As Bitcoin enthusiasts question why the digital asset hasn’t yet hit the $150,000 milestone despite massive ETF inflows, Jeff Park, Head of Alpha Strategies at Bitwise, has provided a sobering look at the plumbing of the financial system.

Bitwise’s Jeff Park says Bitcoin ETFs, not Wall Street, are capping BTC price

In a detailed post on X, Park argues that the “villain” isn’t a single firm like Jane Street, but rather the structural architecture of the Bitcoin (BTC) ETF itself.

According to Park, Authorized Participants (APs) operate within a “grey window” of Regulation SHO. While standard traders must locate shares before shorting, APs are exempt due to their role in creating and redeeming ETF shares.

This allows them to maintain positions with a level of capital efficiency and duration that is “indistinguishable from a regulatory arbitrage.”

The most critical revelation involves how these institutions hedge. Typically, an arbitrageur would buy spot Bitcoin to close a price gap.

However, if an AP chooses to hedge using Bitcoin futures instead of the underlying asset, the “spot was never bought.” This breaks the link between ETF demand and spot price appreciation.

Furthermore, the recent transition to “in-kind” redemptions has removed the “structural governor” that previously forced spot buying. APs can now source Bitcoin through private OTC desks with minimal market impact, effectively bypassing the public exchanges where price discovery happens.

Park concludes that while no firm is explicitly “manipulating” the market, the current regulatory framework, designed for traditional assets, is fundamentally at odds with Bitcoin’s mission.

The result is a system where the “middle” of the trade escapes categorization, potentially muffling the explosive price growth investors expected.

XRP is hovering around the $1.43–$1.46 region after a volatile February, with traders closely watching for signs of a broader trend reversal. One analyst now believes the token is on the verge of entering what he calls a “Phase 4” rally.

In a recent post, the trader said: “A trend reversal signal for XRP is imminent.”

The trader’s long-term chart outlines a multi-cycle structure divided into four phases. Historically, Phase 1 marked accumulation and breakout, Phase 2 a corrective consolidation, and Phase 3 a prolonged compression within converging trendlines.

The current structure shows XRP price recently breaking above a multi-year symmetrical triangle before pulling back toward the upper trendline, a classic retest scenario.

The highlighted “Phase 4” zone projects an expansion phase targeting previous all-time highs first (TP1: ATH), followed by an extended Fibonacci projection near $21.5 (TP2: 6.618), though such levels remain highly speculative.

XRP price tests key resistance as momentum slowly rebuilds

On the daily timeframe, XRP’s price action shows stabilization after a sharp drop earlier this year. The 14-day RSI sits near 44, recovering from oversold territory but still below the neutral 50 mark, suggesting momentum is improving but not yet decisively bullish.

Meanwhile, XRP remains below its 50-day simple moving average (SMA), currently near $1.69, which acts as immediate resistance. A sustained move above this level could strengthen the bullish case and confirm short-term reversal momentum.

On the downside, key support lies near $1.30–$1.35, with stronger structural support around $1.20. A breakdown below those levels would invalidate the bullish retest narrative.

For now, XRP sits at a technical crossroads with traders watching closely to see whether this is merely consolidation or the beginning of Phase 4.

The Core Team said they continue with the updates, and the latest is right around the corner.

Despite the ongoing community backlash and questions regarding the migration state, the team behind Pi Network announced a new set of protocol upgrades that are currently in progress, and the deadline is March 1.

In the meantime, the native token has been quite volatile as of late, and we will review its most recent performance.

March 1 Deadline for Nodes

Similar to the updates outlined by the team in mid-February, the new protocol improvements will be rolled out gradually. In this second step, the deadline is set for the upcoming Sunday (March 1).

As with the February batch, all network nodes are required to complete this step before the deadline to “remain connected to the network.”

Protocol upgrades in progress (Step 2 – Deadline: March 1): The Pi Mainnet blockchain protocol continues to undergo a series of upgrades. All Mainnet nodes are required to complete this step before the deadline to remain connected to the network. Details here:…

— Pi Network (@PiCoreTeam) February 25, 2026

The explanatory post actually refers users to the Pi Nodes page on the project’s website. In it, the team reiterates previous statements about the importance of nodes within the Pi Network ecosystem, as they referred to them as the “fourth role.” Once again, they reminded that nodes have to run on laptops and desktops instead of mobile phones.

Pi Nodes, similar to other blockchains, are responsible for validating transactions on the distributed ledger and resolving challenges in maintaining a “distributed currency by having to come to a “consensus” on the order of new transactions that are being recorded.”

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In Pi Network’s case, the consensus algorithm is based on SCP, which allows nodes to form trusted groups, referred to as quorum slices, and only agree to transactions that are in complete alignment.

“Unlike most other crypto projects, the Pi Node will continue to follow the philosophy of user-centric design. Instead of requiring deep technical knowledge to set up a node, everyday people will be able to do that by installing a desktop application on their computers,” said the team.

PI Price Update

Pi Network’s native token went through some intense volatility in the past few weeks, which included a sporadic 35% daily surge a few weeks back that pushed it beyond $0.20. However, it was quickly rejected there and driven to under $0.16 during the market-wide crash earlier this week.

With BTC and the alts rebounding yesterday and today, PI followed suit and now sits inches away from $0.17. The upcoming unlocking schedule has some troubling news for next week, but the following several days should ease the pain, with around 5.5 million tokens to be released daily.

On March 7, though, that amount will skyrocket to almost 22 million, followed by 16.5 million a day later. These large unlocks could increase the immediate selling pressure.

DOT, STABLE, and UNI have rocketed the most in the past day, with gains of over 20% in some instances.

After dumping to a new local bottom of $62,500, bitcoin went on a tear yesterday, surging by over eight grand to $70,000, where it faced immediate selling pressure.

Many altcoins have produced even more impressive gains over the past day, with ETH reclaiming the $2,000 level, and ADA surging by double digits to almost $0.30.

BTC Tapped $70K

After last week’s rejection at $70,000, bitcoin spiraled down for a few consecutive days and dipped to $65,600 last Thursday. It reacted well to this decline and jumped toward $69,000 during the weekend, where it was stopped again after the latest developments on the tariff front, prompted by the US Supreme Court and the subsequent Trump actions.

Although BTC remained relatively still at first, it plunged when the legacy futures markets opened. In just over an hour, the asset plummeted to $64,400 before it rebounded to $66,400.

That appeared to be a dead-cat bounce, and BTC quickly began to lose value again. This time, the nosedive drove it to a three-week lot of $62,500. The bulls finally stepped up decisively at this point and prevented another leg down. Just the opposite; bitcoin exploded out of the gate and soared to $70,000 for the first time in over a week.

It couldn’t break above that level, and has declined by two grand since. However, it’s still 4.5% up on the day, and its market cap has returned to $1.360 trillion on CG. Its dominance over the alts remains inches above 56%.

Alts Rocket

Ethereum, which some analysts believe might have already bottomed out, is back above $2,000 after an impressive 8% daily surge. XRP has reclaimed the $1.40 line after a 5.5% pump. SOL, DOGE, CC, BNB, and HYPE have marked similar gains, while LINK has soared by 9%.

ADA has outperformed the rest of the larger-cap alts. A 10% surge has driven it to almost $0.30. DOT is today’s top performer, having soared by 24% to roughly $1.60. STABLE, UNI, and NEAR follow suit.

The total crypto market cap has recovered $120 billion since the recent low and is up to $2.425 trillion on CG.