The United States producer price index (PPI) fell 0.5% for the month, which was much more than the 0.1% decline estimated by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The largest monthly decline since April 2020 was also aided by a sharp drop in energy prices. Another report showed that the retail sales data dropped 1.1% in December, a tad bit more than the anticipated 1% decrease. Although both data points show inflation is cooling off, the U.S. stock markets failed to hold on to their initial gains. Similarly, several cryptocurrencies sold off from their intraday highs, indicating that traders may have …

Bitcoin (BTC) price and the wider crypto market corrected as news of coordinated “international cryptocurrency enforcement action” stirred up uncertainty among traders. Given the number of black swan events and the proliferation of crypto-oriented scams in 2022, most investors expect United States and global regulators to eventually lay down a strong hammer on centalized exchanges and other businesses connected with the crypto sector. At the time of writing, BTC price had dipped to an intraday low at $20,400, and Ether (ETH) gave back its daily gains to trade as low as $1,500. As shown by the charts below, the revelation …

Shiba Inu is hoping to become more than just a Dogecoin-inspired meme cryptocurrency as it comes closer to launching its layer-2 network. Meanwhile, its native token SHIB has emerged as one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies so far in 2023. SHIB price jumps 60% in 2023 SHIB's price has rallied nearly 60% year-to-date (YTD) to $0.00001294, its highest since early November 2022. The gains started appearing mainly due to favorable macro conditions that prompted similar rallies elsewhere in the crypto market. Nonetheless, the Shiba Inu price rally picked up momentum as investors assessed its announcement of the upcoming beta release of …

Switzerland-based cryptocurrency firm 21Shares is betting on proof-of-stake (PoS) coins by launching a new crypto exchange-traded product (ETP) dedicated to staking. 21Shares on Jan. 18 launched the 21Shares Staking Basket Index ETP, a crypto staking index designed to track up to 10 PoS cryptocurrencies. The ETP immediately starts trading on the local stock exchange BX Swiss under the ticker STAKE. At launch, 21Shares’ STAKE ETP tracks six digital assets, including Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Cosmos (ATOM), Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL) and Tezos (XTZ). The index will rebalance on a semi-annual basis in March and September in accordance with market …

Research shows that Dogecoin (DOGE) was the only memecoin in 2022 to proactively reduce its carbon footprint — a key metric for mainstream adoption — by 25% in one year, thanks to the intervention of developers and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. One of the main reasons why Musk backtracked on accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments for Tesla was high carbon emissions. At the time, he believed that Dogecoin — “even though it was created as a silly joke” — was better suited for transactions. Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, …

The notion that bear markets are good for builders appears to be true with the total number of monthly active Web3 developers increasing 5.4% to more than 23,300 over the last 12 months despite a near 70% drop in crypto prices. According to a Jan. 16 report from Electric Capital, “full-time” developers — categorized as those who contribute to 76% of Github commits — also increased 15.2% to over 7000, while “one-time” builders fell 6.2% to over 3,500 during the same time period between December 2021 and December 2022 Despite the crypto market capitalization beginning its long plunge from from …

Despite a wave of heavy crypto layoffs to start the new year, employees in technical and engineering roles, as well as senior management, will likely continue to see “strong demand” for their skills, recruitment professionals believe. It’s been a tough first few weeks of 2023 for crypto businesses and their staff. Within just two weeks, the market has already seen more than 1,600 crypto-related job cuts as a result of continued market volatility and uncertainty. However, not all departments have seen the same level of cuts. SAFU: Senior-level tech and engineering Rob Paone, founder and CEO of crypto recruitment firm …

Risk assets have started the new year on a strong note. The S&P 500 (SPX) and the Nasdaq closed in the positive for the second successive week and also notched their best weekly performance since November. Bitcoin (BTC) led the recovery in the crypto markets with a sharp 21% rally last week. That sent the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index into the neutral territory of 52 on Jan. 15, its highest since April 5, 2022. However, the index has given back its gains and is again back into the Fear zone on Jan. 17. The strong rally in Bitcoin has …

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and decentralized finance (DeFi) are redefining how charities raise donations and distribute funds to those most in need. Through ever-evolving crypto and blockchain-related technology, crypto philanthropists told Cointelegraph that they've witnessed “new wealth distribution mechanisms" never seen before. “Philanthropy has traditionally been seen as a high-cost-of-entry, individualistic activity but with web3, collective decision-making bodies like DAOs can use tools that streamline financial coordination and encourage more participation,” explained Omar Antila, Product Lead at Crypto for Charity. “Crypto enables new innovative fundraising strategies, like charitable NFT-drop campaigns, or allowing people to pool their crypto …

Digital assets will largely decouple from traditional equity markets in 2023, says Chief Investment Officer at Arca, Jeff Dorman. Discussing his outlook for 2023 in a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Dorman argues that as the global economy enters a recession this year, equities will be negatively affected while some crypto tokens will perform well: the value of the latter, he explained, is determined not only by macroeconomic factors but also by their utility within the respective ecosystems, which would remain unaltered in a recession. “You're going to see a lot of stocks get punished under the weight of restructurings and …

The Central Bank of Iran is reportedly cooperating with the Russian government to jointly issue a new cryptocurrency backed by gold. Iran is working with Russia to create a “token of the Persian Gulf region” that would serve as a payment method in foreign trade, Russia’s news agency Vedomosti reported on Jan. 15. The token is projected to be issued in the form of a stablecoin backed by gold, according to Alexander Brazhnikov, executive director of the Russian Association of Crypto Industry and Blockchain (RACIB). The stablecoin aims to enable cross-border transactions instead of fiat currencies like the United States’ …

The developers of the dog-themed token Shiba Inu (SHIB) posted an update to inform its community about its upcoming beta release of Shibarium, a layer-2 network that will run on top of the Ethereum mainnet. In an announcement, SHIB developers shared information about layer-2 blockchains and highlighted that Shibarium is being built to provide a tool to allow the community to build and grow the project and fulfill its founder’s vision. While some believe that the creation of Shibarium is a way to increase the meme token’s price, the developers noted that this wasn’t the goal. They wrote: “Patience is …