With the upgrade, the API delivers liquidation data updates every 500 milliseconds, twice as fast as the previous version, which provided just one update per second per trading pair, it said.

The change ensures that every liquidation event is captured in real time, eliminating blind spots that previously obscured the true scope of market activity

“The real spirit of crypto is transparency. By making all liquidation data fully public, we’re empowering traders and analysts with the insights they need,” CEO and co-founder Ben Zhou said in a statement.

Liquidation data helps traders identify market trends, support and resistance levels, and potential volatility spikes. Examining the data will provide traders, analysts, and institutional investors with real-time insights into market activity.

Earlier this month, significant volatility led to over $2.2 billion in liquidations being reported in just 24 hours. At the time, Zhou said that the “real total liquidation is a lot more than $2B, by my estimation it should be at least $8-10B.”

He revealed that on Bybit alone, liquidations hit $2.1 billion in the previous 24 hours. API limitations, he said, were to blame for the lack of proper data on these events.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3321.84, up 1.4% (+45.53) since 4 p.m. ET on Thursday.

18 of 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: LTC (+6.8%) and DOT (+4.9%).

Laggards: XRP (-0.5%) and XLM (-0.1%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

The agency's potential withdrawal marks a milestone of U.S. regulatory improvements for the digital asset industry that could boost crypto prices and stocks related to digital asset trading.

Read more: SEC Poised to Drop Coinbase Lawsuit, Marking Big Moment for U.S. Crypto

While the SEC hasn't officially voted on the Coinbase case, it will likely be welcomed by the industry that has faced enforcement by the agency under the Joe Biden administration. Robinhood was one of the exchanges that had to delist all of the tokens that were alleged to be securities in June 2023. However, after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election last year, the exchange added back some of those tokens, including Solana's SOL, which the SEC alleged were securities.

With the Coinbase case set to be dropped, exchanges such as Robinhood feel less risk in adding more tokens to their platform, potentially increasing trading revenue. Most recently, the popular crypto platform said its fourth-quarter revenue rose 115% from the previous year, topping Wall Street's estimates, mainly boosted by a rise in crypto trading revenue.

According to Cryptorank.io, the top five tokens, based on market cap, that were alleged securities include BNB, Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Tron (TRX) and Toncoin (TON).

The move might also encourage more companies to list their firms publicly in the U.S. markets. Several crypto companies are already rumored to be considering initial public offerings (IPOs) in the U.S., including Blockchain.com, BitGo, Gemini, EToro, Bullish Global (CoinDesk's parent company), Ripple and Circle.

While the SEC has been making moves almost daily to reverse past positions on digital assets, the pending vote would mark a watershed moment that could start a series of legal dominoes to free other crypto businesses from enforcement actions. Because the deal between Coinbase and SEC staff assumes a dismissal of the case "with prejudice," said Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, the regulator's accusations of securities violations would be shut down permanently.

"It's a great day for Coinbase, yes, but it's also a great day for crypto in America," Grewal said in an interview with CoinDesk. "We have every expectation, based on representations that have been made to us, that that approval will come, and with that, the dismissal will then be filed."

He restated it in simpler terms: "We win; they lose."

When the SEC first went after Coinbase — the most prominent of the U.S.-based crypto platforms — it represented a shot across the bow of the industry. The SEC alleged Coinbase violated federal law by not registering as a clearing house, broker or trading venue, based on the agency's view of the so-called Howey test that determines whether an asset is a security. The company chose to fight the accusations in federal court, and that legal clash had been fierce, most recently seeing a judge side with Coinbase's effort to elevate an appeal of the central question at dispute: Are these tokens being traded really securities under the SEC's jurisdiction?

The industry had long expected it might have to wait for the courts — eventually even the U.S. Supreme Court — to rule on former SEC Chair Gary Gensler's assertion that most tokens are actually crypto securities. But the surrender of the SEC in this dispute is likely to be echoed in other cases, which would put the final word on the legal definition into the hands of Congress.

So, the commission vote could throw the industry's major focus toward lobbying instead of legal wrangling.

The enforcement meetings for the SEC — currently made up of Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda, Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce and Democrat Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw — typically take place on Thursdays, so the final decision on the staff recommendation may be delayed as long as a week. Crenshaw has been a vocal skeptic of the digital assets industry and its compliance, so it remains unclear whether she'd be willing to sign off on the dismissal.

An SEC spokesman declined to comment on the agreement revealed by Coinbase.

SEC allies

Uyeda and Peirce, who was named the head of the agency's new Crypto Task Force, had long been sympathetic to the digital assets industry's contention it was being mishandled by the SEC. Once Donald Trump was sworn in as president, he gave the agency's gavel to Uyeda on an interim basis, and Uyeda began making swift moves to shift its course on crypto. This is the latest and — assuming a yes vote — arguably the most significant of the changes so far.

Eventually, former Commission Paul Atkins will take over after he secures a Senate confirmation. But Uyeda and Peirce both served Atkins as counsels during his tenure at the SEC, so Atkins is generally expected to follow the same path on crypto that Uyeda is already clearing.

Earlier this week, the agency shifted its enforcement unit — once laser-focused on crypto — to a wider responsibility over "emerging technologies," suggesting a withdrawal from the era of heavy attention on crypto cases. It also dropped its appeal in the fight to defend its effort to force a wide swath of crypto activity into its recent rule to expand the definition of what makes a "dealer" under SEC oversight.

In another marquee crypto case, the regulator recently asked to hit pause on the Binance enforcement dispute. Those accusations of securities-law violations overlapped to some degree with the complaint against Coinbase, though the Binance suit also included accusations of fraud and conflicts of interest.

The SEC had similarly signaled last week that something was brewing with Coinbase when it asked for a delay in court proceedings, suggesting negotiations were underway toward a resolution and signaling the agency's new crypto task force would help the enforcement team come up with a "potential resolution."

The vote

In the coming days, lawyers across the industry will watch the SEC's Coinbase vote, and then the judge's response in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. If the SEC formally backs off the accusations Coinbase improperly listed unregistered securities, it'll have to do the same in any similar cases.

"I'm hopeful that our getting this case dismissed will offer up a template for other cases to be resolved as well," Grewal said. "And if that were the case, we'd be delighted, because we felt that Gary Gensler's entire campaign against crypto was a distortion — frankly, an abuse — of legal process."

As the agency continues to resolve past actions, it's signaled that the future intention is to focus on fraud over compliance disagreements. And Uyeda said as recently as Thursday that the SEC's new task force will be guiding its enforcement.

"One focus of this task force will be to ensure that we deploy enforcement resources judiciously," he said at an event in Washington.

Grewal acknowledged the next priority quickly becomes U.S. legislation that can establish clear regulations at the federal level. To that end, Coinbase has been among the leading crypto companies delving into the political arena, deploying tens of millions of dollars in the 2024 elections (through the Fairshake PAC) to secure a friendlier Congress. One in 10 members of this Congress were boosted by Fairshake ads in their campaigns last year.

"We've seen Congress announce its commitment to legislation as early as the first 100 days," Grewal noted. "So we're very eager, with this cloud now lifted, to focus our full attention on getting legislation passed on market structure and stablecoins. That is, frankly, long overdue."

UPDATE (February 21, 2025, 13:11 UTC): Adds request to SEC for comment.

UPDATE (February 21, 2025, 15:06 UTC): Adds response from the SEC.

Cryptocurrency prices are rising after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s former crypto enforcement unit transitioned into the Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit and amid dovish comments from Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic.

Renaming the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit is significant because it shows the agency is moving away from its crypto focus that often led to accusations of regulation by enforcement and legal battles with major industry participants.

“In the near to medium term, clearer regulations will likely boost institutional participation, leading to improvements in market infrastructure,” BackPack founder and CEO Armani Ferrante told CoinDesk. Bitcoin is now above $98,000 after adding 1.2% in 24 hours, while the broader CoinDesk 20 Index rose 1.35%.

Yet, volatility is still relatively low. "These environments may feel slow and frustrating, but they rarely persist for long — volatility tends to mean revert,” Wintermute OTC trader Jake O told CoinDesk.

With tensions between the U.S. and its European allies growing, investors are hoping Germany's election on Sunday will lead to a stable coalition government that will push out economic reforms to stimulate growth and boost defense spending. Germany is Europe’s largest economy and a positive result could lead to a more risk-on approach.

Open interest has already moved up ahead of the election. Still, the crypto market lacks positive catalysts in the near term, JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a report.

In fact, the market is nearing backwardation — where spot prices rise above futures prices — in a “negative development” that’s “indicative of demand weakness” by institutional investors using regulated CME futures contracts to gain exposure to the market. Stay alert!

What to Watch

Crypto:

Feb. 21: TON (The Open Network) becomes the exclusive blockchain infrastructure for messaging platform Telegram’s Mini App ecosystem.

Feb. 24: At epoch 115968, testing of Ethereum’s Pecta upgrade on the Holesky testnet starts.

Feb. 25, 9:00 a.m.: Ethereum Foundation research team AMA on Reddit.

Feb. 27: Solana-based L2 Sonic SVM (SONIC) mainnet launch (“Mobius”).

Macro

Feb. 21, 9:45 a.m.: S&P Global releases February’s (Flash) U.S. Purchasing Managers' Index (Flash) reports.

Composite PMI Prev. 52.7

Manufacturing PMI Est. 51.5 vs. Prev. 51.2

Services PMI Est. 53 vs. Prev. 52.9

Feb. 24, 5:00 a.m.: Eurostat releases eurozone's (final) consumer inflation data for January.

Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.7% vs. Prev. 2.7%

Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.5% vs. Prev. 2.4%

Earnings

Feb. 24: Riot Platforms (RIOT), post-market, $-0.18

Feb. 25: ​​Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR), pre-market, $-0.17

Feb. 25: Cipher Mining (CIFR), pre-market, $-0.09

Feb. 26: MARA Holdings (MARA), post-market, $-0.13

Token Events

Governance votes & calls

Sky DAO is discussing withdrawing a portion of the Smart Burn Engine’s LP tokens to stop malicious actors from acquiring them.

DYdX DAO is discussing increasing the limit on the maximum notional value of liquidations that can occur within a given block on the dYdX protocol to enhance the speed and efficiency of risk reduction during liquidations.

Unlocks

Feb. 21: Fast Token (FTN) to unlock 4.66% of circulating supply worth $78.6 million.

Feb. 28: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.92% of circulating supply worth $34.23 million.

Mar. 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 0.74% of circulating supply worth $81.07 million.

Conferences:

CoinDesk's Consensus to take place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.

Feb. 23-March 2: ETHDenver 2025 (Denver)

Feb. 24: RWA London Summit 2025

Feb. 25: HederaCon 2025 (Denver)

March 2-3: Crypto Expo Europe (Bucharest, Romania)

March 8: Bitcoin Alive (Sydney, Australia)

Token Talk

By Oliver Knight

With a botched launch from Argentine president Javier Milei and a token proposed by self-professed Nazi Kanye West, now known as Ye, this week in memecoin land has been one to forget.

Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter said the craze is "unquestionably over," a view that might be cemented by a report revealing that West is planning to introduce YZY token — and will own 70% of the supply.

The rest of the crypto market remains relatively unperturbed by the potential demise of the sector: ETH and LTC are up by 3% this week whilst TRX has risen by 7.7% as liquidity appears to be rotating from speculative tokens back to more utilitarian projects.

NEAR leads the pack on Friday, surging by 11% after announcing the "first truly autonomous" AI agents. The agents will be able to autonomously own, trade and manage assets on-chain.

Derivatives Positioning

BTC open interest on centralized exchanges rose nearly 5% to $37.3 billion in the past 24 hours. This, coupled with the reversal in funding from positive to negative, suggests a potential short squeeze scenario. Short liquidations have dominated the futures markets over that period, nearing a total of $110 million compared with $6.11 million in longs.

Among the assets with over $100 million in open interest, Maker DAO, Virtuals Protcol and Artificial Super Intelligence saw the highest one-day increase, rising by 39.2%, 35.5% and 28.00%, respectively.

Among the options instruments, the call option on BTC with a strike price of $99,000 and expiring Feb. 22 has traded with the most volume on Deribit. The next most popular options instrument is the call on BTC with a strike price of $108,000, expiring on Feb. 28. The action hints at the optimistic short-term sentiment in the market over the past couple of days.

Market Movements:

BTC is up 0.28% from 4 p.m. ET Thursday to $98,632.42 (24hrs: +1.35%)

ETH is up 2.09% at $2,800.02 (24hrs: +2.15%)

CoinDesk 20 is up 0.92% to 3,298.29 (24hrs: +1.49%)

Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 2.99%

BTC funding rate is at 0.0010% (1.0961% annualized) on Binance

DXY is up 0.29% at 106.68

Gold is down 0.31% at $2,929.76/oz

Silver is down 0.12% to $32.91/oz

Nikkei 225 closed +0.26% at 38,776.94

Hang Seng closed +3.99% at 23.477.92

FTSE is up 0.20% at 8,680.19

Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.18% at 5,471.08

DJIA closed Thursday down -1.01% at 44,176.65

S&P 500 closed -0.43% at 6,117.52

Nasdaq closed -0.47% at 19,962.36

S&P/TSX Composite Index closed -0.44% at 25,514.08

S&P 40 Latin America closed +0.76% at 2,480.21

U.S. 10-year Treasury rate was down 2 bps at 4.49%

E-mini S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 6,138.25

E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.13% at 22,170.75

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.10% to 44,309

Bitcoin Stats:

BTC Dominance: 61.02 (-0.35%)

Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02842 (2.01%)

Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 807 EH/s

Hashprice (spot): $54.92

Total Fees: 5.34 BTC / $526,892

CME Futures Open Interest: 178,500 BTC

BTC priced in gold: 33.4 oz

BTC vs gold market cap: 9.49%

Technical Analysis

TAO has emerged as one of the strongest-performing assets over the past week, fueled by the launch of the dynamicTAO upgrade. This momentum has propelled the price above all key exponential moving averages on the daily time frame, signaling renewed strength.

Adding to the bullish sentiment, the price action has formed an inverse head and shoulders pattern.

TAO’s recent listing on Coinbase provided an extra catalyst, driving its price up nearly 20% to a high of $495 since the initial announcement.

Crypto Equities

MicroStrategy (MSTR): closed on Thursday at $323.92 (+1.65%), up 0.37% at $324.85 in pre-market

Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $256.59 (-0.80%), up 0.86% at $258.80

Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$25.65 (+1.30%)

MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $15.95 (+1.08%), up 0.38% at $16.01

Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $11.60 (+0.35%), up 0.52% at $11.66

Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $11.84 (-1.50%), up 0.51% at $11.90

CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $10.06 (+1.72%), up 0.80% at $10.14

CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $22.49 (-1.27%), down 0.31% at $22.42

Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $52.24 (+0.04%), unchanged

Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $47.80 (-1.26%), down 2.72% at $46.50

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

Daily net flow: -$364.8 million

Cumulative net flows: $39.63 billion

Total BTC holdings ~ 1.169 million.

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net flow: -$13.1 million

Cumulative net flows: $3.16 billion

Total ETH holdings ~ 3.807 million.

Source: Farside Investors

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

Bitcoin's price action has triggered short liquidations totaling $97.9 million at the $98,890 level, according to CoinGlass. The next key resistance levels, based on the liquidation heat map, are $99,185 and $99,332, where liquidations worth $65.2 million and $67.9 million, respectively, are clustered.

On the downside, significant long liquidations are positioned at $97,415 and $97,194, amounting to $69.3 million and $70.7 million, respectively. These key levels highlight potential areas of volatility as bitcoin navigates its current price range.

While You Were Sleeping

Crypto Market Faces Weak Demand, Needs Trump Initiatives to Kick In, JPMorgan Says (CoinDesk): JPMorgan said CME futures data reveals weak institutional interest in crypto, with any pro-crypto initiatives from the Trump administration unlikely to emerge until the second half of the year.

South African Firm to Amass Bitcoin Hoard in First for Continent (Bloomberg): Altvest Capital adopted bitcoin to be a treasury reserve asset. It bought one BTC and is considering a $10 million share sale to expand its digital holdings.

Block Shares Fall on Profit, Revenue Miss (CNBC): At its Q4 2024 earnings call, Block (XYZ) executives commented on Proto, their bitcoin mining initiative. CFO Amrita Ahuja said the project should drive growth in the second half.

Japan Yields Fall as Ueda Warns BOJ Can Step In to Smooth Market (Bloomberg): Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda vowed to buy government bonds if long-term yields spike. Earlier, 10-year yields hit 1.455% — the most since 2009.

U.K. Retail Sales Rise for First Time in Five Months (The Wall Street Journal): In January, retail spending in the U.K. rose 1.7% from December, led by a 5.6% jump in food store sales as more people ate at home.

New Microsoft Chip Shortens Timeline to Make Bitcoin Quantum-Resistant: River (Cointelegraph): Bitcoin-focused financial services firm River said Microsoft’s Majorana — though not yet a threat — could reach a 1-million-qubit scale by 2027–2029, potentially enabling attacks on the blockchain.

In the Ether

Altvest said it bought one bitcoin for its strategic treasury, following a path set by Strategy (MSTR) in the U.S. and Metaplanet (3350) in Japan.

The Johannesburg-based company paid 1.8 million rand ($98,200) for just over 1 BTC, and said it doesn't plan to buy alternative cryptocurrencies.

Altvest said it sees "bitcoin as the only digital asset that meets its stringent investment criteria for a long-term treasury allocation."

Corporates are increasingly adding bitcoin as a strategic treasury asset. Michael Saylor's Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy) pioneered the a move, starting to buy BTC in 2020. It now holds 478,740 bitcoin, worth more than $47 billion at current prices.

The South African investment firm said the initiative to acquire bitcoin was "focused on preserving shareholder value, mitigating currency depreciation risks, and gaining exposure to a globally recognized store of value."

Since Tokyo-based Metaplanet started buying bitcoin in April last year, it has acquired 2,031 tokens worth nearly $200 million and its shares became the best-performing Japanese equity over the past 12 months, with a gain of 3,900%. Earlier this month, investment bank KBW started coverage of Strategy with an outperform rating and a $560 price target. The shares are currently $323.92.

Altvest shares were trading more than 9% lower at 590 rand at publication time.

Read more: Zoom Communications Should Embrace Bitcoin as Treasury Asset, Eric Semler Says

The correction in crypto markets in recent months has seen both bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) futures near backwardation, which is a sign of lower demand, the report said. Backwardation occurs when the spot price of an asset is higher than the price trading in the futures market.

"This is a negative development and indicative of demand weakness by those institutional investors that use regulated CME futures contracts to gain exposure into these two cryptocurrencies," analysts led Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote.

If demand for bitcoin and ether futures is healthy, the futures cost more than the spot price, and the curve is said to be in contango, the bank noted.

When demand slows and price expectations soften, the futures curve moves towards backwardation, the bank added.

This weakness in demand could be due to a number of reasons.

Positive crypto initiatives by Trump's new administration are more likely to kick in during the second half of the year, the bank said, and this means institutional investors are likely taking profits due to a lack of short-term catalysts.

Lower demand from systematic and momentum-driven funds, such as CTAs, has also affected bitcoin and ether futures, JPMorgan added.

Read more: U.S. Crypto Task Force to Focus on Delivering National Bitcoin Reserve: Bernstein

The token, YZY, is designed to help Ye side-step platforms like Shopify that have cut ties with him in response to his hateful rhetoric.

Crypto, with its censorship-resistant ethos, offers Ye an alternative avenue for cashing in on his celebrity status: Seventy percent of the YZY token, named after Ye's Yeezy clothing brand, will be reserved for Ye personally, with just 10% allocated for liquidity provisioning and 20% for investors.

Ye's foray into crypto comes on the heels of years of public controversy that have strained his business empire. In 2022, Ye was dropped by Adidas, Balenciaga and his talent agency after making a series of antisemitic comments, including praising Adolf Hitler in a live interview and tweeting inflammatory rhetoric about Jewish people and other groups.

The fallout continued this year when Ye, after again calling himself a Nazi on X, listed a T-shirt bearing a swastika on the Yeezy website, leading e-commerce platform Shopify to shut down his online store. (Ye claimed on X this week that he was no longer a Nazi, thanking Adam Sandler "for the love." He made a similar reversal in 2022, crediting Jonah Hill.)

YZY is being packaged as the official currency of Yeezy and will be accepted as payment on his website.

CoinDesk learned about the token through an email from Hussein Lalani, a person with a yeezy.com email address who identified himself as Yeezy's chief financial officer. After sending a document describing the token unsolicited, Lalani requested that CoinDesk hold off on publication and agree to an "embargo." CoinDesk did not agree to the embargo, and three sources close to the project authenticated the document.

Lalani did not respond to further requests for comment.

The YZY token was initially set to go for sale on Yeezy's website on Thursday at 6:00 p.m., but the launch was delayed to Friday, according to a team member who asked not to be identified for fear of associating publicly with the project.

Following TRUMP

There have been murmurings of a potential Ye token since earlier this month, after the rapper teased that he had tried to contact Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Ye later posted that he was “not doing a coin” despite someone offering him $2 million to do so. He added: “Coins prey on the fans with hype.”

Sources close to the YZY team told CoinDesk that Ye aimed to emulate Donald Trump’s TRUMP meme coin, which the president launched two days before his second inauguration. Trump raised eyebrows for his similarly massive insider-ownership distribution: 80% of TRUMP is currently held by CIC Digital, a company with ties to the president.

Ye, too, wanted an 80% ownership stake but was negotiated down to 70%, an additional source close to the project who asked not to be identified told CoinDesk. Should Ye's token achieve even a fraction of TRUMP's success, his stake could still be worth many millions of dollars.

'The Milei thing'

YZY enters an already saturated market of celebrity-driven crypto projects, many of which have been accused of exploiting fan loyalty without offering tangible utility. In many cases, these tokens see a short-lived price surge driven by hype before crashing, leaving retail investors holding the bag.

Centralized ownership allocation only adds to the risk of sudden price drops. According to the unsolicited YZY press release, Ye’s 70% YZY stake is structured through a multi-phase vesting schedule — some coins are locked for up to 12 months, meaning they cannot be sold until then — though critics argue that such insider-heavy allocations still favor founders over retail investors.

Just this week, Argentina became enmeshed in a political crisis after a meme coin endorsed by President Javier Milei, LIBRA, turned out to be a "pump-and-dump" scheme, triggering public outrage and calls for impeachment.

The source close to YZY told CoinDesk that the token's delay comes as its team ponders whether it's still "too close to the Milei thing."

The network’s difficulty saw its first decline since September, indicating that even though publicly listed companies have kept increasing their hash power, their growth isn't enough to compensate for the capitulation of other, probably smaller operators.

The total revenue made from bitcoin (BTC) mining remained stable at $1.4 billion for the month. Publicly traded mining companies, which collectively hold 99,000 bitcoin (worth roughly $9.7 billion), accounted for about 30% of the hashrate market share in January.

Competition between the biggest publicly traded companies has also increased.

The leading mining firm, Marathon Digital (MARA), retained its top spot with a realized hashrate of 41.65 EH/s, followed by CleanSpark at 34.77 EH/s. Riot Platforms, which has been expanding aggressively, is closing in with 31.27 EH/s.

“Notably, the competition within the 30 EH/s group is heating up like never before, while the gap between the 30 EH/s tier and the 10 EH/s group — comprising Core Scientific, Cipher Mining, and Bitfarms — continues to widen,” the report said.

The top miners taking more market share is hardly a surprise as the recent halving event has cut bitcoin mining rewards by half and squeezed the industry's profit margin, even with the BTC price near $100,000. In such an environment, it's tough for smaller players to compete with big operations which were already positioned to dominate the market. In fact, a lot of miners are already looking for other revenue sources, such as hosting machines for AI and HPC firms.

Read more: Bitcoin Halving Is a 'Show Me the Money' Moment for Miners

The report also said that mining hardware imports to the U.S. also slowed in January, a factor contributing to the stabilization of hashrate growth. However, some firms, including Blockchain Power Corp and AcroHash, have imported a significant amount of cooling infrastructure from Bitmain.

Looking ahead, TheMinerMag predicts another difficulty adjustment decline in February as some smaller mining operators exit the market due to lower profitability.

Read more: Bitcoin Mining Is a Game of Survival, Consolidation and Potential AI Diversification: Bernstein

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

During an ask-me-anything (AMA) on Tako, Buterin responded to a question about whether he had felt disappointed at the Ethereum Foundation, the crypto industry or the community. He answered “of course,” especially when others question why Ethereum has not been more open to applications with blockchain gambling, seemingly taking a jab at its competitor, Solana, and how their ecosystem has embraced a lot of memecoin activity over the past year.

Buterin’s comment comes as the Ethereum community has faced backlash from members raising the alarm that the chain will lose its competitive advantage to rivals if it doesn’t address some core issues, while Solana has attracted more new developers than Ethereum and has poached top talent.

Buterin also said that if the community continues on with this “moral reversal,” he would no longer participate in the Ethereum ecosystem.

“But I found an interesting point: on the internet, many people will say those things, but when I chat with the community in person, everyone’s values are the same as before, so I feel like I have a responsibility to this community and can’t abandon them,” Buterin added.

Read more: Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin Goes on Offense Amid Major Leadership Shake-up

The bank plans a two-stage approach to using the technology, which is a decentralized database that is maintained and updated independently by individual participants in a large network. Firstly it will develop a system linked to its existing Target settlement system. Target ensures "the free flow of cash, securities and collateral across Europe," it said.

“This is an important contribution to enhancing European financial market efficiency through innovation," Executive Board member Piero Cipollone, who oversees the initiative, said in a Thursday statement.

The bank will also look for a long-term, more integrated way of settling DLT-based transitions in fiat money, which will include foreign exchange settlement.

The ECB has been exploring digital currency technology since 2023. The initiative will build on exploratory work which invited financial market stakeholders to explore "wholesale financial transactions recorded on distributed ledger technology platforms to be settled in central bank money."

A timeline on the bank's plans will be made public later.

In three years, the same internal group has transitioned from the "Cyber Unit" to the "Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit" and now to the "Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit," seemingly taking some focus off its crypto role. In 2022, then-Chairman Gary Gensler's SEC announced the enforcement squad was almost doubling to 50 people. The latest announcement says it will include "approximately 30 fraud specialists and attorneys across multiple SEC offices."

"The unit will not only protect investors but will also facilitate capital formation and market efficiency by clearing the way for innovation to grow," Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda said in a statement, which also announced Laura D’Allaird as the head of the overhauled group."It will root out those seeking to misuse innovation to harm investors and diminish confidence in new technologies.”

That language sharply contrasts with the crypto-focused rhetoric from Gensler in 2022, when he said the unit would pursue "those seeking to take advantage of investors in crypto markets."

President Donald Trump elevated Republican Uyeda from his role as commissioner to run the agency on an interim basis while the U.S. Senate considers the nomination of former Commission Paul Atkins for the permanent job. Uyeda isn't sitting on his hands during the wait and has already been remaking the SEC, especially in relaxing its strong past distrust of crypto.

Read More: SEC Backs Off Crypto Dealer Fight, Continues Resetting Industry Approach

Uyeda formed a Crypto Task Force at the SEC, under the watch of fellow Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce, and this enforcement unit is meant to "complement the work" of that group. In addition to still hunting for "fraud involving blockchain technology and crypto assets," the unit will watch for unlawful uses of artificial intelligence, hacks and other cybersecurity missteps.

Demuth said the 2024 bull run wasn’t a repeat of the retail-fueled 2021 cycle. Instead, it was being driven by what he calls “sticky money” — institutional capital that’s less volatile and more committed.

Vienna-based Bitpanda is one of Europe’s largest crypto exchanges with over 6 million users and offers stocks and previous metals, in addition to digital assets. The platform recently secured regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom.

Speaking about the impact of U.S. policies under the Trump administration, Demuth argued that the government's aggressive embrace of crypto is forcing global markets to adapt. “The Trump administration is forcing everybody to do this, it’s not an option anymore, [...] it’s mandatory.”

A clear sign of this shift is the booming interest in Bitcoin ETFs, which have ballooned to nearly $58 billion in assets under management in just one year of trading. Demuth believes these vehicles signal a maturing market, where major players are locking in capital for the long term, rather than chasing quick gains.

While altcoins haven’t picked up the same speed of adoption as bitcoin, Demuth believes that will change once U.S. regulation evolves and alternative crypto ETFs gain approval.

He also believes that U.S. banks will be the next wave of adopters.

“[Crypto] has been made one of the pillars of U.S. economic and financial policy, so you have the biggest financial power in the world putting [crypto] on the spotlight which means all the banks now have to either look into it or even offer something,” he said.

He predicts a surge in stablecoin issuances directly from U.S. banks and an uptick in tokenized assets, from government bonds to real estate.

In Europe, Bitpanda continues to focus on navigating the continent’s complex regulatory landscape, holding multiple licenses and positioning itself as a key player in a fragmented market. Demuth said the potential for new customers in Europe is big enough for the company to stay focused on its expansion in that region.

However, the company is expanding its B2B services, he said, licensing its crypto infrastructure to banks in the Middle East as well as Europe. Major financial institutions, including Germany’s Deutsche Bank and France’s largest banking group, are already tapping into Bitpanda’s backend systems.

The YLDS stablecoin, issued through Figure Certificate Corporation, operates on the Provenance Blockchain and accrues interest daily, paid out every month in either U.S. dollars or YLDS tokens. It is backed by the same securities as prime money market funds and pays holders a return at an annual rate of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) less 50 basis points.

The token can be transferred peer-to-peer and exchanged for dollars or other stablecoins around the clock, with fiat off-ramps available during U.S. banking hours.

Stablecoins mushroomed to a $200 billion asset class and are increasingly popular for payments and cross-border transactions. However, market-leading stablecoins like USDT and USDC don't generally pay out holders the yield earned on reserve assets, predominantly U.S. Treasuries. That's where tokenized versions of money-market funds or investment strategies like BlackRock's BUIDL, Franklin Templeton's BENJI or Ethena's USDE enter the market: They are increasingly used as collateral or to park on-chain cash to earn a yield.

Read more: Tokenized Treasuries: A Game-Changer for Collateral in Crypto Markets

Figure Markets is the digital asset arm of Figure Technologies, a company co-founded by Mike Cagney, the former CEO of SoFi. The firm has played a key role in blockchain-based real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, processing over $41 billion in transactions and originating $11 billion in home equity line of credit using the Provenance Blockchain. Figure filed paperwork to the SEC to launch a yield-bearing stablecoin offering in October 2023.

The company expects YLDS to attract interest from developers looking to integrate stable, yield-bearing digital assets into decentralized finance (DeFi) and payment applications.

“We see tremendous applications for YLDS,” Figure Markets CEO Mike Cagney said in a statement. “Exchange collateral, cross-border remittances and payment rails are immediate opportunities, but this is just the beginning of a larger shift of traditional finance to blockchain.”

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

The SEC has been in reset mode on its courtroom entanglements with crypto issues as the leadership elevated by President Donald Trump has been reversing years of the agency's adversarial stance. The latest move was to formally drop the appeal in a case in which the Blockchain Association and Crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas sued the SEC and a Texas federal judge agreed that the regulator "exceeded its statutory authority."

"With new leadership at the agency leading to today’s final dismissal, we’re looking forward to productive conversations between industry and the SEC moving forward – and a brighter future for digital assets in the United States,” said Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith, in a statement.

The rewritten dealer rule was one of the agency's major efforts at crypto rulemaking under the tenure of former chairman Gary Gensler, and it was crafted with the agency's longtime stance in mind that existing laws were sufficient to handle the oversight of the digital assets space. The industry's position was that the rule made untenable demands on decentralized finance (DeFi) and also roped in crypto traders who didn't offer dealer services.

“The court found that the commission’s rule would classify nearly any person who buys and sells securities as a 'dealer,' extending beyond its statutory authority," an SEC spokesman said on Thursday. "We dismissed the appeal because continuing to pursue it had the risk of reducing liquidity in the Treasury markets, making them more volatile, and increasing debt for taxpayers.”

Since being installed as the SEC's acting chairman, Mark Uyeda, has begun to aggressively overhaul the agency's senior staff and its legal approach to the crypto sector. He's set to be replaced whenever Trump's permanent pick, Paul Atkins, can be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, though Atkins is expected to continue in the same path.

Earlier this month, the SEC also sought to pause its enforcement fight with Binance over the agency's accusations of securities violations so the matter could be resolved in another way.

Read More: U.S. SEC Loses Crypto Lawsuit Over 'Dealer' Definition That Pushed Into Crypto

UPDATE (February 20, 2022, 19:06 UTC): Adds comment from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In today’s issue, Beth Haddock from Warburton Advisers takes us through the first 30 days of Trump’s term and analyzes the far-reaching impact his administration could have on the crypto industry.

Then, DJ Windle from Windle Wealth answers questions you may have from the article in Ask and Expert.

– Sarah Morton

30 Days of Trump: What’s Changed for Crypto?

A year ago, skepticism and stalled policy progress stunted crypto’s growth. Trump’s election win has shifted the Overton window (referring to the change in political policies that people are willing to accept) on crypto’s acceptance, but will that lead to sustainable growth and regulatory clarity?

His January 23 Executive Order (EO) addressing crypto prioritizes "responsible growth," a shift from President Biden’s 2022 EO focused on "responsible development." Early actions — rescinding SAB 121, ending Operation Chokepoint 2.0, pardoning Ross Ulbricht and appointing new leaders — signal change.

One month in, progress is clear, but obstacles remain. A divided Congress, slow legislation and market speculation — seen in memecoins like $TRUMP and $MELANIA — complicate the path forward. The key question: Are we just moving past FTX, or will crypto be recognized as critical to Web3 innovation?

Three Key Trends to Watch

1. Acceleration of Product Innovation

The chart above clearly illustrates the Trump administration’s early focus on leadership changes and rollbacks of enforcement-driven policies. With regulatory enforcement easing, U.S. crypto development no longer needs to wait — or move offshore.

The SEC’s Crypto 2.0 initiative, led by Commissioner Peirce, shifts from enforcement-first policies to a new Crypto Taskforce. Meanwhile, the President’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets, chaired by crypto advocate David Sacks, signals a more supportive stance. These shifts create space for innovation, allowing blockchain to prove its value before regulations catch up.

Key areas for progress include stablecoin regulation, clearer digital asset custody requirements, hybrid TradFi-crypto products (such as expected Solana and ETH ETFs) and global payments advancements through partnerships like those with X Money and Visa. Resolving complex policy priorities will take time, as reflected in a16z’s 11 priorities and the Crypto Bar’s open letter, highlighting the breadth of influential voices.

As adoption grows, the network effect of successful crypto products will push for consensus-driven regulation. But without meaningful legislative action, the industry risks a return to uncertainty when Washington’s leadership inevitably shifts again.

2. Speculation vs. Sustainable Growth

Amid all this optimism, crypto still struggles to establish credibility and prove itself as a force for responsible innovation. The opportunity to revolutionize finance is here — but is market speculation part of the growth or is it hindering sustainable growth?

Memecoins like $TRUMP and $MELANIA surged just before the inauguration, reflecting demand for high-risk, culturally driven assets, while also raising regulatory concerns about volatility and integrity. The class action lawsuit against pump.fun underscores skepticism of growth untethered to sustainable utility.

To maintain credibility, crypto must distinguish real-world and potential wealth creation applications from speculative assets. Fraud and misrepresentation remain illegal, whether in memecoins, penny stocks or collectibles. As the market evolves, businesses and investors must prioritize due diligence to separate hype from lasting potential.

3. The Urgent Need for Regulatory Clarity

Despite leadership changes, there remains an urgent need for clear, enforceable crypto regulation. Key unresolved issues include:

Addressing fraud and consumer protections without stifling innovation and decentralized finance

Defining digital asset regulatory authority among agencies

Establishing fit-for-purpose AML frameworks for stablecoins and other innovations

With crypto-friendly leaders now at the SEC and CFTC, regulatory progress is likely, but legislative action will take time. While Congress is considering proposals like the GENIUS Act, the STABLE Act, and new rules for market structure, pragmatic change isn’t guaranteed this year.

For now, the industry must keep shifting the Overton window toward recognizing crypto’s role in U.S. tech leadership, public policy and economic security. Until comprehensive laws emerge, regulatory leadership — seen with the CFTC pilot program and recent Federal Reserve speech — must guide a stable path for growth.

The Path Forward

This year is pivotal — not just because toxic policies are fading and leadership has shifted, but because momentum is driving Web3 and blockchain forward.

The goal isn’t just "responsible growth" but sustainable growth anchored in regulatory clarity. If the industry balances innovation with strong protections against fraud and theft, crypto’s resilience and credibility will be strengthened. With tech-neutral regulations, the U.S. won’t just lead in crypto and AI policy — we’ll also be ready for whatever else is next, from quantum computing to future breakthroughs. Sustainable innovation matters because technological progress is inevitable.

-Beth Haddock, managing partner and founder, Warburton Advisers

Ask an Expert

Q: Who is Ross Ulbricht?

A: Ross Ulbricht created Silk Road, an early bitcoin-powered marketplace that demonstrated crypto’s potential for decentralized commerce — both legally and illegally. His life sentence became a rallying cry in the crypto community, with many arguing it was excessive and highlighting broader debates on financial privacy and government control. His recent pardon has reignited discussions on justice reform and crypto’s role in the future of digital trade.

Q: What are the risks of memecoins?

A: Memecoins like $TRUMP and $MELANIA are highly speculative, with prices driven more by social media hype than real utility. While they can generate quick profits, they also carry extreme volatility and risks of manipulation. Many lack long-term viability, so investors should approach them with caution and avoid putting more in them than they can afford to lose.

Q: How could state bitcoin investments impact adoption?

A: If states allocate reserves to bitcoin, it could legitimize crypto as a store of value, encouraging institutional investors and policymakers to take it more seriously. This could accelerate regulatory clarity, enhance calls for clearer tax guidelines and integrate bitcoin into broader financial infrastructure, helping solidify its role in the economy.

-DJ Windle, founder and portfolio manager, Windle Wealth

Keep Reading

Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, has invested approximately $437 million into BlackRock's bitcoin ETF.

Google looks to simplify bitcoin adoption with wallet integration alongside existing authentication protocols.

FTX’s initial $1.2 billion payout is underway, with creditors with claims of less than $50,000 starting to receive payouts.

The new product allows BTC holders to secure loans while keeping ownership of their assets, a move aimed at investors looking to access liquidity without selling their bitcoin (BTC).

The service provides bitcoin-collateralized loans, allowing borrowers to use their holdings as security while receiving cash or stablecoins in return. By using bitcoin as collateral rather than selling it outright, borrowers can avoid capital gains taxes and maintain exposure to the asset’s potential price appreciation, according to the press release.

Lending partner Arch specializes in asset-backed loans and will handle the underwriting and loan distribution. Onramp, which focuses on bitcoin financial solutions, will integrate the service into its platform, making it accessible to users looking for an alternative to traditional financing.

Bitcoin-backed lending is gaining in popularity this cycle as an alternative to traditional loans, especially among long-term BTC holders who prefer to retain their assets. This model has been used in various financial applications, from personal liquidity needs to institutional financing strategies.

Read more: Coinbase to Offer Bitcoin-Backed Loans Through Morpho Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 3245.42, up 1.3% (+40.73) since 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

18 of 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: NEAR (+4.9%) and FIL (+4.6%).

Laggards: LTC (-5.9%) and UNI (-3.4%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

SynFutures is the largest DEX on Coinbase's layer-2 network Base with 24 hour volume hitting $220 million and liquidity at $768 million.

The AI agent will be rolled out in three phases, the first of which will include integration on social media platform X and the ability to respond to basic commands like "swap 100 USDC for ETH." The second phase will allow traders and developers to deploy AI agents to specific needs including futures trading and liquidity management.

The third and final phase is the introduction of a "meta agent" which is capable of creating and managing multiple agents in order to manage complex workflows and trading strategies.

The use of AI in trading is nothing new, a report last year estimates that around 65% of all equities trading is executed by algorithms. But the ability to deploy AI has the potential how traders interact with blockchain trading and decentralized finance (DeFi).

"Our vision extends beyond this launch—we plan to develop a framework that will fundamentally transform how users interact and integrate with the onchain economy,” said Rachel Lin, co-founder and CEO of SynFutures.

"The lack of regulation is one of the main impediments to stablecoin adoption in the U.S. and has prevented a broader institutional adoption of stablecoins," analysts led by Mohamed Damak wrote.

S&P said it expects adoption to grow once regulation is in place.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose value is tied to another asset, such as the U.S. dollar or gold. They play a major role in cryptocurrency markets and are also used for to transfer money internationally.

New rules are coming. The Senate's Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act mandates federal regulation for stablecoins with a market cap of over $10 billion with the potential for state regulation if it aligns with federal rules. The House of Representatives STABLE Act calls for state regulation without any conditions.

Some users are expected to move from unregulated to regulated stablecoins once a framework is in place, the report said, and this could alter the industry landscape.

"Stablecoins will play an increasingly important role in on-chain transactions," the authors wrote, protecting users' savings from "local monetary instability in emerging markets," or to receive payments.

Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM) said Tether, which issues market leader USDT, could face challenges from proposed U.S. stablecoin regulations, in a report last week.

Read more: Tether May Have to Sell Some Bitcoin to Comply With U.S. Stablecoin Rules: JPMorgan

PI debuted at $1.70 at 09:00 UTC, rising to as high as $2.00. It was recently trading at $0.97. The initial surge sent the fully diluted value (FDV) to as high as $195 billion — almost double the value of the Solana blockchain's SOL.

The FDV is based on the maximum supply of a token, 100 billion in this case. The self-reported circulating supply is 6.3 billion, putting its market cap at around $6.1 billion.

Pi Network has drawn comparisons to viral projects from previous cycles including SafeMoon, which also attracted a retail audience with aggressive marketing and referral schemes.

In order for users to begin mining the Pi token on a mobile device, they must first receive an invitation from another user. They are then issued with an invite code they can share themselves. More tokens are rewarded for each referred user, creating an ecosystem that mirrors multilevel marketing (MLM) or pyramid schemes.

The project has been around since 2019 with its testnet going live in 2020. The token release marks start of the Pi Network mainnet, which means that all accrued tokens can be transferred and traded.

However, exchanges currently lack sufficient liquidity to handle the billions of tokens being traded. In fact, even the most-liquid exchange, OKX, has a 2% market depth of between $33,000 and $60,000. That means an order of, say, $100,000 would move the price significantly, creating a volatile trading environment.

Market depth measures the amount of capital required to move an asset in either direction. Based on the token's market cap, a 2% move would equate to a $146 million shift in the project's value.

Pi Network has attempted to remedy a disparity between buyers and sellers by offering holders a "lock-up" period, which can be up to three years. If holders opt to lock up their tokens, they will receive higher mining rewards. A similar approach was employed by Richard Heart's controversial HEX token, which lost more than 99% of its value between 2021 and 2024, rendering many of the locked tokens worthless.

Clients of BitGo and Copper can now trade spot and derivatives on Deribit while assets are secured off-exchange in qualified custody with BitGo Trust, and automatically settled leveraging Copper ClearLoop and the Go Network, according to a press release.

In a post-FTX world traders are looking to reduce the risks associated with leaving assets on exchanges where possible. BitGo and Copper announced a partnership two years ago to trade on exchanges while assets are held within a regulated custody ring-fenced environment.

A simple function of the combined BitGo and Copper ClearLoop networks is delivery versus payment (DvP), so any BitGo client can instantaneously settle with any other BitGo client in an atomic swap of the assets without ever needing to bring those assets on chain, said Brett Reeves, head of BitGo’s Go Network.

“We can do this DvP settlement from cold storage, and there's no fees for it,” Reeves said in an interview with CoinDesk. “So we're really looking at eliminating that settlement risk, or Herstatt risk, and moving it towards the traditional finance space.”

Under the hood, assets are held with qualified or regulated custody at BitGo, and then at pre-defined intraday settlement periods, the assets that are owed to Deribit are removed from a BitGo account into the Copper ecosystem through to Deribit, Reeves explained. If these assets are owed to the client, it comes back the other way, he said.

“The bulk of the client's assets remain within Bitgo custody, apart from a settlement time when they move to exchange,” Reeves said. “At settlement time, that's the P&L that they owe on the transactions, or the variation margin on their positions.”

"The synergies between our companies will unlock new opportunities for investors and will completely change the landscape of trading," said Luuk Strijers, CEO of Deribit in a statement.