin's volatility and favoring stable investments, despite Michael Saylor's pitch highlighting MicroStrategy's success and Microsoft's $200 billion capital outflow from dividends and buybacks.

Some of the other proposed shareholder motions, which would have directed the company to produce a report on AI and Misinformation/Disformation, as well as another which would highlight the risks of weapons development did not pass.

Prediction markets were skeptical that Microsoft would make a move to adopt the digital asset, with <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/will-microsoft-shareholders-vote-for-bitcoin-investment" target="_blank">Polymarket bettors</a> giving it a 12-16% chance of the motion being ratified.

Vancouver City Council Passes Pro-Bitcoin Motion Citing Fiat Challenges
December 12, 2024 05:02

Vancouver, British Columbia's city council has passed a motion to explore the possibility of accepting bitcoin (BTC) for payment of taxes and fees as well as establishing a bitcoin reserve.

The motion, prepared by Mayor Ken Sim, calls for "diversifying the City of Vancouver's financial reserves and payment options to include bitcoin."

"It would be irresponsible for the City of Vancouver to not look at the merits of adding bitcoin to the City’s strategic assets to preserve the City’s financial stability," reads the motion.

The motion calls for City staff to report back to the Council on the feasibility of a "bitcoin-friendly city" strategy by the end of the first quarter of 2025.

This motion marks a significant change in City policy towards BTC, as Vancouver's prior Mayor, Kennedy Stewart <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2019/06/07/vancouver-saw-the-first-ever-bitcoin-atm-now-its-mayor-wants-to-ban-them" target="_blank">tried to outright ban bitcoin ATMs within city limits in 2019</a> (Vancouver was home to the world's first bitcoin ATM).

Vancouver is also the <a href="https://macleans.ca/economy/business/who-is-changpeng-zhao-canadas-crypto-king/" target="_blank">childhood home</a> of former Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao, and where failed crypto exchange <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/learn/the-story-behind-quadrigacx-and-gerald-cotten-netflixs-crypto-king" target="_blank">QuadrigaCX </a>was headquartered.