TOP OPTIONS: Trading volume records in bitcoin’s options market were smashed on Monday as investors scrambled to hedge their positions amid the sell-off. Major exchanges, including Deribit, LedgerX, Bakkt, OKEx and CME registered total trading volume of $198 million, surpassing the previous record high of $171.3 million reached on Feb. 11, according to crypto derivatives research firm Skew Markets. Read all the options TRADING ENNUI? Monday saw the largest sell off in stocks since 2008, but for traders in the 11-year-old digital-asset industry it was just another day of volatility. One clear takeaway: As traditional markets are gripped by coronavirus fears, the cryptocurrency industry shows few existential signs of distress. Full story VIRTUALLY FINE: CoinDesk’s William Foxley attended the MIT Bitcoin Expo in Cambridge, Mass. via virtual reality. Despite all the coronavirus-fueled excitement around virtual gatherings being a viable alternative to germ-swapping IRL events, he still got sick, albeit, from a far less serious affliction: motion sickness. Enter Foxley's world PRODUCTIVE, NOT POSTURING: The House Committee on Small Business hearing last week lasted only an hour, and only four members asked questions, but in some respects, it was far more productive than most government hearings on blockchain. Hear more about it FRAUD WARNING: Scammers have been sending fake versions of CoinDesk's daily newsletter to try to trick recipients into visiting a suspicious "XRP giveaway" site. If you received this message, which copied our logo and design and even used our executive editor's name in the "from" field, know that it did not come from us. (Note that the actual sender's address is not a CoinDesk.com domain.) Please forward to [email protected] and [email protected], and block the sender if received. |
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| STOCK TOGETHER? Bitcoin is witnessing a recovery rally alongside the traditional finance markets a day after slumping to two-month lows. That said, bitcoin will remain bearish as long as prices stay below the current resistance of $8,480. Further, if Monday’s low of $7,625 is breached, more sellers could join the market and lead to a drop toward $7,000. Full story |
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SURVEY SAYS: Our financial times are getting weird, so we asked you, CoinDesk readers, where you saw the safest port in the storm. Your answers?
Out of over 8,200 votes, cryptocurrency beat out gold with over 50 percent of the vote, while treasuries, another traditional safe haven asset, got a meager 360 basis points. An expected result for a group of die-hard crypto fans.
Some, however, were upset their favorite asset wasn't included.
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HACKING HACKERS: “It’s a game of hacker versus hacker,” John Biggs said, on the latest Markets Daily. A new viral campaign has seen hackers tricking others into downloading existing malware tools and injecting it with a new trojan, found TechCrunch's Amit Serper. Listen in |
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