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Bitcoin Price Returns to $70K Despite Growing Tension in the Middle East: Your Weekly Crypto Recap

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Cryptocurrency Market Overview Weekly Mar 6. Source: QuantifyCrypto


This week saw a big investment in OKX, Kraken received a Fed Master Account, while Justin Sun reached a $10 million settlement with the SEC.

This time last Friday, the tension was building in the Middle Eastern region, but only a handful of people could have predicted how the world would change just hours later. On Saturday morning, Israel and the USA joined forces to launch a military operation against Iran, which began with air strikes.

Iran retaliated and continues to do so as the week progressed, even though its Supreme Leader was killed during the first day of the attacks. Since then, the developments on the matter have quickly escalated, with almost a dozen countries already being directly involved, while essentially every nation has felt the consequences in one form or another, especially after the Strait of Hormuz was closed and energy prices skyrocketed.

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Amid all of this massive geopolitical tension, which began on an off-day for every other financial market aside from crypto, bitcoin’s price has remained stable overall. Well, that’s after the initial Saturday shock when it tumbled by $4,000 to $63,000. It quickly rebounded, recovered all losses, and even headed to new local peaks during the business week.

Although there’s no evidence that this war could end soon, BTC surged by $11,000 from its Saturday low to $74,000 on Wednesday. However, it faced an immediate rejection there and now trades around $70,000. This is still roughly 5.5% higher than its price level last week, which is rather surprising given the surging uncertainty.

Only a few larger-cap alts have performed better during this timeframe, including HYPE, NEAR, SKY, and MNT. In contrast, ADA, CC, BCH, SHIB, WLFI, and DOT are deep in the red.

Cryptocurrency Market Overview Weekly Mar 6. Source: QuantifyCrypto
Cryptocurrency Market Overview Weekly Mar 6. Source: QuantifyCrypto

Market Cap: $2.46T | 24H Vol: $108B | BTC Dominance: 56.9%

BTC: $70,000 (+5.6%) | ETH: $2,050(+4.4%) | XRP: $1.38 (+1.4%)

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Kraken Just Became the First Crypto Company With a Fed Master Account — Why It Matters. The veteran US exchange has secured access to a limited-purpose master account from the US Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas. Kraken Financial can now directly connect to the Fed’s core payment systems and bypass some of the intermediaries that exist when users are trying to deposit/withdraw.

Kazakhstan May Sell Gold to Fund $350M Crypto Purchase: Report. The governor of the country’s central bank said they plan to invest up to $350 million in cryptocurrencies or high-tech firms related to the industry. They want to use some of their current investments, such as gold and foreign exchange reserves, to do so.

NYSE Parent Company Invests in OKX at $25 Billion Valuation. Intercontinental Exchange, the behemoth behind the New York Stock Exchange, acquired a minority stake in the popular cryptocurrency trading platform, OKX. This puts the latter’s valuation at an impressive $25 billion after the latest investment round.

Ray Dalio Dismisses Bitcoin’s Safe-Haven Narrative, Rejects Comparisons to Gold. Despite BTC’s better performance since the tension in the Middle East skyrocketed, billionaire Ray Dalio dismissed its potential to serve as a safe-haven narrative and praised gold once again.

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$1 Billion Floods Back Into Crypto Funds, Snapping Five-Week $4B Bleed. The previous business week snapped a five-week red streak in which investors pulled out around $4 billion from crypto-related funds. Instead, they poured around $1 billion in the span of five business days.

Justin Sun ‘Very Pleased’ With $10 Million SEC Settlement. Nearly three years after he and some of his companies were sued by the US SEC, Justin Sun announced that the claims were dismissed after he reached a $20 million settlement with the regulator.

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Perplexity AI Predicts the Price of XRP, Solana and Shiba Inu by The End of 2026

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Perplexity AI Predicts the Price of XRP, Solana and Shiba Inu by The End of 2026

Global headlines may be dominated by reports of conflict, but crypto is holding steady. According to projections generated by Perplexity, holders of XRP, SOL, and SHIB could still see significant gains this year.

Many say that geopolitical risk may already have been priced into markets after Donald Trump’s previous warnings about possible U.S. military escalation involving Greenland and Iran earlier this year.

With uncertainty still lingering, we examine how realistic Perplexity’s projections are.

XRP ($XRP): Perplexity Projects a Potential 7x Surge by Year-End

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In a recent update, Ripple reaffirmed that XRP ($XRP) plays a central role in the XRP Ledger’s (XRPL) growth into a global payments infrastructure designed for enterprise use.

Perplexity AI Predicts the Price of XRP, Solana and Shiba Inu by The End of 2026
Source: Perplexity

XRP enables near-instant settlement and extremely low transaction fees, positioning the network to capture two rapidly expanding sectors in crypto: stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets.

With XRP currently trading close to $1.36, Perplexity AI predicts the asset could potentially climb to around $10 in 2026, representing a little over sevenfold return for current HODLers.

XRP’s relative strength index (RSI) currently sits near 42, while price movement has begun stabilized around its 30-day moving average, suggesting perhaps the extended consolidation period is nearing its end.

Several catalysts could further strengthen XRP’s outlook, including rising institutional demand following the launch of U.S.-listed XRP exchange-traded funds, Ripple’s expanding network of international partnerships, and comprehensive crypto legislation (the CLARITY Act) in the United States.

Solana (SOL): Could Solana Soon Hit $700?

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Solana ($SOL) currently secures around $6.7 billion in total value locked and has a market capitalization of $48 billion.

Institutional interest increased after the introduction of Solana-based exchange-traded funds by prominent asset managers such as Bitwise and Grayscale.

However, SOL crashed toward the end of 2025 and spent much of February trading below the $100 mark.

Perplexity sees Solana rising from $84 today to approximately $700 by Christmas. That would give 8x returns and price Solana more than double it’s January 2025 ATH of $293 recorded.

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Moreover, major asset managers like Franklin Templeton and BlackRock have begun issuing tokenized assets on Solana.

Shiba Inu (SHIB): Perplexity Forecasts a Potential 2,000% Rally

Originally launched in 2020 as a tongue-in-cheek Dogecoin challenger, Shiba Inu ($SHIB) has since developed into a broader ecosystem with a market capitalization of $3.2 billion.

Currently around $0.000005359, Perplexity’s analysis suggests that a decisive breakout above the $0.000025–$0.00003 resistance range could trigger strong upward momentum. Under that scenario, SHIB could potentially climb toward $0.00008 before the end of the year.

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Such a move would represent gains of roughly 15x, or around 1,400%, bringing it a hair’s breadth beneath its October 2021 ATH of $0.00008616.

Beyond its meme coin reputation, the project has introduced practical utility through Shibarium, its Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution. Shibarium delivers faster transactions, lower fees, enhanced privacy features, and improved developer tools for building decentralized applications.

Maxi Doge: Emerging Meme Coin Aims for Rapid Growth

Perplexity’s projection of a potential 14x surge for Shiba Inu reflects expectations that a new meme coin cycle could accompany the next crypto bull market. However, projects at earlier stages often present even greater growth potential.

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One project gaining attention is Maxi Doge ($MAXI), which has already raised $4.7 million through its ongoing presale as early investors accumulate what some believe could become the next Shiba Inu.

Maxi Doge is the loud, louche and degenerate distant cousin to Dogecoin, embracing a comic marketing approach inspired by the chaotic enthusiasm of the 2021 meme coin boom.

MAXI is an ERC-20 asset on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake network, giving it a significantly smaller environmental footprint compared with Dogecoin’s proof-of-work system.

Early participants in the presale can currently stake MAXI for yields reaching up to 67% APY. These rewards gradually decrease as more tokens enter the staking pool.

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The token is currently priced at $0.0002807 during the latest presale phase, with automatic price increases scheduled at each new funding milestone. Investors can purchase the token using supported wallets such as MetaMask and Best Wallet.

Stay updated through Maxi Doge’s official X and Telegram pages.

Visit the Official Maxi Doge Website Here

The post Perplexity AI Predicts the Price of XRP, Solana and Shiba Inu by The End of 2026 appeared first on Cryptonews.

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Kraken rolls out xChange engine to power tokenized stock markets

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Coinbase, Kraken, NYSE, Nasdaq, Stocks, Tokenization, RWA Tokenization

Kraken’s tokenized equities platform xStocks has launched xChange, an onchain trading engine designed to facilitate trading of tokenized stocks across the Ethereum and Solana networks.

According to the company, the system supports trading of more than 70 tokenized equities backed 1:1 by underlying shares held in custody, with prices intended to track the corresponding public market stocks.

The launch adds new trading infrastructure for tokenized equities, part of the broader tokenized real-world asset market that aims to bring traditional financial instruments such as stocks onto blockchain-based trading systems.

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Kraken launched xStocks in June, offering tokenized versions of publicly traded companies issued by Backed Assets, though the products are not available to users in the United States, the United Kingdom or other restricted jurisdictions.

Since then, the platform has recorded $3.5 billion in onchain transaction volume and about $25 billion in total trading volume across exchanges, with about $225 million in tokenized assets held across about 80,000 blockchain wallets, according to company data.

The move from Kraken comes days after the exchange said its banking unit, Kraken Financial, had been granted a limited-purpose master account by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, giving it direct access to the Fedwire payments network used by banks and credit unions.

Related: Kraken introduces fixed-rate crypto loans for its Pro users

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Traditional and crypto exchanges build rails for tokenized stocks

Kraken is not alone in exploring infrastructure for tokenized securities, as both crypto exchanges and traditional market operators experiment with ways to bring stocks onto blockchain-based trading systems.

In December, Coinbase announced that it plans to launch Coinbase Tokenize, an institutional platform designed to support the issuance and management of tokenized real-world assets, including equities.

About a month later, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange, said it is developing a platform to support trading of tokenized securities, including stocks and exchange-traded funds. 

The proposed system would combine the exchange’s existing matching engine with blockchain-based settlement infrastructure and could support round-the-clock trading with near-instant settlement, potentially using stablecoins instead of the current one-day settlement cycle in US equity markets.

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Coinbase, Kraken, NYSE, Nasdaq, Stocks, Tokenization, RWA Tokenization
Total value of tokenized real-world assets by category. Source: RWA.xyz

The London Stock Exchange Group has also said it is developing blockchain-based infrastructure intended to support the trading and settlement of tokenized securities such as equities and bonds.

Nasdaq, meanwhile, has proposed integrating tokenized versions of stocks and exchange-traded products into its existing trading infrastructure, a change that could increase liquidity for tokenized securities if approved by regulators.

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