Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his campaign and is shifting support to fellow crypto friendly politician Donald Trump.
"I cannot in good conscience ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours, or ask my donors to keep giving when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House," the independent party candidate said on Friday.
Kennedy has been friendly toward the crypto industry over the past year. Most recently, he promised to issue several Bitcoin-related executive orders, including directing the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Marshals Sevice to transfer about 200,000 Bitcoin held by the U.S. government to the Department of Treasury to be held as a "strategic asset."
Kennedy said he would remove his name in battleground states but said people can still vote for him in most states that are clearly Republican or Democrat.
"I want everyone to know that I am not terminating my campaign," Kennedy added. "I am simply suspending it and not ending it."
Support for Trump
Kennedy also announced on Friday that he would be backing Republican candidate and former president Trump. Both candidates spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville in July. Trump had previously made inroads with the crypto industry by selecting crypto-friendly J.D. Vance as his running mate and promised to advocate for bitcoin miners.
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Trump also recently named Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick to lead his transition team if he returns to the White House. Cantor Fitzgerald has been a custodian for Tether since late 2021, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino previously told The Block.
On Thursday, Trump announced that he was endorsing a crypto project called "The DeFiant Ones," which is being spearheaded by two of his sons. A Telegram channel called "The DeFiant Ones," said in a message on Friday there would be a new DeFi platform to "cut out the corrupt, expensive and inefficient middlemen."
"They [banks and financial institutions] shut people out, deny them loans, drown them in paperwork and kill them with legal and processing fees," the message read. "Our entire family, has experienced this firsthand… we’ve been de-banked, de-platformed and had every political game imaginable played on us. These banks and the elites who run them want absolute control but that ends now
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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Digital Currency Group, the blockchain investments juggernaut founded in 2015, has fully repaid its short-term debts as of June, the company announced in a quarterly shareholder letter this week.
The company repaid more than $1 billion to creditors over the past 18 months and was particularly buoyed by a strong performance in the first half of the year.
Its only remaining debt is a $1.1 billion promissory note due to its bankrupt crypto-lending unit Genesis in 2032.
DCG and its subsidiary Genesis were implicated in the market contagion event in 2022, particularly by the collapse of hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and crypto exchange FTX.
Genesis had loaned several billion dollars worth of assets to 3AC, leading to losses when Su Zhu and Kyle Davies’ trading empire collapsed. DCG helped its subsidiary stay in business by lending it cash and presenting it with the $1.1 billion promissory note.
But when FTX and sister firm Alameda Research collapsed months later in November, Genesis was forced to close withdrawals and enter into bankruptcy.
In October 2023, Attorney General Letitia James filed a sweeping lawsuit against cryptocurrency companies Gemini, Genesis and DCG for allegedly lying to investors, which the firms contest. A bankruptcy judge has approved a $2 billion settlement between the NYAG's office and Genesis in May.
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The shareholder letter notes that Genesis and DCG have been able to fully repay the majority of Genesis’ creditors — including crypto exchange Gemini, which had lent Genesis its customer deposits from its “Earn” program — since disbursements began in August. The Block was the first to report that Genesis had completed its restructuring plan.
“Over 99% of the more than 200,000 Genesis claimholders are receiving a full recovery. In addition, the majority of crypto claimholders who are not receiving a full in-kind recovery are nevertheless receiving significant recoveries which in most cases represent returns in excess of 100% relative to petition date prices,” DCG wrote.
“We are pleased with this outcome, which represents an extraordinary recovery for any bankruptcy,” the firm added.
Grayscale
While DCG is working to close “the chapter” on Genesis, a new one has begun for its asset management division Grayscale. Grayscale was one of the firms in the first quarter to launch a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund and a spot ETH fund in Q2 by converting its closed-end BTC and ETH trusts to ETFs.
“This year, Grayscale launched 9 new products, including BTC and ETH Mini products, which have seen inflows of over $270 million and over $220 million respectively,” DCG wrote. Grayscale also launched a number of single-asset trusts tracking assets like Bittensor.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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The total stablecoin market capitalization, excluding algorithmic stablecoins, hit its all-time high over the weekend, DefiLlama data shows.
Stablecoin’s market cap expanded by 0.8% over the past week to over $168.1 billion, surpassing the previous peak in March 2022 of around $167 billion.
The market cap hit a low of around $122 billion in October as the market cap started to dwindle a few months after the March 2022 high. Since the beginning of 2024, the stablecoin market cap has continued to grow, according to DefiLlama data.
A rising stablecoin market cap may indicate that crypto is attracting more money from institutional investors, Rachael Lucas, a crypto analyst of BTCMarkets, told The Block.
“Traditionally, demand for stability in uncertain market conditions has driven investors towards stablecoins as a safe haven,” Lucas said. “Alternatively, the increase in the stablecoin market cap could reflect growing confidence in the crypto market, especially from institutional investors.”
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Lucas added that stablecoins are being increasingly utilized by institutional investors as a bridge between TradFi and crypto. “This trend underscores a broader shift towards integrating stable digital assets into both trading strategies and long-term portfolios.”
Meanwhile, USDT
+0.00038%
, the largest stablecoin, has seen its market cap grow about 28% this year, from $91.68 billion at the beginning of this year to $117.84 billion today. USDT now accounts for about 70% of the total market capitalization, according to DefiLlama data.
Circle’s USDC, despite some fluctuations in market cap, has also experienced an upward trend in 2024, growing from $23.8 billion in early January to $34.4 billion today.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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According to the on-chain data tracking service Whale Alert, at around 11:14 am Beijing time today, 1,500 BTC were transferred from an unknown wallet to Binance, worth $BTC #binancepizza

Trading volume and daily network transactions on Ethereum ETH
-1.32%
have declined throughout August.
The Block's Data Dashboard indicates that the seven-day moving average of daily trading volume on the Ethereum network has declined by around 55% over the past month. The seven-day moving average of daily economic throughput on the Ethereum blockchain in U.S. dollar terms fell from $6.56 billion on July 26 to $2.9 billion today. While the monthly trading volume on Ethereum in July was $134.71 billion, August's trading volume currently stands at $91.46 billion, with five days left in the month.
Another indicator of economic activity on Ethereum also demonstrated a decline—the seven-day moving average of daily transactions on the Ethereum network has hit a multi-month low. On Sunday, there were around 1.07 million transactions on Ethereum. This marks a steady decrease from the multi-month peak of 1.32 million daily transactions recorded on March 25 of this year.
Furthermore, The Block's data shows that monthly transactions on Ethereum are at a multi-month low for August, although there are still five days left in the month. So far this month, there have been 27.27 million transactions on the blockchain — a low not seen since May 2020. In contrast, there were 35.49 million transactions in July.

Coinbase analysts view the August decline in trading volume and overall activity on Ethereum as part of a cyclical pattern, consistent with the historical summer lull. Analysts David Duong and David Han noted that this August's drop in blockchain activity is less pronounced than in previous years. "The decrease in ether trading volumes in August compared to the preceding three months has been a modest 7.7%, compared to the average 16.8% decline observed over the last five years," they explained.
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Reduced institutional interest in Ethereum
One analyst pointed to the underperformance of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds compared to their equivalent bitcoin products as an indicator of reduced interest from institutional traders.
According to BRN analyst Valentin Fournier, there has been a seven-day positive streak for bitcoin ETFs, while Ethereum lags despite decreasing outflows from Grayscale.  "This shows Ethereum is lacking interest from institutions and can partly be explained by the opportunity cost of the absence of restaking, and we recommend shifting a higher allocation toward bitcoin as we expect Ethereum to continue lagging," Fournier told The Block.
The price of ether decreased by 0.6% to $2,734 at 9:14 a.m. ET, according to The Block's Price Page.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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Bitcoin BTC
-4.07%
fell 4.5% over the past 24 hours to trade below $57,000 amid a selloff across U.S. stocks and the weak Asian stock market, analysts said.
Bitcoin is changing hands at around $56,696 at the time of writing, while ether traded down 6.4% at $2,366, according to The Block’s crypto price page. The overall crypto market was down 4.74% over the past day.
Peter Chung, head of research at Presto Research, said that the fall was mainly due to the weak August ISM data published overnight, which “led to sell-off across all TradFi risk assets.” The U.S. ISM manufacturing index for August came in at 47.2%, up 0.4 percentage points from July, but it remained in contraction territory.
Chung explained that bitcoin’s 4% fall over the past day occurred in two steps. “The first fall is actually quite moderate, compared to its 17% fall during the August 5 market meltdown which was due to the same growth scare. This suggests the BTC market was more efficient in discounting the growth risk than TradFi.”
“In my view, the second step is a knee-jerk reaction to the weak Asian stock market this morning by the Asia-based investors. TOPIX, KOSPI are all down quite a bit this morning,” Chung added. “But overall, the 4% fall is still moderate for BTC considering the magnitude of the fall in TradFi markets.”
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Japan’s TOPIX benchmark slid 2.7% during the morning session at the time of writing, while South Korea’s KOSPI fell 2.46% so far this morning. In the U.S., chipmaker Nvidia lost 9.5% on Tuesday.
“With the long weekend that took place [in the U.S.], most assets — traditional and crypto — are digesting bearish sentiment. Crypto, being more volatile and one of the few markets open 24/7, has felt the brunt of this,” Justin d'Anethan, head of APAC business development of crypto market maker Keyrock, told The Block.
Investors are also weighing the potential impact of the non-farm payroll data set to be released this Friday. “​​September will be a busy month with a mood-setting NFP this Friday and an almost guaranteed Fed rate cut in about two weeks. Investors will get a confirmation of the degree of the economic slowdown,” said Augustine Fan, head of insights at SOFA.org.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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According to a white paper on securities services evolution released by Citigroup, the demand for using central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for digital asset settlements has dropped significantly from 52% last year to 15% among nearly 500 surveyed institutions. In contrast, institutions have shown increased interest in other digital payment methods such as non-bank stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and tokenized currency market funds. In addition, the survey pointed out that although North America is leading in proof-of-concept (30%), there are no commercial projects yet, while Europe and Latin America have more ongoing actual projects. With the integration of traditional and digital assets, Citigroup expects automation, cloud infrastructure, and solutions integrated with DLT networks to become the focus of future investments.
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Monad officials posted on the X platform stating that their official Discord link is currently redirecting to a fraudulent server, which is said to affect users who have joined or are attempting to join in the past few hours. Monad reminds users not to click on any links to join the Monad Discord server, and officials are working to resolve the issue. Users should be wary of any fraudulent or phishing attempts.
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Singapore, August 29, 2024 - WSPN (Worldwide Stablecoin Payment Network), a leading provider of next-generation stablecoin infrastructure, has achieved a significant milestone in its mission to revolutionize the stablecoin market. The company has recently secured $30 million in seed funding, and appointed John Partridge, former President of Visa Inc., to its Board of Directors.
The seed funding round was led by Foresight Venture and Folius Ventures, with participation from prominent investors including Hash Global, Generative Ventures, Yunqi Partners, RedPoint China, and a consortium of top-tier investment companies, exchanges, and foundations.
The appointment of John Partridge to WSPN's board brings invaluable expertise to the company. With over two decades of experience in the fintech industry, Mr. Partridge is most recognized as President of Visa Inc. from 2009 to 2013. During his tenure, he played a pivotal role in Visa’s historic $19 billion IPO in 2008, which was the largest U.S. IPO at that time. Mr. Partridge's joining underscores the potential of WSPN's vision and adds significant credibility to the project.
In the rapidly evolving $180 billion stablecoin market, WSPN is introducing Stablecoin 2.0 through its flagship product, Worldwide USD (WUSD). This innovative approach aims to create a decentralized equivalent of Visa's trusted payment network, addressing current limitations such as high market concentration and narrow use cases. WSPN's Stablecoin 2.0 concept focuses on user-centric value distribution, community-driven governance, enhanced accessibility, and a comprehensive value ecosystem. This approach aims to expand stablecoin utility beyond trading and into broader payment scenarios.
The company distinguishes itself through its team of seasoned professionals with experience from CTH, Paxos, and Visa. WSPN has garnered support from over 30 exchanges, more than 10 major wallets, and dozens of prominent payment institutions and market makers.
"This substantial funding round and John's appointment to our board represent a transformative moment for WSPN," said Raymond Yuan, Founder and CEO of WSPN. "With this capital and John's deep expertise in global payments, we are well-positioned to accelerate the development of our Stablecoin 2.0 infrastructure and bring innovative, user-centric payment solutions to the market."
As WSPN advances its Stablecoin 2.0 initiative, it stands at the forefront of redefining digital currencies. By addressing current stablecoin limitations and introducing forward-thinking features, WSPN aims to unlock the full potential of digital assets in global finance, potentially reshaping how we perceive and use money in the digital age.
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About WSPN
WSPN is a leading provider of next-generation stablecoin infrastructure, committed to building a more secure, efficient, and transparent payment solution for the global economy. Their flagship product, WUSD stablecoin, is pegged 1:1 to the U.S. Dollar and aims to optimize secure and licensed digital payments for Web3 users.  WSPN 's Stablecoin 2.0 approach prioritizes user-centricity, community governance, and accessibility, paving the way for widespread stablecoin adoption.
Learn more: www.wspn.io | X | LinkedIn

This post is commissioned by CTH Group and does not serve as a testimonial or endorsement by The Block. This post is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment, tax, legal or other advice. You should conduct your own research and consult independent counsel and advisors on the matters discussed within this post. Past performance of any asset is not indicative of future results.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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Binance CEO CZ widely known as "CZ," took to Twitter on Wednesday to deny rumors of a run-in with a U.S. inspectorate in Asia that, according to the viral post, ended with him pulling out an AK-47 and being "wasted". CZ responded to apparently false information on social media in a tweet, saying, "This is the second time I've been imaginatively wasted on Asian news. The last time involved a basement full of #BNB." This bizarre story about the shootout seems is the latest in a string of toxic narratives circulated in Asia by CZ ，whose veracity he vehemently denies.

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