The Bitcoin network hashrate rose 4% in the first two weeks of the month to an average of 937 exahashes per second (EH/s), Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Monday. The hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, and is […]

Thailand introduced its Tourist Wallet for foreign-currency-to-baht QR payments, but the crypto conversion feature is suspended pending a regulatory review through mid-August. The Bank of Thailand said the Tourist Wallet is meant to solve a practical problem: Cross-border QR links are only live with eight partner countries including Singapore, Malaysia and, soon, China via UnionPay. […]

Good Morning, Asia. Here’s what’s making news in the markets: Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook Americas. Leverage in crypto markets is surging back to bull-market levels, even […]

Wall Street ramped up its exposure to bitcoin in the second quarter, adding positions not only in spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) but also in U.S. stocks closely tied to the cryptocurrency’s price, according to new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Brevan Howard nearly doubled its position in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust […]

Every day, there seems to be a new blockchain for stablecoins. Or at least that’s how it felt this week, when USDC (USDC) issuer Circle announced Arc, its own settlement network, shortly after payments giant Stripe accidentally revealed Tempo, built in collaboration with Paradigm. They were the latest in a growing list. Startups Plasma and […]