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Bitcoin Tops $71,000 as Oil Drops Under $80

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BTC Chart

Total crypto capitalization is up another 3% to $2.49 trillion.

Crypto markets rallied for a second day as fears of an oil supply shock eased after the International Energy Agency (IEA) convened an emergency meeting to discuss the potential release of emergency reserves.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at around $70,700, up 3.5% over the past 24 hours. The world’s largest cryptocurrency reached as high as $71,800 earlier in the day. Meanwhile, ETH climbed 2.5% to $2,070, SOL gained 4% to $88, and XRP is up 3.6% on the day.

BTC Chart
BTC Chart

The overall crypto market capitalization climbed 3% to $2.49 trillion, according to Coingecko.

Crude oil (WTI) briefly fell below $80 per barrel but has since erased its losses to trade around $84. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted minor gains while gold and silver were mostly unchanged.

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Almost all of the Top 100 digital assets posted gains over the last 24 hours.

Today’s top gainers are RENDER, which rallied 10%, followed by Bittensor (TAO) and SKY, which climbed 7%.

Memecore (M) and Midnight (NIGHT) are the biggest losers

Around 96,000 leveraged traders were liquidated for $377 million in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Bitcoin accounted for $138 million, while ETH positions made up $73 million.

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Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded inflows of $167 million on Friday, according to SoSoValue, snapping a two-day losing streak.

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Crypto World

Ripple targets Australian financial services license with latest acquisition

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Ripple targets Australian financial services license with latest acquisition

Ripple has announced plans to secure an Australian financial services license by acquiring a local payments firm in the country.

Summary

  • Ripple plans to obtain an Australian Financial Services License through the acquisition of BC Payments Australia.
  • New regulations set to take effect by June 30, 2026, would require crypto companies operating in Australia to obtain a license.

Ripple said it will obtain the AFSL license through the acquisition of BC Payments Australia Pty Ltd, a payments company linked to the European Banking Circle Group. A deal is still underway and is expected to close on April 1 after the standard closing process is finalized.

“Australia is a key market for Ripple,” Ripple’s APAC Managing Director Fiona Murray said in an accompanying statement, adding that it will help Ripple Payments “manage the full lifecycle of a transaction, from onboarding and compliance through funding, FX, liquidity management, and final payout, while integrating both traditional banking rails and digital assets.”

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Ripple’s decision to pursue the license comes as Australia’s financial regulator has unveiled updated regulations for the country’s crypto sector.

Starting June 30, 2026, crypto firms operating in Australia would be required to obtain an Australian Financial Services License before they are allowed to offer certain financial services to local customers.

Over the past years, Ripple has expanded its global regulatory footprint by focusing on securing licenses across key markets around the world.

In 2025 alone, Ripple managed to secure payment licenses in Singapore, the UAE, and the UK. The company was also granted conditional approval for a national trust banking charter by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency alongside a handful of other firms.

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Securing these regulatory approvals has helped Ripple strengthen its push for broader institutional adoption of the XRP (XRP) ecosystem and its flagship stablecoin RLUSD.

As previously reported by crypto.news, Ripple became one of the world’s top most valuable private companies, with its valuation reaching roughly $50 billion.

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Crypto is Just Finance on Different Infrastructure: ASIC

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Crypto is Just Finance on Different Infrastructure: ASIC

Blockchain and crypto are technologies performing the same functions as existing financial infrastructure, so they shouldn’t be treated as separate asset classes when crafting legislation, according to the fintech chief of Australia’s securities regulator.

In a paper presented at the Melbourne Money & Finance Conference on Wednesday, Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) head of fintech, Rhys Bollen, said crypto should be regulated on “economic substance rather than technological form.”

Tokenized securities should fall within securities laws, and stablecoins should trigger payment services legislation, Bollen said, while noting that other elements of crypto may be subject to consumer protection laws.

Bollen’s approach contrasts with crypto-specific regulatory frameworks in other countries, such as the CLARITY Act in the US and the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation framework in Europe.

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Bollen argued that the three main financial functions — capital allocation, payments and risk management — have evolved with technological advancements and that distributed ledger technologies, such as blockchain, shouldn’t be treated differently:

“Digital assets largely represent new technological instances of longstanding financial activities. While the mechanisms of issuance, transfer and record-keeping have changed, the underlying economic functions served by these instruments have not.”

“Regulatory systems have repeatedly adapted to technological change – from paper instruments to electronic records – without abandoning foundational principles such as consumer protection, market integrity and systemic stability,” Bollen added.

Australia isn’t crafting one big crypto bill

Australia is already starting to adopt this approach, with the main piece of crypto legislation, the Digital Asset Framework bill, seeking to merely amend parts of the Corporations Act, Bollen said.

“The Bill does not abandon the existing financial services framework. Instead, it introduces tailored amendments that integrate digital asset platforms into the established regulatory architecture.”

The Australian crypto market has also been given guidance through ASIC Information Sheet 225, which states that existing definitions of “financial product” and “financial service” under the Corporations Act can apply to digital assets.

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