Dec. 6, 2023

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

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Welcome to The Node! This is Daniel Kuhn here to take you through the latest in crypto news and why it matters.

In today's news: Binance CEO Richard Teng made his public debut. Solana's answer to the “dog token" takes a leap. And Tether's market cap grows to all-time high of $89 billion.

The takeaway: Bitcoin traded over $40K without generating much buzz. This rally feels different.

Meet Richard

New Binance CEO Richard Teng made his public debut in a video interview broadcasted at a Financial Times conference on Wednesday, and he appears to be as evasive and combative as his former boss, Changpeng Zhao (who stepped down last month following Binance’s $4.3 billion legal settlement with U.S. authorities). Teng reportedly refused to give answers about the company’s governance, its headquarters and whether it will undergo an audit, CoinDesk’s Helene Braun reports. “Why do you feel so entitled to those answers?” Teng said during a contentious interview with FT reporter Scott Chippolina. The new exec reiterated that the new Binance would be “user-led” and compliance-friendly, after “mistakes were made.”

Pick of the Litter

DOGE, the world's leading meme cryptocurrency, has been on a tear — climbing 10% to trade above $0.10 for the first time since April. The notional open interest – or the dollar value locked in the number of active futures and perpetual futures contracts – tied to DOGE has risen by 58% to $625 million in one week, reaching the highest since Nov. 2, 2022, according to data source CoinGlass. As ever, dogecoin prices are inextricably linked to Elon Musk, who contributed to the DOGE jump when his AI startup xAI filed paperwork showing it may raise up to $1 billion. Although the connection between DOGE and Musk’s xAI is tenuous at best, the controversial entrepreneur poured cold water on the rally when tweeting Wednesday morning he’s not "raising money." Finally, Bonk, the Solana-based Shiba Inu-themed token, is running up the pack and is now the third largest “dog token.”

Stablecoins ... Grow

After Binance listed a little-known “anchored euro” (AEUR) on Tuesday, the stablecoin that is supposed to remain pegged to 1 euro surged nearly 200%. The exchange eventually suspended trading due to "abnormal volatility.” The AEUR-USDT pair traded around $1.08, roughly in line with the EUR-USD exchange rate, for most of the day until it started to rise sharply at around 17:45 UTC, hitting a high of $3.25. There is no known cause for the rally. AEUR, which has a $5 million market cap, is issued by Switzerland-based Anchored Coins, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore investor and former parliament member Calvin Cheng. Meanwhile, Glassnode data shows the combined market cap of the largest stablecoins increased by almost $5 billion to $124 billion last month. Tether USDT has an all-time high market cap of $89 billion.

The Takeaway: This Rally Is Different

(CoinDesk)

About two years ago, crypto prices topped out. Bitcoin (BTC) almost got to $70,000. Then things got bad, then they got worse and then they got cataclysmic. BTC sank toward $15,000 in the aftermath of FTX's blow-up.

You probably remember!

Prices have rebounded for most of 2023, but these felt like hard-won gains – rallies were quickly followed by setbacks. By mid-October, bitcoin was around $27,000.

And then the market caught fire, fueled by optimism over bitcoin ETFs and sinking interest rates. Bitcoin just briefly touched $45,000 on Coinbase. It had only just managed to surpass $40,000 a few days ago, a level last seen in early 2022.

A crypto-skeptic friend texted me Tuesday saying he was about to buy more bitcoin. A colleague says he's hearing from people wondering about crypto. Will this last? Is crypto making a move toward mainstream territory again?

To the disappointment of my father, who has asked me for forecasts throughout my two-decade career covering markets and finance, I have no idea. But I know it's been two years since the mood in crypto markets felt this ebullient – before the collapses of Celsius, Voyager, Three Arrows Capital, FTX, Genesis …

FOMO (you know, "fear of missing out") maybe mixed with a dose of YOLO ("you only live one") seems to be back.

Wall Street is coming to crypto

How things got this enthusiastic is not hard to fathom. It really is a big deal that Wall Street heavyweights BlackRock, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton are trying to list bitcoin ETFs in the U.S.

Anyone with a plain vanilla brokerage account should be able to buy these products, if they're approved by regulators – and all signs point to approval being likely soon. That's easier and probably more realistic for regular Americans than setting up a Coinbase account or, heaven forbid, figuring out how a decentralized exchange or MetaMask work.

So, BlackRock, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton's sales and marketing heft looks poised to be behind bitcoin ETFs. It's not crazy to think that will bring a lot of money into crypto. Whether that creates a sustainable rally is up for debate.

Read the story online...

– Nick Baker, deputy editor-in-chief

@inkbaker

nick.baker@coindesk.com

Off-Chain Signals

NFTs Were Not Dead After All – Unchained
Did Bukele lie about El Salvador’s bitcoin profits? – Protos
Grant program aims to overthrow Iranian government with crypto – Blockworks
SocGen’s crypto unit debuts euro-pegged stablecoin – Blockworks
Stablecoin FDUSD crosses $1bn mark as Binance launches zero-fee trading – DL News
Jamie Dimon lashes out against crypto: 'If I was the government, I'd close it down' – CNBC
Crypto-fueled wireless carrier Helium Mobile debuts unlimited nationwide plan in US – The Block
The IRS’s new crypto tax grab is a bridge too far (true!) – The Hill op-ed

What Is a Stablecoin, Really?

Consensus is the biggest and most established hub for everything crypto, blockchain and Web3. Join us at the 10th annual Consensus May 29-31 in Austin, Texas for dialogue, discovery and dealmaking alongside developers, investors, startups, executives and more.