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The WGC's digital platform could revolutionize gold's role in finance, enhancing accessibility, liquidity, and integration into modern systems.

The post World Gold Council plans to build shared infrastructure platform for digital gold appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Kalshi has raised more than $1 billion at a $22 billion valuation, roughly double the $11 billion valuation from its December round.

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Anchorage Digital expanded Atlas with collateral management, aiming to bring regulated risk controls to institutional crypto lending.

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NASA may shift Artemis missions to SpaceX Starship, reducing Boeings role as delays and costs push changes to the moon program.

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Bitcoin Magazine

North Carolina Lawmakers Propose State Bitcoin Reserve

North Carolina lawmakers introduced legislation on Wednesday to create a state-controlled Bitcoin reserve. 

Senate Bill 327, titled the North Carolina Bitcoin Reserve and Investment Act, would allow the Office of the State Treasurer to allocate up to 10% of public funds into BTC as part of the state’s long-term financial strategy.

The bill, sponsored by Senators Johnson and Overcash, passed its first Senate reading and was referred to the Rules and Operations Committee. Its stated goals include establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, promoting BTC as a financial innovation, and positioning North Carolina as a leader in state-level crypto adoption.

Under the proposal, the Treasurer would manage the reserve using cold storage wallets with multi-signature authentication. 

A new department within the Treasurer’s office would take custody of the assets, ensuring state control. The bill also calls for a Bitcoin Economic Advisory Board composed of industry experts to provide guidance and monthly audits to verify reserve balances, security, and performance.

Bitcoin acquisitions would be conducted through regulated U.S.-based exchanges, with bulk purchases timed to take advantage of market conditions. The bill also directs the Treasurer to explore BTC mining operations as a potential method to increase state holdings.

Use of the reserve would be restricted to severe financial crises, approved investment strategies, funding for critical infrastructure and economic development projects, and support for Bitcoin-related research, education, and business incentives.

Any liquidation of BTC would require approval from at least two-thirds of both chambers of the General Assembly. The bill allows the reserve to back bonds as an alternative financing tool for public projects.

The Treasurer would submit quarterly reports to the General Assembly detailing the reserve’s status, value, and performance.

Reports would also be publicly available on the Treasurer’s website, according to the bill’s text. The bill includes provisions to comply with federal and state laws regarding cryptocurrency holdings and taxation and encourages advocacy for federal regulations favorable to Bitcoin.

U.S. states want Bitcoin

Several U.S. states are exploring or have implemented BTC reserves as part of state treasury strategies. 

Texas, New Hampshire, and Arizona have enacted laws allowing portions of state funds to be allocated to Bitcoin, while Maryland, Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina, Michigan, South Dakota, Illinois, Tennessee and Missouri have introduced legislation proposing similar reserves. 

Other states, including Oklahoma, Utah, and Pennsylvania, have considered bills that remain in committee, while proposals in Wyoming, Montana, and Florida have stalled or been rejected. These efforts reflect a growing trend to use BTC as a potential store-of-value hedge and diversify state financial assets.

This post North Carolina Lawmakers Propose State Bitcoin Reserve first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Adam Back Confirmed As A Bitcoin 2026 Speaker

Adam Back has been officially confirmed as a speaker at Bitcoin 2026, returning to the conference as one of the few people in the world whose contributions to Bitcoin predate Bitcoin itself. As Co-Founder and CEO of Blockstream and CEO of Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company (BSTR), Back comes to Las Vegas operating at the intersection of Bitcoin infrastructure and capital markets like never before.

In 1997, Back invented Hashcash — a proof-of-work system originally built to combat email spam that became the direct technical foundation for Bitcoin’s mining process. Satoshi Nakamoto cited Back by name in the Bitcoin white paper, writing that the network would need “a proof-of-work system similar to Adam Back’s Hashcash.” Before the genesis block was ever mined, Satoshi emailed Back directly.

Blockstream, which Back co-founded in 2014, develops Bitcoin infrastructure across three areas: consumer self-custody tools including the open-source Jade hardware wallet, enterprise settlement and asset issuance on the Liquid Network, and institutional products through Blockstream Asset Management — with with Liquid Network closing 2025 with close to $5 billion in TVL. At Bitcoin 2025, Back framed the company’s direction: “We’re laser-focused on Bitcoin. At Blockstream, we are here to provide the infrastructure to enable that.”

On the capital markets side, Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company has entered into a definitive agreement to go public through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners I (CEPO), structured with 30,021 BTC on its balance sheet and up to $1.5 billion in PIPE financing — the largest ever announced alongside a Bitcoin treasury SPAC merger. As of March 2026, BSTR is awaiting completion of the de-SPAC process, with shareholder approval targeted as early as April, after which the combined company is expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker “BSTR.”

From inventing the proof-of-work system that makes Bitcoin possible, to building the infrastructure layer on top of it, to now bringing over 30,000 BTC to public markets — Back’s is unlike anyone else on the Bitcoin 2026 stage. His appearance at The Venetian this April will be one of the most technically credible perspectives at the conference on where Bitcoin’s protocol, infrastructure, and capital markets are all heading at once.

Bitcoin 2026 Returns to Las Vegas Bigger Than Ever

Bitcoin 2026 will take place April 27–29 at The Venetian, Las Vegas, and is expected to be the biggest Bitcoin event of the year.

Focused on the future of money, Bitcoin 2026 will bring together Bitcoin builders, investors, miners, policymakers, technologists, and newcomers from around the world. The event will feature a wide range of pass types, including general admission passes designed specifically for those new to Bitcoin, alongside premium passes for professionals, enterprises, and institutions.

With multiple stages, immersive experiences, technical workshops, and headline keynotes, Bitcoin 2026 is designed to serve both first-time attendees and long-time Bitcoiners shaping the next era of global adoption.

Past Bitcoin Conferences in the U.S.

Bitcoin’s flagship conference has scaled dramatically over the past five years:

• 2021 – Miami: 11,000 attendees
• 2022 – Miami: 26,000 attendees
• 2023 – Miami: 15,000 attendees
• 2024 – Nashville: 22,000 attendees
• 2025 – Las Vegas: 35,000 attendees

Get Your Bitcoin 2026 Pass

Bitcoin Magazine readers can save 10% on Bitcoin 2026 tickets using code ‘ARTICLE10‘ at checkout.

Stay at The official hotel of Bitcoin 2026, The Venetian, and get a guaranteed low rate plus 15% off your pass. Hotel Prices increase soon, be in the middle of where the fun is all happening, and where the networking never ends.

And don’t forget:

Volunteer at Bitcoin 2026 and get Pro Pass access plus exclusive perks.

All students ages 13+ can apply for a Student Pass and get free general admission access to Bitcoin 2026.

Location: The Venetian, Las Vegas
Dates: April 27–29, 2026

For more information and exclusive offers, visit the Bitcoin Conference on X here.

Why Attend Bitcoin 2026?

Bitcoin 2026 is the definitive gathering for anyone serious about the future of money. With 500+ speakers, multiple world-class stages, and programming spanning Bitcoin fundamentals, open-source development, enterprise adoption, mining, energy, AI, policy, and culture, the conference brings every corner of the Bitcoin ecosystem together under one roof.

From headline keynotes on the Nakamoto Stage to deep technical sessions for builders, institutional strategy discussions for enterprises, and beginner-friendly Bitcoin 101 education, Bitcoin 2026 is designed for everyone—from first-time attendees to the leaders shaping Bitcoin’s global adoption.

Whether you’re looking to learn, build, invest, network, or influence, Bitcoin 2026 is where Bitcoin’s next chapter is written.

Bitcoin 2026 Pass Types: Something for Everyone

Bitcoin 2026 offers a range of pass options designed to meet the needs of newcomers, professionals, enterprises, and high-net-worth Bitcoiners alike.

Bitcoin 2026 General Admission Pass

Ideal for newcomers and those looking to experience the heart of the conference.

• Limited access on Days 2 & 3
• Entry to Main Stage
• Access to Genesis Stage
• Full access to the Expo Hall

Bitcoin 2026 Pro Pass

Designed for professionals, operators, and serious Bitcoin participants.

Includes all General Admission features, plus:

• Full 3-day access, including Pro Day
• Entry to the Pro Pass Reception
• Access to Enterprise Hall, Enterprise Stage, and Networking Lounge
• Conference App networking features
• Access to the Bitcoin For Corporations Symposium
• Entry to Compute Village and Energy Stage
• Complimentary lunch, coffee, tea, and snacks
• Dedicated registration and check-in
• Reserved seating at Main Stage
• Huge savings when you bundle your hotel and Pro Pass

Bitcoin 2026 Whale Pass

The all-inclusive, premium Bitcoin 2026 experience.

Includes all Pro Pass features, plus:

• Reserved seating at Main Stage
• All-inclusive gourmet food and beverages
• Entry to Whale Night and Whale Reception
• Access to all official after-parties
• Networking app access to connect with other Whales
• Premium access to The Deep — an exclusive networking lounge with intimate speaker sessions
• Complimentary stay at The Venetian when you bundle your whale pass and hotel (use promo code ‘WHALEHOTEL’ here)

This is the most immersive way to experience Bitcoin 2026.

Bitcoin 2026 After Hours Pass

Your ticket to the night.

Most deals are done with a drink in your hand. Get exclusive access to 3 official Bitcoin 2026 after-parties across Las Vegas — each with a 2-hour open bar — where the real conversations happen and the best connections are made.

• Access to 3 official Bitcoin 2026 after-parties
• 2-hour open bar at each event
• Evening events across Las Vegas, April 27–29
• Network with Bitcoiners, builders, and industry leaders after hours

More headline speaker announcements are coming soon.

Don’t miss Bitcoin 2026.

This post Adam Back Confirmed As A Bitcoin 2026 Speaker first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Jenna Montgomery.

Bitcoin Magazine

Despite a 47% Price Drop, Bitcoin Traders Aren’t Selling

Bitcoin faced a dramatic market correction in early 2026, plunging 46% from its $126,000 all-time high and briefly dipping below $61,000 on February 6. 

The drop erased over $1 trillion in market value and prompted headlines warning of a defining crypto moment. Social media feeds filled with reactions, yet most holders remained on the sidelines.

A survey by Oobit of 1,006 American Bitcoin holders and sentiment analysis of 117,630 posts across 10 major crypto subreddits reveals that fear did not translate into widespread selling. 

Anxiety and hope dominated emotional responses, with 39% of holders reporting anxiety and 38% hope. 

Despite the turbulence, 69% of respondents had neither sold their holdings nor planned to, demonstrating what the community often calls “diamond hands.” Only 8% were classified as true panic sellers.

Among anxious holders, 72% still intended to hold, and 64% of fearful holders expressed the same. 

Overall, 75% would maintain their positions even if prices continued to fall. The survey indicates that fear and hope often coexist: 86% of respondents reported experiencing both emotions while holding their Bitcoin, according to the survey.

A Bitcoin recovering is coming

Investors are also anticipating a recovery. Two-thirds of holders (66%) expect Bitcoin to reach a new all-time high, with the median 12-month price forecast at $75,000. 

Expectations varied across demographics: Gen Z participants were most bullish at 70%, compared with 60% of baby boomers. High-income holders ($100,000+) predicted a median price of $80,000, while those earning less than $100,000 forecasted $72,000.

Market behavior during the downturn also included opportunistic buying. Roughly 25% of holders purchased Bitcoin during the dip, with younger and higher-income investors more active in buying.

Reddit sentiment mirrored the survey’s findings. Across 117,630 posts, positive sentiment outweighed negative nearly 2-to-1. 

Bitcoin prices recovered faster than sentiment. By February 12, the market had rebounded to $66,221, though online sentiment trailed, reflecting ongoing emotional processing among holders. 

The data suggests that investors react on conviction as much as price, with sentiment volatility roughly one-third that of price volatility during the downturn.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $70,400 after briefly trading above $75,000 this week. 

Yesterday, Bitcoin fell below $70,000, trading near $69,500, as rising energy prices and a firm Federal Reserve stance strengthened the dollar and weighed on risk assets.

The drop coincided with Brent crude surpassing $114 per barrel amid Middle East tensions, driving broader market weakness and a roughly 4% decline in Bitcoin over 24 hours.

This post Despite a 47% Price Drop, Bitcoin Traders Aren’t Selling first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust to Trade as MSBT on NYSE Arca

Morgan Stanley has confirmed that its proposed spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund will trade under the ticker MSBT on NYSE Arca, according to an updated filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing outlines the structure of the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, a passive investment vehicle designed to track the spot price of bitcoin through direct holdings. 

Shares of the trust will reflect the value of bitcoin held in custody, offering exposure through brokerage accounts without requiring direct ownership of the asset.

The trust plans to seed the fund by issuing 50,000 shares, expected to raise about $1 million in initial proceeds.

The ticker MSBT places the product alongside other spot bitcoin ETFs that launched following regulatory approvals in 2024, a shift that opened the market to traditional financial institutions.

Morgan Stanley has also appointed Coinbase Custody Trust Company as the primary bitcoin custodian. The firm will safeguard the digital assets and facilitate transfers tied to share creation and redemption. Most of the bitcoin will be held in cold storage, where private keys remain offline.

BNY Mellon will serve multiple roles, including administrator, transfer agent, and cash custodian. The bank will handle accounting, shareholder records, and cash management for the trust.

The structure follows a model used across the spot bitcoin ETF market. A portion of the fund’s holdings may move into trading wallets during periods of share creation or redemption, when authorized participants exchange cash for bitcoin or redeem shares for the underlying asset.

The filing states that custody insurance is in place but shared across multiple clients and may not cover all losses. Similar disclosures appear in other ETF filings, reflecting standard industry practice as asset managers expand into direct bitcoin exposure.

Key details remain undisclosed, including the management fee and expense ratio. These figures often play a role in investor demand, particularly in a market where fee competition among issuers has intensified.

Morgan Stanley is embracing bitcoin

Morgan Stanley first filed for the bitcoin trust in January. The latest update confirms operational details and brings the product closer to launch, pending effectiveness of the registration statement and final regulatory approval.

The move marks a deeper push by the bank into digital assets. Morgan Stanley has signaled plans to expand beyond ETFs, with efforts underway to integrate crypto trading into its E*Trade platform. The firm has also explored custody, lending, and yield-related services tied to digital assets.

At Strategy World, digital asset strategy head Amy Oldenburg described further expansion as part of the firm’s roadmap, pointing to client demand for integrated crypto services.

She said the bank intends to develop a fully integrated custody and exchange platform.

“This is a natural progression,” the executive said. “We can’t just primarily rent the technology to do this. People expect Morgan Stanley – they trust our brand – to be no fail.

This post Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust to Trade as MSBT on NYSE Arca first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin’s Quantum Risk May Be Real, But the Network Is Preparing: Report

Galaxy Digital’s latest report says the risk that quantum computing could compromise Bitcoin is real, but so is the work underway to protect the network.

The firm’s research frames the issue as a long-term engineering and governance challenge rather than an imminent crisis, with developers already building tools that could reshape how the network secures trillions in value.

At the center of the concern is a simple premise. Bitcoin relies on cryptographic signatures to prove ownership of coins. Those signatures, based on elliptic curve cryptography, are considered secure against classical computers. 

How Quantum Computing could break Bitcoin

A sufficiently advanced quantum machine could break that assumption, allowing an attacker to derive a private key from a public one and spend funds without authorization.

The scenario has a name within the industry: “Q-day,” the moment a cryptographically relevant quantum computer becomes viable. The timeline remains uncertain. Estimates range from years to decades, and no consensus exists among experts. The report stresses that uncertainty itself is the problem. Bitcoin’s decentralized structure means upgrades take time, often measured in years, not months.

Still, the risk is uneven. Most Bitcoin is not exposed today. 

Wallets only reveal their public keys when funds are spent, meaning coins sitting untouched behind hashed addresses remain shielded. 

Vulnerability emerges in two main cases: coins whose public keys are already visible onchain, and coins in transit during a transaction.

Which Bitcoin is actually at risk

Galaxy cites estimates suggesting that millions of bitcoin could fall into the first category, including funds tied to early network activity and long-dormant wallets. 

These coins, often associated with early adopters and even the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, present a unique challenge. If quantum capabilities arrive before protective measures are deployed, such holdings could become prime targets.

The implications extend beyond individual losses. A sudden unlocking of dormant supply could ripple through markets, placing pressure on price and, by extension, on mining incentives that underpin Bitcoin’s security. The report frames this as a systemic risk, not just a technical flaw.

Yet the tone of the research is measured. Rather than signaling alarm, it points to a growing body of work aimed at preparing the network. Among the most prominent proposals is a new transaction structure known as Pay-to-Merkle-Root, outlined in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360. 

The design removes a key exposure point by eliminating always-visible public keys, reducing the attack surface for long-term threats.

Other ideas take a broader approach. One proposal, known as “Hourglass,” attempts to manage the fallout from vulnerable coins by limiting how quickly they can be spent in a worst-case scenario. The goal is not to prevent access, but to slow it, giving markets time to absorb potential shocks.

There is also movement toward new forms of cryptography. Hash-based signature schemes, such as SPHINCS+, have emerged as candidates for a post-quantum future. These systems rely on mathematical assumptions different from those used today and are viewed by some researchers as a more conservative foundation. 

Post-Quantum cryptography brings tradeoffs

The tradeoff is efficiency. Larger signatures could increase transaction sizes and strain network resources.

In parallel, developers are exploring contingency plans. One proposal introduces a commit-and-reveal process that could protect transactions even if a quantum breakthrough occurs before new cryptography is deployed. Another line of research looks at zero-knowledge proofs to allow users to verify ownership of funds without exposing sensitive data.

Taken together, these efforts suggest a layered defense. No single fix solves the problem. Instead, the strategy resembles a toolkit, with protections aimed at different stages of exposure and different levels of urgency.

The harder question may not be technical. Bitcoin has no central authority to mandate changes. Every upgrade requires coordination among developers, miners, exchanges, and users. Past changes, including major upgrades like SegWit and Taproot, took years to activate and often sparked intense debate.

Quantum preparedness could prove even more complex. Some proposals touch on sensitive issues, including whether coins that fail to migrate to safer formats should lose spendability. Such ideas raise philosophical questions about property rights and the social contract embedded in the network.

Even so, the report points to a key difference from past conflicts. Quantum risk is external. It does not divide the community along economic lines or competing visions for Bitcoin’s future. Instead, it presents a shared threat. 

Every participant, from long-term holders to infrastructure providers, has an incentive to maintain the network’s security.

In the end, the report suggests that the outcome will hinge less on whether quantum computers arrive and more on whether a decentralized network can coordinate in time. 

The answer, as with much of Bitcoin’s history, will emerge through slow consensus rather than sudden change.

This post Bitcoin’s Quantum Risk May Be Real, But the Network Is Preparing: Report first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

The Fed kept rates unchanged at 3.50%-3.75% on Mar. 18, lifted its 2026 inflation projections to 2.7% for both headline and core PCE, and held to a median year-end fed-funds path of 3.4%.

Chair Jerome Powell said higher energy prices will push up overall inflation in the near term and that the implications of events in the Middle East are uncertain.

One day later, the ECB held its deposit rate at 2.00% but revised its 2026 inflation forecast to 2.6% from 1.9%, with officials believing that the baseline is already outdated by the energy shock, with rate-hike discussions potentially starting at the Apr. 29-30 meeting and action more plausible at the June 10-11 meeting.

Bitcoin reached an intraday low below $69,000 on Mar. 19, below the psychological $70,000 threshold before recovering overnight.

The sequence breaks a narrative that has supported risk assets for months: that major central banks were delaying cuts by a quarter or two.

Markets are now entirely repricing the developed-world policy path. Traders have pushed Fed easing expectations to roughly 14 basis points by December, less than a single quarter-point cut, while fully pricing in two ECB hikes this year, with better-than-even odds of a third.

The Bank of England, which kept its Bank Rate at 3.75%, now trades with a higher probability of a hike than a cut. Bitcoin's battle with $70,000 is the fastest visible readout of that liquidity recalculation.

Oil forces the reset

The Fed's March SEP already showed discomfort. The median 2026 fed funds rate remained at 3.4%, versus a current midpoint of 3.625%, implying only one cut in the baseline path.

The longer-run rate rose to 3.1% from 3.0% in December. Powell's opening statement was explicit: “In the near term, higher energy prices will push up overall inflation.”

The Middle East conflict entered its fourth week with no clear resolution, and Brent crude briefly rose above $119 on Mar. 19 before pulling back.

The ECB's official baseline assumed a Brent price of $81.30 for 2026, with one ECB source reportedly saying that oil around $110 already makes that assumption stale, and another citing $200 oil as the kind of trigger that could force an April move.

The ECB's staff scenarios, published alongside the decision, provide a clearer picture of the scale of the risk.

The baseline assumes oil around $90 in the second quarter of 2026. The adverse scenario peaks near $119.

The severe scenario peaks near $145, lifting euro-area inflation by 1.8% in 2026 and 2.8% in 2027 relative to baseline, which would take headline inflation to 4.4% in 2026 and 4.8% in 2027.

Related Reading

Iran conflict could push oil to $150 and crash Bitcoin up to 45%

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Mar 6, 2026 · Gino Matos

The IMF's rule of thumb offers outside validation: every sustained 10% rise in energy prices for about a year can add 0.4% to global inflation and cut output by 0.1%- 0.2%.

That quantifies why central banks are now less comfortable “looking through” this shock than they were with earlier commodity spikes.

Bank of America had noted on Mar. 16 that a quick resolution could put Brent near $70. Still, the path toward $85 for a longer disruption or $130 for a prolonged conflict now looks more consistent with the energy market's direction.

Bitcoin as a liquidity barometer

Bitcoin's behavior over the past 48 hours tracks macro sensitivity.

The Fed lifted inflation projections, kept only one cut in its median path, and Powell flagged energy as a near-term headwind.

The ECB raised its inflation forecast, published severe scenarios implying a much uglier inflation trajectory if energy disruption persists, and then some officials already view the baseline as obsolete.

Traders responded by repricing the entire developed-market rate path, and Bitcoin moved first.

The bull case for Bitcoin assumes that diplomatic de-escalation restores energy flows faster than feared, that oil retreats sharply, and that markets decide the March hawkish turn was a war premium rather than a durable policy reset.

Bank of America's quick-resolution path pointed to Brent near $70, though that scenario appears less plausible given the Mar. 19 escalation. In that setup, Bitcoin can confirm a hold above $70,000 and work back toward the mid-$70,000s.

The case depends on central banks returning to a clearly dovish tilt, which requires the energy shock to fade.

The bear case assumes oil stays above current ECB assumptions, the June ECB meeting turns live, and markets fully abandon 2026 Fed easing. Bitcoin then tests the low- to mid-$60,000s.

Citi's recession case target of $58,000 serves as the cleanest outside anchor for that downside path.

If the discount rate for risky assets stays higher for longer, Bitcoin loses one of its cleanest cyclical tailwinds, even without any crypto-native negative catalyst.

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Mar 18, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Central banks relearn a 2022 lesson

Energy shocks do not remain confined to the energy line if they are large enough and persistent enough, and arrive when inflation is not yet fully dead.

The ECB's scenario work explicitly assumes stronger indirect and second-round effects than standard models normally produce. The Fed's own projections now show inflation at 2.7% in 2026 for both headline and core, well above the 2% target.

The BoE's public explainer says higher energy prices will push inflation above expectations this year, that the impact will be greater the longer the war lasts, and that policymakers will do what is necessary to keep inflation on track.

Some investors now see the odds of a Fed hike by year-end creeping higher. That tail repricing hits Bitcoin first because it sits at the intersection of liquidity, risk appetite, and narrative momentum.

Central banks that spent months preparing markets for easing are now updating their frameworks under an energy shock that refuses to behave like a transient supply disruption.

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Retail is rushing into gold, but institutions are buying Bitcoin again – so why the split?

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Mar 19, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Bitcoin's dip below $70,000 is the market's fastest visible expression of that recalibration.

The asset is behaving less like an idiosyncratic crypto story and more like a liquidity-sensitive macro barometer, with its policy tailwind being repriced away.

June is the more plausible action window for the ECB, as April would require a further surge in energy prices. Either way, the old “cuts are just delayed a quarter” story is dead.

Bitcoin is now trading on the global realization that the next move from major central banks may not be cuts at all.

The post Bitcoin defies drop below $70,000 as oil turns into a central-bank problem appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Retail investors became the main force behind gold-fund buying over the past six months, helping extend bullion’s rise even as some institutional money started to step back.

At the same time, fresh inflows into US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) show part of Wall Street rebuilding crypto exposure through the regulated ETF channel, setting up a split in how investors are responding to the same backdrop of war, inflation pressure, and shifting rate expectations.

The divergence offers a clearer view of investor behavior than either market does alone. Essentially, households have leaned on gold as the traditional store of value, while professional capital has shown renewed willingness to buy Bitcoin after a weak start to the year.

The result is a market in which gold and Bitcoin are no longer moving as simple rivals for the same defensive trade, but as separate expressions of different risk appetites.

Retail takes the wheel in gold accumulation

The Bank for International Settlements laid out the shift in unusually direct terms in its March quarterly review.

In a section on the late-January and February break in precious metals, the BIS said fund-flow data showed retail investors were the main source of inflows into gold and silver funds, while institutional investors “maintained stable positions or even trimmed exposure.”

The chart accompanying the analysis showed cumulative retail inflows into gold funds climbing to roughly $60 billion by the first quarter of 2026, up from about $20 billion in late 2025, while institutional flows stayed near flat and then turned negative.

The BIS tied the move to a broader run-up that stretched through 2025 and into early 2026. Gold and silver rose sharply before reversing in late January and February, a swing the BIS said was amplified by retail participation through ETFs, daily rebalancing by leveraged products, and margin-driven selling.

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Dec 12, 2025 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Silver, which had doubled in 2025 and then risen more than 50% in January alone, fell about 30% in a single day in late January. Gold followed the same pattern with smaller moves.

The fund-flow picture helps explain how gold continued to attract money even as prices became harder to chase.

World Gold Council data show that physically backed gold ETFs pulled in $19 billion in January, the strongest month on record, then added another $5.3 billion in February, marking a ninth straight month of inflows.

Total holdings rose to 4,171 metric tons in February, while assets under management reached a record $701 billion.

Those totals show demand remained broad, but the BIS breakdown suggests retail investors were doing more of the incremental buying.

The institutional bid starts to soften

What changed in March was not the long-run case for gold, but the willingness of some larger investors to keep adding at the same pace.

Earlier this month, investors pulled more than $4 billion from GLD, the largest gold-backed ETF. Notably, this was the largest weekly outflow in its 20 years of existence.

By a week later, spot gold had fallen rapidly to around $4,611 an ounce, its lowest level since early February.

According to goldprice.org data, this extends a seven-session losing streak as higher oil prices and inflation fears pushed expectations toward tighter monetary policy.

Higher-for-longer rates have always been a problem for bullion because gold yields nothing, and the recent slide turned that old relationship back into the main driver.

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Jan 28, 2026 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

Reuters reported that analysts at Commerzbank pointed to more restrictive policy expectations as the key reason gold had come under pressure, while TD Securities said institutional positioning had grown large during the past year’s “debasement trade” and that the foundations of that trade were weakening.

In other words, gold’s buyers changed just as the macro case became harder to hold in a straight line.

Still, the institutional retreat should not be overstated.

The World Gold Council said North America added $7 billion to gold ETFs in January and another $4.7 billion in February, both part of a sustained run of inflows tied to geopolitical risk and demand for defensive assets. Europe was the weak point in February, with $1.8 billion of outflows, much of it tied to redemptions after the late-January sell-off.

This means that institutions were trimming their exposure at the margin and not abandoning the precious metal outright.

Bitcoin draws fresh money

While gold’s institutional bid began to look less certain, Bitcoin started attracting money again through the market’s main institutional access point.

Data compiled by Farside Investors show US spot Bitcoin ETFs absorbed about $1.16 billion in net inflows from March 9 through March 17. Notably, this was the strongest inflow streak since last October.

The streak included daily net additions of $246.9 million on March 10, $180.4 million on March 13, and $199.4 million on both March 16 and March 17.

However, that run paused on March 18 with a $163.5 million outflow, but the direction of travel had already been established, with BTC price reaching as high as above $75,000 during the streak.

While those ETF flows do not prove a wholesale institutional embrace of crypto, they are the clearest evidence that professional money has started moving back toward Bitcoin after months of caution.

This is further corroborated by Bitwise data, which shows that Bitcoin’s latest institutional demand extends beyond ETF inflows.

Related Reading

Bitcoin shrugs off oil surge and geopolitical tension, setting up potential push toward $80k

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Mar 12, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

André Dragosch, Bitwise Europe’s head of research, said in a post on X that institutional demand had accelerated to its highest level since October 2025.

His one-month tally showed that Bitcoin ETPs added 34,400 BTC and treasury companies added 46,800 BTC, including 46,400 BTC from Strategy alone, for a combined 81,200 BTC.

Against a new monthly supply of about 13,300 BTC, that meant institutions bought about six times as much Bitcoin as miners produced over the same period.

Meanwhile, Coinbase’s latest institutional survey points out the institution's strong conviction in the top crypto.

In a January survey of 351 institutional decision-makers conducted with EY-Parthenon, 74% of the respondents said they expect crypto prices to rise over the next 12 months, and 73% said they plan to increase digital-asset allocations in 2026.

The same report said the share of firms allocating more than 5% of assets under management to digital assets is expected to rise from 18% to 29% by the end of 2026.

Those figures suggest Wall Street’s return to Bitcoin is no longer visible only through the ETF wrapper. It is also showing up in corporate treasury accumulation and in survey data pointing to larger planned allocations.

What does this shift mean for gold and BTC?

The flow split suggests that gold and Bitcoin are attracting different types of buyers across different parts of the same macro trade.

Gold remains the first choice for retail investors seeking a store of value during periods of war, inflation, and interest-rate uncertainty. Its long history, deep liquidity, and lower day-to-day volatility keep it attractive to households and fund buyers seeking protection without taking on the price swings common in crypto markets.

Bitcoin, by contrast, is regaining ground with institutions willing to treat it as a scarce, liquid asset with higher upside and higher risk.

The recent pickup in ETP demand, treasury-company accumulation, and survey data pointing to larger planned allocations suggest that professional investors are becoming more comfortable adding exposure as supply conditions tighten and access improves through regulated products.

For markets, the implication is that gold and Bitcoin are no longer competing in a simple zero-sum way.

Gold can continue to attract defensive retail flows even if institutional money slows, while Bitcoin can benefit from corporate buying and portfolio reallocation even if it remains more sensitive to policy signals and liquidity conditions.

In the near term, gold looks positioned to hold its role as a hedge, while Bitcoin is increasingly trading as an institutional scarcity asset.

The post Retail is rushing into gold, but institutions are buying Bitcoin again – so why the split? appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Coinbase is directing some Commerce users to a seed-phrase recovery flow ahead of a March 31 migration deadline.

The issue sits inside Coinbase’s shutdown plan for legacy Commerce wallets. In its transition guide, Coinbase says users with funds in a Commerce wallet must withdraw them before March 31, 2026, when the Commerce portal and withdrawal tool will become inaccessible.

For users who backed up their wallet to Google Drive, Coinbase says they should go to the Commerce dashboard, open Settings and Security, reveal the 12-word seed phrase, and use the withdrawal tool at withdraw.commerce.coinbase.com.

Coinbase says the process is especially important for merchants that received Bitcoin or other UTXO-based assets because balances may otherwise be hard to surface in standard wallets.

A seed phrase is the master recovery key for a self-custody wallet. Coinbase’s own wallet documentation describes it as a 12-word recovery phrase that only the user has access to.

Whoever controls that phrase controls access to the wallet and its funds. Lose it, and access to funds can be lost. Expose it, and funds in the wallet can be drained.

That is where the contradiction becomes hard to miss. Coinbase’s wallet guidance tells users never to share a recovery phrase, says the firm will never ask for it, and adds a separate warning: “Never paste it into any website.”

Yet the Commerce transition guide tells some users to reveal the same phrase as part of an official Coinbase-hosted recovery path.

The company’s explanation is that Commerce wallets are self-custodial, and Coinbase does not have access to the phrase or the funds, which leaves users responsible for recovery before the shutdown.

Security researchers see a phishing template

Nonetheless, this Coinbase demand has rung the alarm bells for many security experts, who are criticizing the platform for the behavior its page teaches users to accept.

Blockchain security firm SlowMist founder Yu Xian said he was puzzled that Coinbase would host a page asking users to enter a mnemonic phrase in plain text for asset recovery and said the practice was so insecure that he first wondered whether the subdomain had been hacked.

The warning sharpened the core criticism around the page: an official brand, an urgent deadline, and a seed-phrase workflow combine into a format attackers regularly mimic.

Meanwhile, SlowMist chief information security officer 23pds wrote on X that there were “two issues” with the flow. First, he said:

“While the link is from the official Coinbase website, directly asking users to transmit their mnemonic phrase to verify assets is extremely foolish.”

Secondly, he noted that the site had a flawed sitemap that could let attackers copy the front end and deploy a near-clone on a lookalike domain, creating a strong phishing lure for users already primed to trust the Coinbase version.

Additionally, blockchain investigator ZachXBT further pressed on that point even more directly. In a post on X, he wrote:

“So basically Coinbase has an official page live threat actors can use to target Coinbase users via seed phrase social engineering if they wanted?”

Their concerns are unsurprising, considering phishing and social engineering scams remain one of the most potent attack vectors against the crypto industry.

Last year, ZachXBT revealed that Coinbase users lose more than $300 million annually due to social engineering scams.

This captures why the Commerce flow has triggered such a strong reaction. Security teams have spent years teaching users that any request involving a seed phrase is the start of a scam.

However, a Coinbase-owned page handling the same phrase could change the visual and behavioral cues users have been taught to rely on.

Coinbase’s breach history hangs over the debate

Meanwhile, the security debate lands harder because Coinbase is already dealing with the aftereffects of past social-engineering incidents.

In May 2025, Coinbase reported that cybercriminals bribed a group of overseas support agents to steal customer data for social-engineering attacks.

The Brian Armstrong-led exchange said the attackers obtained account data for fewer than 1% of monthly transacting users and used it to compile lists of customers they could contact, pretending to be from the platform.

The company said no private keys were exposed and pledged to reimburse customers who were tricked into sending funds to attackers.

Apart from that, the company also has an earlier breach record.

Coinbase said in its 2024 annual report that in 2021, third parties obtained login credentials and personal information for at least 6,000 customers and used those details to exploit a vulnerability in the account recovery process. The firm said it reimbursed impacted customers about $25.1 million.

That history raises the stakes around any official workflow that asks users to handle a seed phrase on a live web page.

Security researchers warn that such a branded interface that normalizes seed-phrase entry will further boost phishing and impersonation attacks, which remain among the industry’s most effective attack methods.

The post Coinbase tells users to follow ‘foolish’ steps scammers use to withdraw funds from wallets appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Metaverse land never recovered. The numbers now show how far it fell

The biggest metaverse land deals of the 2021 and 2022 boom now map to four- and five-digit values when priced against current collection floors, rather than the six- and seven-figure valuations buyers once paid.

The decline runs through the entire metaverse land trade. A CoinGecko study found that average metaverse land prices were already down 72% from their highs by June 2024, with Sandbox off 95%, Decentraland off 89%, and Otherdeed for Otherside off 85% from peak-cycle average floor levels.

The famous parcels that once stood in for scarcity and status now read like artifacts from a pricing regime that assumed virtual neighborhoods would become high-traffic digital cities.

The broader NFT market also failed to recover its old price structure. DappRadar said NFT trading reached $25.8 billion in 2021, and its January 2022 report said that month alone hit a record $16 billion in sales before wash-trading distortions were stripped out. Later data shows a market that kept moving while getting cheaper.

DappRadar’s Q2 2025 report said NFT trading volume fell 45% quarter over quarter to $867 million even as sales rose 78% to 14.9 million.

In Q3 2025, the same tracker said the market logged $1.6 billion in trading volume across 18.1 million sales. Trading activity persisted, while the premium attached to many collections collapsed.

The metaverse land unwind is best understood as a repricing because buyers treated digital land as if it would become a durable asset, with brands, traffic, and resale scarcity. The market now prices much of it as illiquid optionality.

The splashy land deals now look like relics

The clearest case studies are the deals that once stood in for the entire boom. In December 2021, a 3×3 Snoopverse estate next to Snoop Dogg’s property in The Sandbox sold for about $450,000, or about 71,000 SAND. That nine-parcel estate now screens at about $1,025 on a floor-equivalent basis. That is a drawdown of about 99.8% from the reported sale price.

The Decentraland Fashion District deal points the same way. Metaverse Group bought a 116-parcel estate in November 2021 for about $2.4 million. That estate is now not worth materially more than $8,929 on a floor-equivalent basis, down about 99.6% from the original purchase price.

In June 2021, Republic Realm bought 259 parcels for about $913,228. At the same current floor-equivalent value, that estate screens at about $19,935, down about 97.8%.

The Sandbox “city” deal is another clean marker because of its scale. Republic Realm’s 24×24 Sandbox estate, or 576 parcels, was purchased for $4.3 million in late 2021. Marked to the current floor-equivalent price, that estate screens at about $65,583, down about 98.5%.

Otherside’s trophy sales show the same baseline collapse. A May 2022 DappRadar report said Otherdeed #24 sold for 333 ETH, or close to $1 million, while the floor now sits around $167.

Even so, against the current Otherdeed floor, the category baseline has fallen so far that these headline purchases now imply floor-equivalent markdowns approaching 100%.

Floor-equivalent pricing is the fairest way to present these comparisons. It shows what happened to the market’s baseline. The market that once paid a premium for celebrity adjacency, branded districts, and virtual location now assigns only a thin residual value to the category as a whole.

NFTs kept trading, but the pricing model broke

The land collapse sits inside a broader NFT reset. The first quarter of 2022 was the strongest in NFT history at $12.46 billion in trading volume. By June 2022, monthly trading had fallen below $1 billion for the first time in a year. However, the bust did not totally erase the market.

DappRadar’s 2024 overview report said NFT trading volume fell 19% year over year in 2024 and sales fell 18%, making 2024 one of the weakest years since 2020. Then 2025 showed a split market, lower dollar volume, higher unit activity, and more trading in cheaper assets.

That split is visible in the quarterly numbers. In Q2 2025, DappRadar said volume fell to $867 million while sales rose to 14.9 million. In Q3 2025, DappRadar’s tracker said the market posted $1.6 billion in volume and 18.1 million sales.

October 2025 added another signal. DappRadar said the market reached $546 million in monthly volume and 10.1 million sales, the highest monthly sales count of the year. Traders were still buying NFTs. They were spending far less per item.

A blue-chip proxy shows how severe the repricing was outside land. CoinGecko’s BAYC page shows Bored Ape Yacht Club at about 5.22 ETH, or about $11,410, versus an all-time high floor of 153.7 ETH, or about $420,430. That leaves BAYC down about 96.6% in ETH terms and 97.3% in dollar terms. Even one of the category’s most recognizable collections never came close to reclaiming its old clearing level.

The financing layer also broke. DappRadar’s NFT lending data said lending volume fell 97% from its January 2024 peak of nearly $1 billion to just over $50 million in May 2025. Borrowers were down 90%, lenders were down 78%, and average loan sizes shrank from $22,000 at the 2022 peak to about $4,000.

NFT lending helped support high-end prices during the boom. Once traders could no longer borrow against expensive JPEGs and land deeds at scale, premium valuations lost another key support.

The broad NFT market kept operating, though its price ladder dropped sharply. Land was one of the boom’s purest narrative trades. It depended on the belief that digital location itself would become a durable asset class.

Other parts of the NFT market found cheaper pockets of demand. Land rarely did.

The market outlook is narrower, cheaper, and less forgiving

The current market does show signs of life. CoinGecko collection pages for Sandbox, Decentraland, Otherside, and Voxels show 60-day gains of 153.9%, 95.5%, 12.8%, and 41.8%, respectively.

Yet, those rebounds start from deeply depressed levels and leave the larger picture unchanged. The case studies still sit 98% to nearly 100% below their boom-era valuations on a floor-equivalent basis. That is what happens when a market loses both leverage and belief.

The category is also competing in a different NFT market than the one that existed in late 2021. In 2025, RWA NFTs grew 29% in volume and became the second-largest NFT category by volume during the quarter. Gaming-linked assets also gained ground.

Still, that shift does not prove metaverse land can recover soon. Traders moved on to RWAs when the old premise stopped working. They moved toward categories that looked more transactional, more utility-linked, or simply cheaper to own.

Corporate signals moved in the same direction. Meta changed its name in 2021 to emphasize the metaverse, and the company’s announcement now reads like a document from another market cycle.

Meta’s 2025 earnings filing said Reality Labs lost $19.2 billion in 2025 after years of multibillion-dollar losses. Virtual worlds remain active, though under a very different cost and growth calculus than the one that drove the land boom.

The market now trades digital assets with much lower ticket sizes, weaker financing, and a preference for narrower use cases. Metaverse land can still rally in short bursts, especially when crypto sentiment turns risk-on.

The last 60 days show that. The market still sits far below the assumptions embedded in the 2021 and 2022 trophy sales.

For land values to behave like property again, platforms would need more than token rebounds. Users who show up regularly, brands that stay, and a reason for virtual location to generate durable economic value instead of narrative premium are the only avenues to recovery.

The post RIP metaverse: Land values capitulate as $24M metaverse plot collapses to just $9,000 appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Trading begins on MEXC

Playnance’s G Coin has entered open-market trading, with the G Coin/USDT pair going live on MEXC after the project’s Token Generation Event on March 18.

MEXC’s official announcement said deposits were open and withdrawals would begin on March 19, while the exchange’s live G Coin page shows the pair as active. For Playnance, that shifts G Coin from an ecosystem-native utility token into a publicly traded asset with continuous price discovery.

The listing matters because Playnance is not presenting G Coin as a blank-slate token. In its white paper and product documentation, the company describes G Coin as a utility asset tied to gameplay, missions, rewards, loyalty features, and broader participation across its platforms, not as a governance or profit-sharing token.

That gives the MEXC debut more substance than a typical launch, because market access is arriving after utility has already been built into the ecosystem.

Staking becomes the first post-listing signal

The clearest early signal is staking participation. Playnance’s site highlighted a launch phase in which more than 250 million G Coin were locked within hours, and later launch coverage tied to the MEXC debut said staking had already moved above 1 billion G Coin shortly after going live. Playnance’s staking page shows four lockup periods, 6, 9, 12, and 18 months, with reward allocations weighted toward longer commitments.

That matters because lockups can do more than generate a headline number. They can reduce immediately available supply, encourage longer-term alignment, and give the market a measurable signal of confidence just as trading opens.

Playnance’s public G Coin Tracker adds another reference point. Indexed snippets from the tracker show a fixed 77 billion token supply and more than 3.15 billion G Coin in locked supply or treasury categories, alongside live fields for price and holder data.

Utility and token design now face the market

Playnance says its broader ecosystem runs on PlayBlock, a Layer-3 infrastructure built for gaming, trading, betting, and prediction markets, with gasless execution and sub-second finality. Within that framework, G Coin is meant to power gameplay interactions and fees, rewards and incentives, partner revenue distribution, and treasury flows.

That gives the token a clearer operational role than many newly listed assets that reach exchanges before their use cases are live.

Supply design is also central to the pitch. Playnance’s docs and white paper say G Coin has a fixed maximum supply of 77 billion tokens. Tokens lost through gameplay are locked for 12 months before returning to circulation, while unsold tokens at TGE are subject to a 12-month cliff followed by 24-month linear vesting. The white paper also says the token already provided access to an operational ecosystem before admission to trading.

The next test is simple, whether the exchange listing, staking participation, and underlying product activity reinforce each other over time. MEXC gives G Coin liquidity and visibility. Staking gives the market an early demand signal. The tracker gives users a public dashboard. What matters now is whether volume, user growth, and on-chain usage keep moving in the same direction after launch-day attention fades.

The post Playnance’s G Coin goes live on MEXC as staking momentum builds appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin Price News: BTC Defends Uptrend Despite Volatility

$Bitcoin price news today shows a market at a critical turning point. Despite recent volatility, BTC is holding firmly above a key ascending trendline, trading around the $70,000 level.

Looking at the 4-hour chart, Bitcoin continues to respect a rising support structure that has been forming since early March. This trendline has acted as a strong foundation, preventing deeper corrections even during sharp sell-offs.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: Ascending Trendline Still in Play

From a technical perspective, the chart reveals a clear structure:

• Support Zone: $68,000 – $69,000 (trendline + recent bounce area)
• Major Support: $62,600 (previous range low)
• Resistance Zone: $74,000 – $76,000
• Key Breakout Level: $80,000

Bitcoin recently corrected from the $75K–$76K range but found strong buying interest exactly at the ascending trendline. This confirms that buyers are still defending higher lows — a classic bullish continuation pattern.

As long as BTC remains above this trendline, the structure favors an eventual move higher.

RSI Signals Cooling Momentum — But Not Weakness

The RSI indicator currently sits around 42–43, showing that momentum has cooled after the recent drop.

This is important for two reasons:

1. Bitcoin is no longer overbought, allowing room for a new move up
2. The market is stabilizing rather than entering panic-selling territory

Historically, such RSI resets within an uptrend often precede the next bullish leg.

ETF Narrative Strengthens: Morgan Stanley Enters the Game

One of the biggest catalysts in recent bitcoin price news is Morgan Stanley filing for a spot Bitcoin ETF.

This development signals:

• Continued institutional interest in Bitcoin
• Expansion of ETF competition beyond existing players
• Potential for increased capital inflows into BTC

The ETF narrative has been one of the strongest drivers of Bitcoin’s recent rally. With another major financial institution entering the space, the long-term outlook remains supported by growing institutional demand.

Bitcoin Future: What Happens Next?

Bullish Scenario

If Bitcoin continues to hold the ascending trendline:

• A move toward $74K–$76K resistance becomes likely
• A breakout could push BTC toward the $80K level
• ETF-related optimism could accelerate momentum

Bearish Scenario

If the trendline breaks:

• BTC could revisit $66K–$68K
• A deeper correction toward $62,600 support becomes possible

However, current price action suggests buyers are still in control.

XRP Price Today: Stuck Below Key Resistance

XRP is currently trading around $1.40–$1.44, struggling to gain momentum after weeks of consolidation. Despite a few short-term rebounds, the price remains under pressure and continues to follow a broader downtrend.

XRP has failed to reclaim higher levels and is now hovering below key resistance zones, with buyers showing limited strength.

XRP Price Analysis: Bearish Channel Still Dominates

The below chart clearly shows $XRP trading inside a descending channel, which is a classic bearish pattern.

Key observations:

• Lower highs confirm ongoing selling pressure
• Price remains below the mid-channel resistance
• Strong resistance sits around $1.60, then $2.00
• Support is holding near $1.20

Even recent upward moves have been weak and quickly rejected, suggesting that the market lacks strong bullish conviction.

👉 As long as XRP remains inside this channel, the trend is still bearish to neutral.

How Much Does XRP Need to Reach $2?

Let’s break it down:

• Current price ≈ $1.44
• Target price = $2.00

👉 Required move: +38.9% increase

This is a significant move — especially within a very short timeframe.

Can XRP Realistically Move +40% in 12 Days?

While crypto can be volatile, a move of nearly 40% in 12 days is unlikely under current conditions.

Here’s why:

1. Momentum Is Weak

XRP has been ranging between $1.35 and $1.50 with no strong breakout continuation.

2. No Strong Catalyst

Large moves typically require:

• Major legal developments
• Institutional adoption news
• Market-wide bullish momentum

None of these are currently driving XRP.

3. Market Structure Is Bearish

The descending channel suggests sellers still control the market.
Without a breakout, upside remains limited.

Historical Comparison: Has XRP Done This Before?

Yes — but under very different conditions.

XRP has previously delivered large double-digit gains in short periods, but these happened:

• During strong bull markets
• After major announcements (e.g., Ripple-related news)
• With significant volume spikes

👉 Current market conditions do not reflect that environment.

Most Likely Scenario for March 2026

Based on the chart:

• XRP is likely to remain within $1.20 – $1.60 range
• A break above $1.60 could signal early recovery
• A move to $2 would require a full trend reversal

That kind of shift typically takes more time than a few days.

Final Verdict: Can XRP Reach $2 This Month?

👉 Mostly unlikely

To reach $2 before the end of March 2026, XRP would need:

1. Nearly 40% upside in days
2. Strong breakout above resistance
3. A sudden surge in market momentum

None of these signals are currently present.

Bitcoin news today is dominated by a sudden reversal in market sentiment. After a spectacular rally that saw the $Bitcoin price push toward the $76,000 resistance level earlier this week, the primary cryptocurrency has experienced a sharp correction. On Thursday, March 19, 2026, Bitcoin slipped below the psychologically significant $70,000 mark, trading as low as $69,400 during the European session.

This downward move follows a period of intense optimism fueled by institutional ETF inflows and the SEC’s recent classification of 16 digital assets as commodities. However, the combination of a "hawkish hold" by the Federal Reserve and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East has forced investors back into a defensive posture.

Why is Bitcoin Crashing?

The core reason for the Bitcoin price drop today is a "perfect storm" of macroeconomic factors. Specifically, the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates in the 3.50%–3.75% range, paired with a surge in global oil prices (Brent crude exceeding $114), has strengthened the US Dollar and dampened the appetite for "risk-on" assets like cryptocurrencies.

The "Hawkish Hold" and Risk Appetite

In financial terms, a "Hawkish Hold" occurs when a central bank keeps interest rates unchanged but uses rhetoric that suggests rates will stay higher for longer or could even rise.

For Bitcoin, this is a significant headwind. Because BTC is often viewed as a high-growth, speculative asset, its valuation is highly sensitive to liquidity. When the Fed signals that it is not ready to pivot to rate cuts, the "cost of carry" for holding Bitcoin remains high compared to "safe" yields like US Treasuries.

The Fed Effect: High Rates and Inflation Fears

The Federal Reserve's March meeting was the primary catalyst for the volatility seen in today's bitcoin news. While the market expected rates to remain steady, the updated "dot plot" and comments from Chair Paul Atkins (who took over the SEC and influenced broader policy) suggested that inflation remains a stubborn foe.

• Inflation Forecast: The Fed raised its 2026 PCE inflation outlook to 2.7%.
• Growth Outlook: Projected growth for 2026 was upgraded to 2.4%, giving the Fed more room to keep rates high without immediate fear of a recession.
• Market Reaction: The probability of an April rate cut has plummeted to near zero, with some traders now pricing in a 4% chance of a rate hike if energy costs continue to spiral.

Geopolitical Tensions: The Oil Factor

Beyond the Fed, the escalating conflict in the Middle East has sent shockwaves through the energy markets. Attacks on energy infrastructure have caused oil prices to spike, which historically leads to higher transport and production costs, further fueling inflation.

In previous cycles, Bitcoin was occasionally touted as "digital gold" or a safe haven. However, recent crypto news shows that in times of acute geopolitical stress, BTC often moves in lockstep with the Nasdaq-100, which also saw significant losses today. Investors are currently seeking the safety of the US Dollar and actual physical gold over digital assets.

Institutional Sentiment: ETF Inflows Turn to Outflows

A key pillar of the recent rally was the consistent demand from US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs. According to data from CoinGlass, a seven-day streak of inflows—totaling over $1.1 billion—was snapped on Wednesday.

From a technical perspective, Bitcoin's failure to reclaim the $76,000 level is a bearish signal in the short term. The price is currently testing the 100-hourly simple moving average. If the $69,000 support level fails to hold, analysts warn of a potential slide toward the $66,500 zone, which acted as a floor earlier in March.

As of March 19, 2026, the global financial markets are witnessing a rare and counter-intuitive phenomenon. Despite an escalation in the Middle East conflict—including strikes on critical energy infrastructure—both Gold (XAU/USD) and Bitcoin (BTC/USD) are trading in the red. Traditionally, these assets serve as the world’s primary "disaster hedges," yet they have both succumbed to a broader market sell-off following the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance on Wednesday.

This "double drop" is not a sign that the safe-haven narrative is dead. Instead, it is a textbook example of a liquidity squeeze driven by a resurgent US Dollar and rising bond yields. As oil prices surge above $110 per barrel, the market is pricing in "sticky" inflation, forcing the Fed to keep interest rates high, which historically creates a temporary headwind for non-yielding assets like Gold and high-beta assets like Bitcoin.

Why are Gold and Bitcoin Falling Today?

The primary reason Gold and Bitcoin are dropping today is the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates at 3.5%–3.75% while signaling fewer rate cuts for the remainder of 2026. This move strengthened the US Dollar Index (DXY), making dollar-denominated assets more expensive. Furthermore, investors are selling "winning" positions in Gold and Bitcoin to cover margin calls in the plummeting equity and energy markets.

Gold Price Analysis: XAU/USD Rejects the $5,000 Milestone

After flirting with the psychological resistance of $5,000 earlier this week, Gold has entered a sharp corrective phase. On the morning of March 19, spot gold slipped toward the $4,800 region, marking its most significant losing streak in over a year.

Critical Support and Resistance Levels

• Major Support: $4,840 – $4,750. This zone represents a historical "buy-the-dip" area for central banks.
• Major Resistance: $5,000. Reclaiming this level is essential for the bullish trend to resume.

The "Oil Shock" of 2026 has been a double-edged sword for Gold. While it fuels long-term inflation (bullish for Gold), it also increases the likelihood of a "higher-for-longer" interest rate environment (bearish for Gold). Currently, the market is prioritizing the interest rate risk over the inflation hedge.

Bitcoin Technical Analysis: Is $70,000 the New Floor?

Bitcoin has shown relative resilience compared to the broader "Risk-On" sector, yet it was unable to sustain its push toward $76,000. On Thursday, $BTC dropped below $71,000, tracking the general weakness in global liquidity.

The "Digital Gold" Decoupling

Interestingly, the 2026 correlation between Gold and Bitcoin has shifted. According to recent data from Investing.com, Bitcoin is increasingly behaving as a "Global Liquidity Sponge." It thrives when money is cheap. With the Fed’s hawkish tone, Bitcoin is facing a temporary outflow. However, institutional demand via Bitcoin ETFs remains a structural floor that prevented a crash below $66,000.

• BTC Immediate Support: $70,200.
• BTC Resistance: $74,500.

The 2026 Correlation: Safe Havens vs. Liquidity Hedges

Traders often mistake Bitcoin and Gold for the same type of asset. In 2026, the distinction has become clear:

• Gold: A geopolitical "bunker" asset. It drops when the Dollar is strong but rises when sovereign trust fails.
• Bitcoin: A "technological" hedge. It performs best when the financial system seeks an alternative rail for 24/7 global liquidity.

How to Navigate the Bitcoin and Gold Crash

For investors looking to capitalize on this volatility, diversification remains the key. While the short-term trend is downward, the macro fundamentals—high debt, war, and energy shortages—historically favor both assets.

• For Gold: Look for stability around the $4,800 mark.
• For Bitcoin: Utilize the best crypto exchanges to set limit orders near $68,500, which has acted as a strong institutional accumulation zone.
• Security: Ensure your assets are safe by using a hardware wallet during these high-volatility periods.

Bitcoin Future: The Path Ahead for March 2026

The "Great Decoupling" of 2026 is in full swing. Gold is fighting the weight of a high-interest-rate environment, while Bitcoin is consolidating its gains after a massive Q1 rally. Despite the current price drops, the geopolitical unrest in the Middle East suggests that the "safe haven" trade is merely resting, not retreating. Traders should keep a close eye on the US Dollar Index (DXY); a reversal there will likely trigger a massive "relief rally" for both XAU and BTC.

After a brief rally earlier this week, Ethereum ($ETH) is now testing the critical breakout-turned-support zone between $2,180 and $2,200.

This price action comes as a direct response to three simultaneous global shocks: a major military escalation in the Middle East, a hotter-than-expected US inflation report, and a stern warning from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. For ETH bulls, the mandate is clear: hold the $2,200 line or risk a deep correction toward the psychological support of $1,900.

Ethereum Analysis: Why Are Cryptos Crashing

The sudden reversal in risk appetite isn't just a technical correction; it is a fundamental shift driven by three massive catalysts.

1. Middle East Conflict Hits Global Energy

Geopolitical tensions reached a breaking point today following reports that Israel targeted Iran’s South Pars gas facility, the world’s largest gas field. In immediate retaliation, Iranian strikes reportedly caused extensive damage to Qatari LNG infrastructure at Ras Laffan.

This "energy war" sent crude oil prices soaring toward $99 per barrel almost instantly. For Ethereum and the broader crypto market, rising energy costs act as a double-edged sword: they increase the cost of living (reducing retail liquidity) and fuel long-term inflation fears.

2. PPI Data: The Inflation Pipeline is Refilling

Adding fuel to the fire, the Producer Price Index (PPI) for February 2026 came in significantly hotter than anticipated at 3.4% year-on-year. This suggests that wholesale inflation is accelerating even before the full impact of the recent oil price surge hits the data.

When "factory gate" prices rise, they inevitably trickle down to consumers, making the path to the Fed’s 2% target look increasingly impossible.

3. Powell’s Hawkish Pivot

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell held interest rates steady at 3.5%–3.75% today, but it was his tone that rattled the cages. For the first time in the Fed's history, the committee explicitly acknowledged the Middle East situation as a primary economic risk.

Powell’s refusal to commit to a timeline for rate cuts, combined with the acknowledgment of "uncertain" implications for the US economy, led markets to price out a summer pivot.

Ethereum Price Analysis: Will Ethereum Price Recover?

Despite the macro negativity, Ethereum's chart shows a technical battle that is currently being fought at the "Line in the Sand."

Critical Support at $2,180–$2,200

As seen in recent trading data, Ethereum has retraced to its previous breakout zone. This area was formerly a heavy resistance level throughout early 2026. In technical analysis, a successful "retest" of this zone as support would be a massive bullish signal.

• The Bull Case: If ETH closes the daily candle above $2,200, it confirms that buyers are still defending the trend despite the macro noise. This could lead to a relief rally back toward $2,320.
• The Bear Case: A breakdown below $2,180 would invalidate the recent recovery. Given the lack of intermediate liquidity, the next major "safety net" sits at $1,900.

Market Sentiment and Correlation

Ethereum’s correlation with the S&P 500 and Bitcoin remains high. With the US dollar index (DXY) strengthening on the back of safe-haven flows, ETH faces significant selling pressure. Investors looking to hedge against this volatility often turn to hardware wallets to secure their assets during periods of extreme exchange uncertainty.

Ethereum Prediction: What to Watch Next

The next 48 hours are crucial for the ETH/USD pair. Investors should monitor:

• Oil Price Stability: If oil breaks $105, expect further downside in equities and crypto.
• The $2,180 Closing Price: A daily close below this level often triggers stop-loss cascades.
• Strait of Hormuz Developments: Any further disruption to global trade will likely keep the crypto market in a defensive crouch.

The DarkSword exploit chain affects older versions of iOS 18, delivering malware that specifically hunts for exchange and wallet apps.

Bitcoin bounced Friday as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined possible responses to soaring oil prices.

A crypto kiosk bill in Kentucky includes language that could effectively outlaw self-custody, drawing industry backlash.

The deal would help scale capacity as AWS builds its own chips, revealing deeper reliance on Nvidia’s stack as usage keeps growing.

Higher fuel costs and restrictive financial conditions are absorbing consumer liquidity, helping explain why expanding global money supply has yet to translate into gains for Bitcoin.

Altcoins are no longer the top choice for investors, as we see a rapid tumbling of activity on top exchanges.

Cardano DeFi reaches a record 520 million ADA TVL as of March 20, 2026. With SEC clarity and the USDCx launch, is the one billion ADA milestone next?

The era of debating whether digital assets have a place in traditional finance is officially over..

Gemini Space Station, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, has slashed its headcount by 30% following a disastrous $585 million annual net loss.

Market is certainly backpedaling right now as multiple key resistances turned out to be tougher to break than initially expected.

Key Takeaways

• British authorities dissolve Zedxion following discovery of over $1 billion in Iranian Revolutionary Guard-connected cryptocurrency transfers.
• Investigation reveals fraudulent corporate structure using fabricated director identities and stock photography.
• Platform’s IRGC-associated activity surged from 56% to 87% of total transaction volume throughout 2024.
• United States Treasury Department imposes sanctions on both Zedxion and affiliated platform Zedcex.
• Dissolution highlights ongoing challenges in cryptocurrency regulatory enforcement and sanctions circumvention prevention.

British regulatory authorities have ordered the dissolution of Zedxion, a cryptocurrency trading platform implicated in facilitating financial transactions for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Companies House justified the action by citing fraudulent information submitted during the company’s registration process. The platform’s termination follows extensive investigations that uncovered probable connections to entities subject to international sanctions.

Operating as Zedxion Exchange Ltd since its May 2021 incorporation, the platform initially registered Babak Morteza as both director and individual with significant ownership control. Subsequent regulatory examination determined that Morteza’s identifying information corresponded with details belonging to Babak Zanjani, an Iranian businessman currently under international sanctions.

The exchange allegedly employed fabricated personas throughout its operations, subsequently appointing Elizabeth Newman as director following Morteza’s departure. Regulatory investigators identified that promotional materials depicting Newman actually contained stock photography. This revelation intensified regulatory concerns regarding the platform’s operational legitimacy and corporate accountability.

Forensic Analysis Uncovers Extensive Iranian Guard-Related Transactions

Blockchain intelligence provided by TRM Labs determined that Zedxion alongside its affiliated operation Zedcex facilitated approximately $1 billion in transactions connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. These transfers initially constituted 56 percent of aggregate platform activity. Throughout 2024, this proportion escalated dramatically to 87%, totaling more than $619 million in IRGC-associated transfers.

The transactional evidence demonstrates that Zedxion functioned as a primary conduit for Iranian state-connected financial movements. The substantial transaction volumes indicate intentional organizational design aimed at circumventing sanctions monitoring systems. Regulatory agencies characterize the exchange’s operational framework as a purposefully constructed evasion apparatus.

Both Zedxion and Zedcex sustained operations throughout global crypto networks. Investigative findings indicate both platforms enabled Iranian monetary transfers despite comprehensive international sanctions regimes. Such activities triggered regulatory examination from numerous governmental authorities, notably the United States Department of the Treasury.

International Sanctions and Enforcement Coordination

The United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control formally designated both Zedxion and Zedcex for enabling Iran’s sanctions circumvention activities. Zanjani, connected to these platforms, has previously processed billions in petroleum revenue for Iranian governmental organizations. His earlier conviction for financial crimes and subsequent sentence reduction underscore the dangers associated with enabling sanctioned financial networks.

The termination of Zedxion operations reflects expanding enforcement initiatives targeting cryptocurrency channels exploited for unauthorized state financing. International regulators continuously monitor digital currency exchanges to prevent sanctioned organizations from transferring assets. American authorities are concurrently examining Binance for allegedly comparable infractions surpassing $1 billion in value.

Zedxion’s operational methodology demonstrates existing weaknesses in cryptocurrency regulatory compliance frameworks and governmental supervision. Enforcement agencies work to eliminate pathways exploited for unauthorized financial movements. This enforcement action emphasizes the critical necessity of identity authentication and transaction monitoring protocols within digital financial ecosystems.

The post British Authorities Dismantle Zedxion Cryptocurrency Platform Over IRGC Connections appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• Bitfufu shares finish at $2.25, declining 2.6% following $57M annual net loss.
• Cloud mining services account for $350.6M in revenue, representing 73% of total income.
• Self-mining production falls to 611 BTC as operational costs increase.
• Adjusted EBITDA collapses to $8.3M compared to $117.9M in previous year.
• Combined cash and Bitcoin reserves climb to $177.1M, bolstering financial position.

Shares of BitFuFu Inc.(FUFU) ended trading at $2.25, falling 2.60% following the release of annual financial results showing declining profitability. While the firm achieved revenue growth in 2025, escalating expenses and digital asset revaluations resulted in a substantial net loss. These figures highlight operational challenges and evolving strategic priorities.

BitFuFu Inc., FUFU

Cloud Mining Services Fuel Top-Line Revenue Performance

BitFuFu achieved total revenues of $475.8 million in 2025, representing a 2.7% year-over-year increase. The expansion was primarily attributable to robust cloud mining service demand and equipment distribution, which compensated for declining self-mining contributions. Management has been actively rebalancing operational focus across business units.

The cloud mining division delivered $350.6 million in sales, comprising more than 73% of aggregate revenue. This business line experienced substantial momentum driven by elevated customer demand and improved retention rates among existing clients. Furthermore, the platform’s user base expanded to 675,765, maintaining consistent engagement levels.

Equipment sales contributed $53.7 million during the reporting period. Strong market conditions and favorable pricing dynamics enabled the company to capture increased demand across its sales channels. Conversely, self-mining operations generated significantly lower revenue due to reduced hashrate deployment and diminished mining efficiency.

Expense Pressures and Digital Asset Fluctuations Erode Bottom Line

BitFuFu reported a net loss totaling $57.4 million for 2025, a stark reversal from the $54 million profit recorded in 2024. The deficit stemmed largely from adverse fair value adjustments associated with cryptocurrency holdings and receivables. As a result, Bitcoin price volatility created direct earnings pressure.

Adjusted EBITDA plummeted to $8.3 million from $117.9 million in the prior year. A substantial $32.8 million non-cash charge related to Bitcoin valuation declines significantly impacted financial performance. By comparison, 2024 results benefited from considerable fair value appreciation that enhanced reported earnings.

Bitcoin mining costs surged to $77,573 per coin during 2025. Elevated global network difficulty and strategic operational modifications contributed to higher per-unit production expenses. Additionally, aggregate Bitcoin mining output decreased across both proprietary and customer-facing operations.

Strategic Pivot Transforms Mining Operations Model

Bitfufu expanded aggregate mining capacity to 26.1 EH/s, demonstrating ongoing infrastructure investment. However, hosting capacity contracted to 478 MW, signaling deliberate resource redistribution. The organization emphasized adaptability and scalability in its operational framework.

Proprietary mining output contracted dramatically, yielding just 611 BTC throughout the year. Management redirected computational resources toward cloud mining services to enhance revenue predictability and operational efficiency. Customer-driven mining activity continued to represent the predominant output source.

Liquidity metrics remained solid, with aggregate cash and digital asset holdings totaling $177.1 million. Bitcoin holdings increased modestly to 1,778 BTC, reinforcing balance sheet resilience. The firm sustained prudent financial management despite challenging market dynamics.

The post Bitfufu (FUFU) Stock Slides 2.6% After Posting $57M Annual Loss for 2025 appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• NVDA shares remain trapped between $180 and $190 despite multiple bullish developments
• Strong quarterly results, major tech conference announcements, and China market reopening haven’t sparked a rally
• CEO Jensen Huang projected $1 trillion in combined revenue for Blackwell and Vera Rubin platforms by 2027
• Investor anxiety centers on hyperscalers contributing 60% of projected revenue amid cash flow pressures
• Market watchers suggest an unexpected major customer win could finally trigger a breakout

Nvidia delivered what should have been a market-moving trifecta of positive developments this week. Exceptional quarterly performance, a trillion-dollar revenue outlook, and restored China market access all arrived in rapid succession. Yet NVDA shares barely registered a pulse.

NVIDIA Corporation, NVDA

Shares closed the week hovering near $178, firmly entrenched within the $180–$190 corridor where they’ve languished for several weeks. The challenge isn’t operational execution — Nvidia continues delivering. Instead, Wall Street remains fixated on questions about customer spending patterns.

During this week’s GPU Technology Conference, Jensen Huang disclosed that cumulative orders for the company’s Blackwell and Vera Rubin chip architectures should reach $1 trillion through calendar year 2027. That figure represents a doubling from projections issued just twelve months earlier. By any measure, it’s an extraordinary target.

Yet the market reaction was decidedly muted. NVDA actually declined roughly 1% over the five-day period.

William Blair’s Sebastien Naji captured the prevailing sentiment in analyst commentary, noting that GTC “did little to address key investor concerns about the sustainability of AI spending by the hyperscalers — particularly as they run out of free cash flows and tap debt capital markets for additional financing.”

That observation identifies the central investment dilemma. Cloud infrastructure giants constitute 60% of Nvidia‘s trillion-dollar projection. Any meaningful pullback in their capital allocation immediately impacts NVDA’s growth trajectory.

The Critical 40% Diversification Factor

The remaining 40% of forecasted demand originates from mid-sized enterprises and industrial sector buyers. This revenue stream operates independently of whether technology titans like Meta or Microsoft maintain their current spending velocity.

Recent reporting from The Wall Street Journal indicates Jeff Bezos is pursuing $100 billion in capital to acquire manufacturing operations for AI-driven automation. These industrial-scale purchasers — substantial, non-hyperscaler, and AI-focused — represent precisely the customer profile that could reshape NVDA’s narrative.

Should an unexpected partnership or major contract with this buyer category materialize, market observers believe it could provide the catalyst needed to propel shares beyond their current trading band.

From a fundamental perspective, Nvidia’s metrics remain exceptionally strong. Gross margins clock in at 71%, while Wall Street consensus projects revenue and earnings per share expansion at 36.5% and 39.4% compound annual rates respectively across the next three fiscal years.

Current valuation places the forward price-to-earnings multiple at 22.5, which numerous analysts characterize as reasonable given the anticipated growth profile.

The Path Toward $500 Per Share

Some market commentators are evaluating whether NVDA can eventually reach $500 — a move requiring approximately 173% appreciation from today’s $183 level.

This isn’t positioned as an imminent target. However, given the projected expansion trajectory and existing valuation framework, the bullish scenario remains plausible if AI capital deployment broadens beyond the hyperscaler universe.

The downside scenario carries meaningful weight. Should any major purchaser significantly reduce AI infrastructure investment, it could generate cascading effects across the sector. This exact concern has kept shares range-bound despite the succession of favorable developments.

Over the past decade, Nvidia stock has generated returns exceeding 22,690%. Investors who established positions in 2016 have realized transformational gains.

Currently, shares trade at $178.56, within a 52-week band of $86.62 to $212.19, supporting a market capitalization of $4.3 trillion.

The post Nvidia (NVDA) Stock Stalls Despite $1 Trillion Revenue Projection and Strong Earnings appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Payment network stocks have declined 18–23% from peak levels amid concerns over stablecoins and proposed interest rate regulations
• Mastercard completed its biggest-ever crypto acquisition, buying BVNK for a maximum of $1.8 billion
• Visa introduced crypto-enabled innovations including an AI-focused payment tool and expanded contactless payment adoption to 80% of in-person sales
• Stripe unveiled the Machine Payments Protocol with blockchain partner Tempo, supported by $500 million in capital
• Wall Street forecasts low-teen percentage earnings expansion for card issuers in 2026, with aggregate revenue reaching $163 billion

The major payment card networks have experienced significant declines from their all-time peaks. Visa has retreated 19%, Mastercard 18%, and American Express 23%. The downturn stems from two primary catalysts: President Trump’s floated proposal to impose a 10% ceiling on credit card interest rates, plus mounting anxiety that stablecoin technology threatens the card industry’s business model.

Visa Inc., V

Stablecoin technology enables retailers to complete payment settlements more rapidly and economically compared to conventional card infrastructure. This competitive threat has rattled market participants. However, instead of maintaining a defensive posture, the payment giants are proactively adapting their strategies.

Mastercard announced its acquisition of BVNK, a stablecoin technology provider, in a transaction valued at as much as $1.8 billion. This represents the most significant stablecoin-related transaction on record. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Sanjay Sakhrani characterized the deal as “a critical, long-term strategic move” that establishes Mastercard as a connector between conventional payment systems and emerging stablecoin infrastructure.

Visa has similarly taken action. The company’s contactless payment technology, which integrates stablecoin capabilities, now represents 80% of all in-person transaction volume. Additionally, Visa introduced Visa CLI, a command-line interface enabling artificial intelligence agents to execute card-based payments directly through terminal systems.

Artificial Intelligence Systems Enter the Payment Ecosystem

This development extends beyond traditional competition. This week, Stripe partnered with blockchain venture Tempo to introduce the Machine Payments Protocol, an open framework allowing AI systems to autonomously purchase services — including API access, data subscriptions, and computational resources — by consolidating numerous micro-transactions into single blockchain-based settlements.

Tempo secured $500 million in financing at a $5 billion valuation last October. Its chief executive is Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, who simultaneously serves on Stripe’s board of directors.

Initial partners supporting the protocol encompass Anthropic, OpenAI, DoorDash, Shopify, Revolut, plus both Visa and Mastercard. The competing card networks are functioning as partners in this initiative, not merely rivals.

Morgan Stanley estimates agentic commerce could represent $385 billion of U.S. online retail by 2030. Stablecoin payment volume reached $33 trillion throughout 2025, representing 72% annual growth.

Implications for Payment Infrastructure

A February 2026 analysis from Citrini Research highlighted a specific risk: AI agents, optimized to minimize expenses, might detect the 2–3% interchange fees imposed by Visa and Mastercard and circumvent them by utilizing stablecoins, where processing costs measure fractions of a cent.

Visa handles $17 trillion in annual volume. Mastercard and Visa currently command forward earnings multiples of approximately 24 and 22 times respectively, substantially beneath their historical valuation premiums. American Express trades at roughly 16 times forward earnings.

Analysts have modestly increased 2026 profit projections. They anticipate combined earnings per share for the sector to expand in the low-teen percentage range, driven by approximately 10% revenue growth toward $163 billion.

Stripe handled $1.9 trillion in payment volume during 2025 and purchased stablecoin technology firm Bridge for $1.1 billion, strategically positioning itself to control payment infrastructure rather than compensate card networks for system access.

Huang acknowledged that “agentic payments is very early, and we still are figuring out the best way to structure these.”

The post Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) Battle Stablecoin Disruption With Bold 2026 Strategies appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• XPeng achieved its maiden quarterly net profit of 383.2 million yuan (approximately $55.5M) during Q4 2025
• Quarterly revenue surged 38% compared to the prior year, reaching 22.25 billion yuan and exceeding Wall Street expectations
• Gross profit margin expanded to 21.3%, representing a significant improvement from the 14.4% recorded one year prior
• Shares gained roughly 2% during early market hours; American Depositary Receipts advanced 0.8% to $19.30 in pre-market activity
• China’s three leading emerging electric vehicle manufacturers — XPeng, NIO, and Li Auto — have all crossed into profitability territory

The Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer shipped 116,249 vehicles during the fourth quarter, establishing a new company benchmark, although falling short of its previously issued guidance range of 125,000–132,000 units. Despite the delivery miss, the financial outcome caught Wall Street off guard — market analysts had anticipated a net loss approaching 200 million yuan.

Across the entire 2025 fiscal year, the company’s net loss contracted dramatically to 1.14 billion yuan compared to 5.79 billion yuan recorded in 2024. Annual revenue exploded 88% higher to reach 76.72 billion yuan.

The margin expansion narrative proves equally compelling. Fourth-quarter gross margin reached 21.3%, climbing from 14.4% in the comparable period last year. Full-year gross margin registered at 18.9%, a substantial improvement over 2024’s 14.3% figure. Company executives attributed the margin gains to persistent cost optimization initiatives and an enhanced vehicle portfolio mix.

XPeng Inc., XPEV

The earnings surprise arrives amid an intense pricing battle within China’s electric vehicle sector. Competitive pressure from domestic rivals has remained fierce, and XPeng shares remain down 12% across the trailing twelve months despite Friday’s positive momentum.

NIO announced its own maiden quarterly profit just last week, supported by record-breaking sales figures. Li Auto, which became profitable before its peers, delivered a modest profit despite experiencing softer sales volumes — highlighting that achieving profitability doesn’t guarantee consistent success in China’s saturated automotive landscape.

Beyond vehicle sales, XPeng has been expanding its technological footprint. The automaker recently introduced its VLA 2.0 autonomous-driving platform, developed using proprietary silicon, with worldwide rollout scheduled for 2027.

The company also intends to introduce three robotaxi variants this year targeting ride-sharing operations throughout China, with pilot programs anticipated to commence later in 2026.

Expansion Into Robotaxis and Humanoid Robotics

XPeng has been strategically repositioning itself as what management describes as a “physical AI company,” advancing into autonomous taxi services and humanoid robotics alongside its primary electric vehicle operations. While these represent longer-term strategic initiatives, they’re beginning to materialize with concrete implementation schedules.

First-quarter 2026 projections, however, signal a near-term deceleration. The company anticipates delivering between 61,000 and 66,000 vehicles, generating revenue in the range of 12.20–13.28 billion yuan. This guidance represents a 16% to 23% contraction compared to the corresponding period in the previous year — marking a considerable retreat from fourth-quarter performance levels.

First Quarter 2026 Outlook Indicates Sequential Slowdown

The subdued Q1 delivery projection mirrors customary seasonal patterns in Chinese automotive demand following robust year-end purchasing activity. XPeng management has not indicated any fundamental business concerns, characterizing the softness as consistent with typical first-quarter dynamics.

XPeng American Depositary Receipts traded 0.8% higher at $19.30 during premarket hours on Friday in response to the earnings announcement.

The post XPeng (XPEV) Stock Climbs as Chinese EV Maker Achieves Maiden Quarterly Profit appeared first on Blockonomi.

Crypto.com has positioned itself as one of the most recognized exchanges in the industry. It serves as a fully-spectrum platform, offering everything from spot and futures trading to staking and a Visa card-linked ecosystem, as well as self-custody wallet solutions.

The exchange supports hundreds of cryptocurrencies and serves a global user base. It’s suited for both beginners just stepping into the world of crypto and advanced traders with years of experience.

Key Takeaways:

• The mobile app is the core experience, delivering a well-polished, beginner-friendly, and smooth user interface.
• CRO staking unlocks significantly better rewards, fee discounts, and card benefits.
• Security is robust, backed by extensive certifications, strict compliance, and multi-million dollar insurance policies.
• The mobile app is best suited for casual and intermediate users, while the exchange is suited for advanced traders.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• All-in-one crypto ecosystem (trading, staking, cards, DeFi, and more)
• Beginner-friendly and polished mobile app
• Strong security, certifications, and insurance coverage
• Wide range of cryptocurrencies and global availability
• Advanced tools available for experienced users

Cons:

• Best rewards and lower fees require CRO staking
• Fees can be on the higher side without staking CRO

What is Crypto.com?

Crypto.com is a well-known cryptocurrency trading platform founded in 2016. Since then, it has evolved into much more than just a trading hub, and it now presents an entire ecosystem, including a mobile app, staking, and a fully-fledged DeFi ecosystem under one unified umbrella.

It’s pretty clear that the platform’s goal is to be a full-service gateway into crypto – the kind of application where beginners can easily buy their very first BTC, while also providing a system for advanced users to stake, trade, or manage rewards without having to switch between exchanges.

The company has grown rapidly throughout the years and now serves more than 100 million users worldwide, according to a 2024 release.

It offers very extensive functionalities – users can buy cryptocurrencies with a card, trade on the exchange, hold assets in a secure Web3 self-custody wallet, earn yield, and even spend crypto with any of Crypto.com’s Visa cards. However, it’s worth noting that some of the features, such as some rewards, discounts on fees, and certain boosted yields, are tied to staking CRO, which may not appeal as much to every user, although it’s the established practice amongst all the larger exchanges.

Supported Markets

Because Crypto.com offers a range of different products, all of them have different restrictions and availabilities in certain jurisdictions.

The general Crypto.com application is available in most jurisdictions, with a few exceptions, typical of most platforms in the industry. These restricted jurisdictions include: Afghanistan, Algeria, Andorra, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Central Africa Republic, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Ecuador, Gabon, Ethiopia, Gambia, Gaza Strip, Russia, the State of New York, and others. Check the full list here.

When it comes to derivatives trading, the list includes many of the same countries, but also the United States (excluding states jurisdictions where the app is not available) the United Kingdom, and other countries. Check out the full list here.

All in all, depending on what product you are interested in, you can cross-check the list of restricted jurisdictions on the main website. For the most part, it’s rather typical and standard, comparable to what most of the other exchanges are doing.

Supported Cryptocurrencies, Trading Types & Platforms

There are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to the broader cryptocurrency trading experience that Crypto.com has to offer. The platform supports a full suite of spot markets, which allows you to buy and sell hundreds of cryptocurrencies – this can happen both on the web and the mobile application.

Some of the supported cryptocurrencies include (but are not limited to):

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• Ripple (XRP)
• Solana (SOL)
• Cardano (ADA)
• Chainlink (LINK), and hundreds others.

For those of you who are looking for a clean and convenient interface to begin with, Crypto.com has done a good job of onboarding new users without having to navigate through the complexities of a traditional exchange interface. The spot market layout feels responsive and intuitive.

For those of you who already have some experience, Crypto.com extends its offering through the Crypto.com Exchange, which is a separate and more sophisticated platform, entirely oriented toward traders. It has advanced order types, margin trading, and perpetual futures capabilities, although the availability of these features will depend on your jurisdiction, as we mentioned above.

Features & Tools

One of the first things that struck me as a user of Crypto.com is how much emphasis there has been on the mobile experience. Unlike many other exchanges, where the desktop interface seems to be the primary focus, here the team has clearly built its ecosystem around the application.

It has an intuitive interface, packed with a range of different features, all of which feel easy to use. You can buy crypto, manage your portfolio, stake assets, access the Visa card, and explore multiple other features all from a unified interface.

For new users, the onboarding process is also relatively straightforward. The identity verification is quick, and navigating through various markets feels smooth.

That said, beyond trading, here are some of the additional features that are worth looking into.

Crypto Earn (Staking and Rewards Program)

Crypto Earn is undoubtedly one of the more appealing features on the exchange (and the mobile app), especially for those of you who are interested in earning income on your existing cryptocurrency holdings.

The rewards vary depending on the asset you want to stake, the period you are staking for, and whether or not you stake CRO tokens, but they can scale considerably. Naturally, the best rates are reserved for those of you who opt in to purchase and stake CRO tokens for the longest periods of time. This can be a bit disappointing, but it has turned into the industry standard across all centralized exchanges.

Staking on the platform is easy, but not as easy as it may be on some decentralized protocols. This is a feature best suited for those of you who are holding certain cryptocurrencies for the long term. For example, if you want to hold BTC for years, there is absolutely no harm in locking it and earning an APY, albeit not that considerable.

Of course, the risk here is that you are trusting your crypto with a third-party and you are not in control of your private keys, but then again, this is the case for everything whenever you are using a centralized exchange. On the flipside, exchanges such as Crypto.com offer enhanced security features as opposed to the broad majority of decentralized protocols, where even though you control your private keys, the risk of protocol failure tends to be a lot higher.

Crypto.com NFT & Web3 Tools

Here, I’ll talk about the NFT Marketplace and the Crypto.com DeFi wallet as two of the more interesting features available on the platform.

NFT Marketplace

That’s exactly what it sounds like – a marketplace, where users can buy and sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This is what the interface looks like:

As you can see, there are plenty of available collections as well as filters you can sort them by, and a range of different options.

All in all, the feature is easy to use. One thing that I liked is that unlike some other NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea, for instance, which requires setting up an external wallet and paying variable gas fees, here you can buy, sell, and browse various NFTs directly through your existing account balance. This makes onboarding far more accessible.

DeFi Wallet (Self-Custody)

The company’s DeFi wallet offers complete self-custody, meaning that you will be in control of your private keys. It’s completely separate from the other services of the exchange, and it allows for direct interaction with multiple DeFi protocols.

Setting it up is very straightforward – it detects multiple networks such as Ethereum and Cronos, as well as various EVM-compatible chains automatically. From there, you could easily store, send, and receive tokens without the limitations of centralized custody.

It also allows you to earn passively on your crypto holdings, and stake your tokens with more than 25+ chains directly from the wallet.

Fees & Costs

Crypto.com is a fully-fledged ecosystem and, therefore, breaking down the fees requires me to dive deeper into the various functionalities.

Trading fees

The trading fees are weighted depending on your 30-day spot volume in USD. This is what it looks like at the most basic level without holding any CRO.

However, if you hold CRO, things are getting a lot more different. There are even some tiers that would make your maker fees 0%, depending on how much CRO you stake. As an example, take a look at this table:

Naturally, you will have to stake a minimum of 50,000 CRO to get there, which is quite a bit for a regular user, but there aren’t many competitors that get down to 0%..

Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

There are no deposit fees – all of them are free.

However, when you withdraw, you will incur a fee, which is heavily dependent on the network that you are using and the cryptocurrency you attempt to withdraw. You can check out the current rates on this page.

Bank Transfer

Bank transfers incur deposit and withdrawal limits and fees. Crypto.com and its European EMI partners are not chagrin any fees for EUR deposits via SEPA, but keep in mind that your own bank may apply a processing fees.

However, when it comes to the withdrawals:

• A transaction fee of $20 USD and $45 USD will be charged for each withdrawal if you use Fedwire or Swift.
• $40 administration fee will be applied to every return of an erroneous Swift or Fedwire transaction.

When it comes to the limits, you can refer to this table:

Margin Interest Rates

A common type of fee that users tend to forget about is the interest rate on their margin loans. If you’re trading with margin, here are the rates you need to keep in mind:

Also, in the event of a liquidation, the exchange will charge a 0.5% liquidation fee.

Fiat & Deposit/Withdrawal Options

Crypto.com supports numerous ways with which you can deposit funds into your account using fiat money. Beyond the traditional SWIFT, SEPA, and FPS, you can also use a range of payment methods like credit cards, Apple Pay, or Google Pay directly through the Crypto.com application.

Fiat deposit methods

Bank Transfer

This is likely going to be the primary method for most fiat currencies and it is available on both the web app and the mobile application.

To link your bank account, you need to first make an initial deposit from it. This is done easily by following the prompts from the interface, which will require you to provide your bank details and to activate the fiat currency in your wallet.

Options vary depending on where you are using the exchange from:

• SWIFT – for USD transfers.
• SEPA – for EUR transfers.
• FPS – for GBP transfers.

Credit/Debit Card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay

As mentioned above, you can use either of these to deposit fiat directly into your account, depending on your jurisdiction.

Fiat withdrawal methods

When it comes to withdrawing fiat (also known as off-ramping), you have the option of a traditional bank transfer.

After you sell your crypto for fiat in your wallet, you can then easily withdraw the cash balance to a bank account that you have previously linked.

Is Crypto.com Secure? Security, Regulation & Trustworthiness

In general, yes, Crypto.com is a safe cryptocurrency exchange, but there are considerations to keep in mind here, so I will divide this section in two.

What the exchange does right

The platform integrates all of the account-level security practices you can think of – two-factor authentication, separate accounts for trading, end-to-end encryption, and whatnot. You name it, they have it.

The firm invests very heavily in security infrastructure and compliance, and that’s evident. Users can verify their balances through Crypto.com’s proof-of-reserves system.

Naturally, the majority of assets are held in cold storage, but the company also backs it with a very substantial cold-storage insurance policy, which is around $750 million for customer assets, plus an additional buffer for institutional holdings.

On top of that, the platform has a number of top-tier security certifications such ash:

• ISO/IEC 27001:2022
• ISO/IEC 27701:2019
• SOC 2 Type II
• PCI-DSS v4 Level 1 compliance, and more.

Crypto.com also runs a bug-bounty program, offering considerable rewards to ethical hackers who are able to identify security flaws.

From regulation and licensing perspective, the exchange operates globally and is compliant with international AML and KYC rules, holding the necessary registrations and licenses across multiple jurisdictions.

Risks and past Incidents

That said, the platform has been breached before. In January 2022, it suffered a high-profile breach, which resulted in around $32 million worth of customers’ funds being stolen.

Now, this has happened to almost all exchanges out there, and I consider the response to events like this to be more important.

In this regard, Crypto.com responded quickly, halting withdrawals immediately, reimbursing all of the affected accounts, and introducing withdrawal-address change policies, as well as stronger multi-factor authentication procedures.

Of course, the general risk of holding your crypto on a centralized exchange is present. You do not control your private keys and your security is only as strong as that of the platform. This could be both good and bad, depending on your own security standards, but the rule of thumb for “not your keys, not your crypto,” applies.

Final Verdict & Conclusion

After spending substantial time using Crypto.com and dabbling with a lot of its features, I can say that it does deliver a very complete ecosystem, suited for users of different skill levels. If you just want to convert fiat to crypto and invest casually, there is sufficient and easy-to-use tooling for that.

If you want to trade somewhat professionally, the platform offers a robust set of trading tools for that as well.

I personally think that Crypto.com is oriented more towards the casual retail user as opposed to the professional traders, but I can see how it can be easily adapted to their needs as well.

Naturally, there are some trade-offs. If you’re not staking CRO, the fees can be steep, and it feels like a lot of the better offerings are tied to the token, but that’s somewhat expected in 2025.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Crypto.com secure to use?

Yes. Crypto.com uses strong security practices, including multi-factor authentication, cold storage, custody, insurance coverage, and numerous industry certifications.

What fees does Crypto.com charge?

Trading fees follow a maker/taker model and vary based on your 30-day volume. Instant purchases and card buys have higher fees. Staking CRO can significantly reduce trading fees.

Does Crypto.com support staking or earning rewards?

Yes. Through Crypto Earn, users can earn rewards on a wide range of assets. Higher APYs typically require locking assets for longer periods and staking CRO.

Is Crypto.com good for beginners?

Yes. The mobile app is designed to be beginner-friendly, with simple buy/sell options, easy onboarding, and clear navigation. However, fees may be high for users who rely on instant purchases.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

This is informational content sponsored by Crypto.com and should not be considered as investment advice. Trading cryptocurrencies carries risks, such as price volatility and market risks. Before deciding to trade cryptocurrencies, consider your risk appetite.

Crypto.com services, features and other benefits, including rewards and fee reduction, referenced in this article may be subject to eligibility requirements, jurisdictional limitations, token holdings, and other requirements that may change at the discretion of Crypto.com.

Participating in Level Up does not guarantee access to all services or benefits. Services and potential benefits remain subject to local jurisdictional requirements, availability, and terms and conditions, among other things. All benefits, offers, and rewards conferred by Crypto.com, including but not limited to merchant rebates and CRO Rewards, are subject to change at Crypto.com’s sole discretion. See https://crypto.com/us/levelup for details.

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The native token of the Pi Network ecosystem continues with its highly volatile price movements, this time in the right direction, gaining over 7% of value daily to trade above $0.19.

This substantial uptick following a multi-day correction that pushed it south by nearly 50% comes as the Core Team prepares for the next big update.

PI Rebounds Strong

Even though March is just over halfway over, it’s been a highly volatile and eventful month for PI. The token exploded from under $0.175 to over $0.23 by March 9, perhaps driven by the major protocol updates, which we will touch upon later in the article.

The bigger hype news came from Kraken, though, as the company said a few days later that it would list PI for trading on March 13. The token responded with an immediate price surge that drove it north to a five-month peak of almost $0.30. Once it indeed became live for trading on the veteran US exchange, though, the landscape changed instantly for the worse.

In what became a classic ‘buy-the-rumor, sell-the-news’ event, PI plummeted by double digits daily, and kept correcting to $0.175 market earlier this week. This meant that it had slashed almost 50% of its value in 72 hours.

However, it bounced yesterday to over $0.18 and continued today, with another surge that has driven it to over $0.19. Current data from PiScan shows that the average number of tokens to be unlocked in the next month is below 5.5 million. Aside from today (March 20), when 16 million coins are scheduled to be released, the rest of the month should be less eventful in this manner.

Another One Coming Up

As hinted above, some of the key updates introduced by the team coincided with or preceded the price increases. The first major one came on February 20, when the protocol version was upgraded to 19.6. Version 19.9 followed on March 4, while the highly anticipated v20.2 was successfully completed before March 14 (known in the Pi Network community as Pi Day).

The reason why it was arguably the most hyped is that it laid out the foundations for enabling smart contract capabilities, which will roll out gradually as the team wants to prioritize categories that align with utility-based product innovation and operations.

The next protocol update in Pi Network’s road ahead is v21. Although the details provided by the team are scarce at the moment, they still urged node operators to ensure their systems are up to date.

The Pi Mainnet has successfully upgraded to Protocol 20, laying the foundation for supporting smart contracts. Node operators, please ensure your systems are up to date and stay tuned for instructions regarding the upcoming v21 upgrade.

— Pi Network (@PiCoreTeam) March 19, 2026

The post Pi Network’s PI Token Rebounds Hard as Major Upgrade Approaches appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The SEC lawsuit against Ripple that was compressing XRP sentiment for many years has finally concluded a few months back. Exchanges that had previously delisted the cryptocurrency are now back offering it. And yet, the token has spent the first few months of this year trading sideways, while the broader crypto market was moving around it. This, naturally, started the uncomfortable questions about what it is that drives XRP’s value now that the legal overhang is completely gone.

The XRP Ledger continues generating genuine network value through payment throughput, real-world asset tokenization, and stablecoin rails. The token itself, however, captures only a tiny fraction of that. The gap is becoming structural rather than temporary. XRP is no longer competing agaisnt other cryptocurrencies, but also against prominent stablecoin networks, SWIFT upgrades, CBDC initiatives (however scarce), and the bank consortia – all of which are targeting the same cross-border payment use case that it was built around. For holders who are watching that dynamic and weighing their options, a growing number are starting to look at Bitcoin Everlight.

The Problem With Holding XRP in 2026

XRP was originally designed and developed as a payment efficiency tool. It does that job particularly well. However, what it was not intended to do is generate returns for the people who hold it. The fees that are generated on the XRP Ledger are burned – not distributed, and while fee burn creates mild deflationary pressure, it moves the valuation in a macro-relevant way.

As some governments push forward with plans to develop their own CBDC and instant settlement infrastructure, the demand for a bridge currency that sits between two fiat rails weakens – and even with the firm’s roadmap. XRPL’s growing importance may come at the expense of XRP, as stablecoins and permissioned rails absorb a greater share of settlement activity.

In essence, whatever an XRP holder earns depends entirely on price appreciation, an environment where, let’s face it, that appreciation is far from guaranteed. Bitcoin Everlight, on the other hand, operates on entirely different structural logic.

A Validation Network That Distributes Bitcoin

Bitcoin Everlight is a decentralized validation network in which each participant helps secure the blockchain infrastructure and earns Bitcoin rewards in return. The platform runs on a Transaction Validation Node framework responsible for validation, routing, and reward distribution across the network.

Furthermore, Everlight Shards – a participation layer which is designed to connect a user’s token position to the network’s fee revenue without them having to prove any technical involvement – was introduced in the protocol’s V2 update. The infrastructure itself runs in the background while shard holders are able to draw from the reward pool it generates and is denominated in BTC.

The simple comparison is this: where XRP holders predominantly wait on price action driven by factors mostly out of their control, Bitcoin Everlight shard holders participate in a network designed to distribute transaction routing fees back to them directly, paid in Bitcoin.

Before the presale opened, the project completed dual smart contract audits through Spywolf and Solidproof, alongside dual KYC verifications through Spywolf and Vital Block — independent verification of both the smart contract and the team’s identity before a single token was sold.

From Token Holding to Active Shard

To enter the network, the user would first have to acquire BTCL tokens during the current presale phase. The starting entry point is $50. Once the user’s cumulative commitment goes past a certain tier threshold, the shard would activate automatically based on the value at the time of the purchase. The rewards will start being distributed from that moment and continue throughout the entire presale period, paid in BTCL at a fixed APY that’s tied to the active tier.

When the mainnet launches, fixed presale incentives will give way to performance-based BTC distribution that’s drawn from real transaction routing fee activity. The reward pool will scale with network usage, meaning that the more transaction volume flows through the infrastructure, the greater the potential distribution for active shard holders is going to be.

The Three Shard Tiers

To put matters in perspective, the Azure Shard activates at a commitment of $500, and it can earn up to 12% APY in BTCL while the presale period lasts. It would then transition to BTC rewards once the mainnet is live. The Violet Shard is at $1,5000 and carries up to 20% APY, while the Radiant Shard is at $3,000 with 28% APY. Participants who hold tokens below any threshold will maintain a dormant shard position, which will upgrade automatically once the balance reaches the next tier. During the presale, tokens remain locked, and all commitments are final.

After mainnet, tiers are sustained through ongoing USD-equivalent BTCL balance rather than permanently locked in by a single presale purchase. If holdings grow past a threshold the shard upgrades; if a balance falls below one it adjusts to the appropriate level.

Entering During Phase 1

At the time of this writing, Bitcoin Everlight remains in the first phase of its presale, and it will run for six days with 472,500,000 tokens available at a price of $0.0008 per token. This is the earliest available entry point into a platform where the Bitcoin flows back to the participants from real network activity.

Everything about how the shard activation process works and what the BTC reward distribution looks like after mainnet can be explored here.

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The post XRP Could Struggle in 2026 — Why Some Holders Are Quietly Switching to Bitcoin Everlight Shards appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Gemini has reduced its workforce by roughly 30% since the start of 2026, extending earlier layoffs as the crypto exchange pivots toward greater use of artificial intelligence to improve efficiency, according to a shareholder letter cited by Bloomberg.

Founded by Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss, Gemini reported that it employed about 445 people as of March 1 and did not provide an operating outlook for 2026 alongside its fourth-quarter results.

Aggressive Layoffs

The latest cuts come after an earlier announcement that the firm would eliminate up to a quarter of its staff, withdraw from the UK, European Union, and Australia, and part ways with several top executives, including its chief operating, financial, and legal officers. Additional US layoffs occurred beyond the initial reduction.

The downsizing also comes as Gemini, which went public on Nasdaq’s Global Select Market last September, is facing financial strain after posting a full-year loss of $585 million. The figure includes unrealized crypto asset losses after losing more than $500 million in the prior year. Fourth-quarter revenue rose nearly 40% year-over-year to about $60 million, but losses widened significantly to $140.8 million from $27 million.

Data from Kaiko revealed that the company operates with less than 1% of global market share, which is relatively small in scale in an industry where larger platforms dominate. By comparison, Coinbase Global Inc. employs approximately 4,951 staff, which is around 11 times more than Gemini, and recorded daily trading volumes nearly 42 times higher in the past 24 hours, based on CoinGecko data.

The broader crypto market downturn has added pressure, as Bitcoin remained down about 44% from its October peak and trading activity was low amid volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty.

Industry-Wide Restructuring

Alongside Gemini, several industry players have downsized their workforce as market conditions remain challenging. For instance, Crypto.com recently slashed 12% of its workforce while citing the need to adapt to AI-driven changes. Algorand reduced its staff by approximately 25%. Meanwhile, OP Labs, a major contributor to the Optimism ecosystem, eliminated around 20 roles. At the same time, Messari is undergoing a leadership shakeup alongside staff cuts.

Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc. also cut over 4,000 jobs, reducing staff to under 6,000 from 10,000. The company, however, later rehired a small number of employees.

The post Another Exchange Slashes 30% Workforce as AI Pivot Deepens Amid Mounting Losses appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Around 24,600 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, Mar. 20, with a notional value of roughly $1.7 billion. This event is smaller than last week’s, which was also quite negligible, so it is unlikely to affect spot markets.

Crypto prices have been in decline over the past few days following the Federal Reserve’s hawkish outlook for the rest of the year. Total capitalization has declined by $75 billion since Monday, and volatility and volumes have dwindled.

Bitcoin Options Expiry

This week’s batch of Bitcoin options contracts has a put/call ratio of 0.96, meaning that the longs and the shorts are relatively evenly matched. Max pain is around $70,000, according to Coinglass, which is pretty close to current spot prices, so many could be in the money on expiry.

Open interest (OI), or the value or number of Bitcoin options contracts yet to expire, remains highest at the $60,000 strike price on Deribit, with $1.5 billion in bearish bets. Total BTC options OI across all exchanges has been climbing this month, reaching $44 billion.

“With the quarterly settlement week approaching, Bitcoin may enter a period of relatively low volatility unless major events occur,” noted crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live on Thursday.

In addition to today’s batch of Bitcoin options, around 176,500 Ethereum contracts are also expiring, with a notional value of $377 million, max pain at $2,150, and a put/call ratio of 1.0. Total ETH options OI across all exchanges is around $9 billion.

This brings the total notional value of crypto options expiries to around $2.1 billion.

Spot Market Outlook

Spot markets have ended the week in the red, declining a further 1.3% on the day, dropping total capitalization to $2.48 trillion.

Bitcoin has moved back to the middle of its sideways channel, dipping below $69,000 briefly on Thursday before recovering to trade at just over $70,000 during the Friday morning Asian session.

Ether prices have lost another 3% on the day, falling back to the $2,100 level, and are in danger of losing the psychological $2,000 zone again as momentum from this week’s rally dissipates.

Altcoins are mostly in the red again with larger losses for Hyperliquid, Zcash, and Toncoin.

If these Bitcoin range breakouts keep failing, “then it will be hard for a prolonged relief bounce to happen,” said analyst ‘Daan Crypto Trades.’

“All we’re seeing now is a sweep of shorts into further downside since this downtrend began.”

The post How Will Markets React to $2.1B Crypto Options Expiring? appeared first on CryptoPotato.