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First Mover Americas: Coinbase Plans $1B Bond Sale

The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for March 13, 2024.

Updated Mar 13, 2024, 12:01 p.m. Published Mar 13, 2024, 12:01 p.m.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (Coinbase)
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (Coinbase)

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk's daily newsletter, putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

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Coinbase (COIN) announced a plan to cash in on the recent rally in digital assets by raising $1 billion through selling convertible bonds, avoiding an equity sale that could hurt its stock price. The plan also follows the path Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy has taken to fund its crypto aspirations. The crypto exchange said on Tuesday that it will offer the unsecured convertible senior notes through a private offering. Convertible bonds can be turned into shares of the issuing company (or cash) at a certain point, in this case, the conversion year is 2030. Had the company chosen to raise money by selling new shares, that would have diluted the ownership interest of existing shareholders – something they might have viewed unfavorably.

Ether prices might see a correction, Singapore-based digital assets trading firm QCP Capital said in a morning note. The trading firm said it is still cautiously optimistic about the long-term potential of ether. Although ether has sailed past $4,000, its highest price in two years, QCP writes that it's observing a shift in market sentiment, marked by negative risk reversals. These reversals measure the difference in implied volatility between call and put options and have turned negative, likely due to the low probability of a spot ether ETF being approved in the near future. QCP also wrote that it is concerned about the amount of leverage currently in the market, but traders will quickly buy back any dips. Excessive leverage is said to have caused the May 2021 crash, where prices fell by 30% over the course of 24 hours, and a 10% correction in bitcoin's price in January.

Current U.S. intellectual property laws are adequate to deal with concerns about copyright and trademark infringement associated with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a 112-page study by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the U.S. Copyright Office concluded. The study was requested by the former Democrat senator from Vermont, Patrick Joseph Leahy, and the Democrat senator from North Carolina, Thom Tillis, in June 2022. The USPTO and the Copyright Office conducted three public roundtables and solicited comments from interested stakeholders. The offices found that most stakeholders say the current laws are adequate, even though "trademark misappropriation and infringement are common on NFT platforms."

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KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market

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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.

What to know:

  • KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
  • This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
  • Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
  • Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
  • Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.

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Strategy shares register first six-month losing streak since adoption of bitcoin strategy in 2020

Michael Saylor (Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Modified by CoinDesk)

Crypto analyst Chris Millas has highlighted an unusually persistent slump in Strategy shares, breaking with past drawdown patterns even as the firm continued accumulating bitcoin.

What to know:

  • Strategy shares fell in each of the final six months of 2025, marking the first time since the firm adopted bitcoin in August 2020 as a treasury reserve asset.
  • The decline stands out for its persistence, as past selloffs were often followed by sharp rebounds.
  • The stock sharply underperformed both bitcoin and the Nasdaq 100 despite the firm's continued BTC purchases.