Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk. In this issue: Bitcoin Mining Faces ‘Incredibly Difficult’ Market as Power Becomes the Real Currency Bitcoin Liquid Staking Gains Momentum as Lombard Launches BARD Token and Foundation Optimism Taps Flashbots to Supercharge
U.S. stocks are largely flat as the muted performance across Wall Street inches into the third session of the week, with investors’ focus now firmly on Nvidia earnings, set for release after the close on Wednesday. Summary Stocks opened lower on Wednesday following another muted session on Tuesday. Wall Street is cautious ahead of the
This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe. BTC sits at $110K as of this morning, with the vast majority of tokens down – except for Hyperliquid (up 14% from yesterday’s $43 lows) and Solana (up 4% today). We’ve already covered Hyperliquid twice this week, so I’ll spare the details.
This week the price of Bitcoin has temporarily entered a new phase. This is a phase characterized by a substantial absence of directionality. This translates into minor movements, almost irrelevant except in the very short term. Summary The lateralization The bullrun The dollar The crypto markets The lateralization In this regard, the hypothesis is increasingly
Bitcoin is steadying after a volatile weekend that shook out leveraged traders and left the market questioning whether support at $110K can hold. Following Sunday’s whale-driven flash crash, Bitcoin (BTC) price is once again consolidating near $111,000, and traders are debating whether a rebound toward the $116K–$120K zone is in play. Summary Bitcoin is stabilizing
BlackRock’s Bitcoin stash has shrunk by more than $5 billion in just one week, with blockchain data showing steady outflows from the world’s largest asset manager’s ETF addresses. As of August 20, 2025, BlackRock held 749,940 BTC worth $87.22 billion. By August 27, those holdings had dropped to 744,590 BTC valued at $81.74 billion. The
Cross-border payments may soon move faster as banks gain access to stablecoin settlement through a new deal between Finastra and Circle. The collaboration will connect USDC, Circle’s dollar-pegged digital token, to Finastra’s Global PAYplus platform. Finastra Opens Its Network to USDC Finastra said the integration will allow banks using its payments hub to settle transactions
Healthtech firm H100 Group acquired an additional 46 BTC and now holds a total of 957 BTC. Summary H100 Group acquires 46 BTC, putting its treasury holdings at 957 BTC The firm remains active in its health technology sector, using BTC to preserve capital Still, H100 Group did actively raise capital to fund its Bitcoin
Robert Kiyosaki, also known as the author of the popular book on financial literacy, “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, is a well-known advocate of adding financial education lessons to a school curriculum. Besides, Kiyosaki is a big Bitcoin enthusiast. Now, there is another big Bitcoin supporter who has followed Kiyosaki’s example. Pomp stresses need for financial
Stefan Jespers, a prominent crypto influencer known as WhalePanda, took to X to raise doubt about Bitcoin’s qualification as a store of value. While such an opinion is hardly popular in the crypto community, it has its fair share. Let’s break it down. Summary A Bitcoin investor and influencer, WhalePanda, points to the weakening Bitcoin