News
EToro, a stocks and crypto trading platform targeting retail investors, is looking to sell shares to the public on the New York Stock Exchange, the Financial Times reported, citing a confidential filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The sale, which could come as early as the second quarter, could value the company at more than $5 billion, the FT said. Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and UBS are advising the company.
If successful, eToro would join Coinbase (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD) as one of the few publicly listed companies offering crypto trading in the U.S. It would be much smaller than either: Coinbase has a $69 billion market cap and Robinhood $40 billion.
The valuation would also be less than half the level it sought in 2021, when it planned to go public through a $10.4 billion deal with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The attempt was abandoned late in 2022 as a result of unfavorable market conditions.
In 2023, eToro secured $250 million in funding at a $3.5 billion valuation from investors including SoftBank as its valuation plunged, according to the FT. The valuation has since risen amid an equity and cryptocurrency market rally, and after the company agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle SEC charges it operated as an unregistered broker and unregistered clearing agency and facilitated trading in some crypto assets as securities.
While eToro's cryptocurrency trading volume isn’t known, Finance Magnates reported last year that it surged more than 500% in the year ended November.
The company, founded in Israel in 2007, reportedly manages $11.3 billion for over 3 million customers. These assets include not only cryptocurrencies, but also stocks and exchange-traded funds.
Last year, as a result of its settlement with the SEC, it agreed to drop trading for multiple cryptocurrencies in the United States, limiting its users in the country to trade bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), and ether (ETH).
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
In today’s issue, Bryan Courchesne from DAIM explains how bitcoin can be included in U.S. Individual Retirement Accounts, what to watch out for, and the importance of working with a financial advisor.
Then, Eric Tomaszewski from Verde Capital Management shares tips on preparing for tax season in Ask and Expert.
You’re reading Crypto for Advisors, CoinDesk’s weekly newsletter that unpacks digital assets for financial advisors. Subscribe here to get it every Thursday.
Bitcoin Could Be On The Verge Of A Major Breakout: Is Your IRA Ready For The Opportunity?
Top researchers and very large investors are putting price targets on bitcoin that project it is potentially on the brink of a significant bull run. Tom Lee says bitcoin will be $250,000 this year, and Michael Saylor says bitcoin will get to $500,000 overnight.
Imagine having a substantial allocation of bitcoin in your retirement account before this bull run kicks into ultra-high gear – a tax-advantaged allocation funded by an old Individual Retirement Account (IRA) you may have forgotten about. The opportunity is right in front of you, but it’s essential to set it up the right way with a platform that offers comprehensive support and peace of mind.
Step 1: Self-Direct Your IRA Or Work With An Advisor
When investing in bitcoin through your IRA, security and compliance are paramount. A qualified custodian ensures your retirement assets are managed per IRS regulations, offering a layer of protection beyond simple wallet management. If you select a self-directed method, know it will be up to you to handle the transfer and make investment decisions. If you go with an advisor, they will handle the bulk of the transfer process for you, all the way through managing the portfolio.
Self-directing means you have to watch your investments, which are vulnerable to errors, fraud, or mismanagement. An advisor has done the due diligence on service providers and regularly monitors accounts for the best outcome.
Step 2: Set Up Your Tax-Advantaged Crypto IRA
Once you have chosen a self-directed platform or advisor, the next step is signing up, which involves executing and approving a client agreement. While the process is similar for both options, working with an advisor offers critical advantages. An advisor can help design a portfolio tailored to your risk profile, guide you in determining the appropriate position sizes relative to your other investments, and assist in implementing a long-term investment plan that aligns with your financial goals. In contrast, self-directed platforms don’t provide personalized guidance, don’t care what you buy, and are often incentivized to encourage frequent trading, which can erode your returns over time.
Additionally, setting up the correct IRA structure is crucial. For example, if you already have a Traditional IRA, you’ll need to open a new Traditional IRA with the crypto IRA provider to maintain consistency. Transferring assets can be complicated, especially if you're unsure which investments to sell, how much to roll over, or how to track the transfer process. An advisor can guide you through these steps, handling much of the complexity and ensuring a smoother experience.
Step 3: Invest For Growth As The Crypto Sector Surges
As discussed above, a self-directed platform leaves you on your own to select investments, determine position sizes, and decide when to buy or sell. If you’re confident in your ability to outperform the market and manage these decisions independently, this approach might work for you – but it demands time, expertise, and discipline, with no safety net if mistakes are made.
In contrast, working with an advisor offers a distinct advantage. Advisors provide guidance tailored to your financial goals, help you select high-quality investments, and may offer pre-designed portfolios with proven track records. Rather than going it alone, you’ll gain access to a team of experts whose full-time job is managing digital assets and staying ahead of industry trends.
As many experts predict, the upcoming bitcoin bull run could drive prices well into six figures. By securing a bitcoin IRA today, you can position yourself to benefit from this potential growth while leveraging tax advantages and professional management to support long-term success.
Ask an Expert
Q. It’s the beginning of a new year. What are some things I should consider so I can kickstart the year effectively?
It's important to focus on systems more than goals. Goals will give you direction, while systems will create progress. Identify daily and weekly actions that will help you achieve larger goals, personally and professionally. From there, start small, repeat consistently, and tie new habits to existing ones to help you remember and reinforce.
Q. It's 2025, so what strategies can I use for tax year 2024?
Fortunately, it is not too late to find tax deductions, as there is a range of options to consider. Traditional IRAs, Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and self-employed retirement plan contributions – such as those made through a SEP IRA or Solo 401(k) plan for freelancers or contractors – are just some of the available options.
Q. How do I tackle an upcoming tax bill in April?
Everything comes back to planning. If you are addressing this situation today, work with professionals to project the needed amount.
From there, prioritize your liquidity needs and goals over the upcoming months while developing a payment plan.
This may require adjusting your budget and exploring creative payment options, such as IRS installment plans, securities-based lending, etc.
- Eric Tomaszewski, Financial Advisor, Verde Capital Management
Keep Reading
President-elect Trump is set to host an inaugural crypto ball.
Will Meta’s board of directors consider a bitcoin strategic reserve after being asked by one of the company’s shareholders?
Italy’s largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, now owns bitcoin.
Bonus: CoinDesk released a new report, Digital Assets: Q4 Highlights & Commentary
Ctrl Wallet, the multi-chain self-custody wallet solution is up for sale, the company's CEO and founder Emile Dubie told CoinDesk in an exclusive interview.
The sales process was triggered after the company received two M&A approaches late last year, Dubie said.
The wallet provider, formerly known as XDEFI, received a takeover offer from a crypto protocol and also an approach to merge with a large decentralized exchange (DEX).
The business has subsequently engaged investment bankers to organise a sales process and Ctrl Wallet is being advised by Imperii Partners, Dubie added.
An auction process is ongoing with bids due by Jan. 28., and a winning bidder is expected to be announced by Jan. 31.
Ctrl Wallet currently has 650,000 users, with a goal to get to over 2 million by the end of the year, the CEO said.
The firm's main competitors are Coinbase Wallet, Binance's Trust Wallet and OKX's wallet. To be able to compete with these larger players the company needs a partner, someone who can invest in the business, Dubie said.
The company raised money in 2021 at a valuation of $60 million.
With U.S. President-elect Donald Trump only four days away from inauguration and new leadership coming to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), additional cryptocurrencies may soon join bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) and receive their own spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Of these, litecoin (LTC) is likely to be the first to receive the nod, according to Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart, two ETF analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence.
“Canary Funds just filed an amended S-1 for their litecoin ETF filing. No guarantees — but this might be indicative of SEC engagement on the filing,” Seyffart posted on X.
“We had heard chatter that the litecoin S-1 had gotten comments back from the SEC,” Balchunas wrote, adding that the amended filing “bodes well for our prediction that litecoin is most likely to be the next coin approved.”
Furthermore, the Nasdaq stock exchange filed a 19b-4 form for Canary Funds' litecoin ETF on Thursday, meaning that the SEC will now be forced to approve or reject the ETF in the coming year. LTC is up 18% in the last 24 hours.
Why litecoin? With a market capitalization of $8.8 billion, litecoin is only the 11th largest cryptocurrency in the CoinDesk 20 (an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies excluding stablecoins, memecoins and exchange coins) and 24th biggest coin overall.
But litecoin is a bitcoin fork, meaning that its protocol follows the same basic rules as Bitcoin; it uses a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism, for example. Importantly, the SEC has never called litecoin a security, contrary to larger cryptocurrencies such as solana (SOL) and ripple (XRP).
“We expect a wave of cryptocurrency ETFs next year, albeit not all at once,” Balchunas wrote in December. “First out is likely the bitcoin and ether combo ETFs, then probably litecoin (because it’s a fork of bitcoin = commodity), then HBAR (because not labeled security) and then XRP/Solana (which have been labeled securities in pending lawsuits).”
Yet the SEC under Paul Atkins is likely to approach the crypto industry in a different way than it has under Gary Gensler, which Balchunas noted was a “huge variable.” UPDATE (Jan. 16, 2025, 15:40 UTC): The article was amended to reflect the new 19b-4 form filed by Nasdaq.
CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3878.91, up 3.6% (+133.71) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Thirteen of 20 assets are trading higher.
Leaders: HBAR (+17.0%) and LTC (+13.0%).
Laggards: ETH (-3.4%) and UNI (-1.4%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
Most investors have their eyes set on President Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, which has the potential to be a key catalyst for bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency prices.
However, a few days later, there is a potential rate hike on the cards from the Bank of Japan (BoJ). According to a Bloomberg chart shared by analyst Michael Kramer on X, the market is currently factoring in a 90% chance of a rate hike on Jan. 24.
Previously, the BoJ rate hike caused havoc on both the traditional and digital assets market . This was a key catalyst for the Yen carry trade unwind at the start of August, which sent bitcoin tumbling to $49,000. Traders are likely bracing for another selloff this time around.
Since 2016, the BoJ has maintained negative interest rates; however, in 2024, they increased interest rates twice, from -0.1% to 0.25%. The implied rate going into the meeting is 0.45%; however, this could drastically change as Japan has an inflation report just the day before, on Jan. 23.
Headline inflation year-over-year is at 2.9%, the highest since August. A hotter-than-expected inflation print could create fears within the market, and another iteration of the Yen carry trade unwind could be on course.
Even with the remarkable strength of the DXY index, which is currently above 109, the highest level since November 2022, it has jumped from 100 from the September low.
The DXY index is following a similar trajectory to Donald Trump’s first presidential term, which saw a rally in the DXY leading into his inauguration and then fell considerably, giving risk assets a much-needed boost. The DXY index measures the value of the U.S. dollar against a basket of major foreign currencies.
The Japanese Yen is at its strongest level against the dollar since Dec. 16, at 156. Read more: Bank of Japan Governor Hints at More Rate Hikes; BTC Drops 0.4%
Coinbase (COIN) is adding bitcoin-backed loans to its U.S. product lineup, leaning on Morpho, the largest lending platform on its Base network, to drive eyeballs and wallets to its growing on-chain economy.
The lending product isn't completely new: those familiar with playing on Base have long been able to borrow USDC against their bitcoin on Morpho or via other DeFi services. What's new here is the easy access: Coinbase is baking Morpho's borrow books into its own widely popular user interface, removing a critical barrier to entry.
"This is a moment where we're planting a flag that Coinbase is coming on-chain, and we're bringing millions of users with their billions of dollars," said Max Branzburg, head of Consumer Products at Coinbase.
Personal loans in the on-chain world look fundamentally different from the predominant lending deals offered by banks and lenders. Those stalwarts of the regular economy rely on borrowers' credit score in deciding whether to write a loan, and determining its terms, whether or not the loan is secured.
But credit scores are not a thing in crypto. Platforms like Morpho don't need to guesstimate how good for the money their borrowers are. Instead, they require their borrowers to post plenty of collateral; far more, in fact, than the sum they seek to borrow. This setup protects the platforms from carrying bad debt from defaulters.
Coinbase's setup caps each borrow at $100,000 in USDC. To borrow that much money customers will need to post more than that amount of bitcoin. Morpho will start liquidating the collateral if the loan-to-value ratio flies too close to the sun.
"If price swings are reaching any sort of dangerous point, we will share liquidation warnings through the Coinbase app so that you're aware of it and can act," Branzburg said.
Borrowing cash sits at the base of all financial services, but it has extra appeal to crypto traders who often sit on troves of tokens they refuse to sell. Those traders often take loans to farm airdrops and fund other risky trades. In Coinbase's view, Morpho-facilitated loans could help borrowers pursue perhaps nobler enterprises, like buying a car, or paying for a house.
Under the hood, the new setup feeds Coinbase flywheel at every step. First, the rollout adds a new capacity to Coinbase's frontend. Second, users who post BTC collateral are minting cbBTC (Coinbase's wrapped bitcoin on Base) and borrowing USDC (Coinbase's stablecoin). Third, all of this is happening on Morpho (a Coinbase-funded lending platform) atop Base (Coinbase's Layer 2 network).
Crypto exchange Upbit may face possible sanctions in South Korea for not complying with the country's money laundering and know your customer (KYC) obligations, according to a report from local news site Maeil.
Upbit which is one of South Korea's largest exchanges was reportedly notified by the Financial Information Analysis Institute (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission last week of the sanctions. If the decision is confirmed Upbit could be prevented from new customer related business for up to six months.
The decision would “essentially restrict new customers from transferring virtual assets outside the exchange for a certain period of time,” Upbit told Maeil.
CoinDesk reached out to Upbit and Financial Services Commission for comment.
The exchange will submit an opinion regarding the sanctions to Upbit to the FIU by the 20th and the FIU will then review the sanctions.
South Korean authorities vowed to look more closely at exchanges in 2022 following the collapse of stablecoin issuer Terra, calling regulators to supervise them thoroughly.
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
The crypto market has had a bullish 24 hours, thanks to Wednesday's soft U.S. core inflation print that alleviated hawkish Fed concerns. The momentum, however, has slowed.
With the inflation data out of the way, crypto traders are refocusing on President-elect Donald Trump's swearing-in on Jan. 20 and possible pro-crypto action on the first day. Some expect bitcoin to set new highs by then, while others are penciling in at least 10% price swings in XRP, SOL, ETH and BTC.
On Polymarket, the probability of the U.S. holding BTC as a part of a strategic reserve has increased to 50% for the first time.
Bitwise, a San Francisco-based crypto asset management company, said on X that it provided information about bitcoin ETFs to a nation-state, adding weight to the sovereign BTC adoption narrative.
Speculation is rife that SEC commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda could rekindle crypto policy as early as next week.
That said, don't overlook the importance and market-moving ability of Treasury nominee Scott Bessent's confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee that kicks off at 10:30 a.m. in Washington. Bessent will likely face scrutiny on various topics, including dollar policy, tariffs and fiscal sustainability.
In released remarks, Bessent said he wants the 2017 tax cuts to become permanent and ensure the dollar remains a dominant global reserve currency. He also said tariffs are a valuable negotiating tool.
According to ING, the dollar could rally if Bessent highlights the supposedly inflationary tariffs as a key tool. A renewed uptick in the currency and Treasury yields may slow BTC's gains, potentially injecting volatility in risk assets in general. Stay alert!
What to Watch
Crypto
Jan. 17: Oral arguments at the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in KalshiEX LLC v. CFTC, where the CFTC is appealing the district court's Sep. 12, 2024 ruling favoring Kalshi's Congressional Control Contracts.
Jan. 23: First deadline for a decision by the SEC on NYSE Arca's Dec. 3 proposal to list and trade shares of Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL), a closed-end trust, as an ETF.
Jan. 25: First deadline for SEC decisions on proposals for four new spot solana ETFs: Bitwise Solana ETF, Canary Solana ETF, 21Shares Core Solana ETF and VanEck Solana Trust, which are all sponsored by Cboe BZX Exchange.
Macro
Jan. 16, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the week ended Jan. 11. Initial Jobless Claims Est. 210K vs. Prev. 201K.
Jan. 16, 10:30 a.m.: President-elect Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary nominee, Scott Bessent, will testify before aSenate Committee during his confirmation hearing. Livestream link.
Jan. 17, 5:00 a.m.: Eurostat releases December 2024's Eurozone inflation data.
Inflation Rate MoM Final Est. 0.4% vs Prev. -0.3%.
Core Inflation Rate YoY Final Est. 2.7% vs. Prev. 2.7%.
Inflation Rate YoY Final Est. 2.4% vs. Prev. 2.2%.
Token Events
Governance votes & calls
The Aave community is discussing a strategy to scale its GHO stablecoin by deploying a new revenue stream via bitcoin mining. It would use capital from the GHO treasury to purchase hardware.
Balancer DAO will vote on whether to deploy Balancer v3 on the Arbitrum blockchain. Voting starts Jan. 16 and ends Jan. 20.
Unlocks
Jan. 16: Arbitrum (ARB) to unlock 2.2% of its circulating supply, worth $68 million.
Jan. 18: Ondo (ONDO) to unlock 134% of its circulating supply, worth $2.19 billion.
Jan. 21: Fasttoken (FTN) to unlock 4.6% of circulating supply worth $76 million.
Token Launches
Jan. 16: Solayer (LAYER) to host token sale followed by five months of points farming.
Jan. 17: Solv Protocol (SOLV) to be listed on Binance.
Conferences:
Day 11 of 14: Starknet, an Ethereum layer 2, is holding its Winter Hackathon (online).
Day 4 of 12: Swiss WEB3FEST Winter Edition 2025 (Zug, Zurich, St. Moritz, Davos)
Jan. 17: Unchained: Blockchain Business Forum 2025 (Los Angeles)
Jan. 18: BitcoinDay (Naples, Florida)
Jan. 20-24: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting (Davos-Klosters, Switzerland)
Jan. 21: Frankfurt Tokenization Conference 2025
Jan. 25-26: Catstanbul 2025 (Istanbul). The first community conference for Jupiter, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator built on Solana.
Jan 30-31: Plan B Forum (San Salvador, El Salvador)
Feb. 3: Digital Assets Forum (London)
Feb. 18-20: Consensus Hong Kong
Token Talk
By Oliver Knight
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has experienced a spike in ether (ETH) inflows after a whale deposited $67 million worth of the token on Thursday.
The wallet in question withdrew a total of 217,513 ETH ($350 million) from Kraken and Coinbase over a 10-day period in 2022 at an average price of $1,611. With ether currently trading at $3,330, the trader has made a total profit of $354 million, Lookonchain reports.
Coinbase's (COIN) derivatives exchange has listed perpetual swap contracts for AERO, BEAM, DRIFT and S. All tokens are up between 4% and 7% respectively.
Artificial intelligence (AI) agent tokens shrugged off last week's drop with a significant move to the upside. Virtuals protocol (VIRTUAL) is up 31% in the past 24 hours while AI16Z is up 13%, both outperforming the CoinDesk20 (CD20) index which has risen by 5.7% in 24-hours.
Litecoin is also one of the day's top performers after exchange-traded fund (ETF) analyst Eric Balchunas said that the Litecoin S-1 ETF application had received comments back from the SEC, potentially paving the way for a spot LTC ETF.
Derivatives Positioning
LTC has emerged as the best-performing major coin in the past 24 hours, with prices rising by 16%. The surge is accompanied by a 21% increase in futures open interest and a positive Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) indicator, suggesting strong net buying pressure.
HBAR and XRP have seen 10% jumps in open interest with positive CVDs.
Front-end BTC and ETH options no longer show a bias for puts, realigning with bullish long-term sentiment.
Key flows on Deribit and Paradigm featured a BTC bull call spread involving $102K and $110K strikes and a bear call spread in ETH, involving the March 28 expiry options at $3.5K and $4.5K strikes.
Market Movements:
BTC is down 0.47% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $99,217.43 (24hrs: +0.64%)
ETH is down 2.46% at $3,334.68 (24hrs: +3.22%)
CoinDesk 20 is up 0.2% at 3,752.68 (24hrs: +5.68%)
Ether staking yield is down 2 bps at 3.1%
BTC funding rate is at 0.006% (6.52% annualized) on Binance
DXY is unchanged at at 109.13
Gold is up 0.94% at $2,737.90/oz
Silver is up 1.85% at $31.90/oz
Nikkei 225 closed +0.33% to 38,572.60
Hang Seng closed +1.23% at 19,522.89
FTSE is up 0.82% at 8,369.48
Euro Stoxx 50 is up 1.24% at 5,094.68
DJIA closed on Wednesday +1.65% to 43,221.55
S&P 500 closed +1.84% at 5,949.91
Nasdaq closed +2.45% at 19,511.23
S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.82% at 24,789.3
S&P 40 Latin America closed +2.49% at 2,262.81
U.S. 10-year Treasury is up 1 bp at 4.67%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.33% at 6,009.00
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.48% at 21,504.00
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are unchanged at 43,501.00
Bitcoin Stats:
BTC Dominance: 57.66
Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.033
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 801 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): $56.8
Total Fees: $739,760/ 7.5 BTC
CME Futures Open Interest: 178,810 BTC
BTC priced in gold: 36.5 oz
BTC vs gold market cap: 10.40%
Technical Analysis
BTC is probing dual resistance at around $100K, marked by the descending trendline from record highs and the Ichimoku cloud.
A breakout may motivate momentum traders to join the market, accelerating price gains.
Crossovers above the cloud are said to represent a bullish shift in momentum.
Crypto Equities
MicroStrategy (MSTR): closed on Wednesday at $360.62 (+5.39%), down 1% at $357 in pre-market.
Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $274.93 (+7.66%), down 0.53% at $273.48 in pre-market.
Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$27.93 (+5%)
MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $18.15 (+4.55%), down 0.55% at $18.05 in pre-market.
Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $13.46 (+%), down 0.52% at $13.39 in pre-market.
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $14.53 (+4.46%), down 0.21% at $14.50 in pre-market.
CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $11.2 (+8.21%), down 0.89% at $11.10 in pre-market.
CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $24.57 (+6.5%), down 1.14% at $24.29 in pre-market.
Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $56.11 (+2.15%), unchanged in pre-market.
Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $35.36 (+6.92%), unchanged in pre-market.
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs:
Daily net flow: $755.1 million
Cumulative net flows: $36.48 billion
Total BTC holdings ~ 1.133 million.
Spot ETH ETFs
Daily net flow: $59.7 million
Cumulative net flows: $2.477 billion
Total ETH holdings ~ 3.550 million.
Source: Farside Investors as of Jan. 15.
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
Bitcoin funding rates on major exchanges, excluding Hyperliquid, remain well below early 2024 levels and the highs seen in December, when the BTC price broke above $100,000 for the first time.
In other words, it's cheaper to be long right now than last month and a year ago.
While You Were Sleeping
XRP’s Bullish Momentum Strongest Since January 2018 as Futures Open Interest Hits Record High (CoinDesk): XRP has soared 50% this month to over $3, experiencing its strongest rally since 2018.
Monthly Crypto Trading on CEXs Hits All-Time High in December: CCData (Cointelegraph): December set a new record for crypto trading, with $11.3 trillion in spot and derivatives volume on centralized exchanges.
Nomura-Backed Crypto Firm Komainu Raises $75 Million in Bitcoin (Bloomberg): Komainu, a crypto custodian backed by Nomura, secured $75 million in bitcoin from Blockstream to expand globally, adopt tokenization tools, and create a bitcoin treasury.
UK Economy Returns to Growth, Faces Uncertain Outlook (The Wall Street Journal): The U.K. economy inched up 0.1% in November, missing forecasts, as inflation and high borrowing costs strained growth.
Chinese Citizens’ Doubts Grow Over Official Growth Claims (Financial Times): China is set to report 5% growth for 2024, but skepticism abounds as weak consumer demand, layoffs and a real estate slump weigh heavily on investment, consumption and daily life.
Bank of Korea Leaves Rates Unchanged in a Surprise Move, Warns GDP Growth ‘Highly Likely’ to Miss Forecasts (CNBC): South Korea’s central bank held its benchmark rate at 3%, surprising analysts expecting a cut, citing economic uncertainty. It warned of weaker growth in 2024 and 2025. Stocks and the won rose following the decision.
In the Ether
Malaysia may introduce crypto and blockchain legislation to regulate the sector and keep pace with other jurisdictions, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said during a visit to Abu Dhabi.
"I proposed several months ago how our agencies, including security, treasury and Bank Negara study how Malaysia can explore this so we aren't left behind," he said, the New Straits Times reported on Tuesday. "Ensuring that it is regulated could safeguard the people's interests and prevent leakages."
Anwar said he had spoken to Abu Dhabi's government and crypto exchange Binance on policy proposals. The UAE leaders "feel that they can forge a close cooperation with Malaysia on this issue," he said. "I am leaning towards not just approving but also expediting this."
Malaysia has explored digital technologies before. In 2023 it conducted a study with the Bank for International Settlements and other central banks that found that cross border central bank digital currency payments are viable. In 2022, it said it was creating a national blockchain infrastructure.
It has also reprimanded crypto companies for operating illegally within its borders, ordering Binance to halt its operations in the country in 2021 and Huobi Global in 2023.
Two phone calls to the Prime Minister's office were not answered.