Large ETH transfers by prominent figures like Wilcke can influence market sentiment, potentially impacting Ethereum's price volatility.

The post Ethereum co-founder Jeffrey Wilcke sends $157M in ETH to Kraken after months of wallet silence appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Excluding stablecoins from corporate crypto investments in South Korea may limit market growth and innovation, affecting global crypto dynamics.

The post South Korea moves to exclude USDT, USDC from corporate crypto investment rules appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Escalating tensions and military actions risk destabilizing the Middle East, impacting global oil markets and regional power dynamics.

The post Trump declares Iran “surrendered” to Middle East neighbors, threatens further strikes appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Kalshi and Polymarket discuss new funding rounds that could value each prediction market platform near $20 billion.

The post Kalshi and Polymarket weigh funding rounds at $20B valuations appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Susquehanna backed crypto trading firm BlockFills seeks restructuring after losses, frozen withdrawals, and a lawsuit from a customer.

The post Crypto trading firm BlockFills explores restructuring amid losses and customer lawsuit appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Utexo Raises $7.5M to Launch Bitcoin-Native USDT Settlement Infrastructure

Utexo, a startup building Bitcoin-native stablecoin settlement infrastructure, announced a $7.5 million seed round co-led by Tether, Big Brain Holdings, and Portal Ventures. 

The round also included participation from Franklin Templeton, Maven11 Capital, Fulgur Ventures, Alchemy VC, Ethereal Ventures, Auros Ventures, Arcanum Capital, Paper Ventures, Axia8, FlowTraders, Plan B, Gate Ventures, Sats Ventures, and strategic angels including operators from Ledger, Hyperion, BTC Turk, Echo, Legion, and SOLV.

The company was founded to address a longstanding gap in the cryptocurrency ecosystem: enabling USDT to settle natively on Bitcoin with robust, production-ready payment rails. Tether’s 

CEO, Paolo Ardoino, said that Bitcoin has been central to the stablecoin issuer’s long-term vision for USDT. “Market cycles come and go, but the need for open and resilient settlement infrastructure remains constant,” Ardoino said. 

He added that Utexo provides a layer that makes Bitcoin-native USDT settlement viable at scale, strengthening Bitcoin’s role as a global settlement rail for real-world dollar transactions.

Historically, the Lightning Network and RGB protocols have offered technical capabilities for Bitcoin-based payments, but their complexity limited adoption in production environments. Utexo abstracts these complexities behind a single API layer, allowing payment operators to route USDT settlement over Bitcoin-native rails without modifying custody, compliance workflows, or user experiences.

Chris Hutchinson, co-founder of Utexo, explained the system’s value proposition: “We built Utexo so that USDT could move on Bitcoin the way money is supposed to move: instantly, privately, with no surprises on costs. Our partners integrate our API once and can route USDT on the most resilient open network ever built, with full control over cost structure.” 

Viktor Ihnatiuk, co-founder, added that the infrastructure allows wallets to offer free USDT transactions while boosting adoption of Bitcoin-native stablecoins.

The infrastructure supports atomic settlement, privacy-preserving execution, and predictable fees for every transaction, independent of network congestion. 

Settlement occurs in USDT and is anchored to Bitcoin’s security model, completing in under one second. Utexo encrypts all on-chain transactions, preventing disclosure of counterparties and wallet addresses, distinguishing it from public transaction graphs on other networks.

Tether and Bitcoin 

By providing a reliable, predictable settlement layer, the company enables Bitcoin to serve as a viable rail for dollar-denominated payments, advancing Tether’s vision of native USDT on Bitcoin.

In February, Tether open-sourced MiningOS (MOS), a modular operating system for managing and automating bitcoin mining operations, unveiled at the 2026 Plan ₿ Forum in San Salvador. 

The system provides unified control over hardware, energy, and site infrastructure using a peer-to-peer architecture, reducing reliance on proprietary or centralized software.

Targeted at exchanges, wallets, payment service providers, high-frequency trading firms, and platforms handling large volumes of USDT, Utexo focuses on routing existing stablecoin flows over Bitcoin rather than launching speculative L2 solutions. 

This post Utexo Raises $7.5M to Launch Bitcoin-Native USDT Settlement Infrastructure first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Kazakhstan’s Central Bank to Channel $350 Million of Reserves into Crypto and Bitcoin  Investments

The National Bank of Kazakhstan plans to allocate up to $350 million from the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves toward investments tied to digital assets, marking one of the most significant steps by a central bank to gain exposure to the crypto sector.

Governor Timur Suleimenov said the initiative will focus on companies and financial instruments connected to cryptocurrency markets rather than direct purchases of assets like Bitcoin. The investments are expected to include shares of technology firms involved in digital asset infrastructure as well as index funds whose performance tracks crypto-related markets.

The allocation represents a small portion of Kazakhstan’s overall reserves. 

As of February, the country held roughly $69.4 billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves, according to data from the central bank.

Deputy chair Aliya Moldabekova said the investment program is scheduled to begin in April and May as the bank finalizes a list of eligible companies and financial instruments.

“We are not talking about any large investment in cryptocurrencies,” Moldabekova said, noting that officials are concentrating on firms involved in digital asset infrastructure and related technologies.

Kazakhstan already plays a prominent role in the global crypto ecosystem. Following China’s sweeping ban on crypto mining in 2021, many mining operations relocated to the Central Asian country due to its energy resources and permissive regulatory environment. 

As a result, Kazakhstan emerged as one of the world’s leading centers for industrial-scale bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin-fiat facing services

Financial institutions in Kazakhstan are also experimenting with consumer-facing crypto services. Suleimenov said two banks have already launched crypto-fiat payment cards that allow users to transact between traditional currencies and digital assets. Two additional banks are preparing to introduce similar products.

These initiatives are currently operating in a regulatory sandbox while authorities finalize broader legislation governing digital financial assets.

The central bank is also pushing to create a licensing framework for cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country. Under the proposal, exchanges would be required to comply with anti-money laundering rules, tax regulations and other financial oversight measures.

Officials say the broader regulatory push aims to integrate digital asset services into Kazakhstan’s financial system while maintaining oversight of the sector.

Suleimenov has framed the effort as part of a broader transformation of financial markets driven by technology. According to the governor, innovations such as tokenized assets, digital bonds and crypto-linked payment rails are creating entirely new categories of financial instruments.

“In essence, a completely new sector of the financial market is emerging,” he said.

The central bank believes digital financial assets could expand access to funding for businesses and investors. For example, real estate developers could tokenize property holdings and sell fractional ownership through digital tokens, offering an alternative to traditional bank financing.

This post Kazakhstan’s Central Bank to Channel $350 Million of Reserves into Crypto and Bitcoin  Investments first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Russia Considers Simplified Licensing Path for Bank-Run Crypto Exchanges

Russia’s central bank is weighing a plan that would allow banks and brokerage firms to operate cryptocurrency exchanges through a simplified licensing pathway tied to their existing financial permits, according to remarks from Governor Elvira Nabiullina.

Under the proposal, financial institutions could obtain authorization to run crypto trading platforms through a “notification process,” rather than applying for a new standalone license. 

The approach would allow firms that already hold banking or brokerage licenses to expand into digital asset services using their current regulatory status.

Back in January, Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, made comments that Russia was preparing to introduce its first comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, with lawmakers aiming to finalize the draft for a parliamentary vote by the end of June.

Nabiullina presented the idea during a meeting between the central bank and Russian lending institutions, according to reports from the Interfax news agency.

The governor framed the proposal as an effort to integrate cryptocurrency activity into Russia’s existing financial infrastructure. 

She argued that banks already maintain compliance systems designed to meet anti–money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism requirements, which could provide a foundation for supervising digital asset markets.

“We have proposed allowing banks and brokers to obtain crypto exchange licenses through a notification process and to act as intermediaries based on their current banking licenses,” Nabiullina said, adding that the sector’s existing compliance frameworks could help protect customers entering the crypto market.

The central bank also outlined limits designed to manage financial risk during the early stages of integration. 

Under the proposal, banks’ exposure to cryptocurrency activities would be capped at 1% of their capital.

Nabiullina said regulators plan to monitor how institutions operate within that threshold before considering any expansion.

“Let’s start by seeing how banks operate within the one percent cap, and then see whether we need to move forward,” she said.

The licensing proposal forms part of a broader effort by the Central Bank of Russia and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation to establish a clearer legal framework for digital assets in the country.

In late 2025, the central bank submitted a regulatory concept to the Russian government that would formally recognize cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as currency assets that can be bought and sold through regulated intermediaries. The framework would allow trading through exchanges, brokers and trustees operating under existing financial licenses.

Crypto for domestic payments 

At the same time, the proposal maintains a strict ban on the use of cryptocurrencies for domestic payments, a position the central bank has held for years. Digital assets would function as investment instruments rather than alternatives to the national currency.

Draft legislation reflecting the concept is expected to reach the State Duma during the spring legislative session. Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov has indicated that lawmakers could review the bill as early as March, with the main regulatory framework scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2026.

The proposed rules would also introduce a tiered system governing who can access crypto markets.

Qualified investors would face no limits on purchases. Non-qualified investors would be restricted to buying up to 300,000 rubles, or roughly $3,800, in crypto assets each year through a single intermediary.

Russia updated the definition of “qualified investor” last year. Individuals may now qualify based on several criteria, including a master’s degree in finance, annual income of at least 20 million rubles, or meeting property ownership thresholds set by regulators.

Those wealth requirements are scheduled to rise in 2026, when the property threshold increases from 12 million rubles to 24 million rubles.

This post Russia Considers Simplified Licensing Path for Bank-Run Crypto Exchanges first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strike Secures New York BitLicense, Opening Bitcoin Financial Services to State Residents

Strike, a Bitcoin financial services firm founded by Jack Mallers, has received both a BitLicense and a money transmitter license from the New York State Department of Financial Services, allowing the company to operate in one of the most tightly regulated digital asset markets in the United States.

The approval allows Strike to offer its Bitcoin brokerage, payments, and custody services to individuals and businesses across New York.

The state’s regulatory framework requires firms to meet standards for capital reserves, cybersecurity, and operational transparency.

New York’s BitLicense regime has long served as a gatekeeper for digital asset companies seeking access to the state’s financial markets. Several crypto firms have opted not to pursue the license because of the compliance requirements and ongoing regulatory oversight.

Mallers described the license as a major step in the company’s effort to build a Bitcoin-focused financial platform.

“Receiving our BitLicense is a defining milestone for Strike,” Mallers said in a statement. “Strike is building the leading Bitcoin financial institution. With our BitLicense, we can now bring that mission to New York, the global center of finance.”

Strike’s bitcoin services

With the approval, New York users will gain access to Strike’s suite of Bitcoin services. The platform allows customers to buy and sell bitcoin through linked bank accounts, debit cards, or wire transfers. 

Users can also directly deposit their paychecks and convert a portion, or all, of their wages into bitcoin.

The platform includes automated trading tools such as recurring purchases and price-triggered orders. Recurring buys allow customers to schedule bitcoin purchases on a set interval, while target orders execute trades when bitcoin reaches a specific price.

Strike also allows users to pay bills from a bitcoin balance, including utility payments, credit card balances, and mortgage bills. The feature reflects the company’s effort to position bitcoin as a tool for daily financial activity rather than only as an investment asset.

According to the company, customer bitcoin and cash balances are held one-to-one and are not lent or used for company operations. Strike said users can withdraw bitcoin to personal wallets at no cost, with the firm covering on-chain transaction fees.

The license also places Strike under the supervision of the New York State Department of Financial Services, which requires periodic audits, cybersecurity reviews, and capital reserve compliance.

Strike’s expansion into New York comes as the company outlines broader growth plans for its platform. In late 2025, Mallers said the firm intends to add bitcoin-backed lending, which would allow customers to borrow fiat currency while holding their bitcoin.

This post Strike Secures New York BitLicense, Opening Bitcoin Financial Services to State Residents first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

The Core Issue: Consensus Cleanup

Protocol developers often come across as more pessimistic about Bitcoin’s future than most Bitcoiners. Daily exposure to Bitcoin’s imperfections certainly shapes a sober perspective, and it’s important to reflect on what Bitcoin has achieved. Anyone in the world, no matter their race, age, gender, nationality, or any other arbitrary criterion, is able to store and transfer value on a neutral monetary network more robust now than ever. That said, Bitcoin does have issues that many Bitcoiners are not aware of, but could threaten its long-term prospects if not addressed properly. The vulnerabilities fixed by the Consensus Cleanup are one such example.

The Consensus Cleanup (BIP 54¹) is a soft fork proposal aimed at patching multiple long-standing vulnerabilities within the Bitcoin consensus protocol. As a soft fork proposal, it is separate in nature to most other Bitcoin Core efforts featured in this edition. Although the proposal has historically been championed by individuals associated with the Bitcoin Core project, it really belongs to the broader category of Bitcoin protocol development.

We will walk through each of the proposal’s four items, describing the impact of the issue addressed and the remediation applied. We’ll discuss how the proposed mitigations evolved to address feedback as well as newfound vulnerabilities. We’ll finish with a brief overview of the current status of the soft fork proposal.

A vulnerability in Bitcoin’s Proof of Work

The Bitcoin network adjusts mining difficulty to maintain an average block rate of one per 10 minutes. An “off by one” bug (a common programming mistake) in its implementation opens up an attack called the Timewarp attack, whereby a majority of miners can artificially speed up the rate of block production by manipulating the difficulty downward.

This attack fortunately requires a 51%+ threshold of miners, but artificially speeding up the block rate is a critical issue. It means that full nodes are not in control of resource usage anymore, and that an attacker can considerably accelerate the bitcoin subsidy emission schedule.

Even though it requires a “51% miner”, it is a significant departure from the standard Bitcoin threat model. A 51% attack traditionally enables a miner to prevent the confirmation of a transaction for as long as they maintain their advantage. But the presence of this bug grants them the power to cripple the network within just 38 days by rapidly reducing the network difficulty.

Instead of taking down the network, it is more probable that an attacker would exploit this bug to a smaller extent. Current miners could coordinate to quadruple the block rate (to 2.5 minute blocks) while keeping the Bitcoin network in a seemingly functioning state, effectively quadrupling the available block space and stealing block subsidies from future miners. Short-sighted users may be incentivized to support this attack, as more available block space would mean -ceteris paribus- lower fees for onchain transactions. This would of course come at the expense of full-node runners and undermine the network’s long term stability.

The Timewarp attack exploits the fact that difficulty adjustment periods do not overlap, allowing block timestamps to be set so that a new period appears to start before the previous one has finished. Because making them overlap would be a hard fork, the next best mitigation is to link the timestamps of blocks at the boundaries of difficulty adjustment periods. The BIP 54 specifications mandate that the first block of a period cannot have a timestamp earlier than the previous period’s last block by more than two hours.

In addition, the BIP 54 specifications mandate that a difficulty adjustment period must always take a positive amount of time. That is, for a given difficulty adjustment period, the last block may never have a timestamp earlier than the first block’s. Surprised this isn’t already the case? We were surprised it was at all necessary. Turns out this is a simple fix for a clever attack, related to Timewarp, that pseudonymous developer Zawy and Mark “Murch” Erhardt came up with when reviewing the Consensus Cleanup proposal.

Blocks that take hours to validate

Any miner can exploit certain expensive validation operations to create blocks that take a long time to verify. Whereas a normal Bitcoin block takes in the order of a hundred milliseconds to validate, validation times for these “attack blocks” range from more than ten minutes on a high-end computer to up to ten hours on a Raspberry Pi (a popular full-node hardware choice).

An externally-motivated attacker may leverage this to disrupt the entire network, while in a more economically rational variant of the attack, a miner can delay its competition just long enough to increase its profits without creating widespread network disruption.

Historical attempts to mitigate this issue have been tumultuous, because it requires imposing restrictions on Bitcoin’s scripting capabilities. Such restrictions have the potential of being confiscatory, which is paramount to avoid in any serious soft fork design.

Matt Corallo’s original 2019 Great Consensus Cleanup proposed to solve these long block validation times by invalidating a couple of obscure operations in non-Segwit (“legacy”) Script. Some raised concerns that although transactions using those operations had not been relayed nor mined by default by Bitcoin Core for years, someone, somewhere, may still be depending on it unbeknownst to everyone. Of course, this has to be weighed against the practical risk to all Bitcoin users of a miner exploiting this issue.

Even though the confiscation concern is fairly theoretical, there is a philosophical point on how to perform Bitcoin protocol development in trying to design an appropriate mitigation for the vulnerability with the smallest confiscatory surface possible. My later iteration of the Consensus Cleanup proposal addressed this concern by introducing a limit which pinpoints exactly the harmful behaviour, without invalidating any specific Bitcoin Script operation.

Forged proofs of payment

Bitcoin block headers contain a Merkle root that commits to all transactions in the block. This makes it possible to give a succinct proof that a given transaction is part of a chain with a certain amount of Proof of Work. This is commonly referred to as an “SPV proof”.

Due to a weakness in the design of the Merkle tree, including a specifically-crafted 64-byte transaction in a block allows an attacker to forge such a proof for an arbitrary fake (non-existent) transaction. This may be used to trick SPV verifiers, commonly used to validate incoming payments or deposits into a side-system. Mitigations exist that enable verifiers to reject such invalid proofs; however, these are often overlooked—even by cryptography experts—and can be cumbersome in certain contexts.

The Consensus Cleanup addresses this issue by invalidating transactions whose serialized size is exactly 64 bytes. Such transactions cannot be secure in the first place (they can only ever burn funds or leave them for anyone to spend), and have not been relayed or mined by default by Bitcoin Core since 2019. Alternative approaches were discussed, such as a round-about way of improving the existing mitigation^a, but the authors chose to fix the root cause of the issue, eliminating both the need for implementers to apply the mitigation and the need for them to even know about the vulnerability in the first place.

^a: committing to the Merkle tree depth in part of the block header’s version field

UTXO Doppelgängers: duplicate transactions

“Mirco… Mezzo… Macroflation—Overheated Economy” is the title of a blog post⁴ Russell O’Connor published in February 2012, in which he describes how Bitcoin transactions can be duplicated. This was a critical flaw in Bitcoin, which broke the fundamental assumption that transaction identifiers (hashes) are unique. This is because miners’ coinbase transactions have a single blank input, meaning that any coinbase transaction with the same outputs would have an identical transaction identifier. 

This was fixed by Bitcoin Core (then still called “Bitcoin”) developers with BIP 30², which required full nodes to perform additional validation when receiving a block. That extra validation was not strictly necessary to solve the issue, and was side-stepped with BIP 34³ the same year. Unfortunately, the fix introduced in BIP 34 is imperfect and the BIP 30 extra validation will once again be required in 20 years. Beyond not being strictly necessary, this validation cannot be performed by alternative Bitcoin client designs such as Utreexo and would effectively prevent them from fully validating the block chain.

The Consensus Cleanup introduces a more robust, future-proof fix for the issue. All Bitcoin transactions, including the coinbase transactions, contain a field to “time lock” the transaction. The value of the field represents the last block height at which a transaction is invalid. The BIP 54 specifications require that all coinbase transactions set this field to the height of their block (minus 1).

Combined with a clever suggestion from Anthony Towns to make sure the timelock validation always occurs, this guarantees that no coinbase transaction with the same timelock value may have been included in a previous block. This in turn guarantees that no coinbase transaction may have the same unique identifier (hash) as any past one, without requiring BIP 30 validation.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

The vulnerabilities addressed by the Consensus Cleanup (BIP 54) are not an existential threat to Bitcoin at the moment. While some have the potential to cripple the network, they are unlikely to be exploited for now. That said, this might change and it is paramount that we proactively mitigate long-term risks to the Bitcoin network, even if it means having to bear the short term burden of coordinating a soft fork.

The work on the Consensus Cleanup started with Matt Corallo’s original proposal in 2019. It came together 6 years later with my publication of BIP 54 and an implementation of the soft fork in Bitcoin Inquisition, a testbed for Bitcoin consensus changes. Throughout this time the proposal received considerable feedback, various alternatives were considered and mitigations for additional weaknesses were incorporated. I believe it is now ready to be shared with Bitcoin users for consideration.

The Consensus Cleanup is a soft fork. Bitcoin protocol developers choose which improvements to prioritize and make available to the public. But the ultimate decision to adopt a change to Bitcoin’s consensus rules rests with the users. The choice is yours.

Don’t miss your chance to own The Core Issue — featuring articles written by many Core Developers explaining the projects they work on themselves!

This piece is the Letter from the Editor featured in the latest Print edition of Bitcoin Magazine, The Core Issue. We’re sharing it here as an early look at the ideas explored throughout the full issue.

[1] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0054.md 

[2] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0030.mediawiki 

[3] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0034.mediawiki 

[4] https://r6.ca/blog/20120206T005236Z.html 

This post The Core Issue: Consensus Cleanup first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Antoine Poinsot.

Riot case study shows US Bitcoin miners can clear power costs long before they clear full profit

Bitcoin mining costs are often reduced to a single number: the “cost to mine one BTC.” In reality, that figure depends on what layer of the business you measure.

Electricity determines whether machines should run today, operating expenses determine whether a mining fleet supports the broader company, and accounting costs determine whether the business ultimately reports profit.

To examine those layers more clearly, CryptoSlate built a Bitcoin Mining Cost Model that calculates mining economics from first principles using network difficulty, block reward, transaction fees, ASIC efficiency, and electricity price.

The model then applies company-specific cost inputs using Riot Platforms’ public filings to illustrate how the economics stack up in practice.

Under current network conditions, the model shows that a miner can cover power costs but still fails to cover broader operating and accounting expenses.

Riot’s Texas operations reveal how far apart electricity break-even, operating break-even, and full accounting profitability can remain even after Bitcoin’s price recovery.

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Mar 6, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Riot’s mining economics reveal three break-even layers

At the current Bitcoin price of $67,200, Riot clears one break-even layer and misses the next two.

We modeled the data based on current network conditions, including Bitcoin difficulty of 145,042,165,424,850, a 3.125 BTC block reward, BTC per block, modern ASIC efficiency in the ~17–19 J/TH range, and Texas industrial electricity at roughly $0.0667 per kWh. We ignored block fees given that current averages sit around 0.02 BTC per block.

That setup produces a network total of 622.95 sextillion hashes per block (the total work the network must do, on average, to mine one block), 199.34 sextillion hashes per BTC (how fast a miner or the whole network does that work), and 969.04 megawatt-hours of energy per BTC.

These assumptions yield an electricity cost of $64,635 to mine 1 BTC at its current price, resulting in a power margin of $2,565 per BTC.

When we add Riot’s filing-based non-power operating cost layer of about $9,809 per BTC, the operating margin turns negative $7,243, and the total cost per BTC jumps accordingly. Adding the non-cash depreciation layer of about $39,687 per BTC pushes accounting profit to negative $46,930.

This clearly shows that, for large US miners, “cost to mine one Bitcoin” does not have a single figure.

1. One layer captures short-run electricity cost and helps decide whether machines are worth running.
2. A second layer adds broader operating costs and shows whether self-mining covers the rest of the business.
3. A third layer adds depreciation and shows whether the reported profit keeps pace with the cash margin.

The model places those layers side by side and shows how far apart they remain after the market’s recovery.

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Mar 4, 2026 · Gino Matos

The break-even ladder defines the operating picture

The model produces a break-even ladder that says more than any single all-in mining-cost figure. Electricity-only break-even sits at $64,635 per BTC.

Add Riot’s filing-based non-power operating cost layer, and break-even rises to about $74,444.

Add the accounting depreciation layer and full accounting break-even rises again to $114,130.

Therefore, miners can report positive power economics while still posting weak operating or accounting results.

I modeled four price scenarios to show how that ladder works in practice.

In my $49,000 bear case, Riot is negative on every measure. Power margin per BTC is negative $15,635, operating margin is negative $25,443, and accounting profit is negative $65,130.

In the $67,200 current-price case, Riot moves just above electricity break-even, but only barely. The power margin turns positive, yet the operating and accounting views stay negative.

In the $80,000 recovery case, Riot clears the operating threshold, with an operating margin of $5,557 per BTC, while the accounting view still shows a loss of $34,130.

It requires retaking the all-time high of $126,000 before all three views turn positive, with an accounting profit of $11,870 per BTC.

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Feb 6, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

The distinction is substantive. Riot’s depreciation layer is explicitly framed as non-cash and based on a three-year useful life. It is an accounting allocation rather than a short-term avoidable cash outflow.

It still belongs in the picture because public miners do not live on power margin alone. They report income statements. They replace machines. They absorb corporate costs.

So the useful question is which profitability line investors, analysts, and management teams are actually using and when to say a miner is profitable.

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Mar 1, 2026 · Andjela Radmilac

Riot’s next-halving projection extends the price test

We then ran a cost projection until the next halving in 2028.

Using Riot's latest publicly available filings, we assume 38.5 exahash per second, ramping to 45 EH/s by March 31, 2026, and then holding that level flat through to the next halving window.

We are not attempting to rebuild the entire market. The model keeps current per-BTC economics constant and scales them through Riot’s reported and planned self-mining hash-rate path.

This is a scenario exercise focused on operating leverage, and the price sensitivity is hard to miss.

Across all four scenarios, the projected cumulative BTC mined is 15 thousand. What changes is the profit stack.

At $49,000 Bitcoin, Riot’s cumulative power margin is negative $239,436,036, cumulative operating margin is negative $389,648,124, and cumulative accounting profit is negative $997,428,094.

At $67,200, the cumulative power margin turns positive at $39,286,667, but the cumulative operating margin stays negative at $110,925,420, and the cumulative accounting profit remains negative at $718,705,391.

At $80,000, Riot turns cumulatively positive on operating margin at $85,099,338, while cumulative accounting profit is still negative at $522,680,632.

Only in the $126,000 scenario do all three lines move above zero, with cumulative accounting profit of $181,783,343.

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A miner can be power-positive for a long stretch and still fail to cover broader operating costs. It can also turn operating-positive and still remain far from accounting profit. Riot’s case study shows that the gap between those states is wide.

In the model, the difference between power break-even and full accounting break-even is roughly $49,495 per BTC. That spread helps explain why miners can look healthy on fleet dispatch and strained on reported earnings at the same time.

Our cumulative chart does not call future difficulty, fees, outages, curtailment revenue, financing, or new capex. It assumes today’s per-BTC economics persist and scales them only according to Riot’s planned hash-rate path.

That limitation still leaves a clear signal. Holding the rest of the economics flat shows how much of the next-halving debate still hinges on Bitcoin's price.

In Riot’s case, the model does not reach cumulative accounting profitability until the $126,000 scenario. However, in absolute terms, the level is $114,200.

Riot’s case gives a read-through for the wider US mining trade

The broader lesson for US miners is straightforward. Price alone does not settle the operating picture. Fleet efficiency and power price still decide the first cut.

In terms of cost sensitivity, we compare three ASIC presets: the Bitmain S21 at 17.5 J/TH, the WhatsMiner M60S at 18.5 J/TH, and the Antminer S19 Pro at 29.5 J/TH, using a Texas industrial power reference rate.

Across that range, the S19 Pro stays above the newer machines on cost per BTC. The two newer models run close to one another, while the less efficient fleet carries a visibly higher cost line throughout the chart.

That point carries beyond Riot. Riot’s filing-based non-power cost layer and depreciation assumptions are company-specific. Another miner may have a different overhead base, a different useful-life assumption, a different curtailment profile, or a different realized power mix. But we feel the three-layer structure still travels well.

First comes power cost. Then operating cost. Then accounting cost.

The companies that survive weak price periods tend to clear the first layer comfortably. The companies that compound value through the cycle need to clear all three over time.

At the current price of around $67,000, the model does not show a company in distress at the machine level. The power margin is positive. Machines still earn more than they spend on electricity.

At the same time, it does not show a miner that has solved the full income statement. The operating line stays red. The accounting line stays deeper in the red. For a public miner, that split shapes treasury decisions, fleet replacement timing, and market expectations for earnings.

We can therefore extrapolate that Bitcoin miners can cross into positive power margin well below six figures, cross into positive operating margin in the recovery case, and still miss cumulative accounting profitability until we retest the all-time high above $114,000

The post New model proves miners need Bitcoin above $74k to break even on power – but other costs push it over 6 figures appeared first on CryptoSlate.

When seabed disturbances off Côte d'Ivoire severed seven submarine cables in March 2024, the regional internet impact earned an IODA severity score above 11,000.

For Bitcoin, the global effect was negligible. The affected region hosted roughly five nodes, about 0.03% of the network, and the impact fell within normal fluctuations at -2.5%.

No price movement followed. No consensus disruption materialized.

A new Cambridge study, covering 11 years of Bitcoin network data and 68 verified cable fault events, finds that submarine cable failures have historically caused minimal network disruption.

Coordinated pressure on a handful of hosting networks, by contrast, could disrupt visible nodes an order of magnitude more effectively than random infrastructure failures.

The twist: China's mining crackdown and the adoption of global censorship-resistant infrastructure may have inadvertently pushed Bitcoin toward a more robust topology.

Tor, long understood as a privacy tool, now functions as a structural resilience layer. And most Bitcoin nodes run on it.

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Nov 6, 2025 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

The empirical record contradicts the fear

Researchers Wenbin Wu and Alexander Neumueller from Cambridge assembled a dataset spanning 2014 through 2025: eight million Bitcoin node observations, 658 submarine cables, and 385 cable fault events cross-referenced with outage signatures.

Of those 385 reports, 68 matched verifiable disruptions, with 87% of verified cable events causing less than 5% node change. Mean impact was -1.5%, median -0.4%.

The correlation between node disruption and Bitcoin price was effectively zero (r = -0.02). Cable faults that dominate regional headlines routinely fail to register in Bitcoin's distributed network.

The study models Bitcoin as a multiplex network: physical connectivity through 354 submarine cable edges connecting 225 countries, routing infrastructure through autonomous systems, and the Bitcoin peer-to-peer overlay.

Under random cable removal, the critical failure threshold, at which more than 10% of nodes disconnect, lies between 0.72 and 0.92. Most inter-country cables must fail before Bitcoin experiences meaningful fragmentation.

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Where the real vulnerability sits

Targeted attacks operate differently. Random cable removal requires removing 72% to 92% of cables to hit the 10% node disconnection threshold. High-betweenness cable targeting drops to 20%.

The most effective strategy, targeting top autonomous systems by node count, reaches the threshold at just 5% of routing capacity removed.

The authors frame this ASN-targeted scenario as “hosting provider shutdowns or coordinated regulatory action, not physical cable cuts.” The model identifies the top networks: Hetzner, OVHcloud, Comcast, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud.

A March 2026 Bitnodes snapshot confirms the pattern: among 23,150 reachable nodes, Hetzner hosts 869, Comcast and OVH each host 348, Amazon 336, and Google 313.

This is not a “five providers can kill Bitcoin” claim.

Even a complete clearnet removal would leave most nodes operational because Tor hosts the bulk of the network. However, it identifies where coordinated action could create connectivity shocks and propagation disruptions that random cable failures have not produced.

Recent cloud disruptions illustrate the risk category. Amazon attributed a March 2026 outage to software deployment failure. Separate reporting described AWS Middle East disruptions after attacks on data centers.

These did not affect Bitcoin meaningfully, but they demonstrate that correlated hosting failures are real rather than theoretical.

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Tor as structural resilience

Bitcoin's network composition changed dramatically.

Tor adoption grew from near zero in 2014 to 2,478 nodes by 2021 (23%), then to 7,617 by 2022 (52%). March 2026 shows 14,602 Tor nodes out of 23,150 reachable nodes, equivalent to 63%.
The surge coincides with censorship events: Iran's 2019 shutdown, Myanmar's 2021 coup, and China's 2021 mining ban.

Node operators shifted toward censorship-resistant infrastructure without coordination, suggesting adaptive self-organization.

Tor introduces a challenge: most Bitcoin nodes now have unobservable locations.

The authors address this by building a four-layer model incorporating Tor relay infrastructure as a distinct network layer. Tor relays are physical servers with known locations.

Using consensus weight data from 9,793 relays, the authors model how cable failures that disconnect countries also take relays offline.

The finding reverses expectations. The four-layer model consistently produces higher critical failure thresholds than clearnet-only, with increases from 0.02 to 0.10.

Most of the Tor relay consensus weight is concentrated in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, countries with extensive cable connectivity. Cable failures that disconnect peripheral countries do not degrade relay capacity in these well-connected nations.

An adversary must remove substantially more infrastructure to disrupt both clearnet routing and Tor circuits simultaneously.

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Jul 19, 2020 · Cole Petersen

The China effect

Bitcoin's resilience hit its lowest point in 2021 at 0.72, coinciding with peak mining concentration.

Cambridge data showed that 74% of the hashrate was in East Asia in 2019. Node geographic concentration reduced clearnet resilience by 22% from peak to trough during 2018 to 2021.

The 2022 rebound was sharp. The threshold jumped to 0.88 after China's mining ban as infrastructure dispersed. Tor adoption accelerated simultaneously.

While the authors avoid single-cause claims, regulatory pressure forced geographic redistribution and drove the adoption of censorship-resistant infrastructure, both of which increased robustness.

Part of the apparent concentration is an artifact of measurement. As Tor adoption grew, the clearnet sample became concentrated in fewer locations. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index rose from 166 to 4,163, but Hetzner's actual share decreased from 10% to 3.6%.

The consolidation reflects changing sample composition, not genuine centralization.

Clouds are the real risk

Submarine cable security concerns will escalate. Baltic investigations, the European Commission's security toolbox, and reporting on Russian infrastructure all point toward persistent geopolitical anxiety.

For Bitcoin, historical data suggest most cable events are noise.

The actionable infrastructure question is whether policy coordination, cloud outages, or hosting restrictions can produce connectivity shocks at the autonomous system layer.

The ASN-targeted scenario operates at 5% of routing capacity, the threshold for noticeable disruption to reachable clearnet nodes, not consensus failure.

Tor's majority share provides a floor under extreme scenarios. Protocol-level mechanisms the study excludes, such as block relay networks, compact block relay, and Blockstream Satellite, add resilience layers that the model does not capture, making estimates conservative.

Bitcoin is not fragile in the way critics imagine, but it is not detached from infrastructure either.

The network has shown graceful degradation under stress rather than catastrophic collapse. Censorship pressure pushed the adoption of infrastructure that strengthened resilience against coordination risks.

The threat model featuring cable-cutting submarines misses the chokepoint closer to home: a handful of networks where coordinated action could create temporary disruption without dramatic seabed operations or acts of war.

The post Seven internet cables were cut at once — Bitcoin barely noticed, but researchers found a real chokepoint appeared first on CryptoSlate.

On Mar. 5, Justin Sun reached a $10 million settlement with the SEC to resolve a civil fraud case that alleged he generated $31 million through wash-trading-style transactions and undisclosed celebrity promotions.

The settlement, which requires court approval and includes no admission of wrongdoing, moves the case toward dismissal.

The same day, US banking regulators announced that banks won't face additional capital charges for tokenized securities compared to traditional ones. This technology-neutral framing represents another brick removed from crypto's regulatory wall.

Sun's settlement lands a year into the President Donald Trump administration's regulatory retrenchment.

In May 2025, the SEC dismissed its civil lawsuit against Binance with prejudice. In October 2025, Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who had pleaded guilty in November 2023 to anti-money-laundering and unlicensed money-transmission violations, paid billions in fines, and served four months.

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A House Financial Services Democrats letter from January 2026 alleges the SEC has dismissed or closed at least a dozen crypto-related cases since January 2025.

The beneficiary isn't only the broader US crypto market. Trump's own crypto network has positioned itself to capture outsized private gains from the distribution channels and business relationships these entrepreneurs control.

The token economics of presidential proximity

Within a year, two globally recognizable crypto entrepreneurs saw major US legal constraints ease.

Sun's settlement clears a civil fraud case but falls short of vindication. Binance's civil SEC dismissal came with prejudice. CZ's pardon was clemency, not a factual reversal of his guilty plea.

Over the same period, Trump's family-linked crypto ventures became direct beneficiaries of the renewed distribution of crypto.

Reuters calculated that the Trump Organization pulled in $802 million from crypto in the first half of 2025 alone, dwarfing other business lines, with World Liberty Financial's token economics accounting for the largest share.

World Liberty's Gold Paper allocates 75% of revenue from token sales to a Trump family entity after operating expenses are deducted. The stablecoin component launched in March 2025, USD1, adds another revenue stream through collateralized reserve yield, which Reuters estimated could generate tens of millions annually at scale.

Sun became one of the most prominent buyers of the World Liberty token, investing at least $75 million into the WLFI token presale and joining as an adviser.

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He also participated in the TRUMP memecoin ecosystem, with reporting linking a “SUN” wallet and HTX-connected activity to substantial holdings, though attribution remains contested.

Binance's intersection with Trump's crypto stack runs through a different channel: Abu Dhabi-backed MGX's $2 billion investment into Binance in March 2025, crypto's first institutional deal of that scale.

World Liberty co-founders confirmed that USD1 was used in that MGX-Binance transaction.

Reports found roughly $2 billion in USD1 sitting in a single wallet at a time when USD1 had only $2.1 billion in total circulation, illustrating how a single pipeline dominated early supply.

By February 2026, USD1 had grown to the sixth-largest stablecoin by market cap, according to Artemis, with approximately $4.4 billion in circulation.

When USD1 briefly dipped to around $0.994 on Feb. 23 after what World Liberty called a “coordinated attack” on X accounts, the peg recovered quickly.

The concentration of early USD1 supply around the MGX-Binance corridor and subsequent growth created a distribution advantage that World Liberty's revenue structure monetizes directly.

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The policy-to-profit feedback loop

The business design means enforcement retreats and incremental agency guidance reduce friction.

Reduced friction increases activity, and activity monetizes Trump-linked token and stablecoin economics.

Trump didn't have to orchestrate regulatory outcomes to be their primary private beneficiary. The overlap is mechanical: as legal overhang lifts from actors who control distribution channels, like Binance's exchange listings or Sun's investment capacity, the ventures that capture renewed participation benefit.

World Liberty's token and stablecoin structure sit at precisely those junctures.

Stablecoins have moved beyond niche crypto infrastructure to become macro-relevant collateral.
A Bank for International Settlements working paper from February 2026 found that a two-standard-deviation inflow into dollar stablecoins lowered three-month Treasury bill yields by roughly 2.5 to 3.5 basis points, with effects rising to 5 to 8 basis points during bill-scarcity periods.

Stablecoin growth now generates measurable demand for safe assets, inserting these instruments into rate and Treasury plumbing.

A European Central Bank working paper documented a “deposit-substitution mechanism” where stablecoin adoption reduces retail deposits and constrains bank intermediation.

Euro-area evidence that provides a rigorous frame for why US banks fight yield-bearing stablecoin features.

This maps directly onto current US legislative gridlock. The Clarity Act hit a fresh impasse largely because banks oppose stablecoin yield features that could accelerate deposit flight and because ethics and AML provisions touching Trump-linked ventures remain contested.

The total stablecoin market cap sits at around $313 billion, with 3.7% 30-day growth, according to DeFiLlama. Even without new legislation, the US is functionally easing the cost of operating crypto businesses, while Trump's stack is positioned as a tollbooth on distribution growth.

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Second-order winners and structural constraints

The first-order private beneficiary is Trump's crypto network. The second-order public beneficiary is the US crypto market as a whole, which gains from lower enforcement-risk premiums, faster product rollouts, and more US-facing listings.

That distinction matters because it separates correlation from causation without ignoring the observable flow of benefits. A settlement and a dismissal are not findings of innocence. A pardon is clemency, not exoneration.

Even when there's no provable link between enforcement outcomes and private business ties, the distribution and revenue outcomes are visible and quantifiable.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in February 2026 that the agency is refilling jobs after earlier White House-driven cuts, and he addressed accusations that it dropped crypto cases as political favors, noting that many decisions were made before he was sworn in.

The thaw extends beyond personalities. US regulators now lean toward “exemptive relief” for tokenized securities trials, while the UK favors sandboxes, a divergence that creates cross-border friction even as US policy tilts toward accommodation.

The next constraint may not be legal, but legislative and political.

Banks view stablecoins as deposit-substitution threats. Ethics language in proposed legislation could structurally cap Trump-linked projects even as the market grows, or it could land weakly and allow them to scale faster.

Entrepreneurs who have been cleared civilly or pardoned criminally still face reputational and market-access constraints if future enforcement agencies adopt a tougher posture.

Regulatory overhang can reemerge as a policy risk rather than purely a legal risk.

Why this matters

The concentration of benefit around Trump's crypto ventures raises conflict-of-interest questions without requiring proof of quid pro quo.

The revenue split, stablecoin reserve yields, and distribution touchpoints are all in public filings and reporting. The policy shift, with lower enforcement, incremental guidance, civil dismissals, and pardons, reduces friction.

The private capture of that reduced friction is most visible in ventures where token economics and stablecoin growth translate directly into presidential-linked income.

Trump didn't need to be the regulatory rollback's biggest beneficiary. The beneficiary status is observable.

As Trump-era regulators unwind legal overhangs from headline crypto figures, the clearest private upside accrues to Trump's own token and stablecoin stack, while the broader US market is the second-order winner. That pattern holds regardless of motive, and the numbers make it legible.

The post SEC pressure on crypto giants fades as Trump-linked project draws $75M from Justin Sun appeared first on CryptoSlate.

US markets move in seconds when the jobs report hits. February payrolls fell by 92,000 jobs, the unemployment rate rose to 4.4%, and prior months were revised down by 69,000.

Together, that's 161,000 fewer jobs than the numbers showed at the start of the year.

But the number traders react to first often isn't the one that lasts, because even bigger revisions can arrive months later.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has already marked down US job growth by 862,000 for the year through March 2025, raising the possibility that markets and the Federal Reserve are reacting to a labor market that looks stronger in headlines than it does in the final data.

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Feb 22, 2026 · Andjela Radmilac

The number markets trade isn't the final number

That's the real story inside every monthly payroll release. Investors treat the jobs report as one of the most important macro prints, and for good reason.

The second a jobs report lands, treasury yields move, stock-index futures reprice, the dollar swings, and expectations for Fed cuts or delays get rewritten within minutes.

However, the number driving that first reaction is only an estimate. It's built from a survey, revised as more employer responses come in, and benchmarked later against a much broader set of payroll records.

That means the labor market that traders price in real time is often a draft. Sometimes the later edits are small, but sometimes they change the whole picture.

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February was weak, even before the reset

February's report was soft on its own. BLS said total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 92,000 in the month, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.4%. Health care lost 28,000 jobs, partly because of strike activity, and physician offices alone lost 37,000. Information shed 11,000 jobs.

Federal government employment fell by 10,000 and is now down by 330,000 from its October 2024 peak. Transportation and warehousing lost 11,000 jobs, with couriers and messengers down 17,000.

There was still wage growth in the report. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% in February and 3.8% from a year earlier.

That matters because it keeps one part of the Fed's inflation problem alive even as hiring cools. A labor market can weaken and still produce wage pressure, especially when job growth is slowing from levels that had supported consumer spending for a long stretch.

However, revisions for previous months significantly weakened the report.

December was revised from a gain of 48,000 jobs to a loss of 17,000, and January was revised from 130,000 to 126,000.

Together, those changes subtracted 69,000 jobs from the earlier picture.

Investors are always trying to identify direction, and downward revisions tell them the labor market had already been losing momentum before the latest report landed.

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The 862,000-job revision changes the story

Then comes the larger reset. In its annual benchmark process, BLS reduced the March 2025 level of total nonfarm payroll employment by 862,000 on a not seasonally adjusted basis. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the March 2025 revision was 898,000 lower.

This kind of technical distinction matters to only economists. But the broader takeaway is much simpler: the labor market looked materially stronger in real time than it did once BLS compared the survey estimate with fuller employment records.

That large a number is no minor statistical cleanup. It's a reminder that one of the most market-sensitive data releases in the world is not a direct count of every US job. The first number is a high-quality estimate built for speed; the latter benchmark is the one that's built for completeness.

But when the gap between the two becomes this wide, it starts shaping the macro story.

The benchmark revision also changes how investors should think about the last year. A labor market that appeared resilient in real time helped support the case that the economy could live with restrictive rates.

A labor market that turns out to have created far fewer jobs makes that reading less secure. The data completely changed the balance of the argument.

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Why does the data change so much?

The monthly payroll figure comes from the Current Employment Statistics survey, which samples employers rather than counting every payroll in the country. While it's very large and incredibly useful, it's still just a sample.

Monthly revisions happen because additional employer reports arrive after the first release, and seasonal factors are recalculated.

The annual benchmark goes even further by aligning the survey with the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which is based largely on unemployment insurance tax records and covers most of the payroll universe.

That creates an unavoidable tension for markets. Traders need a number immediately, so they trade the estimate. The Fed has to work with the same real-time information even while knowing later revisions may reshape it.

There's no practical solution or alternative to this. Some of the biggest market moves each month are based on numbers that may look meaningfully different once the data is more complete.

This is why payroll revisions aren't an obscure technical issue. They affect the story investors tell themselves about growth, inflation, and rates. If the labor market looked stronger in the first print than it does in the benchmarked data, then yields, risk sentiment, and rate expectations may all have been set against an economy that was softer than it appeared.

Nonetheless, the initial payroll figure still matters because it's timely, and timeliness has value. But the benchmark exists because the first number is not the final number, and because speed and completeness are not the same thing.

February's payroll decline matters, the rise in unemployment to 4.4% matters, and the downward revisions to prior months matter. The 862,000-job benchmark cut may matter the most, because it says the labor market that shaped so much of last year's macro debate looked firmer in the headline data than it does in the fuller count.

In markets, the first number gets traded. In labor data, it's not always the one that lasts.

The post 161,000 US jobs just disappeared after a revision as Bitcoin navigates increasingly messy macro data appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin's derivatives market gave us the best explanation of this week's macro stress.

Funding rates turned sharply negative, open interest stayed elevated, and then the US jobs report landed. Put together, that showed a market leaning hard into downside hedges just as a real macro catalyst arrived.

That sequence is worth understanding because it explains how macro volatility shows up in crypto.

It usually appears first in perpetual futures, where traders hedge fastest and use the most leverage.

Funding tells you which side is paying to stay in the trade, open interest tells you how much positioning is still in the system, and liquidations tell you when that positioning starts to break.

On Feb. 28, perpetual futures funding on Bitcoin fell to around -6%, one of the most negative readings in three months. BTC-denominated open interest rose from about 113,380 BTC to 120,260 BTC since the beginning of the year.

That combination mattered because it pointed to two things at once: traders were leaning heavily into downside bets, and they were doing it with more leverage entering the market. The market was both very nervous and very crowded.

That is the easiest way to understand how macro stress moves into crypto.

It appears in the derivatives book, not as a polished narrative on X or a clean economist note. Traders move there first because perpetual futures are liquid, cheap to use, and always available.

When they get nervous about growth, rates, or a broader risk-off move, they short perps; those contracts slip below spot, and funding turns negative because shorts have to pay longs to keep positions open.

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Why negative funding stays negative

But negative funding isn't a bottom signal in itself; it just tells you where the market is leaning.

This distinction matters because traders like turning every extreme reading into a prediction.

Deeply negative funding can precede a short squeeze, and last week's setup clearly created that possibility. It can also stay negative for longer than people expect when the hedging demand is real.

Extreme funding spikes and drops reflect one-sided positioning and can persist during strong directional moves.

That persistence usually comes from two places.

Some traders are hedging real spot exposure, which means they aren't trying to call the exact next move, just trying to protect a portfolio. Others are simple trend-followers willing to pay carry as long as the market keeps moving their way. Both groups can keep funding negative even when the first panic has already passed.

That's why the real tell is not that the funding is negative. The more interesting setup comes when funding stays meaningfully negative for a while and price stops making new lows. That's when the pressure starts to build under the surface. Shorts are still paying to stay in position, but the market is no longer rewarding them in the same way. That's how squeeze conditions form.

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The jobs report gave the market a real macro input

The macro catalyst this week came from the US labor market. On March 6, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said nonfarm payrolls fell by 92,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was 4.4%.

That's the kind of report that forces a broad repricing because it pulls on more than one market theme at the same time. A softer labor market can push yields lower if traders think the Federal Reserve may need a gentler path. It can also hurt risk appetite if traders read the data as a sign of genuine economic weakness. (bls.gov)

Crypto tends to feel that debate more violently because leverage turns macro questions like these into positioning events.

If traders are already crowded into shorts and the macro release eases financial conditions, even briefly, price can snap higher because shorts have to cover.

If the release deepens the risk-off mood, the same crowded book can keep pressing lower because shorts stay comfortable and longs start to give up.

Funding is the pressure gauge, open interest is the fuel, and liquidations are the moment that pressure starts breaking through the system.

Liquidations are the scoreboard

Liquidations tell you whether the move is orderly or forced.

Short liquidations usually confirm a squeeze, and long liquidations usually confirm a flush lower. When both sides get liquidated within a short period, the market is telling you that volatility has taken over, and neither side had much room to hold.

This is why liquidation data works best as a confirmation layer. Funding sets the conditions, but liquidations tell you whether those conditions are actually being forced into price.

Open interest matters here, too. Price can fall, and funding can turn negative without saying much if participation is shrinking at the same time.

That can mean traders are simply stepping back. But when open interest rises alongside negative funding, it means new positions are being added into a bearish or defensive regime.

Tracking open interest in BTC terms removes some of the distortion created by price moves, so rising BTC-denominated open interest during a selloff gives a cleaner read on participation.

Seen this way, the past week was not really about whether Bitcoin was strong or weak, but about where the stress was building.

The derivatives market was already showing a heavy short or hedge regime before the labor data hit.

The jobs report then gave global markets a real macro input to process.

Once those two things met, crypto did what it usually does: it expressed the same macro uncertainty everyone else was dealing with in larger candles, faster reversals, and more violent position clearing.

Funding doesn't predict price, it just tells you where leverage is leaning. Open interest doesn't tell you who is right, just how much positioning is still on the field. Liquidations don't explain the whole move, just when the move stopped being optional.

That's why derivatives ended up being the best macro explainer of the week. Before the narrative settled, the book had already mapped the risk. Traders were leaning short, leverage was still in the system, and the jobs report gave the market something real to react to.

Everything that came after was price discovering how crowded the room had become.

The post Bitcoin funding rates just flashed one of the bleakest signals in months before one macro number changed everything appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Can BTC Recover After the Drop to $66K?

Bitcoin is currently trading near $66,000 after experiencing a sharp correction from its recent highs. After reaching levels above $120,000 earlier in the cycle, BTC has now lost almost half of its value during the latest market reset.

While some investors fear the bull market may be ending, historical patterns suggest these corrections are often a normal part of the Bitcoin cycle.

The key question now is whether Bitcoin is preparing for a recovery — or if another leg down could still occur.

Bitcoin Is Consolidating After a Major Correction

Bitcoin’s recent drop follows a familiar pattern seen in previous cycles.

In past bull markets, BTC often experiences 40–60% corrections before continuing upward.

Examples include:

• 2017 cycle: BTC dropped from $20K to $10K before continuing the trend.
• 2021 cycle: BTC fell from $64K to $30K before the next rally.
• 2026 cycle: BTC dropped from around $127K to nearly $62K.

This pattern shows that sharp corrections do not necessarily signal the end of a bull market.

Instead, they often represent a cooling-off phase after excessive leverage and speculation.

Key Support Levels for Bitcoin

From a technical perspective, several levels are now important for Bitcoin traders.

Major support zones:

• $62,000 – $64,000 (cycle low area)
• $58,000 – $60,000 (strong historical demand zone)

If Bitcoin remains above these levels, the broader bullish structure could remain intact.

Key Resistance Levels to Watch

For Bitcoin to regain bullish momentum, it would need to reclaim several resistance zones:

• $70,000 psychological resistance
• $75,000 – $80,000 previous consolidation range
• $100,000+ long-term breakout target

A break above $70K could signal renewed bullish momentum across the crypto market.

Macro Events Are Adding Volatility

Bitcoin’s recent volatility is also occurring alongside major global developments.

Markets are currently reacting to:

• Rising oil prices
• Escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East
• Increasing uncertainty across global financial markets

During these periods, investors often temporarily reduce exposure to risk assets such as cryptocurrencies.

However, some analysts argue that prolonged macro instability could eventually strengthen Bitcoin’s narrative as a hedge against global uncertainty.

Bitcoin Price Prediction

Based on the current structure, three main scenarios could unfold.

Bullish scenario

• BTC holds above $64K support
• Breakout above $70K
• Possible rally toward $80K–$90K

Neutral scenario

• Bitcoin consolidates between $60K and $70K for several weeks

Bearish scenario

• Breakdown below $60K
• Possible retest of $50K–$55K

For now, Bitcoin appears to be entering a consolidation phase, where the market resets before the next major move.

Are Cryptos Dead?

Every time the crypto market crashes, the same question resurfaces across social media and financial media:

“Is crypto finally dead?”

After the recent market drop, many investors are once again questioning the future of digital assets. $Bitcoin has fallen sharply from its recent peak near $127,000 to around $62,000, wiping out billions in market value and triggering widespread fear across the market.

Altcoins have been hit even harder, with some losing 50–70% of their value in a matter of weeks. But despite the panic, history suggests that these crashes are not the end of crypto — they are part of its natural cycle.

Here are three key reasons why crypto is far from dead.

1. Crypto Cycles Always Include 50% Crashes

Crypto markets are extremely cyclical. Major bull runs are almost always followed by deep corrections.

This pattern has repeated multiple times over the past decade:

In each cycle, investors believed the market collapse signaled the end of crypto. Yet every time, the market eventually recovered and pushed to new highs.

The current correction may feel dramatic, but historically it fits the same pattern that has defined crypto markets since their beginning.

2. Global Uncertainty Is Driving Market Volatility

The current market decline is also happening during a period of extreme global uncertainty.

Several macro factors are weighing on risk assets:

• Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East
• Surging oil prices
• Concerns about global liquidity
• Uncertainty around central bank policies
• Volatility across stock markets

When global uncertainty rises, investors often reduce exposure to risk assets such as crypto and move capital into safer assets like gold, cash, or government bonds. However, this does not mean crypto has lost its long-term relevance. It simply means the market is reacting to broader macro conditions.

Historically, once macro conditions stabilize, capital tends to flow back into high-growth sectors like crypto.

3. Crypto Adoption Is Still Growing

Perhaps the strongest argument against the “crypto is dead” narrative is that adoption continues to expand worldwide.

Over the past few years:

• Major financial institutions have launched Bitcoin ETFs
• Governments are exploring blockchain infrastructure
• Large corporations are integrating crypto payments
• Stablecoins are becoming a core part of the global digital economy

Even during market downturns, the underlying infrastructure continues to grow.

This is similar to the early internet era, where massive market crashes occurred while the technology itself kept advancing.

What Could Happen Next?

If historical patterns repeat, the current correction could represent a mid-cycle reset rather than the end of the market.

Crypto markets often experience:

1. Rapid price expansion
2. Excessive speculation
3. A sharp correction
4. Consolidation
5. The next major rally

While no outcome is guaranteed, previous cycles suggest that deep corrections often set the stage for the next phase of growth.

Conclusion: Are Cryptos Dead?

Crypto markets are highly volatile, and sharp corrections can easily trigger fears that the entire industry is collapsing.

But history shows a different story.

The current market decline reflects cyclical corrections, macro uncertainty, and profit-taking after massive gains — not the end of crypto. If anything, these downturns have repeatedly been the moments when the foundations for the next bull market were quietly built.

While the broader crypto market continues to move with mixed momentum, several altcoins have posted strong gains over the past week, attracting increased investor attention and trading volume. These tokens significantly outperformed many major cryptocurrencies, showing that altcoin rotations remain active even during uncertain market conditions.

Based on the latest market data, five altcoins stand out for their strong performance in the last 7 days, recording double-digit gains and demonstrating growing market interest.

Here are the top 5 altcoins that exploded in the last seven days.

1. OKB ($OKB) Leads the Weekly Rally

Among this week’s top performers is $OKB, which surged nearly 30% over the past 7 days, making it the strongest gainer among the listed altcoins.

• Price: $99.01
• 7-Day Gain: +29.67%
• Market Cap: $2.07 Billion
• 24h Volume: $86.5 Million

$OKB is the native token of the OKX ecosystem and often benefits from increased activity on the exchange platform. The recent rally pushed the token close to the $100 level, a key psychological milestone that traders are watching closely.

The strong weekly performance suggests renewed demand for exchange ecosystem tokens as market participation increases.

2. Humanity Protocol ($H) Sees Strong Interest

Another strong performer this week is $H, the token behind Humanity Protocol, which gained more than 23% over the last seven days.

• Price: $0.1528
• 7-Day Gain: +23.60%
• Market Cap: $384.6 Million
• 24h Volume: $54.1 Million

Humanity Protocol focuses on blockchain-based identity verification, a sector gaining attention as Web3 applications expand and digital identity solutions become increasingly important.

The surge in price and volume indicates growing interest in identity-focused blockchain infrastructure.

3. Pi Network ($PI) Maintains Strong Momentum

$PI, the token linked to the Pi Network ecosystem, also recorded a notable weekly gain of over 21%.

• Price: $0.2055
• 7-Day Gain: +21.14%
• Market Cap: $1.98 Billion
• 24h Volume: $67.9 Million

Pi Network remains one of the most widely discussed projects in the crypto community due to its massive user base and mobile-first mining model.

While the project continues to generate debate regarding its long-term utility, the token’s recent price movement highlights strong speculative interest from traders.

4. Kite ($KITE) Gains Momentum With High Trading Volume

$KITE is another altcoin that performed strongly this week, posting an 11.65% gain in the past seven days.

• Price: $0.2968
• 7-Day Gain: +11.65%
• Market Cap: $534.2 Million
• 24h Volume: $243.6 Million

What stands out about $KITE is its very high trading volume relative to its market capitalization, suggesting strong short-term trading activity.

Such conditions often attract momentum traders who look for assets with strong liquidity and rapid price movements.

5. Morpho ($MORPHO) Benefits From DeFi Momentum

Rounding out the list is $MORPHO, which gained 8.7% over the past week.

• Price: $1.85
• 7-Day Gain: +8.70%
• Market Cap: $746.2 Million
• 24h Volume: $14.7 Million

Morpho operates in the decentralized finance (DeFi) lending sector, aiming to improve efficiency in lending markets by optimizing interest rates between lenders and borrowers.

As DeFi activity slowly regains traction, protocols like Morpho are seeing renewed investor attention.

What This Week’s Altcoin Rally Means

The strong performance of these tokens highlights how capital continues to rotate across different sectors of the crypto market, even when major assets like $Bitcoin and $Ethereum consolidate.

If market sentiment remains stable, altcoins with strong narratives and trading volume could continue outperforming in the short term. However, investors should remain cautious, as rapid price increases can often be followed by increased volatility and corrections.

Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH Consolidates Near Channel Support

Ethereum ($ETH) is currently trading around $1,960 after pulling back from its recent local high near $2,180.

The 4-hour chart reveals that ETH has been moving inside a clear ascending channel formation, a technical structure that typically indicates a controlled bullish trend. Within this pattern, price repeatedly moves between a rising support line and a rising resistance line.

After rejecting from the upper boundary of the channel earlier this week, Ethereum has now returned toward the lower trendline support, a level that could determine the next major move.

Ascending Channel Formation Signals Potential Breakout

The chart shows a well-structured ascending channel, defined by two parallel upward-sloping trendlines.

Key elements of the formation include:

• Upper Channel Resistance: gradually rising toward $2,240–$2,260
• Lower Channel Support: currently located around $1,920–$1,940

This structure has already produced multiple bounces:

• Late February bounce from channel support
• Early March recovery from the lower boundary
• Recent rejection from the channel top near $2,180

Now Ethereum is once again approaching the lower support area, where buyers previously stepped in. If the pattern holds, another move toward the upper boundary becomes increasingly likely.

Ethereum Support Levels

Several important support levels are currently shaping ETH's short-term outlook.

• $1,920 – $1,940: This is the lower boundary of the ascending channel and the most important support level on the chart.
• $1,880: A previous swing low that could act as the next support if the channel breaks.
• $1,820 – $1,850: A deeper liquidity zone where Ethereum previously consolidated before the recent rally.

Key Resistance Levels to Watch

For Ethereum to continue its upward trajectory, it must reclaim several resistance zones.

• $2,050: First short-term resistance where price recently struggled.
• $2,150 – $2,180: The recent rejection zone where sellers entered the market.
• $2,240 – $2,260: The upper boundary of the ascending channel and the next major target if the bullish structure remains intact.

Ethereum Price Prediction: Possible Scenarios

Bullish Scenario

If Ethereum successfully defends the $1,930 support zone, the ascending channel formation suggests a continuation move higher. Potential upside targets include:

• $2,050
• $2,180
• $2,240 – $2,260

If momentum accelerates and the channel breaks upward, ETH could extend its rally toward $2,350 – $2,400.

Bearish Scenario

If ETH breaks below the channel support, the bullish structure would weaken. In that case, downside targets could include:

• $1,880
• $1,850
• $1,780

A breakdown could also trigger liquidations and accelerate short-term selling pressure.

Why Ethereum Is Currently Moving Sideways

Ethereum’s consolidation is happening in the context of broader macro uncertainty affecting financial markets.

Current factors influencing crypto sentiment include:

• rising geopolitical tensions
• volatility in oil markets
• global liquidity concerns
• shifting institutional capital flows

Because of these conditions, the crypto market is currently trading in consolidation ranges rather than strong trends.

Ethereum Short-Term Outlook

Technically, Ethereum remains constructively bullish as long as the ascending channel support holds. If buyers defend the $1,920 zone, the chart structure suggests a rebound toward $2,100–$2,200 in the near term.

However, losing that level could temporarily push ETH toward $1,850 before the market attempts another recovery.

For now, Ethereum sits at a critical technical level where a breakout or breakdown could define the next major move.

The meme coin sector is feeling the heat in March 2026. Shiba Inu ($SHIB) is currently trading near $0.0000055, down over 8% in the last seven days. Despite a headline-grabbing 53,000% spike in the burn rate, the price has failed to react positively.

Is Shiba Inu Price Down?

Despite the massive burns, SHIB is struggling to find a floor. Users are increasingly looking toward exchange inflow data to gauge if a "capitulation event" is near or if the current support at $0.00000545 will hold.

Why SHIB is Down: Geopolitical Volatility and Risk Appetite

The "Second Iran War" has effectively sucked the oxygen out of the "alt-speculation" market. High-risk assets like SHIB are often the first to be liquidated when military conflict escalates, as seen with the recent transfer of 157 billion tokens to exchanges. However, a contrarian "war-liquidity" thesis suggests that if the conflict forces a massive expansion of the US money supply to fund military operations, the resulting dollar devaluation could eventually benefit fixed-supply or "deflationary" meme coins. For now, however, the "risk-off" mood dominates, and SHIB remains a casualty of global instability.

Shiba Inu Price Prediction: Will SHIB Coin Recover?

In the last 24 hours, the surge in "exchange inflow" signals a clear intent to sell. If the broader market continues its sideways chop, SHIB may retest the "danger zone" at $0.00000530. The long-term hope rests on Shibarium adoption, which must provide enough utility to offset the current macro-driven sell pressure.

Crucial SHIB Levels

With fewer low-risk yield strategies in crypto, investors are turning to DeFi lending, sending Aave usage to record levels.

The proposal would give exchanges legal cover to temporarily freeze suspicious crypto while investigators move to secure warrants.

Whether Bitcoin’s resilience holds may depend less on battlefield developments than on how energy prices respond in the days ahead.

Vera Report was shaped by AlphaTON CEO Brittany Kaiser’s experiences as a whistleblower, and she hopes it’ll move the needle on fraud.

OpenAI dropped GPT-5.4 two days after GPT-5.3. xAI's Grok 4.20 is still in beta. We ran both through real tasks to find out which one holds up.

XRP saw impressive growth in its network activity over the last day, causing the amount of tokens burned as fees during the period to rise by over 27%.

The market has not yet stabilized enough to enter a proper recovery period, and, unfortunately, a slight increase in pressure pushed most assets down.

Recent on-chain data from Glassnode reveals that XRP holders are currently facing a staggering $50.8 billion in unrealized losses.

Quantitative analyst PlanB has updated his Bitcoin S2F model, forecasting a potential $500,000 average price by 2028.

An unusual futures flow drop has appeared in the market, upsetting Dogecoin's seemingly quiet trading narrative.

TLDR:

• Vitalik Buterin warns that enthusiasm for DAOs, quadratic funding, and ZK voting tools is rapidly declining globally.

• Buterin contrasts the stable 2000s era of bold democratic vision with today’s chaotic, power-driven political landscape.

• He argues that democratic tools must now focus on consensus-finding rather than building hard binding governance mechanisms.

• Buterin calls for sanctuary tools that give politically vulnerable groups like Iranians a real, collective voice right now.
  

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has called for a fresh look at democratic tools across the blockchain space.

In a widely circulated post, he questioned the direction of DAOs, quadratic funding, and decentralized voting systems.

He noted growing disillusionment with democratic structures across political, corporate, and social media settings alike.

He also pointed to zero-knowledge proofs and artificial intelligence as powerful new resources for building more effective democratic mechanisms going forward.

Enthusiasm for Democratic Crypto Tools Is Fading

Vitalik Buterin recently raised concerns about declining interest in democratic tools across the crypto industry. He observed that enthusiasm for mechanisms like DAOs, quadratic voting, and ZK-based governance has dropped noticeably in recent years.

This shift, he argued, is not isolated to blockchain — it mirrors broader societal changes playing out globally.

Buterin pointed to what he described as an “authoritarian wave” affecting multiple areas of modern life. The trend is not confined to nation-state politics, he noted in his detailed post.

Corporations have increasingly become more founder-centric, and social media platforms have faced mounting public disillusionment as well.

He warned that defending democratic structures without offering a positive vision will ultimately prove insufficient. Buterin stated that such defense today carries the feel of conservatism rather than genuine progress.

He argued that if advocates only work to preserve the existing order, they will gradually lose ground to more aggressive and better-organized forces over time.

Stable vs. Chaotic Eras Shape What Democratic Tools Can Realistically Achieve

Buterin drew a clear contrast between the stable 2000s and 2010s and the chaotic conditions defining the 2020s. During the earlier decades, large-scale democratic visions seemed genuinely achievable and attracted widespread interest from builders.

Ambitious goals like global UBI, DAO-funded public goods, and wholesale electoral reform all felt within reach at that time.

Today, those same goals appear far more distant to most observers in the crypto and governance space. In a chaotic era, the average intervention in any political order tends to reflect raw power-grabbing rather than principled mechanism design.

Buterin noted that pushing for ranked-choice voting in the United States feels unrealistic when basic gerrymandering bans still cannot pass.

This context changes what democratic tools should realistically aim to accomplish right now. Rather than building hard binding governance systems, the focus should shift toward consensus-finding mechanisms instead.

These tools would surface broadly supported positions and present them to decision-making actors, giving distributed groups a credible and meaningful voice in outcomes.

New Technologies Offer a Credible Path Toward Collective Voice

Despite the difficult political climate, Buterin sees genuine opportunity in a new generation of technological tools. Zero-knowledge proofs, AI, and stronger cybersecurity all provide new ways to build effective democratic systems at scale.

He argued that today’s toolkit is considerably more powerful than anything available to builders just a decade ago.

He pointed to platforms like Pol.is and assurance contract-style voting as practical models worth developing further.

Anonymous votes that become public only after reaching a set threshold could give distributed groups a credible collective voice.

Such tools would also allow centralized actors to identify which policy shifts carry widespread support and hold genuine legitimacy.

Buterin also used the ongoing situation in Iran as a real-world case for what he called “sanctuary tools for collective voice.”

He argued that ordinary Iranians need mechanisms to express their collective positions in ways that carry actual weight right now.

He called for building tools that serve people seeking democratic expression while living under unstable and politically volatile conditions.

The post Vitalik Buterin Urges Crypto Community to Rethink Democratic Tools Amid Global Authoritarian Shift appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Private Credit giant BCRED received $3.7B in Q1 2026 redemptions, nearly triggering a formal gate

• Average BDCs now trade at a 20% NAV discount with yields of 10–11%, signaling rising credit stress.

• DeFi risks becoming exit liquidity for distressed private credit products offloaded by Wall Street.

• Smart contracts can enforce redemption rules transparently, giving onchain private credit an edge.

Private credit markets are under mounting pressure as elevated interest rates and AI-driven uncertainty shake investor confidence. Redemption requests have surged across major funds, raising liquidity concerns.

At the same time, the crypto and DeFi space is watching closely. Real-world asset strategies built on private credit are now drawing scrutiny.

The question is whether DeFi can offer a safer, more transparent alternative — or whether it risks becoming an exit route for distressed Wall Street products.

Rising Rates Have Strained Private Credit Borrowers

Private credit funds operate much like private banks. They lend capital to businesses and collect interest in return. Investors range from pension funds and insurance companies to retail participants via publicly traded Business Development Companies (BDCs) and semi-liquid vehicles.

The Federal Reserve began its aggressive rate-hiking cycle in March 2022, lifting rates from near zero to over 5% by mid-2023. Rates have stayed elevated through early 2026, with only modest cuts along the way.

This has made borrowing considerably more expensive for businesses that locked in debt during the low-rate era.

As Stani Kulechov noted on X: “The problem arises when the cost of capital stays elevated for too long, creating unmanageable expenses for borrowers.”

For many middle-market companies, this squeeze has lasted long enough to push credit quality lower across the private lending space.

Redemption Pressure Is Building Across Major Funds

The strain is showing up clearly in fund-level data. Blackstone’s flagship private credit vehicle, BCRED, manages roughly $82 billion. During Q1 2026, it received $3.7 billion in redemption requests — about 8% of NAV.

Blackstone injected $400 million of its own capital to manage the pressure. The fund narrowly avoided formal gating.

BlackRock’s HPS Corporate Lending Fund, a $26 billion vehicle, was not as fortunate. Redemption requests hit a point where gating became necessary, with approximately $580 million in requests going unfulfilled.

Blue Owl’s retail private credit fund saw $2.9 billion in redemptions during Q4 2025, partly due to heavy exposure to software lending.

The broader market has repriced accordingly. The average BDC now trades at roughly a 20% discount to net asset value, offering yields of 10 to 11%. Historically, these funds traded at a premium.

Some fund-level default metrics have climbed as high as 9%, a level that signals rising credit stress across the sector.

DeFi Must Avoid Becoming Wall Street’s Exit Liquidity

The private credit dislocation carries direct relevance for the DeFi ecosystem. Many real-world asset strategies in DeFi are built on private credit instruments.

Retail-oriented DeFi users often commit capital into high-yielding RWA products without fully understanding the duration or liquidity risks embedded in them.

Kulechov put the concern plainly: “My greatest fear is that institutional opportunists could view DeFi as a channel to offload illiquid and distressed products that Wall Street has already soured on.”

RWA opportunities are harder to assess than native DeFi strategies, as they lack the same onchain verifiability and transparency.

There is, however, a constructive path forward. Smart contracts can encode redemption windows, withdrawal limits, and collateral ratios in ways that traditional funds cannot match.

Unlike BCRED or HLEND, where terms were tightened at the manager’s discretion, onchain rules are transparent from the start and enforced by code.

For private credit done properly in DeFi, that structural advantage could ultimately benefit retail participants — provided the industry builds the right safeguards, risk disclosures, and governance frameworks first.

The post Private Credit Crisis Deepens: Can DeFi Offer a Safer Alternative? appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR:

• Bitcoin anchors the 3-Layer Architecture as Digital Capital with a fixed supply and no central issuer or counterparty.

• Stretch functions as Digital Credit, using Bitcoin as collateral to create a superior alternative to traditional fiat-backed credit.

• Strategy operates as Digital Equity, deploying a reflexive flywheel that compounds Bitcoin Per Share for common equity holders.

• The 3-Layer Architecture is the first unified capital stack where treasury, credit, and equity are all backed by Bitcoin.

The 3-Layer Architecture enabling Strategy to revolutionise finance is drawing attention across global capital markets.

Strategy has built a vertically integrated capital stack that connects Bitcoin, credit, and equity into one coherent system. Each layer feeds the one above it, creating a structure that compounds over time.

This architecture did not exist before Bitcoin made it technically possible. It represents a new category of financial institution that operates entirely outside the traditional monetary framework.

How the Architecture Is Structured Across Three Distinct Layers

The 3-Layer Architecture is composed of Digital Capital, Digital Credit, and Digital Equity. Each layer serves a separate function and targets investors with different financial goals.

Bitcoin sits at the bottom as Digital Capital, providing the foundation for everything built above it. Stretch occupies the middle as Digital Credit, while Strategy sits at the top as Digital Equity.

Bitcoin is the only asset with a fixed supply, no issuer, and no central point of failure. No government or central bank can dilute, debase, or seize it.

These properties make it the most reliable foundation for a new financial system. Analyst Chris Millas described it as “the soundest money humanity has ever discovered.”

The architecture is intentionally built from the bottom up. Each layer derives its strength from the layer beneath it. Without sound capital at the base, neither the credit nor the equity layer could function with the same level of integrity.

Digital Credit Bridges Bitcoin and Equity in the Stack

Stretch, the Digital Credit layer, acts as the bridge between Bitcoin and Strategy’s equity. Unlike traditional credit, Stretch is collateralised by Bitcoin rather than fiat currency.

This changes the fundamental risk profile of the credit instrument entirely. As Millas noted, “the quality of a credit instrument is only as good as the quality of the collateral backing it.”

Traditional credit rests on fiat — a centralised asset that governments can inflate or seize at any time. Bitcoin-backed credit cannot be manipulated by any central authority.

That structural difference gives Digital Credit a clear advantage over conventional credit products. It also opens a new income category for investors who want Bitcoin exposure without direct price volatility.

Strategy raises capital by issuing these Digital Credit products to investors with varying risk tolerances. That capital flows directly into Bitcoin acquisitions. The credit layer is therefore not passive — it actively powers the equity layer above it.

Strategy’s Digital Equity Completes the Self-Reinforcing System

At the top of the 3-Layer Architecture sits Strategy as Digital Equity. It offers a leveraged, reflexive claim on Bitcoin’s appreciation, amplified through the financial engineering of the credit layer below.

As Bitcoin holdings grow, the balance sheet strengthens, attracting more investor capital. That capital then purchases more Bitcoin, and the cycle continues.

Millas described this loop clearly: “More Bitcoin → Stronger Balance Sheet → Stronger Credit Rating → Attract More Capital → More Bitcoin.”

Each rotation through this cycle compounds Strategy’s Bitcoin Per Share for common equity holders. The flywheel accelerates with each pass, not slows down.

Strategy is the first institution to unify treasury, credit, and equity under one Bitcoin-backed capital structure. Millas called this “a new financial primitive” with no direct predecessor in conventional finance.

The 3-Layer Architecture is not a theory — it is already operating and scaling across global capital markets.

The post How Strategy’s 3-Layer Architecture Is Building a New Financial System on Bitcoin appeared first on Blockonomi.

Simply Wall St has earned widespread recognition for transforming intricate financial information into visually appealing, digestible stock evaluations. The platform’s distinctive snowflake diagram and intuitive color-coding system have attracted investors seeking rapid visual assessments of stocks without wading through dense financial statements.

KnockoutStocks pursues an alternative methodology. The platform integrates artificial intelligence-driven research capabilities, a unique proprietary scoring algorithm, expertly selected stock recommendations, and comprehensive portfolio management features into a unified ecosystem designed for data-focused investors seeking intelligent automation. While both services strive to streamline investment research, their toolsets and analytical depth differ substantially.

Platform Overview

What Is KnockoutStocks?

KnockoutStocks represents an artificial intelligence-enhanced stock analysis ecosystem centered on the KO Score — a proprietary evaluation metric rating equities from 0 to 100. The scoring methodology examines each company through five distinct dimensions: profitability metrics, balance sheet strength, expansion trajectory, price momentum, and Wall Street sentiment.

The service encompasses an AI-powered investment advisor, on-demand automated stock analysis reports, sophisticated screening functionality, hand-picked equity selections, portfolio monitoring capabilities, and customized market intelligence. The platform aims to deliver rapid, transparent, evidence-based investment perspectives without requiring investors to manage multiple subscriptions or disparate tools.

What Is Simply Wall St?

Simply Wall St is an investment research service established in 2014 with headquarters in Australia. The platform gained prominence through its signature snowflake visualization — a five-axis graphical representation scoring companies across valuation metrics, projected performance, historical results, balance sheet quality, and dividend characteristics.

The service provides coverage of securities across international exchanges and focuses on making fundamental analysis visually intuitive. It resonates particularly with novice and developing investors who favor graphical representations for understanding corporate quality instead of analyzing unprocessed financial statements.

Feature Comparison

Stock Research and Scoring

Simply Wall St evaluates every security through its snowflake visualization across five categories: valuation, forward outlook, historical track record, financial stability, and dividend strength. Each category receives individual scoring, and the resulting snowflake pattern provides instant visual comprehension of the stock’s characteristics. The design approach effectively makes fundamental information immediately accessible.

KnockoutStocks employs the KO Score — a unified metric ranging from 0 to 100 synthesizing five weighted components: earnings power, financial stability, growth characteristics, market momentum, and analyst outlook. Instead of a graphical shape, investors receive one definitive ranking indicating precisely where an equity stands compared to the broader market. Both methodologies simplify complex information, though the KO Score incorporates momentum dynamics and Wall Street consensus elements that Simply Wall St’s snowflake doesn’t directly emphasize.

AI Tools and Insights

KnockoutStocks positions artificial intelligence as a foundational element. The AI advisor enables users to pose inquiries regarding specific securities, portfolio compositions, or market dynamics whenever needed. Premium subscription tiers provide voice-enabled AI interaction and unrestricted daily question volumes.

Simply Wall St recently launched an AI feature called Snowflake AI designed to address fundamental questions about companies and clarify financial metrics. While beneficial, it operates primarily as an informational resource rather than a comprehensive advisory tool. It lacks the sophisticated portfolio evaluation or trend analysis capabilities that the KnockoutStocks AI system delivers.

AI-Generated Stock Reports

KnockoutStocks produces instantaneous AI-compiled stock analyses for any publicly traded company upon request. Each analysis encompasses business overview, financial condition, critical performance indicators, market behavior, recent developments, and professional analyst perspectives — compiled within seconds.

Simply Wall St creates narrative-format company analyses explaining fundamental characteristics in accessible language. These documents are professionally written and comprehensible, though they follow standardized templates rather than fully adaptive AI generation. Users receive quality summaries but not the same responsive depth that KnockoutStocks provides.

Stock Picks

KnockoutStocks maintains a concentrated, high-quality equity portfolio meticulously selected by its analytical team. Each position earns inclusion through comprehensive research, sector evaluation, and practical investment methodology emphasizing fundamental strength, sustainable competitive positioning, and extended growth runway.

The portfolio receives continuous oversight with adjustments made only when evidence warrants action. Complete access to the Stock Picks section — including current positions, performance metrics, and comprehensive rationale for each holding — is provided to Middleweight and Heavyweight subscribers.

Simply Wall St does not maintain a curated equity portfolio constructed and monitored by dedicated research professionals. The platform supplies screening and discovery capabilities enabling independent stock identification, but lacks a conviction-weighted portfolio with documented investment thesis. Investors seeking researched foundation alongside personal analysis will find KnockoutStocks more advantageous here.

Global Market Coverage

This represents an area where Simply Wall St holds a clear edge. The platform encompasses securities across more than 50 international markets including United States, United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Asian exchanges, and Australian bourses. For investors regularly examining international opportunities, this geographic breadth provides substantial value.

KnockoutStocks concentrates exclusively on the United States equity market. For investors primarily focused domestically, this presents no constraint. However, investors with significant international allocation interests will find Simply Wall St offers broader geographic reach.

Stock Screener

KnockoutStocks incorporates an advanced screening engine with over 20 filtering parameters covering KO Score, market capitalization, price levels, trading volume, fundamental characteristics, and technical indicators. Complete screening functionality is accessible on the complimentary plan.

Simply Wall St features a screening tool enabling filtration by snowflake metrics, valuation measures, financial health, dividend information, and analyst projections across global markets. The interface is visually refined and user-friendly but doesn’t penetrate as deeply into technical indicators or provide momentum-focused filtering comparable to the KO Score. Most advanced screening capabilities require paid membership.

Portfolio Tracking

KnockoutStocks delivers comprehensive portfolio monitoring with real-time performance metrics, profit and loss calculation, and AI-enhanced portfolio evaluation. The Heavyweight subscription supports up to 100 securities per portfolio with unlimited portfolio creation and AI-generated portfolio assessments.

Simply Wall St provides portfolio functionality overlaying its snowflake scoring and narrative analysis onto user holdings. It delivers visual representation of portfolio fundamental health but doesn’t offer real-time profit and loss monitoring or AI-driven portfolio analysis matching KnockoutStocks’ sophistication.

Alerts and Updates

KnockoutStocks distributes personalized daily or weekly email notifications covering watchlist activity, leading KO Score movements, earnings releases, analyst rating changes, and breaking developments customized to portfolio holdings.

Simply Wall St sends notifications for material changes in a stock’s snowflake assessment, analyst forecast revisions, and corporate news. The alert system proves useful for tracking fundamental shifts in monitored securities but lacks the comprehensiveness or personalization of the KnockoutStocks notification infrastructure.

Pricing

KnockoutStocks provides three tiers. The complimentary plan includes complete screener access, one portfolio, five watchlist positions, one AI consultation weekly, and one AI stock analysis weekly. The Middleweight plan costs $19.99 monthly with 10 AI queries daily and 10 AI reports weekly. The Heavyweight plan runs $59.99 monthly with unlimited AI access, voice coaching capability, PDF report generation, and CSV data exports.

Simply Wall St pricing begins around $10 monthly for basic access and reaches approximately $20 monthly for premium membership with full features. Pricing is competitive, though the free tier offers limited functionality. Annual billing reduces per-month costs further.

Pros and Cons

KnockoutStocks

Pros

• KO Score provides rapid, comprehensive quality assessment across thousands of equities
• Integrated AI advisor for on-demand security and portfolio inquiries
• Instant AI stock analyses available for any company anytime
• Curated high-conviction equity portfolio with complete research documentation
• Complete screening functionality on complimentary plan
• Robust portfolio monitoring with live data and AI evaluation
• Voice-enabled AI coaching available on premium tier
• Customized news and notifications aligned with holdings
• Incorporates momentum and analyst sentiment alongside fundamentals

Cons

• Exclusively US market concentration — no international equity coverage
• Recently launched platform still establishing long-term performance history
• No visual snowflake-type diagram for instant graphical stock evaluation
• Dividend analysis not as visually emphasized as Simply Wall St

Simply Wall St

Pros

• Snowflake diagram renders stock quality immediately visual and intuitive
• Encompasses over 50 international markets including global equities
• Polished, beginner-accessible interface with thoughtfully designed information presentation
• Narrative-format stock analyses explain fundamentals in plain English
• Competitive subscription rates with accessible entry-level options
• Quality dividend information and valuation evaluation

Cons

• No dedicated full-featured AI investment advisor
• No curated high-conviction equity portfolio
• Portfolio monitoring lacks real-time profit and loss calculation
• AI assistant functions more as information explainer than research instrument
• Screening tool lacks momentum and technical sophistication
• Notification system not as comprehensive or customized
• No instantaneous on-demand AI stock analyses

Which Platform Is Best for Different Investors?

Use KnockoutStocks if you:

Desire a comprehensive AI-enhanced research ecosystem covering stock evaluation, instant analyses, portfolio management, and curated recommendations unified in one destination. KnockoutStocks functions as your complete research headquarters.

Want AI-powered capabilities on demand — posing questions about securities, obtaining instant analyses, and evaluating your portfolio without assembling information from disparate sources.

Want access to a meticulously researched, high-conviction equity portfolio built on genuine fundamentals and extended time horizon thinking. Middleweight and Heavyweight subscribers receive complete access including performance monitoring and comprehensive rationale behind every position.

Are predominantly a US equity investor seeking the most powerful combination of fundamental scoring, AI capabilities, and portfolio management available in a unified platform.

Use Simply Wall St if you:

Prefer a graphical approach to investment research and find the snowflake diagram a valuable method to rapidly evaluate stock quality across five dimensions. The visual design genuinely represents one of the industry’s finest for making information accessible.

Invest across international markets and require coverage extending beyond US securities. Simply Wall St’s global reach spanning 50-plus markets constitutes a genuine advantage for internationally oriented investors.

Are a beginning investor seeking clean, straightforward, visually presented fundamental information without confronting overwhelming complexity or unprocessed financial data.

Are primarily a dividend-focused investor seeking simple visual breakdown of dividend sustainability and distribution consistency across global markets.

Final Verdict

Simply Wall St and KnockoutStocks both succeed in making investment research more approachable, but they address different investor profiles and distinct requirements.

Simply Wall St excels in visual presentation, international market breadth, and accessibility for beginners. The snowflake diagram ranks among the most intuitive methods to evaluate a security at first glance, and its international coverage proves difficult to match for investors researching securities beyond American exchanges.

KnockoutStocks excels in AI capabilities, research sophistication, stock recommendations, portfolio management, and overall feature proposition. The KO Score encompasses more variables than the snowflake, the AI advisor and instant analyses add authentic intelligence to your research workflow, and the curated equity selections provide a researched foundation that Simply Wall St doesn’t supply.

For US-focused investors seeking a more intelligent, more complete research platform powered by AI in 2026 — KnockoutStocks delivers superior value at every dimension. Simply Wall St remains an excellent entry point and continues as the superior choice for visual learners and international investors, but for depth, AI capability, and a complete research workflow, KnockoutStocks represents the stronger platform.

The post KnockoutStocks vs Simply Wall St: 2026’s Best Stock Research Platform Revealed appeared first on Blockonomi.

As the premium research division of Investing.com — among the world’s most-visited financial websites — InvestingPro delivers institutional-quality financial data, sophisticated valuation models, and analytical tools designed for investors seeking professional-grade research at retail prices.

KnockoutStocks offers a contrasting philosophy. This platform integrates AI-driven research capabilities, a unique proprietary scoring methodology, expertly curated stock recommendations, and comprehensive portfolio monitoring within a single unified interface designed for today’s investors. While both services aim to provide superior stock market intelligence, their methodologies and target audiences differ significantly.

Platform Overview

What Is KnockoutStocks?

KnockoutStocks represents an AI-enhanced stock research solution centered on the KO Score — a unique proprietary rating system assigning stocks numerical rankings between 0 and 100. This scoring methodology analyzes every security across five core dimensions: profitability metrics, financial stability, growth trajectory, price momentum, and analyst sentiment.

The service encompasses an AI-powered investment advisor, on-demand AI-generated stock analyses, sophisticated screening tools, hand-selected stock recommendations, portfolio monitoring capabilities, and customized market intelligence. The platform aims to deliver rapid, transparent, evidence-based investment insights without requiring users to manage multiple subscriptions or complex interfaces.

What Is InvestingPro?

InvestingPro represents the premium tier subscription offering from Investing.com. The service delivers comprehensive financial datasets, intrinsic value calculations, financial strength assessments, earnings projections, and institutional-quality analytical capabilities.

This platform emphasizes extensive financial data accessibility spanning thousands of publicly traded companies worldwide. Additional features include AI-enhanced functionality, stock filtering tools, and portfolio management systems. InvestingPro positions itself as a professional-level research resource for committed investors wanting access to data typically available only to institutional market participants.

Feature Comparison

Stock Research and Scoring

InvestingPro assigns each security a financial strength score derived from profitability indicators, growth metrics, cash flow patterns, and valuation measurements. The platform also generates intrinsic value estimates using multiple valuation frameworks, helping investors determine whether securities trade above or below fair value. The breadth and depth of available raw financial information is substantial, encompassing thousands of global securities.

KnockoutStocks employs the KO Score — a unified metric ranging from 0 to 100 that synthesizes five weighted analytical dimensions: profitability, financial strength, growth potential, momentum signals, and analyst outlook. Instead of presenting extensive raw datasets requiring interpretation, the KO Score consolidates everything into a single transparent ranking. This approach prioritizes speed and clarity while maintaining analytical rigor.

AI Tools and Insights

KnockoutStocks positions AI functionality as a foundational platform element. The AI advisor enables users to pose questions regarding specific securities, portfolio composition, or market dynamics whenever needed. Premium subscription levels include voice-activated AI interaction and unlimited daily inquiries.

InvestingPro has integrated AI-powered capabilities including an AI-based stock selection tool and machine-generated insights for covered securities. These features represent valuable enhancements exceeding many competitor offerings. Nevertheless, InvestingPro’s AI functionality concentrates predominantly on data interpretation and valuation analysis rather than the interactive advisory experience KnockoutStocks delivers.

AI-Generated Stock Reports

KnockoutStocks produces immediate AI-generated stock analyses for any requested security on demand. Each analysis encompasses company profile, financial condition, essential metrics, market behavior, recent developments, and analyst perspectives — all compiled within seconds.

InvestingPro creates comprehensive stock evaluation reports covering financial health, valuation measurements, earnings forecasts, and analyst assessments. These reports contain substantial data and demonstrate strong organization. However, they emphasize raw financial statistics and may appear dense for investors preferring more condensed, streamlined research presentations.

Stock Picks

KnockoutStocks maintains a carefully selected, high-conviction equity portfolio personally chosen by its research analysts. Every holding earns inclusion through thorough research, sector evaluation, and practical investment reasoning based on fundamental strength, sustainable competitive positioning, and long-term growth prospects.

The portfolio receives continuous oversight with positions adjusted only when evidence justifies changes. Complete access to the Stock Picks section — including current positions, performance monitoring, and comprehensive rationale for every holding — is provided to Middleweight and Heavyweight subscribers.

InvestingPro features an AI-powered stock selection tool that produces investment ideas based on financial metrics and valuation frameworks. This represents a quantitatively-driven approach to opportunity identification rather than a manually curated portfolio with documented investment thesis. Investors seeking a researched, high-conviction selection with transparent reasoning behind each position will find KnockoutStocks more valuable in this category.

Fair Value and Valuation Tools

This category represents an area where InvestingPro demonstrates clear strength. Its intrinsic value calculations employ up to 14 distinct valuation methodologies including discounted cash flow analysis, price-to-earnings comparisons, and price-to-book assessments. For investors heavily emphasizing valuation analysis, this modeling depth is difficult to replicate.

KnockoutStocks integrates valuation considerations within its KO Score through profitability and growth components, but does not provide independent multi-model intrinsic value calculations. If comprehensive valuation analysis forms the cornerstone of your investment methodology, InvestingPro offers superior functionality in this specific domain.

Global Market Coverage

InvestingPro encompasses securities across international markets with information on thousands of companies globally. For investors regularly researching non-US equities, this geographical breadth represents a meaningful benefit.

KnockoutStocks concentrates on US equity markets. For domestically-focused investors this presents no constraint, but investors with substantial interest in international opportunities will find InvestingPro provides broader geographical access.

Stock Screener

KnockoutStocks includes a sophisticated screening tool with over 20 filtering parameters covering KO Score, market capitalization, price levels, trading volume, fundamental indicators, and technical measurements. Complete screener functionality is available on the free subscription tier.

InvestingPro offers a robust stock screening system with hundreds of filtering options covering financial metrics, valuation ratios, earnings information, and technical indicators across global markets. For investors wanting the most data-intensive screener available, InvestingPro’s tool ranks among the market’s most comprehensive. However, the extensive filter selection can feel overwhelming without a unified scoring framework to guide your search process.

Portfolio Tracking

KnockoutStocks features a complete portfolio monitoring system with live performance data, profit and loss calculation, and AI-enhanced portfolio evaluation. The Heavyweight subscription supports up to 100 securities per portfolio with unlimited portfolio creation and AI-generated portfolio assessments.

InvestingPro includes a portfolio monitoring tool that overlays financial strength scores, intrinsic value estimates, and analyst ratings onto your positions. It provides an institutional-quality perspective on your portfolio’s valuation and fundamental condition but lacks the AI-driven portfolio intelligence and real-time performance tracking that KnockoutStocks offers.

Alerts and Updates

KnockoutStocks delivers customized daily or weekly email notifications covering watchlist changes, top KO Score movements, earnings releases, analyst rating changes, and breaking developments tailored to your positions.

InvestingPro maintains a robust notification system covering price fluctuations, earnings announcements, analyst rating modifications, and financial strength score updates. The alerts are thorough and appropriate for investors monitoring numerous data points across extensive stock lists.

Pricing

KnockoutStocks provides three tiers. The free subscription includes complete screener access, one portfolio, five watchlist positions, one AI conversation weekly, and one AI stock analysis weekly. The Middleweight subscription costs $19.99 monthly with 10 AI queries daily and 10 AI analyses weekly. The Heavyweight subscription is $59.99 monthly with unlimited AI access, voice advisory, PDF reports, and CSV data exports.

InvestingPro pricing begins around $20 monthly for the entry-level subscription and increases to approximately $40 monthly for the Pro Plus tier with complete feature access. Annual payment significantly reduces costs. While competitive for professional-grade information, the platform’s complexity requires time investment to extract full subscription value.

Pros and Cons

KnockoutStocks

Pros

• KO Score provides rapid, comprehensive quality assessment across thousands of securities
• Integrated AI advisor for on-demand stock and portfolio inquiries
• Instant AI stock analyses available for any security at any time
• Curated high-conviction stock recommendations portfolio with complete research documentation
• Complete screener access on free subscription tier
• Robust portfolio monitoring with live data and AI evaluation
• Voice-activated AI advisor available on premium tier
• Customized news and alerts aligned with your holdings
• More streamlined, user-friendly platform interface

Cons

• US market concentration only — no international equity coverage
• No multi-model intrinsic value calculations
• Newer service still establishing long-term performance history
• Screener offers fewer total filtering parameters than InvestingPro

InvestingPro

Pros

• Extensive professional-grade financial datasets across international markets
• Multi-model intrinsic value calculations using up to 14 valuation approaches
• Comprehensive stock screening system with hundreds of filtering options
• Strong earnings projection and analyst coverage information
• Supported by the extensive Investing.com data infrastructure
• Excellent for investors wanting institutional-level raw datasets

Cons

• No dedicated interactive AI investment advisor
• No curated high-conviction stock recommendations portfolio
• Platform can appear complex and data-intensive for typical investors
• AI capabilities concentrate on data interpretation rather than investment advisory
• Portfolio monitoring lacks AI-enhanced analytical depth
• Demands considerable time commitment to utilize effectively
• Free tier provides very restricted meaningful functionality

Which Platform Is Best for Different Investors?

Use KnockoutStocks if you:

Want an integrated AI-powered research ecosystem covering stock evaluation, instant analyses, portfolio monitoring, and curated recommendations all within one platform. KnockoutStocks is designed to be your complete research environment without requiring advanced financial expertise to navigate effectively.

Want AI-enhanced capabilities on demand — posing questions about securities, receiving instant analyses, and evaluating your portfolio in conversational language without navigating through layers of raw financial datasets.

Want access to a meticulously researched, high-conviction stock recommendations portfolio built on solid fundamentals and long-term perspective. Middleweight and Heavyweight subscribers receive complete access including performance tracking and the investment thesis behind every position.

Are a US-focused investor seeking the most powerful combination of fundamental scoring, AI capabilities, and portfolio monitoring available in one streamlined, accessible platform.

Use InvestingPro if you:

Want access to extensive, professional-grade financial information across international markets and feel comfortable working through substantial volumes of financial metrics to develop your own investment conclusions.

Depend heavily on intrinsic value calculations and want multiple valuation frameworks applied to any researched security. InvestingPro’s multi-model valuation capability is among the best available to retail market participants.

Research international securities regularly and require comprehensive data coverage extending beyond US markets. InvestingPro’s global reach represents a considerable advantage for internationally-oriented investors.

Are an experienced investor or financial professional seeking institutional-level analytical tools and feel comfortable navigating a sophisticated, data-intensive platform.

Final Verdict

InvestingPro and KnockoutStocks both represent legitimate research platforms but they target different investor profiles.

InvestingPro excels in raw data comprehensiveness, international market accessibility, and valuation modeling. If you want the most exhaustive financial information available to retail investors and feel comfortable working through sophisticated metrics, InvestingPro delivers authentic professional-grade capabilities.

KnockoutStocks excels in accessibility, AI functionality, curated stock recommendations, and overall research efficiency. The KO Score eliminates data complexity with one transparent ranking, the AI advisor responds to your questions in real time, the instant stock analyses save substantial research time, and the curated recommendations provide a high-conviction foundation that InvestingPro does not provide.

For most investors in 2026 seeking a more intelligent, efficient, AI-enhanced research experience without the complexity of a professional data terminal — KnockoutStocks delivers greater practical utility daily. InvestingPro justifies its value for data-intensive investors wanting institutional-grade tools, but for an integrated, intelligent research platform that works for you rather than requiring you to work through it — KnockoutStocks represents the superior option.

The post KnockoutStocks vs InvestingPro: Best Stock Research Platform Comparison 2026 appeared first on Blockonomi.

American Bitcoin (ABTC) is expanding its Bitcoin mining operations by purchasing 11,298 new ASIC equipment.

The acquisition is expected to increase the company’s total capacity by 12%, supporting its strategy of accumulating BTC through mining operations.

The 12% Capacity Expansion

ABTC said in a March 3 press release that the new miners will add 3.05 exahash per second (EH/s) to its owned capacity, with the machines scheduled for deployment in March 2026 at the Drumheller site in Alberta, Canada.

Each unit is expected to operate at an efficiency rate of approximately 13.5 joules per terahash (J/TH), compared with the company’s current fleet average of 16 J/TH.

“As Bitcoin matures, the priority is clear: grow American-owned, professionally operated hashrate,” said co-founder Eric Trump. “That’s how we protect the network, drive innovation, and lead the future of Bitcoin in America.”

Following this purchase, American Bitcoin’s owned fleet will increase by 12% to 89,242 miners, representing about 28.1 EH/s of total owned capacity. The managed fleet contains all miners held by the company, including units that may not currently be operational.

Once the new equipment is online, the working fleet will comprise 58,999 miners delivering around 25.0 EH/s with an average efficiency of approximately 14.1 J/TH. For comparison, the largest publicly listed BTC miners currently operate at roughly 50 EH/s.

Bitcoin Accumulation Strategy

Matt Prusak, president of ABTC, said the company makes every decision to maximize its accumulation of the OG cryptocurrency. The miner firm previously reported that it ended 2025 with 5,041 BTC on its balance sheet, which has since grown to more than 6,000 BTC.

He also explained that the firm’s fleet strategy focuses on deploying high-efficiency hardware, optimizing energy costs, and maintaining the flexibility to scale operations in response to network and market conditions.

Following the recent deployment of high-efficiency machines, the company aims to produce BTC at a structurally advantaged cost basis and grow its total holdings per share through disciplined mining operations and capital allocation.

Meanwhile, the expansion comes when several public miners are redirecting capital and infrastructure toward AI workloads. Companies such as Core Scientific, Riot Platforms, Cipher Mining, and Bitdeer have repurposed parts of their data center capacity to support the technology.

American Bitcoin itself reported a net loss of $59.45 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, compared to a $3.48 million profit a year earlier.

For the three months ending December 31, the company’s revenue was $78.3 million, up from $64.2 million during the same period last year, but slightly lower than the $79.6 million analysts had anticipated.

The post Trump-Linked American Bitcoin Adds 11,298 ASICs, Boosts Hashrate appeared first on CryptoPotato.

KuCoin has received the highest proof-of-reserves (PoR) transparency score among major crypto exchanges, according to CryptoQuant’s latest annual Exchange Leader report.

The findings placed the Seychelles-based trading platform ahead of several larger rivals in a category that many traders view as central to assessing exchange solvency.

Report Ranks Exchanges on Reserves and Trading Activity

The report, which reviewed exchange performance across trading volume, reserve disclosures, and derivatives activity during 2025, shows KuCoin earning a PoR transparency score of 96.7 out of 100, the highest in the dataset.

KuCoin’s score reflects a monthly proof-of-reserves framework that allows users to verify their balances using Merkle-tree inclusion tools. The exchange also publishes wallet addresses and receives third-party attestations from security firm Hacken.

CryptoQuant said that the exchange had sent out more than 39 monthly reserve reports in a row, with the most recent one being on February 6, 2026. The reserve ratios for the assets that were made public were above 100%.

Bybit ranked second on the transparency scale with a score of 93.2, also supported by regular PoR disclosures and Hacken attestations. Kraken is placed in the A tier as well, though its quarterly reporting cycle reduced its score compared with the monthly reporting cadence of KuCoin and Bybit.

Meanwhile, larger exchanges scored lower in this category, with Binance receiving a score of 75.2, reflecting broad wallet disclosures and user balance verification tools but no full independent audit covering the exchange’s entire balance sheet.

Coinbase ranked much lower, with a score of 44.3, mainly because it does not publish comprehensive wallet address mappings or provide on-chain verification for customer balances.

The transparency ranking forms one component of CryptoQuant’s Exchange Leader Index, which measures platforms using six pillars: trading volume, reserves, proof-of-reserves transparency, trading mix balance, volume growth, and reserve growth. In the overall index, MEXC, Binance, and Bybit held the top three positions for 2025.

Derivatives Trading Dominates Exchange Activity

The report also examined trading patterns across major exchanges and found that most large platforms now record the majority of activity in derivatives markets rather than spot trading. MEXC, Bybit, Bitget, Binance, Gate, and Coinbase generated 70% to 90% of their volume from perpetual futures contracts.

However, KuCoin sits among exchanges with a more balanced mix between spot and derivatives trading. CryptoQuant placed it in a group with HTX and Kraken, where both segments contributed significant volumes rather than one dominating the other.

In overall trading size, Binance is still the largest exchange, processing about $32.4 trillion in annual trading volume during 2025. About $25 trillion of that amount came from the derivatives markets, and about $7 trillion came from spot trading.

Growth across the industry varied widely, with Gate recording the fastest expansion in derivatives activity, as perpetual futures volumes increased by more than 400% year over year. Coinbase also posted large percentage gains after completing its acquisition of Deribit and introducing Solana-based DEX trading, while MEXC nearly doubled its spot trading volumes during the same period.

The post CryptoQuant Names the Most Transparent Exchange for Reserves appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Although it remains the preferred safe-haven asset in times of exponentially increasing uncertainty, gold has seen a fair share of investor exodus, which was solidified by the largest US ETF tracking its performance last week.

At the same time, BTC-related funds ended the same week in the green, albeit Thursday and Friday were deep in the red again.

GLD Sees Biggest Outflow in Years

SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) is by far the largest ETF focused on the precious metal, with AUM of more than $174 billion as of March. To demonstrate its dominance in the gold market, the second in line, iShares Gold Trust (IAU), has nearly three times less AUM ($64 billion).

Data shared by the Kobeissi Letter, though, shows that GLD experienced a massive withdrawal on Wednesday, with $3 billion leaving the fund. This “surpasses any previous large daily inflow seen over the last 2 years by +200%,” said the analysts.

Meanwhile, the metal’s price dropped by 4.4% in just a day, which was its most sizeable correction since the January 30 crash when it plummeted by over 11%.

“This all follows global gold ETFs pulling in +$5.3 billion in February and +$18.7 billion in January, marking the 9th straight month of inflows and the best 2-month start to a year on record,” reads their post.

The analyst concluded that investors have locked in gains after the metal’s “historic rally.”

No Comparison With Bitcoin?

While the gold fund bled out on Wednesday, the spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their best day since February 25, with net inflows of $461.77 million. Monday ($458.19 million) and Tuesday ($225.15 million) were also in the green, but the week ended on the wrong foot, with net outflows of $227.83 million on Thursday and $348.83 million on Friday.

Nevertheless, the weekly net inflows were significantly higher as the funds attracted a total of $568.45 million. This makes it two consecutive weeks in the green after a violent five-week streak in which well over $2 billion was pulled out.

Although these numbers are significantly lower than those quoted for a single gold-backed fund, they still show that BTC is growing in institutional adoption. In fact, Crypto Rover posted an interesting chart showing that the BTC ETFs have enjoyed their first few years more than the gold funds in terms of net inflows.

Bitcoin ETF vs Gold ETF adoption…

Gold is no serious competitor to Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/EY1EU2mFIn

— Crypto Rover (@cryptorover) March 7, 2026

The post Capital Rotates? Largest Gold ETF Suffers Huge Outflow as BTC Funds Recover appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ethereum remains under broad pressure across higher timeframes, with the price still trading well below its major moving averages and inside a dominant bearish market structure. While the recent rebound from the February lows helped ETH stabilize around $1,900, the charts still suggest that buyers are struggling to reclaim any meaningful resistance, keeping the short-term outlook cautious for now.

Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily chart, ETH continues to trade beneath both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, which are still sloping downward and confirming that the broader trend remains bearish.

The asset is also respecting the descending structure that has been in place for months, and every recovery attempt so far has failed before reaching a proper trend reversal point. The market is currently hovering just above the key blue support zone around $1,800, which has acted as the main floor after the sharp February selloff.

At the same time, the upside remains capped by clear resistance levels at around $2,400 and then $2,800. Even though ETH managed to bounce from the local lows, the recovery has been weak and lacks strong continuation, which suggests that sellers are still active on rallies.

As long as the asset stays below the descending resistance and especially below the $2,400 area, the current move looks more like a relief rebound inside a broader downtrend than the start of a sustainable reversal.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart

On the 4-hour chart, ETH recently pushed into the $2,150 resistance region but got rejected quickly, forming a local lower high and confirming that this level remains an important ceiling in the short term. The RSI also printed an overbought signal near that rejection. Since then, the price has drifted back toward the mid-range around $1,950, showing a lack of aggressive buying interest after the failed breakout attempt.

This leaves ETH trapped in a relatively tight short-term range, with $1,800 still acting as the key support and $2,150 as the immediate resistance to reclaim.

A clean break below the lower boundary could open the door for the price to drop even deeper than the February lows, while a recovery above $2,150 would be the first signal that buyers are regaining some control. For now, however, the 4-hour structure still favors consolidation to bearish continuation unless buyers can force a stronger reclaim soon.

Sentiment Analysis

From a sentiment perspective, the Coinbase Premium Index is still a weak spot for Ethereum. Although the indicator has started to recover from the deeply negative readings seen in February, it remains around the neutral line and has not yet shown the kind of sustained positive premium that would signal strong spot demand from US investors. That suggests institutional and larger US-based buying interest is still tentative rather than decisive.

In other words, sentiment is no longer in outright capitulation territory, but it is also far from bullish confirmation. The improvement in the premium index is mildly constructive and may support the idea of local stabilization, yet it does not currently point to aggressive accumulation. Until this metric pushes firmly into positive territory and stays there, sentiment will likely remain neutral to slightly bearish, in line with the still fragile technical structure.

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH Warning as Bearish Structure Persists Despite Recent Relief Bounce appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin’s price nosedived from its October 2025 all-time high of over $126,000 to $60,000 by early February, posting a massive 52% decline. This put the asset in a bear market territory, at least according to most analysts, many of whom started to outline even more painful declines for BTC.

The situation worsened as Israel and the USA engaged in direct military conflict last week against Iran, and the cryptocurrency quickly tumbled to its local lows. However, it reversed its trajectory in the following days and rocketed to a monthly peak of $74,000.

Although it failed there, it still trades at around $70,000 as of now, which is more than 15% higher than its early February low. The question we decided to ask Gemini and ChatGPT is whether they believe BTC has already bottomed out during this cycle.

Bottom In?

ChatGPT began by admitting that such a 50%+ decline is “very normal for Bitcoin bull-cycle corrections,” and doesn’t necessarily mean that the asset is in a deep bear market phase. In fact, it noted that the $60,000 low “fits historically as a typical mid-cycle shakeout.”

It put the odds that the bottom is in at 45%, which would mean that the early February crash was the “final capitulation flush.” Some of the reasons supporting this narrative include the completion of a 50% correction, improvements in liquidity and overall sentiment, and a surge in strong buyers at those levels.

If this was indeed BTC’s bottom, the next stages would be a surge to $90,000 before it breaks the psychological $100,000 level. Then comes the “parabolic phase.” Its bold prediction here would be a massive run to a new all-time high between $180,000 and $220,000 this year.

Gemini also agreed to a large extent that the bottom might be in, suggesting that there have been a few leverage crashes already, and added:

“During that February low, Bitcoin’s momentum indicators and its distance from its 200-day moving average reached oversold levels we haven’t seen since the 2022 bear market or the FTX collapse. The selling pressure simply exhausted itself.”

No Bottom, Not Yet

Although both AIs suggested that the most likely scenarios are that BTC had already bottomed out, they left the door open for another correction, especially if the macro situation worsens.

Gemini said that investors have been rotating out of speculative tech stocks, lingering inflation concerns, and geopolitical tension, which means that the broader institutional appetite for risk-on assets “is currently shaky.”

ChatGPT gave a 20% chance for a “one last brutal flush” scenario, in which the bears resume control of the market and drive the leading cryptocurrency to fresh lows of somewhere between $48,000 and $52,000. However, it noted that there’s a very slight probability of an extreme panic wick to $42,000 but “such a move would likely be very short-lived.”

The post We Asked 2 AIs: Has Bitcoin (BTC) Already Bottomed Out in This Cycle? appeared first on CryptoPotato.