Crypto News
Coinbase plans India comeback with FIU registration
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is one step closer to relaunching its services in India after securing a license with the country’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). On March 11, the crypto exchange revealed on social media that “we’re approved to launch in India,” which prompted a follow-up from Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal.“Coinbase is now FIU-registered,” said Grewal. “It’s a major step towards empowering Indian entrepreneurs to build, innovate and scale global onchain businesses — all from home.”A Coinbase blog post confirmed that the exchange plans to offer cryptocurrency trading services in the country but did not specify a timeline for service rollout. In addition to crypto traders, India’s developer community could benefit from the availability of Coinbase and its related tools, including its Base network, according to the company’s APAC regional managing director, John O’Loghlen.Cointelegraph contacted Coinbase for more information about its India launch plans but did not receive an immediate response.Coinbase’s first foray into India in 2022 lasted mere days after it ran into issues with the country’s central bank. Coinbase said at the time that it was “committed to working with [...] relevant authorities to ensure that we are aligned, with local expectations and industry norms.”Related: India may change crypto policy due to international adoption: reportIndia pivots on cryptoIndia has had a complicated history with cryptocurrency, with the FIU banning several crypto exchanges over the years. Legal expert Amit Kumar Gupta told Cointelegraph that many lawmakers view the industry negatively, associating it with gambling and illegal activities. This partly explains why some elements of the Indian government want to purge the sector by implementing harsh tax laws.Nevertheless, the tides appear to be shifting as global crypto adoption heats up, which has prompted fears that India will be left behind. In February, Reuters cited India’s economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth as saying that cryptocurrencies “don’t believe in borders,” suggesting that the country needs to get ahead of the adoption curve.In terms of crypto adoption, India receives the highest grades among CSAO countries. Source: ChainalysisDespite the controversy, India has emerged as the leading country in terms of crypto adoption within the Central, Southern Asia and Oceana (CSAO) region, according to a 2024 report by Chainalysis. India received especially high marks for retail and decentralized finance adoption, the report said.Magazine: How crypto bots are ruining crypto — including auto memecoin rug pulls
Published Date: 2025-03-11 16:27:57Creator: Cointelegraph by Sam Bourgi
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THORChain at crossroads: Decentralization clashes with illicit activity
THORChain has been called a money laundering protocol — a label no decentralized finance (DeFi) project wants unless it’s prepared to have regulators breathing down its neck.Its supporters have fended off the criticism by championing decentralization, while its critics point to recent activities that showed some of the protocol’s centralized tendencies.After exploiting Bybit for $1.4 billion, the North Korean state-backed hackers behind the attack, known as the Lazarus Group, flocked to THORChain, making it their top choice to convert stolen funds from Ether (ETH) to Bitcoin (BTC). Lazarus finished converting its Ether within just 10 days of the hack.The controversy has triggered internal conflict, governance cracks and developer resignations, exposing a deeper issue and question: Can DeFi remain neutral when criminals exploit it at scale?THORChain is not a mixerTHORChain is a decentralized swap protocol, so some say it’s unfair to call it a laundering machine, as the output is traceable. It’s not like a mixer, whose purpose is to conceal cryptocurrency fund trails — though the reasons for using mixers vary between users, with some simply wanting to preserve their privacy and others using them for illicit purposes.Federico Paesano, investigations lead at Crystal Intelligence, argued in a LinkedIn post that it is misleading to state that the North Korean hackers “laundered” the Bybit hack proceeds.“So far, there’s been no concealment, only conversion. The stolen ETH have been swapped for BTC using various providers, but every swap is fully traceable. This isn’t laundering; it’s just asset movement across blockchains.”Tracing funds swapped to Bitcoin is time-consuming, but not impossible. Source: Federico PaesanoHackers also moved funds through Uniswap and OKX DEX, yet THORChain has become the focal point of scrutiny due to the sheer volume of funds that passed through it. In a March 4 X post, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said that 72% of the stolen funds (361,255 ETH) had flowed through THORChain, far surpassing activity on other DeFi services.Over $1 billion in Ether from the Bybit theft was traced to THORChain. Source: Coldfire/Dune AnalyticsA truly decentralized platform’s strength lies in its neutrality and censorship-resistance, which are foundational to blockchain’s value proposition, according to Rachel Lin, CEO of decentralized exchange SynFutures.“The line between decentralization and responsibility can evolve with technology,” Lin told Cointelegraph. “While human intervention contradicts decentralization’s ethos, protocol-level innovations could automate safeguards against illicit activity.”Related: From Sony to Bybit: How Lazarus Group became crypto’s supervillainTHORChain collected at least $5 million in fees from these transactions, a windfall for a project already struggling with financial instability. This financial benefit has further fueled criticism, with some questioning whether THORChain’s reluctance to intervene was ideological or simply a matter of self-preservation.Source: Yogi (Screenshot cropped by Cointelegraph for visibility)Governance cracks show when decentralization becomes a shieldThe controversy sparked a dilemma on whether THORChain should act. In an attempt to block the hackers, three validators voted to halt ETH trading, effectively closing off their swapping route. However, four validators quickly voted to overturn the decision.This exposed a contradiction in THORChain’s governance model. The protocol claims to be absolutely decentralized, yet it had previously intervened to pause its lending feature due to insolvency risks (swaps still remained operational). Some crypto community members called out THORChain’s actions as selective decentralization, where governance intervention only occurs when it serves the protocol’s own interests.Source: Dan DadybayoThe backlash was immediate. Pluto, a key THORChain developer, resigned. Another developer, TCB, who identified themselves as one of the three validators who voted to halt Ether trades, hinted at leaving unless governance issues were addressed. Meanwhile, blockchain investigator ZachXBT called out Asgardex, a THORChain-based decentralized exchange, for not returning fees earned from hackers, while other protocols reportedly refunded ill-gotten gains.THORChain founder John-Paul Thorbjornsen responded by claiming that centralized exchanges pocket millions from facilitating illicit transactions unless pressured by authorities.“This pisses me off. Do we get ETH and BTC nodes to give back their transaction fees? What about GETH or BTCCore devs - who write the software, funded by grants/donations?” asked Thorbjornsen.Source: ZachXBTTHORChain's growing regulatory risks, as previously demonstrated by privacy toolsFor now, THORChain has avoided any direct enforcement actions from governments, but history suggests that DeFi protocols facilitating illicit finance may not escape scrutiny forever. Tornado Cash, a well-known crypto mixer, was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2022 after being used to launder billions of dollars, though it was later overturned by a US court. Similarly, Railgun came under FBI scrutiny in 2023 after North Korean hackers used it to move $60 million in stolen Ether.Related: Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev leaves prison custodyRailgun presents a unique case, as it’s marketed as a privacy protocol rather than a mixer or a DEX. But the distinction still draws comparisons to THORChain, given that privacy protocols frequently face criticism for potentially enabling illicit activities.“Critics often claim that privacy-focused projects enable crime, but in reality, protecting financial privacy is a fundamental right and a cornerstone of decentralized innovation,” Chen Feng, head of research at Autonomys and associate professor and research chair in blockchain at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus, told Cointelegraph.“Technologies like ZK-proofs and trusted execution environments can secure user data without obscuring illicit activity entirely. Through optional transparency measures and robust onchain forensics, suspicious patterns can still be detected. The goal is to strike a balance: empower users with privacy while ensuring the system has built-in safeguards to discourage and trace illicit use.”Lin of SynFutures said continued illicit use of decentralized protocols would “absolutely” lead to drastic measures from authorities.“Governments will likely escalate measures if they perceive decentralized protocols as systemic risks. This could include sanctioning protocol addresses, pressuring infrastructure providers, blacklisting entire networks or going after the builders,” she said.Rising pressure against THORChainTHORChain supporters argue it is being unfairly singled out, as hackers have also used other DeFi protocols. But regulators tend to focus on the biggest enablers, and THORChain processed the vast majority of the stolen funds from the Bybit hack. This makes it an easy target for enforcement actions ranging from Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions to developer prosecutions.“When the huge majority of your flows are stolen funds from north korea for the biggest money heist in human history, it will become a national security issue, this isn’t a game anymore,” TCB wrote on X.“The threshold you want to be credibly decentralized you need a network of 1000+ unique validators. There is a reason why @Chainflip fixed this issue on the network level so quickly and all front end are applying censorship.”If regulators decide to crack down, the consequences could be severe. Sanctions on THORChain’s validators, front-end service, and liquidity providers could cripple its ecosystem, while major exchanges might delist RUNE (RUNE), cutting off its access to liquidity. There is also the possibility of legal action against developers, as seen in the Tornado Cash case, or pressure to introduce compliance measures like sanctioned address filtering — something that would contradict THORChain’s decentralized ethos and alienate its core user base.THORChain’s entanglement with North Korean hackers has put it at a crossroads. The protocol must decide whether to take action now or risk having regulators step in to make that decision for them.For now, the protocol remains firm in its laissez-faire approach, but history suggests DeFi projects that ignore illicit activity don’t stay untouchable forever.Magazine: THORChain founder and his plan to ‘vampire attack’ all of DeFi
Published Date: 2025-03-11 15:37:59Creator: Cointelegraph by Yohan Yun
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Cantor Fitzgerald taps Anchorage Digital, Copper as Bitcoin custodians
Investment banking firm Cantor Fitzgerald has selected Anchorage Digital and Copper as its Bitcoin custodians and collateral managers as it launches its new digital asset financing business targeting institutional investors.In a March 11 announcement, Cantor Fitzgerald said it is rolling out its Bitcoin (BTC) financing business with $2 billion in initial capital to help institutional investors borrow against their crypto holdings. Anchorage Digital and Copper will safeguard clients’ digital assets by acting as custodians and collateral managers, the company said. Source: Anchorage DigitalAnchorage Digital is an institutional cryptocurrency platform that operates the only federally chartered digital asset bank in the United States.Copper is a crypto custodian backed by Barclays, the British multinational financial institution.Copper CEO Amar Kuchinad said Cantor Fitzgerald’s new offering will help institutional investors “diversify their portfolios” into digital assets. He cited the “growing demand for sophisticated financing solutions” in the Bitcoin space. Cantor Fitzgerald unveiled plans for its BTC financing business in July of last year “to provide leverage to investors who hold Bitcoin,” the company said at the time.Since then, the company has broadened its exposure to the digital asset market, including acquiring a 5% stake in stablecoin issuer Tether.Cantor Fitzgerald has more than $5 billion in assets under management, based on the latest regulatory filings.Related: Bitcoin miner CleanSpark to join S&P SmallCap 600 IndexInstitutional Bitcoin demand remains strong despite market volatilityThe successful launch of US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) more than one year ago revealed the huge pent-up demand for BTC among institutional investors. By February, Bitcoin exchange reserves had fallen to more than two-year lows thanks to institutional buying pressure.Despite the recent market sell-off that was triggered by the US-led tariff war and recession fears, institutional Bitcoin investments continue to grow, with more Wall Street firms moving into the custody business. As Forbes reported, Citi and State Street are planning to offer crypto custody services by 2026. A separate Bloomberg report on March 11 revealed that German exchange group Deutsche Boerse is planning to launch Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) custody beginning next month.Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
Published Date: 2025-03-11 15:30:53Creator: Cointelegraph by Sam Bourgi
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Cointelegraph launches Gaming.News: A fresh take on gaming media
Cointelegraph is expanding its presence into the gaming space with the launch of Gaming.News, the next-gen gaming platform built for players, fans and industry enthusiasts. Gaming.News provides comprehensive coverage of the gaming world, offering the latest news and reviews about video games, hardware, eSports and mobile.While operating as a separate brand with its own identity, it shares Cointelegraph’s commitment to high-quality content and deep passion for its subject matter.“Expanding into gaming media was a natural step for us,” said Cointelegraph CEO Yana Prikhodchenko, adding: “Gaming is one of the most dynamic and rapidly evolving industries, and we saw an opportunity to create a platform that delivers high-quality, engaging content. This is an entirely new brand with its own voice, but it’s built on the same passion and dedication that define Cointelegraph.”At its core, Gaming.News focuses on keeping gamers informed and entertained while enhancing user experience and engagement. The site offers news coverage on everything from game releases to industry updates. In addition, it dives deep into esports coverage, featuring tournament standings, player highlights and team rankings for games like League of Legends and Valorant. Hardware enthusiasts can also find detailed updates on the latest consoles, GPUs and peripherals.What’s coming nextGaming.News is still in its early stages, and while our primary focus remains on delivering high-quality gaming news, we are actively exploring opportunities to expand the platform with additional features.A dedicated guides section is under consideration, with potential plans to offer walkthroughs, build recommendations, strategies, and interactive maps for popular games. While in the early planning phase, this resource aims to provide players with valuable insights to enhance their gaming experience.We are also evaluating the feasibility of introducing playable web-based games, allowing visitors to engage with interactive content beyond traditional news and updates. Additionally, several other features are being explored, pushing our development team to innovate while ensuring the platform evolves in meaningful ways.While these ideas are still in discussion, we are committed to continuously improving Gaming.News and expanding its offerings in ways that best serve our audience. Stay tuned for future updates.Gaming as a lifestyleIn a crowded gaming media landscape, Gaming.News focuses on staying passionate, fresh, approachable and fun. The team behind the platform understands that gaming is more than a hobby — it’s a lifestyle. Each feature and article on the platform reflects a deep appreciation for the gaming culture and a commitment to delivering quality content in a modern, engaging format.The Gaming.News team brings extensive gaming experience, with thousands of hours in various games across every platform, spanning a catalog ranging from Pokémon to the Yakuza series and the depths of Warhammer 40K lore.Gaming.News is live now, and Cointelegraph invites gamers everywhere to explore the platform and be part of its growth.
Published Date: 2025-03-11 15:30:00Creator: Cointelegraph by Cointelegraph
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Centralized data infrastructure violates Web3’s core of decentralization
Opinion by: Michael O’Rourke, founder of Pocket Network and CEO of GroveOpen data is currently a major contributor toward building a global emerging tech economy, with an estimated market of over $350 billion. Open data sources often rely, however, on centralized infrastructure, contrary to the philosophy of autonomy and censorship resistance.To realize its potential, open data must shift to decentralized infrastructure. Once open data channels start using a decentralized and open infrastructure, multiple vulnerabilities for user applications will be solved.Open infrastructure has many use cases, from hosting a decentralized application (DApp) or a trading bot to sharing research data to training and inference of large language models (LLMs). Looking closely into each helps us better understand why leveraging decentralized infrastructure for open data is more utilitarian than centralized infrastructure.Affordable LLM training and inference The launch of the open-source AI DeepSeek, which wiped out $1 trillion from the US tech markets, demonstrates the power of open-source protocols. It’s a wake-up call to focus on the new world economy of open data.To begin with, closed-source, centralized AI models have high costs for training LLMs and generating accurate results.Unsurprisingly, the final stage of training DeepSeek R1 cost just about $5.5 million, compared to over $100 million for OpenAI’s GPT-4. Yet, the emerging AI industry still relies on centralized infrastructure platforms like LLM API providers, which are essentially at odds with emerging open-source innovations. Hosting open-source LLMs like Llama 2 and DeepSeek R1 is simple and inexpensive. Unlike stateful blockchains requiring constant syncing, LLMs are stateless and only need periodic updates. Recent: Here’s why DeepSeek crashed your Bitcoin and cryptoDespite the simplicity, the computational costs of running inference on open-source models are high, as node runners need GPUs. These models can save costs as they don’t require real-time updates to continuously sync.The rise of generalizable base models like GPT-4 has enabled the development of new products through contextual inference. Centralized companies like OpenAI won’t allow any random network support or inference from their trained model.On the contrary, decentralized node runners can support the development of open-source LLMs by serving as AI endpoints to provide deterministic data to clients. Decentralized networks lower entry barriers by empowering operators to launch their gateway on top of the network.These decentralized infrastructure protocols serve millions of requests on their permissionless networks by open-sourcing the core gateway and service infrastructure. Consequently, any entrepreneur or operator can deploy their gateway and tap into an emerging market.For example, someone can train an LLM with decentralized computing resources on the permissionless protocol Akash, which enables customized computing services at 85% lower prices than centralized cloud providers.The AI training and inference market has immense potential. AI companies spend approximately $1 million daily on infrastructure maintenance to run LLM inference. This takes the service obtainable market, or SAM, to roughly $365 million annually.As the data suggests, the market conditions indicate a massive growth potential for decentralized infrastructure.Accessible research data sharingIn the scientific and research domain, data sharing combined with machine learning and LLMs can potentially accelerate research and improve human lives. Access to that data has been walled in by the high-cost journal system, which selectively publishes the research that its board approves of and is broadly inaccessible behind expensive subscriptions.With the rise of blockchain-based zero-knowledge ML models, data can now be shared and computed trustlessly, and privacy can be preserved without revealing sensitive data. Thus, researchers and scientists can share and access research data without de-anonymizing potentially restricted personally identifiable information. To sustainably share open research data, researchers need access to a decentralized infrastructure that rewards them for access to that data, cutting out the middleman. An incentivized open data network can ensure that scientific data remains accessible outside the walled garden of expensive journals and private corporations.Unstoppable DApp hostingCentralized data hosting platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure are popular among app developers. Despite their easy accessibility, centralized platforms suffer from a single point of failure, affecting reliability and leading to rare but plausible outages.There are various instances in tech history when Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms have failed to provide uninterrupted services.For example, in 2022, MetaMask temporarily denied access to users from specific geographical regions because Infura blocked them after some US sanctions. Although MetaMask is decentralized, its default connections and endpoints depend on centralized tech like Infura to access Ethereum.This wasn’t an isolated incident, either. Infura clients also faced an interruption in 2020, while Solana and Polygon experienced an overloading of centralized remote procedure calls (RPCs) during peak traffic.It is difficult for one company to handle diverse developer needs in a thriving open-source ecosystem. There are thousands of layer 1s, rollups, indexing, storage and other middleware protocols with niche use cases.Most centralized platforms, like RPC providers, keep building the same infrastructure, which creates friction, slows growth metrics, and affects scalability because protocols focus on rebuilding the foundation instead of adding new features.On the contrary, the massive success of decentralized social network applications like BlueSky and AT Protocol signals users’ quest for decentralized protocols. Moving past centralized RPCs into accessing open data, such protocols remind us of the need to build and work on decentralized infrastructure.For example, a decentralized finance protocol can source onchain price data from Chainlink to stop depending on centralized APIs for price feeds and real-time market data.There are roughly 100 billion serviceable RPC requests in the Web3 market, costing $3–$6 per million requests. Thus, the total addressable market size of Web3 RPC is $100 million–$200 million annually. With the steady growth of new data availability layers, there can be over 1 trillion RPC requests daily.It is imperative to pivot toward decentralized infrastructure to stay in sync with open data transfers and tap into the open-source data market.Open data requires decentralized infrastructureWe’ll see generalized blockchain clients offloading storage and networking to specialized middleware protocols in the long term.For example, Solana led the decentralization movement when it first started to store its data on chains such as Arweave. No wonder Solana and Phantom were once again the primary tools for handling the massive TRUMP presidential memecoin traffic, a key moment in financial and cultural history.In the future, we’ll see more data flow through infrastructure protocols, creating dependencies on middleware platforms. As protocols become more modular and scalable, it’ll make space for open-source, decentralized middleware to integrate at the protocol level.It is unfeasible to have centralized companies function as intermediaries for light client headers.Decentralized infrastructure is trustless, distributed, cost-effective and censorship-resistant. As a result, decentralized infrastructure will be the default choice for app developers and companies alike, leading to a mutually beneficial growth narrative.Opinion by: Michael O’Rourke, founder of Pocket Network and CEO of Grove. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Published Date: 2025-03-11 15:00:00Creator: Cointelegraph by Michael O’Rourke
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Bitcoin dips below $80K as Trump Canada tariffs halt BTC price comeback
Bitcoin (BTC) cooled a 7% rebound after the March 11 Wall Street open as familiar headwinds sparked market jitters.BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewBitcoin, stocks deflate on fresh tariffs letdownData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it touched local highs of $82,154 on Bitstamp before consolidating.US JOLTS job openings data delivered a slight overshoot versus expectations, but it was confirmation of further trade tariffs on Canada by US President Donald Trump that spoiled risk-asset relief.The S&P 500 thus traded down 0.5% on the day at the time of writing, while stock indexes continued to see volatility.“The S&P 500 was up +5% at this point in Trump’s first term. Instead, it’s now down -7% since January 20th,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter observed in part of a reaction on X. “A polar opposite start to his term so far.”S&P 500 comparison. Source: The Kobeissi Letter/XTrading firm QCP Capital added that Trump’s apparent “indifference to recession risks” made life harder for risk assets but acknowledged that some silver linings remained.“Despite the market turmoil, not all signals are bearish,” it summarized in its latest bulletin to Telegram channel subscribers. “This wave of risk-off sentiment has driven 10-year Treasury yields down by around 60 bps and weakened the US dollar — a historically positive factor for USD-denominated risk assets like US equities and crypto.”US dollar index (DXY) 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewThe US dollar index (DXY) dropped to 103.32 on the day, marking its lowest level since mid-October 2024.New BTC price lows still “possible”Bitcoin price analysis meanwhile saw BTC/USD at a crossroads amid a lack of clear upside catalysts.Related: Biggest red weekly candle ever: 5 things to know in Bitcoin this weekTrading channel More Crypto Online used Elliott Wave theory to delineate key support and resistance levels, warning that price could still head to new long-term lows.“The price is still undecided after the New York open. A bottom could be forming here, but another low is possible as long as resistance holds,” it told X followers. “A confirmed low needs a sustained break above yesterday’s high in 5 waves. The market, as always, enjoys keeping traders guessing.”BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: More Crypto Online/XPopular trader CrypNuevo meanwhile described a “great reaction” at the 50-week simple moving average (SMA) at around $75,500.As Cointelegraph reported, that support trendline has remained without a candle close below it since March 2023.BTC/USD 1-week chart with 50SMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewThis article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Published Date: 2025-03-11 14:44:46Creator: Cointelegraph by William Suberg
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Paxos CEO urges US lawmakers to set cross-border stablecoin regulation
US lawmakers are set for a heated debate on stablecoin regulation, with key industry leaders expected to outline their vision for the future of digital asset oversight.Charles Cascarilla, co-founder and CEO of stablecoin issuer Paxos, is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee, where he will urge lawmakers to establish “cross-jurisdictional reciprocity” in stablecoin regulations.In his prepared testimony, Cascarilla flagged concerns about the existing hurdles in the adoption of Paxos’ Global Dollar (USDG) stablecoin due to it being issued via a regulated affiliate in Singapore.“We fear that products like Paxos’ Global Dollar (USDG) stablecoin, issued by a regulated affiliate in Singapore, will languish while departments and agencies make their determinations,” Cascarilla wrote in his speech.US must act to prevent regulatory stablecoin arbitrageCascarilla recommended US lawmakers strengthen the current “international reciprocity language” to include clearly defined, accelerated timelines for the US Treasury Department to designate overseas jurisdictions for stablecoin regulation.“This timeframe would force swift action and prevent bureaucratic delays while guaranteeing thorough scrutiny of foreign regulatory regimes,” the executive said.Source: House Committee on Financial ServicesCascarilla emphasized that potential delays in applying such action would be a major hurdle in the adoption and distribution of stablecoins like USDG in the US as well as cross-border operations. “Reciprocity is not about lowering standards — it’s about raising them globally,” Cascarilla said, adding:“By establishing a framework to recognize jurisdictions with comparable regulatory regimes — covering reserve requirements, AML measures and cybersecurity protocols — the United States can prevent regulatory arbitrage, where issuers exploit lax oversight abroad.”Paxos stablecoins were deemed non-compliant in the EUCascarilla’s remarks come amid some Paxos-issued stablecoins facing compliance issues in the European Union following the enforcement of its crypto regulation framework, Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA).Since the MiCA framework went into full force in December 2024, multiple crypto asset service providers in the EU — including Crypto.com and Coinbase — have announced the delistings of Paxos stablecoins, including Pax Dollar (PAX) and Pax Gold (PAXG).While Paxos’ Cascarilla is now calling for the US to take urgent action in forcing a global framework for stablecoin issuers that are regulated outside of the US, some industry CEOs have urged all stablecoin firms to get regulated domestically instead.In February, Circle co-founder Jeremy Allaire argued that all dollar-based stablecoin issuers should register in the US, citing consumer protection and fair competition in the crypto market. He stated:“Whether you are an offshore company or based in Hong Kong, if you want to offer your US dollar stablecoin in the US, you should register in the US just like we have to go register everywhere else.”Issued and regulated in the US, Circle’s USDC (USDC) stablecoin was officially approved as the first MiCA-compliant stablecoin in 2024.Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025
Published Date: 2025-03-11 14:23:22Creator: Cointelegraph by Helen Partz
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3 reasons XRP might drop to $1.60 in March
The XRP (XRP) daily chart registered its lowest candle close in 99 days on March 10. The altcoin dropped below the $2 support level but registered a short-term recovery of 12% on March 11. XRP 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewOn the high time frame (HTF) charts, XRP must hold above its psychological level at $2, but other metrics suggest that a deeper drawdown is possible. XRP markets lack buyers as futures flip bearishXRP price is currently down 37.1% from its all-time high of $3.40. When prices dipped by a similar percentage on Feb. 3, spot market bids quickly absorbed the selling pressure, pushing XRP above $2.50. XRP’s spot and perpetual aggregated data. Source: aggr.tradeHowever, XRP‘s spot and perpetual markets were relatively bearish over the past week. Data from aggr.trade indicates that XRP’s spot cumulative volume delta (CVD) dropped by 50% in March. A negative CVD means that there is more selling volume than buying. The current CVD value is -$408 million, which signals waning demand, with sellers taking control.Likewise, futures traders are also turning bearish, with perpetual CVD dropping to -1.18 billion on March 11. XRP’s open interest-weighted funding rate has also turned significantly negative, which indicates more short positions were added over the past few days. XRP funding rate chart. Source: CoinGlassXRP whales continue selling spreeXRP’s volume bubble map showed a surge in activity toward the end of February. Ki-Young Ju, CryptoQuant founder, observed that this uptick aligned with an ongoing distribution phase for XRP. Distribution refers to a period in the market cycle when large investors slowly offload their positions to secure gains, usually happening close to the peak of an upward trend.Related: Why is the XRP price down today?Current data reveals that the distribution phase has intensified over the past seven days. Specifically, whale outflows, measured as a 30-day moving average, have steadily risen. This increase suggests that large holders continued to offload their XRP positions, further driving the distribution trend.XRP total whale flows. Source: CryptoQuantBetween March 4 and March 10, these large XRP holders offloaded roughly $838 million in positions. This significant sell-off reflects the ongoing bearish trend for XRP.XRP price H&S pattern hints at $1.60 retestOn March 11, XRP’s 1-day chart closed below $2.05, which is the critical neckline of the daily head-and-shoulders pattern. This pattern has potentially strong bearish consequences when observed on a high time frame (HTF) chart. XRP 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewLower prices are likely if XRP fails to reclaim $2.05 as support, as illustrated in the chart above. The immediate target zone for the XRP price remains between 0.5 and 0.618 Fibonacci retracement lines. Also known as the “golden zone,” the retest range lies between $1.90 and $1.60. The likelihood of retesting the 0.618 Fibonacci or $1.60 is high in the current bearish environment.Failure to hold this range could lead to a retest of the long-term demand zone between $1.58 and $1.27.This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Published Date: 2025-03-11 13:45:00Creator: Cointelegraph by Biraajmaan Tamuly
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Yuga exec warns about ‘true bear market’ Ether price as whales scramble
Yuga Labs’ vice president of blockchain warned that Ether could drop as low as $200 in a prolonged bear market, a 90% decline from its current price.In a March 11 post on X, the executive, known as “Quit,” pushed back against analysts who suggested $1,500 as the possible bottom for Ether (ETH). Instead, Quit argued that a true bear market could see ETH fall significantly lower, similar to previous market cycles.“A true bear market target, if we’re just getting started, would be ~$200-$400. That’s an 80% drawdown from here, 90% total drawdown -- in line with past bear markets.”The executive said he’s in a “comfortable” position if things go south. Quit told followers to consider selling their stash if they’re uncomfortable with the asset going down. Source: QuitETH holders discuss potential price trajectoryQuit’s post drew mixed reactions from the crypto community. Some investors agreed that ETH could drop further, while others said such a scenario would require a major systemic collapse.One X user said they set $1,800 as the bottom. However, when the price reached $1,800, they contemplated whether it could go to $1,200. The ETH holder agreed with Quit’s prediction and said, “It could very well go lower” if Bitcoin (BTC) goes to $66,000.Meanwhile, another X user disagreed with the prediction, saying it would only be possible if there were a systemic collapse similar to 2018. The ETH investor said that, unlike previous cycles, Ether has been adopted by institutions and has a maturing ecosystem. “Positioning for both scenarios is what every smart investor should done, but being too bearish at the wrong time can cost just as much as being overly bullish,” they wrote.Related: 4 things must happen before Ethereum can reclaim $2,600ETH whales scramble against liquidation threatQuit’s sentiments came as ETH whales scrambled to avoid liquidation as Ether prices collapsed. On March 11, CoinGecko data showed that ETH prices went to a low of $1,791 on a 22% decline in the past seven days. Because of the sharp price changes, ETH whales moved millions of dollars in ETH to protect their positions against potential liquidation. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain flagged an ETH whale dumping $47.8 million and losing $32 million to avoid being liquidated. The whale still has over $64 million at the lending protocol Aave with a liquidation price of $1,316. Another ETH investor who had already used over $5 million in assets to lower the liquidation price to $1,836 started to be liquidated. Lookonchain said the whale’s $121 million balance was being liquidated as the price dropped below $1,800. A whale account suspected of being linked to the Ethereum Foundation also used $56 million in ETH to avoid liquidation amid the price drop. The address deposited over 30,000 ETH to the Sky vault, bringing its liquidation price to $1.127.14. The account was later determined to be unrelated to the foundation. Magazine: ETH whale’s wild $6.8M ‘mind control’ claims, Bitcoin power thefts: Asia Express
Published Date: 2025-03-11 13:33:22Creator: Cointelegraph by Ezra Reguerra
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Ether risks correction to $1.8K as ETF outflows, tariff fears continue
Ether is struggling to reverse a near three-month downtrend as macroeconomic concerns and continued selling pressure from US Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) weigh on investor sentiment.Ether (ETH) has fallen by more than 53% since it began its downtrend on Dec. 16, 2024, after it had peaked above $4,100, TradingView data shows.The downtrend has been fueled by global uncertainty around US import tariffs triggering trade war concerns and a lack of builder activity on the Ethereum network, according to Bitfinex analysts.ETH/USD, 1-day chart, downtrend. Source: Cointelegraph/ TradingView “A lack of new projects or builders moving to ETH, primarily due to high operating fees, is likely the principal reason behind the lackluster performance of ETH. [...] We believe that for ETH, $1,800 will be a strong level to watch,” the analysts told Cointelegraph. “However, the current sell-off is not being seen solely in ETH, we have seen a marketwide correction as fears over the impact of tariffs hit all risk assets,” they added.Related: Bitcoin reserve backlash signals unrealistic industry expectationsCrypto investors are also wary of an early bear market cycle that could break from the traditional four-year crypto market pattern.Bitcoin (BTC) is at risk of falling to $70,000 as cryptocurrencies and global financial markets undergo a “macro correction” while remaining in a bull market cycle, said Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at blockchain analytics firm Nansen.Related: Deutsche Boerse to launch Bitcoin, Ether institutional custody: ReportEther price limited by ETF outflowsAdding to Ethereum’s challenges, continued outflows from Ether ETFs are limiting the asset’s price recovery, according to Stella Zlatareva, dispatch editor at digital asset investment platform Nexo:“ETH’s 20% decline last week pushed its price below the key $2,200 trendline that had supported its bull market recovery since 2022. The modest price action may be attributed, as with Bitcoin, to ETFs.”US spot Ether ETFs have entered a fourth consecutive week of net negative outflows, after seeing over $119 million worth of cumulative outflows during the previous week, Sosovalue data shows.Total spot Ether ETF net inflow. Source: SosovalueStill, some notable institutional crypto market participants remain optimistic about Ether’s price for 2025. VanEck predicted a $6,000 cycle top for Ether’s price and a $180,000 Bitcoin price during 2025.Magazine: Ethereum L2s will be interoperable ‘within months’: Complete guide
Published Date: 2025-03-11 13:23:18Creator: Cointelegraph by Zoltan Vardai
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