POINTLESS PURCHASES? Bitcoin’s crash last week cast a shadow over mining firms that have spent over half a billion dollars overhauling equipment in preparation for the network’s next halving. If bitcoin’s price does not bounce back after the event, which will essentially reduce mining revenue by half, mining farms would have to bear a longer payback period for their investment. Full story
COSTLY DEMANDS: Ransomware demanding bitcoin to release people’s personal information has become more sophisticated and greedy. If use of the malicious malware continues to grow, it may prove a fertile breeding ground for political and regulatory pushback, and harm bitcoin's ecosystem, writes CoinDesk columnist J.P. Koning. Full story
BAKKT BACKED: Crypto derivatives provider Bakkt has closed a $300 million Series B round with Microsoft's M12, Pantera Capital, Bakkt parent firm ICE and others participating. The firm also said the recent acquisition of loyalty services provider Bridge2 will help it to “unlock nearly $1 trillion of digital assets when the Bakkt app launches this summer.” Full story
COINBASE EXIT: Brian Brooks, Coinbase's chief legal officer, is leaving the cryptocurrency exchange to become second-in-command at the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a banking regulator. Brooks has served as chief legal officer at Coinbase since September 2018. Full story
VOLUMES LOOM: Bitcoin prices have been on a roller-coaster ride since Sunday afternoon after the Federal Reserve slashed rates a full percentage point to the vicinity of zero percent and promised to pump $700 billion into the U.S. economy. After initially rising on the news and then falling, the cryptocurrency's buying volumes have picked up. It's been an active 24 hours.
MONTHLY REPORT: CoinDesk Research's latest monthly report examines Binance, Cash App and Coinbase fiat onramps, crypto's faltering narrative as a safe haven asset, and “criminality” as a use case for crypto networks. The report also looks ahead (and back) to bitcoin halving impacts, as preview to the event slated later this Spring. Full report
UNNERVING QUANTITATIVE EASING: Far from reassuring the markets, the Federal Reserve's unprecedented action this weekend seems to have spooked them instead. CoinDesk's Michael Casey and Noelle Acheson join the latest episode of The Breakdown to discuss how the Fed's $700 bazooka misfired. Listen in
Halving overhaul