Crypto World
Bitcoin Pullback Puts Focus on Infrastructure Plays as Bitcoin Hyper Presale Tops $32M
The weekend Bitcoin price drop has pushed some traders toward Bitcoin ecosystem infrastructure rather than away from the market altogether. After geopolitical tensions in the Middle East knocked BTC from above $70,000 to as low as $67,360, attention has turned to projects positioning for longer-term Bitcoin utility, including Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER), which has now raised over $32 million in its presale.
The move came after President Trump issued Iran a 48-hour ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on its energy infrastructure. The waterway, which typically carries about 20% of global oil supply, has been largely closed to commercial shipping since late February.
Oil reacted sharply. WTI crude climbed to nearly $101 per barrel, Brent moved above $113, and the United States Oil Fund jumped past $123 in pre-market trading, adding to inflation concerns across global markets.
Bitcoin sold off as the headlines hit, with long liquidations accelerating the decline before BTC recovered to around $68,000. Even so, some investors are using the pullback to rotate into Bitcoin bets focused on infrastructure, particularly projects promising broader on-chain utility during the next market cycle.
The latest escalation followed renewed friction around key shipping routes. After weeks of disruption that drove oil benchmarks above $100, President Trump posted on Truth Social that if Iran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Monday evening, the US would target the country’s power plants, “starting with the biggest one first.”
Iran responded with threats against energy infrastructure across the Gulf, deepening the standoff and prompting a broader risk-off reaction.
Bitcoin felt that pressure almost immediately. Having held above $70,000, BTC fell roughly 3% on Saturday and triggered more than $240 million in liquidations within hours, sending the price to levels not seen since early March.
Still, market participants watching the longer cycle are treating the move as a macro-driven shakeout rather than a change in Bitcoin’s structural trajectory. A widely shared X post from Documenting Saylor pointed to historical cycle behavior showing Bitcoin advancing from $19,000 to $126,000 in prior runs.
$19K → $69K → $126K → $200K
HIGHER HIGHS EVERY CYCLE
THE TREND IS CLEAR
pic.twitter.com/J2B5E5sNXz
— Documenting Saylor (@saylordocs) March 22, 2026
That same view has supported projections for a potential $200,000 target as the current bull market develops. In that context, short-term volatility has strengthened interest in infrastructure that could expand what Bitcoin holders can do with their assets beyond simple holding.
Bitcoin Hyper pitches next-cycle utility with SVM-based Layer 2 roadmap
That is where Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER) has been gaining traction. The project is being positioned as a Bitcoin Layer 2 designed to improve transaction speed, lower costs, and widen the range of applications available to BTC users.
According to the project, Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER) uses the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) to support near-instant transactions and low fees while maintaining security links to Bitcoin’s base layer. Once mainnet is live, users are expected to be able to bridge BTC to the network in a trustless manner and use it across decentralized apps, payments, and staking systems that are difficult to build directly on Bitcoin mainnet.
For investors looking at credibility signals, fundraising has been one of the clearest markers so far. The presale has raised more than $32 million, suggesting sustained demand for Bitcoin-focused infrastructure exposure rather than purely directional BTC trades.
From a humble beginning…
To Hyper Scale.
https://t.co/VNG0P4GuDo pic.twitter.com/TTkNzelKN3
— Bitcoin Hyper (@BTC_Hyper2) March 23, 2026
The HYPER token sits at the center of that model. It has a total supply of 21 billion and is intended to be used for fees, governance, and access to network features. The project also says its distribution structure is designed to avoid insider favoritism.
HYPER is currently priced at $0.0136774 in presale. Buyers can also stake tokens at 36% APY while waiting for full mainnet deployment. With the token price scheduled to rise again in a few hours under the project’s preset pricing structure, the sale has continued to draw attention from buyers seeking exposure to Bitcoin infrastructure ahead of the next phase of the market.
Accessing the HYPER sale
Investors looking to join can go to the official Bitcoin Hyper website, connect a wallet, and buy HYPER using SOL, ETH, BNB, USDC, or USDT. Bank card purchases are also supported.
Some participants have been using Best Wallet’s app for mobile purchases. The app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, and also supports the project’s “Buy and Stake” option.
At the current presale price of $0.0136774 and with staking rewards at 36% APY, the project is positioning itself as an accessible way to build exposure to Bitcoin Hyper while the broader market remains volatile.
For updates, follow Bitcoin Hyper on X and join the project’s Telegram group.
The post Bitcoin Pullback Puts Focus on Infrastructure Plays as Bitcoin Hyper Presale Tops $32M appeared first on Cryptonews.
The financial regulator’s plan to reinterpret how federal securities laws apply to crypto assets is ”pending review” by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has forwarded its proposal to have most crypto assets not treated as securities under federal law to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
According to information available through the US General Services Administration, on Friday the SEC sent two proposed rules to the White House for review, including its interpretative notice from last week regarding which digital assets the agency could consider a security under federal law.
As of Monday, government records showed the proposal as “pending review” by the White House, potentially changing how the SEC handles regulation and enforcement of digital assets.
In a notice issued by the SEC last week, Chair Paul Atkins said that the agency would not consider four types of digital assets as securities under its purview: digital commodities, digital tools, digital collectibles — including non-fungible tokens — and stablecoins. The interpretation said that it would provide the agency with a “coherent token taxonomy” for the four types of assets and address how a “non-security crypto asset” may or may not be considered an investment contract.
The SEC rule, if finalized, would provide a bridge to crypto regulation until Congress were to pass a market structure bill to clarify comprehensive regulations of digital assets. The interpretation of federal securities laws followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — the other federal financial regulator expected to regulate digital assets under the proposed market structure bill — earlier this month.
Related: CFTC staff clarify expectations on using crypto as collateral
White House reportedly reached “agreement in principle” on crypto bill
Politico reported on Friday that representatives from the White House and Congressional lawmakers reached a deal on stablecoin yield that could advance the market structure bill in the Senate Banking Committee. The panel indefinitely postponed its markup of the bill, called the CLARITY Act, in January following Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong saying the exchange could not support the legislation as written.
As of Monday, the banking committee had not publicly announced a new date for the bill’s markup. Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly said in March that the chamber intended to prioritize a vote on the SAVE America Act — legislation that would require voters to provide proof of US citizenship in person to register — before bills with bipartisan support, such as CLARITY.
Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?
Polygon‑incubated Katana has acquired veteran DEX IDEX to launch Katana Perps, folding a decade of exchange tech into its DeFi stack as it races Hyperliquid and dYdX for onchain derivatives volume.
Summary
- Polygon‑incubated DeFi chain Katana has acquired veteran DEX IDEX to power Katana Perps, a new perpetual futures platform that natively integrates spot and derivatives trading.
- CEO Matthew Fisher says the goal is to “own more of the trading stack and the revenue that comes with it” as onchain derivatives volumes and always‑on markets surge.
- Market makers including GSR, Selini Capital, and Auros are seeding liquidity, positioning Katana as a full‑stack DeFi chain spanning spot, lending, launches, and perps.
Katana, a DeFi‑focused Ethereum scaling chain incubated by Polygon Labs and trading firm GSR, has acquired decentralized exchange IDEX, using its infrastructure to launch Katana Perps, a perpetual futures venue built directly into the Katana app. The deal, announced on March 23, 2026, brings nearly a decade of exchange technology from the 2017‑founded DEX into Katana’s stack, with IDEX now “relaunching as Katana Perps” and serving as the native derivatives engine for the chain. “The goal is to own more of the trading stack and the revenue that comes with it,” Katana CEO Matthew Fisher said, calling the acquisition the “first major step” of his tenure as he formalizes the strategy he has led since joining the project.
Fisher argued that as crypto trading migrates to always‑on venues, infrastructure that blends CEX‑like performance with onchain settlement will define winners. “We’re building for 24/7 markets where price discovery happens onchain, not during bank hours,” he said, pointing to U.S. regulators’ recent signals about a path for crypto perpetual futures as an inflection point for the sector. Under the new setup, IDEX’s order book and AMM architecture becomes the backbone for Katana Perps, which routes spot liquidity, perps, and order flow through a single interface rather than siloing derivatives as a separate product.
Katana’s broader DeFi stack now spans four pillars: Sushi for spot trading, Morpho for lending, Kensei for token launches, and Katana Perps for leveraged derivatives, all coordinated by the KAT and vKAT token model. Over time, vKAT holders will be able to direct incentives toward perps markets and earn a share of fees, folding derivatives revenue into the same flywheel that powers spot and lending on the chain. At launch, Katana Perps is supported by major market makers GSR, Selini Capital, and Auros, which Fisher said were drawn by IDEX’s “nearly a decade” of live infrastructure and the chain’s performance‑oriented design.
Founded in 2017, IDEX was “the first decentralized exchange to combine a high‑performance matching engine with onchain settlement” and, through 2019, “consistently ranked first by trading volume and transaction count among all DEX protocols,” Katana noted. Bringing that stack in‑house lets Katana offer a more CEX‑like experience — deep API support, higher throughput, and tighter spreads — while keeping custody and settlement onchain.
The acquisition lands as perpetuals DEXes are seeing rising volumes and attracting more professional flow, with venues like Hyperliquid, dYdX, and GMX competing to lock in whales and market makers. Recent crypto.news coverage has highlighted how new onchain products — from Hyperliquid’s HIP‑4 proposal for outcome markets to high‑stakes perps traders posting multi‑million‑dollar PnL — are pulling structurally sticky liquidity into derivatives rails. In that context, Katana’s decision to acquire rather than simply integrate a third‑party DEX is a clear statement: the chain wants to control its own economic engines instead of renting them.
As Fisher put it, “Owning perps is not just owning a product, it’s owning the heartbeat of your chain,” a line that neatly captures where the DeFi race is headed.
Deloitte Canada and Stablecorp are collaborating to develop stablecoin infrastructure for Canadian financial institutions, as federal regulators move closer to establishing rules for fiat-backed digital assets.
In a Monday announcement, the professional services firm said it plans to integrate Stablecorp’s Canadian dollar-pegged stablecoin, QCAD, into payment and settlement workflows for institutional clients.
Stablecorp is a Toronto-based fintech company and the issuer of QCAD, a fiat-backed stablecoin designed to maintain a one-to-one value with the Canadian dollar.
Soumak Chatterjee, a partner in Deloitte Canada’s financial services division, said the initiative is aimed at helping banks and other institutions prepare for the adoption of stablecoins once a regulatory regime is established.
The companies said potential use cases include enabling around-the-clock payments, improving settlement efficiency compared to traditional banking systems and using blockchain-based recordkeeping for transaction transparency. They also pointed to the possibility of new financial products built on tokenized infrastructure.
No bank partners or rollout timeline were provided.
Related: Canada’s budget promises laws to regulate stablecoins, following US lead
Canada moves toward stablecoin rules as global regulatory race intensifies
The development comes as the Canadian government advances a federal framework for stablecoins under Bill C-15, a budget implementation bill introduced last November that includes a proposed federal framework to regulate fiat-backed stablecoins.
While Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has previously expressed skepticism about crypto, he has lately acknowledged that the technologies underpinning digital assets could “improve financial stability; support more innovative, efficient and reliable payment services as well as have wider applications.”
The Bank of Canada has also called for clearer rules governing stablecoins, arguing that regulatory certainty is needed to modernize the country’s payment systems. The central bank has said any framework should ensure stablecoins are fully backed by high-quality liquid assets and redeemable at par, while warning that delays in regulation could leave Canada lagging behind other jurisdictions.
The push comes as stablecoin regulation in the United States has gained traction, culminating in the passage of the GENIUS Act for payment stablecoins last summer.
Currently, the market for Canadian dollar-denominated stablecoins remains limited, particularly compared to the dominant US dollar segment, where Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) account for the vast majority of global stablecoin supply and usage.
The Bank of Canada shelved plans for a central bank digital currency in September 2024 after more than seven years of research, including a public consultation process that drew nearly 90,000 public responses.
Related: Crypto part of Canada’s ‘core’ financial system, but risk concerns remain
MoonPay has released an open-source wallet standard designed to let AI agents hold funds and execute transactions across blockchains, addressing a key gap in how autonomous software interacts with crypto systems.
According to Monday’s announcement, the standard introduces a shared way for AI agents to access and use wallets across tools and blockchains, replacing fragmented setups where each system manages its own keys and balances. It allows agents to operate from a single pool of funds rather than across multiple disconnected accounts.
“AI agents can employ standard building blocks, such as APIs, to communicate with other agents and humans, receive and send money, and access and interact with the internet,” according to researchers at MIT Sloan.
MoonPay said recent efforts to enable machine-driven payments focus on transaction rails but do not address how wallets and keys are managed.
The new system stores private keys in an encrypted local vault and signs transactions in an isolated process, keeping keys out of the AI agent’s runtime. It also includes policy controls that let users set spending limits and restrictions before transactions are approved.
The standard is open source and modular, with components covering storage, signing, policy controls and chain support, and is available through developer platforms including GitHub, npm and PyPI.
Founded in 2019, MoonPay is a financial technology company that provides infrastructure for businesses and consumers to move funds between fiat and digital assets, offering services such as on- and off-ramps, trading and crypto payments across global markets.
The company said more than a dozen companies contributed to the new specification, including PayPal, OKX and Circle, alongside several blockchain foundations and infrastructure providers.
Related: MoonPay launches enterprise stablecoin suite with M0, taps ex-Paxos leaders
Companies expand tools for AI-driven crypto transactions
Crypto companies are increasingly building infrastructure to support AI agents as economic actors.
In a separate announcement on Monday, BitGo, a digital asset custody and infrastructure company, said it had launched a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI-driven tools to access its developer platform using natural language, enabling agents to navigate wallet functions, transaction flows and staking systems.
The integration connects BitGo’s infrastructure to AI-native development environments, allowing tools such as ChatGPT and code editors to retrieve documentation, API references and product information directly within workflows.
The move reflects a broader push to integrate crypto services into AI systems, as companies experiment with ways for software to interact with financial infrastructure without relying on traditional user interfaces.
Other efforts have focused on enabling machine-driven payments, including Coinbase’s x402 protocol, which enables stablecoin transfers over HTTP for APIs, apps and AI agents, as well as tools launched last week by Visa and Stripe-backed Tempo that allow AI systems to initiate payments and execute transactions programmatically.
Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?
Aave V4 has successfully completed the Aave Request for Comments stage, with the protocol’s team now preparing for final AIP deployment and mainnet launch.
Aave V4 has passed the ARFC (Aave Request for Comments) stage, according to an announcement from Aave founder Stani Kulechov on March 23. The protocol is now moving toward final AIP (Aave Improvement Proposal) deployment and a controlled mainnet launch with a focus on security, Kulechov said.
The ARFC stage represents a preliminary governance phase where protocol proposals are discussed before formal on-chain voting. Aave’s development team has been working to bring V4 to mainnet, with the next steps involving final AIP deployment followed by the launch itself.
Sources: Stani Kulechov (X/Twitter)
This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.
The Resolv hack wasn’t a surprise. The same structural flaw has drained hundreds of millions from Morpho, Euler, and Fluid over the past year and the industry kept building on top of it anyway.
On a quiet Sunday morning, someone turned $100,000 into $25 million in about seventeen minutes.
The target was Resolv, a yield-bearing stablecoin protocol. By the time Resolv paused its contracts, its dollar-pegged stablecoin USR had crashed to pennies. It remains deeply depegged, trading around $0.25 as of this writing, down more than 70% on the week.
The blast radius extended well beyond Resolv. Fluid/Instadapp absorbed more than $10 million in bad debt and had outflows of over $300 million in a single day, the worst outflow in its history. Fifteen Morpho vaults were hit. Euler, Venus, Lista DAO, and Inverse Finance all moved to pause USR-related markets.
The mechanism that caused the initial hack to spread its damage – pricing a depegged stablecoin at $1 in a lending market– is not new. It happened at least four times in the past fourteen months.
How the Hack Worked
USR’s minting followed a two-step off-chain process: a user deposited USDC via the `requestSwap’ function, and a privileged off-chain signing key, the `SERVICE_ROLE’, finalized the amount of USR to issue via `completeSwap’. The contract enforced a minimum output but had no maximum. Whatever the key holder signed, the contract honored.
The attacker gained access to that key through Resolv’s AWS Key Management Service. They submitted two USDC deposits, totaling roughly $100,000–$200,000, and used the compromised key to authorize 80 million USR in return. Etherscan shows two transactions worth 50 million USR and 30 million USR, minted in minutes.
“The Resolv USR exploit wasn’t a bug — it was a feature working exactly as designed. And that’s the problem,” said on-chain analyst Vadim (@zacodil).
The SERVICE_ROLE was a regular externally owned address, not a multisig. The admin key had multisig protection, but the mint key didn’t.
“Resolv was audited 18 times,” Vadim said. “One finding was literally called ‘Missing upper [limit]’”
The attacker exited methodically, converting minted USR into wstUSR (the staked wrapped version) to slow the market impact, then rotating through Curve, Uniswap, and KyberSwap into ETH. The attacker’s wallet holds approximately 11,400 ETH (~$24M). Resolv’s collateral pool, the ETH and BTC backing the system, survived intact even as the stablecoin crashed.
How the Contagion Spread
The Resolv hack is two incidents stacked on top of each other. The first is the mint exploit. The second is a cascading lending market failure.
When USR and wstUSR collapsed, every lending market that had accepted them as collateral faced the same problem: their oracle was still pricing wstUSR near $1.
Omer Goldberg, founder of risk analytics firm Chaos Labs, documented the mechanism. His key finding was that “The oracle is hardcoded and thus never repriced. wstUSR was marked at $1.13 while trading at ~$0.63 on secondary markets.”
Traders bought cheap wstUSR on the open market and posted it as collateral at the oracle’s $1.13 valuation on Morpho or Fluid, then borrowed USDC against it and walked away.
At Fluid, the team secured short-term loans to cover 100% of the bad debt and committed to making every user whole. At Morpho, co-founder Paul Frambot said ~15 vaults had significant exposure, all in high-risk, long-tail collateral strategies.
Prominent curator Gauntlet said that “A few high-yield vaults had limited exposure.”
But D2 Finance challenged that framing directly, posting onchain data showing Gauntlet’s flagship “USDC Core vault” had $4.95M allocated to the wstUSR/USDC market. Goldberg later said Gauntlet vaults accounted for 98% of lender liquidity in that market.
“I think the curator industry is poorly designed because there’s not actual curation happening,” said Marc Zeller on X.
Resolv, Gauntlet, Morpho and Fluid did not respond to The Defiant’s requests for comments by press time.
A Recurring Failure
This is not a novel attack. In January 2025, Usual Protocol’s USD0++ was hardcoded at $1 on Morpho vaults by curator MEV Capital. Usual abruptly changed its redemption floor to $0.87 without warning, leaving lenders stuck in the MEV Caital vault as utilization spiked to 100%.
In November 2025, Stream Finance’s xUSD collapsed after curators had routed USDC deposits into leverage loops backed by the synthetic stablecoin, leaving an estimated $285M–$700M at risk across Morpho, Euler, and Silo when its oracle refused to update. Moonwell suffered back-to-back oracle failures in October and November 2025, generating more than $5 million in combined bad debt.
What It Means for the Curator Model
Morpho’s architecture outsources all risk decisions to third-party “curators” who build vaults, choose collateral, set loan-to-value ratios, and select oracles. The theory is that specialist firms have deeper expertise, competition drives better risk management, and the protocol enforces rules.
But curators earn fees on yield generated, which creates an incentive to accept riskier, higher-yield collateral, like yield-bearing stablecoins. The downside is that when those stablecoins depeg, the losses fall on depositors, not on the curator. In the Resolv case, some curators had automated bots still refilling affected vaults hours after the exploit started, deepening losses.
The reason to hardcode oracles for yield-bearing stablecoins is to prevent short-term volatility from triggering unnecessary liquidations. But that protection only works as long as the stablecoin remains stable.
Chainalysis said in a post-mortem that real-time chain detection is needed.
“The on-chain smart contract worked perfectly. The broader system design and off-chain infrastructure apparently did not,” the analytics firm said.
Bitcoin (BTC) spot volumes on Binance have dropped to their lowest level since September 2023, indicating that the current intraday price rise may not be backed by strong demand.
The rally above $71,700 on Monday appears to be driven mainly by news headlines and liquidations in the Bitcoin futures markets.
Binance volumes and exchange flows signal the demand gap for BTC
Crypto analyst Darkfost said that March is on track to record the lowest Binance spot volume since Q3 2023, at roughly $52 billion, compared to the $88 billion recorded in September 2023. The activity levels align with the prior bear market conditions, pointing to the reduced participation.
The exchange flow data shows a similar slowdown. Crypto analyst Arab Chain reported $6.38 billion in seven-day cumulative flows on Binance and $5.14 billion on Coinbase. The Binance flows have dropped to the lowest level since 2024, indicating reduced deposit activity.
However, the lower inflows may also coincide with a reduced supply to sell, as fewer coins move onto the exchanges. The Coinbase flows remain relatively stable, reflecting the steadier participation from the long-term investors.
The large-holder activity added another layer. Market analyst Gaah identified a record surge in the whale inflow momentum, which tracks the rate of change in large transfers to the exchanges.
The current reading of 74.3 surpasses all prior cycle peaks over the past 11 years, with a higher level last recorded at 124.6 in 2015.
The elevated inflow velocity signals an aggressive capital rotation and hedging, increasing BTC’s sensitivity to short-term volatility over the next few weeks.
Related: Bitcoin rebounds to $71K as oil drops after Trump signals pause on Iran strikes
Bitcoin liquidation activity shows traders lack conviction
The BTC rally followed reports that President Trump had deferred the planned US strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure for five days after citing progress in the diplomatic discussions, a claim later rejected by Iran’s foreign ministry, which denied that any talks had taken place.
BTC still pushed to a weekly high of $71,789 on Binance during the US market session, driven by the above external catalyst rather than by spot demand or futures positioning, leading the move.
Data shows the rally coincided with a reduction in leverage. The aggregated open interest declined by about 9,700 BTC, marking a 4% drop over 13 hours.
The open interest tracks the total number of active futures contracts, and the decline during a price increase signals that the positions were being closed rather than new ones being opened.
This type of move typically occurs when short positions are forced out of the market, reducing the total exposure while pushing the price higher. Binance recorded over $44 million in short liquidations within one hour, the largest since the one-hour long liquidations of $53 million on Feb. 6.
The Coinbase premium (in percentage terms) remained negative during the move, indicating limited spot demand from US participants.
The falling open interest, high liquidations, and weak premiums suggest the move higher was driven by positions being closed rather than new money entering the market, with most of the activity clustered around the $71,000–$72,000 range.
Related: Gold slides as traders eye sub-$50K BTC: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week
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. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.
Prediction platform Polymarket has updated its market integrity rules to align more closely with regulatory standards and expand its presence as a regulated trading platform amid growing scrutiny of manipulation and insider trading risks.
In a Monday announcement, the company outlined updated rules governing both its global decentralized finance platform and its US exchange, which operates under compliance oversight by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The changes come amid growing scrutiny from regulators and politicians over risks tied to insider trading, market manipulation, and the proliferation of controversial event-based contracts.
Polymarket said the updates include stricter market design standards, clearer resolution criteria — which determine how outcomes are settled — and more defined data sources. The company said it was also enhancing monitoring and surveillance measures to detect suspicious trading activity.
In addition, Polymarket said it would limit certain types of markets, including those deemed easily manipulated or ethically sensitive.
Last week, the company said it had banned and reported users who pressured an Israeli journalist with death threats to amend a news article about an Iranian missile strike that was the subject of a $17 million prediction market.
Related: Bitcoin prediction markets see 70% chance BTC price crashes to $55K in 2026
Prediction market boom continues to draw regulatory pushback, ethics concerns
Prediction markets have surged in popularity, attracting a growing base of active traders wagering on real-world events. The momentum helped Polymarket raise $200 million in July and reportedly seek a valuation of up to $10 billion.
However, regulators remain cautious. Several US states have taken action against prediction platforms, alleging they operate as unlicensed gambling services.
Monday’s announcement came days after Major League Baseball signed a deal with Polymarket, alongside a separate agreement with the CFTC focused on so-called “integrity protections.” The arrangements signal a broader push to legitimize prediction markets through partnerships and regulatory alignment.
Ethical concerns have also intensified. In one widely cited case, a small group of Polymarket accounts reportedly generated roughly $1 million in profits by correctly timing bets on US strikes on Iran, raising concerns about potential insider trading and market fairness.
As Bloomberg reported, all six accounts were newly created in February and had only ever wagered about whether the strikes would occur.
Magazine: Are DeFi devs liable for the illegal activity of others on their platforms?
Crypto World
UnitedHealth (UNH) Stock Faces Pressure from Analyst Downgrades and Regulatory Challenges
Key Takeaways
- Shares began trading at $277.32, significantly below the 52-week peak of $606.36
- Wall Street firms reduced price targets — JPMorgan to $389, Truist to $370, UBS to $410
- Weiss Ratings issued a Sell recommendation in early March
- Fourth-quarter EPS of $2.11 slightly exceeded forecasts; revenue climbed 12.3% to $113.73 billion
- Consensus rating stays at Moderate Buy with a $372.13 mean target according to MarketBeat
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) has experienced significant turbulence recently. Shares opened Monday’s session at $277.32, trading considerably beneath both the 50-day moving average of $297.19 and the 200-day moving average of $324.39.
This marks a substantial decline from the 52-week peak of $606.36. The stock’s 52-week bottom rests at $234.60.
The healthcare giant’s market capitalization presently registers at $251.71 billion, accompanied by a price-to-earnings multiple of 21.02 and a beta of 0.41.
The company maintains a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, while both current and quick ratios stand at 0.79.
During January, UnitedHealth disclosed fourth-quarter earnings of $2.11 per share, marginally surpassing the consensus forecast of $2.09. Revenue totaled $113.73 billion, representing a 12.3% year-over-year increase and slightly exceeding Wall Street projections.
However, the Q4 EPS figure represents a significant decline compared to the $6.81 posted during the corresponding quarter last year.
Wall Street Firms Reduce Price Targets
Multiple prominent investment banks have decreased their price objectives in recent weeks.
JPMorgan reduced its target from $425 down to $389, Morgan Stanley adjusted downward from $411 to $409, and UBS lowered its projection from $430 to $410. Truist executed the most aggressive reduction, dropping from $410 to $370. Despite these cuts, all four firms preserved Buy or Overweight recommendations.
Weiss Ratings took a more bearish stance, downgrading UNH from Hold to Sell during early March.
According to MarketBeat, the current consensus rating remains at Moderate Buy, featuring 17 Buy recommendations, 8 Hold ratings, and 2 Sell ratings. The mean 12-month price objective stands at $372.13 — suggesting approximately 34% potential upside from present levels.
Regarding institutional investors, significant movements have occurred. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services reduced its position by 40.6% during Q4, liquidating 170,643 shares. Conversely, Norges Bank, Berkshire Hathaway, and Capital Research Global Investors all increased or established new positions throughout 2024. Institutional investors collectively control 87.86% of outstanding shares.
Ongoing Regulatory Concerns
Department of Justice investigations concerning Medicare Advantage reimbursement methodologies continue creating headwinds for investor sentiment. While the company has secured at least one favorable legal outcome in that matter, broader regulatory pressures surrounding prior-authorization procedures and coverage denial practices persist.
Executives have previously disclosed intentions to reduce certain Medicare Advantage membership and adjust product pricing in response to changing cost dynamics.
Management provided fiscal year 2026 EPS guidance of approximately $17.75. Wall Street analysts currently project full-year EPS of $29.54 for the ongoing fiscal year.
UNH distributed a quarterly dividend of $2.21 per share on March 17, translating to an annualized yield of approximately 3.2%. The current payout ratio stands at 67.02%.
On a constructive note, UnitedHealth recently unveiled a nationwide expansion of its doula benefit initiative, which may enhance member retention and drive improved outcomes within its value-based care framework.
Crypto World
Best Crypto to Buy Now: Bhutan Sells $72 Million in BTC Under Fiscal Pressure While Pepeto Targets 1000x From Presale
Bhutan’s state investment arm transferred 973 BTC worth $72.3 million in a single day, cutting holdings from 13,295 BTC at peak to just 4,400 BTC. The selling looks driven by fiscal pressure, not strategy.
Pepeto built the exchange that helps investors avoid being on the wrong side of forced sales, and with more than $8 million raised and a Binance listing approaching, the best crypto to buy now is not the asset a government is dumping but the presale they have not discovered.
Bhutan’s DHI transferred over 973 BTC worth $72.3 million in 24 hours, reducing holdings from a peak of 13,295 BTC to approximately 4,400 BTC through periodic sales since the October 2025 all time high, according to CoinDesk.
Trump’s postponement of Iran strikes then sent BTC from $68,500 to $71,000, liquidating $270 million in shorts within hours, according to CoinDesk Daybook.
The best crypto to buy now is the one positioned before the forced sellers finish distributing, not after the recovery has already priced in.
Best Crypto to Buy Now: Three Projects Drawing Capital While Sovereign Sellers Distribute
Pepeto
Bhutan did not have a system that told them when to hold and when fiscal pressure would force their hand, and most retail investors do not have one either. That is the gap Pepeto closes, because while a sovereign nation was liquidating BTC at a 50% drawdown from peak, the exchange tools were already running and protecting capital for the wallets that committed early.
The risk scorer checks any contract before your money goes near it, catching the scam patterns that wipe out portfolios overnight, and it delivers every warning in plain language so you make an informed decision instead of discovering the damage afterward. PepetoSwap runs zero fee trades so your capital works harder, and the cross chain bridge moves tokens at zero cost so what you send is what arrives.
What sets Pepeto apart is that the tools are already live, not gated behind a future milestone. The SolidProof audit verified every contract, a former Binance expert is on the team, and the cofounder who built the original Pepe coin to $11 billion with the same 420 trillion supply and zero products is behind the exchange.
Pepeto is at $0.000000186 with 195% APY staking compounding in early positions while the market recovers. That is why many now view it as the best crypto to buy now. The Binance listing is approaching, and 1000x from the current entry is the projection building from wallets that see the same kind of utility that turned early Shiba Inu and Pepe entries into generational stories.
DOGE
DOGE trades near $0.094 as of March 23, down 87% from its all time high of $0.73, according to CoinMarketCap.
The 21Shares DOGE ETF gives institutions a regulated path in, and RSI is in oversold territory signaling a bounce. But from $0.094 the bullish $0.25 target is a 2.8x over the full year. DOGE is a cycle hold, not the concentrated position the strongest entry demands.
ADA
ADA trades near $0.26 as of March 23 with DeFi TVL hitting a record 520 million ADA and the SEC commodity classification removing the legal cloud, according to CoinMarketCap.
CME futures launched in February and spot ETF filings are progressing. But from $0.26 even $2.00 needs patience across the full year. Cardano builds slowly, and the best crypto to buy now compresses returns into one listing.
Best Crypto to Buy Now Before the Listing Proves What Bhutan’s Forced Selling Could Not See
Bhutan sold 973 BTC at a 50% loss because it had no choice. The wallets filling Pepeto right now have a choice and they are making it while the presale is open. Shiba Inu made millionaires out of people who put in $650 and that token had no exchange, no audit, no bridge. Pepeto has all three plus the cofounder who built Pepe to $11 billion. The best crypto to buy now does not wait for you to feel comfortable.
The stages fill faster each round, the Binance listing gets closer every day, and the entry you are reading about disappears the moment trading begins. Visit the Pepeto official website and take the position before it becomes the one you wish you had taken.
Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale
FAQs
Why is Pepeto considered the best crypto to buy now in 2026?
Pepeto has a running exchange with risk detection, zero fee trading, and a cross chain bridge audited by SolidProof, with more than $8 million raised and 1000x projections building as the Binance listing approaches.
What happened with the Bhutan Bitcoin sale?
Bhutan’s state investment arm sold 973 BTC worth $72.3 million in 24 hours, reducing holdings from 13,295 BTC at peak to 4,400 BTC. Forced selling under fiscal pressure, not strategy.
What makes early presales like Pepeto better than established tokens for big returns?
Large caps like DOGE and ADA have multi billion dollar valuations limiting growth. Pepeto offers presale pricing on a working exchange where the Binance listing compresses the distance into days. The Pepeto official website shows the entry the listing erases permanently.
Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.
Leading Tours & Activities APIs for Banks & Loyalty Programs in 2026
SEC Sends Proposed Crypto Interpretation to White House for Review
Ciara Tells Fans To Call Her “Mamazota” Amid Pregnancy Rumors
-
Crypto World3 days agoNIO (NIO) Stock Plunges 6.5% as Shelf Registration Sparks Dilution Worries
-
Fashion3 days agoWeekend Open Thread: Adidas – Corporette.com
-
Politics3 days agoJenni Murray, Long-Serving Woman’s Hour Presenter, Dies Aged 75
-
Tech6 days agoAre Split Spacebars the Next Big Gaming Keyboard Trend?
-
Business7 days agoHow the UK and China Trade Agreement Could Shape UK Businesses in 2026
-
Crypto World2 days agoBest Crypto to Buy Now: Strategy Just Spent $1.57 Billion on Bitcoin During Fear While Early Investors Quietly Enter Pepeto for 150x Potential
-
News Videos5 days agoRBA board divided on rate cut, unusually buoyant share market | Finance Report | ABC NEWS
-
Crypto World2 days agoBitcoin Price News: Bhutan Sells $72 Million in BTC Under Fiscal Pressure, but the Smart Money Entering Pepeto Sees What the Market Does Not
-
Politics5 days agoThe House | The new register to protect children from their abusers shows Parliament at its best
-
Tech4 days agoinKONBINI Lets You Spend Summer Days Behind the Register
-
Politics6 days agoReal-time pollution monitoring calls after boy nearly dies
-
Crypto World5 days agoCanada’s FINTRAC revokes registrations of 23 crypto MSBs in AML crackdown
-
Sports8 hours agoRemo Stars and Kano Pillars Strengthen Survival Hopes in NPFL
-
News Videos5 days agoPARLIAMENT OF MALAWI – PAC MEETING WITH REGISTRAR OF FINANCIAL ON AMARYLLIS HOTEL – INQUIRY LIVE
-
NewsBeat5 days agoResidents in North Lanarkshire reminded to register to vote in Scottish Parliament Election
-
Politics4 days agoGender equality discussions at UN face pushbacks and US resistance
-
Business1 day agoNo Winner in March 21 Drawing as Prize Rolls to $133 Million for Next
-
Business5 days agoWho Was Alex Pretti? 5 Key Facts About the ICU Nurse Killed by Federal Agents in Minneapolis
-
Tech23 hours agoGive Your Phone a Huge (and Free) Upgrade by Switching to Another Keyboard
-
Sports7 hours agoGary Kirsten Accuses Pakistan Cricket Board Of ‘Interference’, Mohsin Naqvi Responds
You must be logged in to post a comment Login