Crypto World
JPMorgan faces test on bank liability in $328M Goliath Ponzi case
JPMorgan faces a U.S. class action for allegedly enabling Goliath Ventures’ $328M crypto Ponzi via Chase accounts and exchange transfers.
Summary
- Investors claim Goliath raised $328M from 2,000+ victims through JPMorgan business accounts, routing $123M to Coinbase while paying out only $50M in “profits.”
- The suit alleges JPMorgan ignored AML red flags on high‑velocity, circular transfers, effectively extending the scheme’s life and investor losses.
- The case could set precedent on when banks become liable as “enablers” of crypto fraud, tightening KYC/AML expectations on fiat rails into exchanges.
JPMorgan is facing a new class-action lawsuit in the U.S. over its alleged role in banking a $328 million crypto Ponzi scheme that funneled investor funds through Chase accounts and onto major exchanges, according to recent court filings and monitoring data.
JPMorgan sued over alleged $328M crypto Ponzi exposure
A group of investors has filed a class-action complaint in federal court in Northern California, accusing JPMorgan Chase of knowingly or negligently providing banking services to a large-scale crypto Ponzi scheme operated by Goliath Ventures. The lawsuit alleges that roughly $253 million in investor funds were first deposited into Chase accounts controlled by the scheme’s operators, before approximately $123 million was routed to Coinbase and other exchanges, while only about $50 million was returned to investors as purported “profits.”
According to the complaint, plaintiffs claim JPMorgan failed to act on multiple anti–money laundering red flags, including rapid, large-value transfers inconsistent with declared business activities and repeated inflows from retail investors. They argue that the bank’s alleged failure to file or escalate suspicious activity reports allowed the scheme to continue far longer than it otherwise would have, dramatically increasing total losses. The case seeks damages for investors and aims to hold one of the world’s largest banks liable for what plaintiffs frame as willful blindness to obvious fraud patterns.
Potential precedent for banking rails in crypto fraud
If the case proceeds, it could become a test of how far U.S. courts are willing to extend liability to traditional financial institutions that provide fiat on- and off-ramps to crypto-related investments. Plaintiffs are effectively arguing that banks cannot treat crypto fraud as an external problem while continuing to profit from deposit flows and payment processing tied to suspicious schemes.
For the broader digital asset sector, the lawsuit underscores a growing regulatory and legal focus on “enablers” of fraud, not just token issuers or platform operators. Exchanges and custodians already sit under heavy scrutiny; extending that lens to global banks that process billions in flows for crypto investment products could reshape compliance expectations around KYC/AML, transaction monitoring, and de-banking of high-risk promoters. The outcome is likely to be closely watched by both Wall Street and major crypto venues, given the central role of banking rails in market structure and liquidity.
New research examines how investor behavior, wallet architectures, and operational security practices determine what genuine self-custody requires in 2026.
The foundational promise of cryptocurrency is decentralized, sovereign ownership. But this promise has run into a far more sobering reality, as a lot of funds held on centralized exchanges have been lost over the years. Users have learned the same lesson in different forms: Not your keys, not your coins.
Cointelegraph Research’s latest report, produced in collaboration with Trezor, the original hardware wallet, and titled “The Future of Self-Custody: Turning Ownership Into Security,” examines how this realization has reshaped investor behavior. Drawing on survey responses, post-mortem analyses of exchange failures, and a breakdown of modern wallet architectures, the report explains why self-custody should be a defining topic for crypto security in 2026.
Survey data shows a decisive erosion of trust in centralized exchanges. A majority of respondents now trust exchanges less than they did a year earlier, with the memory of the FTX collapse remaining a key psychological driver. Even regulatory frameworks such as MiCA, which improve custodial oversight, do not alter the underlying dynamic. Users increasingly recognize that custodial access can be restricted or withdrawn by decisions outside of their control. Migration into self-custody has therefore become a form of risk management.
Once assets move into self-custody, security no longer depends on institutional controls but on the user’s operational discipline. The survey shows that most users converge on a simple architecture, yet many still misunderstand that while hardware wallets meaningfully reduce the risk of remote compromise, they do not eliminate losses caused by the user.
As a result, the report shifts the focus from device choice to behavior: how transactions are verified, how recovery material is stored, and how users model real-world threats.
The central conclusion is that turning ownership into security is not achieved through regulation, branding, or devices alone. It is a behavioral practice that depends on disciplined use of devices and an accurate understanding of what custody does and does not protect against.
Read the full report to understand why self-custody is important
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. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as, legal, tax, investment, financial, or other 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. Cointelegraph does not endorse the content of this article nor any product mentioned herein. Readers should do their own research before taking any action related to any product or company mentioned and carry full responsibility for their decisions. 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.
[PRESS RELEASE – Tel Aviv, Israel, March 12th, 2026]
Playnance, a Web3 infrastructure company focused on blockchain-based digital entertainment platforms, is set to launch G Coin on March 18th, the utility token powering activity across its ecosystem of on-chain gaming, prediction markets, and interactive financial platforms.
Unlike many token launches that precede product adoption, G Coin enters the market as part of a live ecosystem already processing significant daily activity. According to Playnance’s public tracker, the token currently has more than 200,000 holders, with approximately 13 billion G Coin distributed during the presale phase and an estimated market capitalization of around $38 million ahead of its Token Generation Event.
G Coin functions as the unified economic layer of the Playnance ecosystem, facilitating gameplay activity, predictions, settlements, rewards, and other forms of participation across the network’s platforms. The token operates on PlayBlock, Playnance’s blockchain infrastructure, which enables fast, gasless interactions while maintaining non-custodial ownership and on-chain transparency.
The broader Playnance ecosystem operates at scale across a network of digital entertainment platforms. The infrastructure supports more than 300,000 registered accounts, integrates with over 30 game studios, and runs more than 10,000 on-chain games. Across the network, platforms process approximately 2 million on-chain transactions per day and support interaction with more than 2.5 million sports events annually. Together, these platforms form a high-volume on-chain environment where millions of daily interactions are powered by G Coin across gaming, sports events, and financial prediction markets.
“On March 18, G Coin will enter the market with real adoption already in place,” said Pini Peter, CEO of Playnance. “With more than 200,000 holders and millions of daily on-chain interactions, G Coin introduces a usage-driven token economy designed to grow alongside its expanding global community. There are many other surprises on the way to take the entertainment world to the next level, stay tuned”
Recent ecosystem developments have reflected continued activity growth ahead of the token launch. Earlier this year, Playnance reported that its “Be The Boss” program surpassed $2 million in real cash payouts to participants, while the broader ecosystem generated more than $5.3 million in total revenue.
G Coin operates within a fixed supply model capped at 77 billion tokens, with no future minting. Supply management is handled through a structured lock and release mechanism designed to moderate circulating supply. Tokens lost through gameplay are locked for 12 months before returning to circulation according to their original loss date, while unsold tokens at the Token Generation Event are subject to a 12-month cliff followed by a 24-month linear vesting schedule.
With the launch of G Coin, Playnance formalizes the economic layer supporting its digital entertainment infrastructure, connecting gameplay, sports events, prediction markets, and partner platforms within a single on-chain ecosystem.
About Playnance
Founded in 2020, Playnance is a Web3 infrastructure company developing live, non-custodial, on-chain products designed to onboard mainstream Web2 users into blockchain environments. The company develops consumer-facing platforms built on shared wallet systems and high-volume on-chain execution, currently processing approximately 2 million transactions per day. Playnance focuses on reducing friction between user experience and blockchain infrastructure by abstracting complexity while maintaining full on-chain transparency and non-custodial architecture.
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US investment manager Ark Invest claims that the lion’s share of the Bitcoin supply is already safe from the quantum computing breakthrough, leaving ample warning signals for builders to quantum-proof the rest of the supply.
Around 65.4% of the Bitcoin (BTC) supply is not vulnerable to the threat of a quantum computing breakthrough, but about 34.6% of the BTC supply remains at risk, according to a Wednesday white paper published by Ark Invest and Bitcoin-focused financial services company Unchained.
This includes around 5 million BTC, or 25% of the total supply, assumed migratable due to address re-use, and 1.7 million BTC, or 8.6% of the supply, assumed lost in P2PK (Pay-to- Public-Key) addresses, the earliest form of transaction script on the Bitcoin blockchain, which locked funds directly to public keys. Another 200,000 BTC (around 1%) is assumed to be migratable due to the address type P2TR (Pay-to-Taproot).
This supply would be vulnerable to quantum theft if quantum computers can break Bitcoin’s elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), which would require about 2,330 logical qubits and tens of millions to billions of quantum gates, the report argued.
“Even so, their practical feasibility would require quantum systems to reach performance levels that our research suggests will take much time to achieve.”
The paper’s estimates are far broader than those in a February CoinShares analysis, which said the realistically market-relevant portion of quantum-vulnerable Bitcoin was about 10,200 BTC, or roughly 0.05% of supply, even though legacy P2PK addresses account for a much larger theoretical exposure.
Separately, the first quantum computer facility with one million physical qubits (the equivalent of tens of billions of typical computers) is expected to be finished in 2027 by Chicago-based PsiQuantum, which raised $1 billion from BlackRock-linked funds.
Quantum breakthrough remains “long-term risk” for Bitcoin
Ark’s white paper argues that quantum risks will evolve over an extended period with “many intermediate warning signals” rather than an abrupt single point of failure.
Related: Cathie Wood says ARK’s $1.5M Bitcoin bull price hasn’t changed as markets eye rally
Quantum breakthrough remains a “long-term risk,” rather than an imminent threat to the Bitcoin network, which gives the community time to “research and make plans for protecting the network” against the protracted development of quantum capabilities, the paper states.
Ark Invest foresees five stages for quantum computing advancements, but said that only the final stage of advancements will break ECC quicker than Bitcoin’s 10-minute block time.
Bitcoin held in quantum-vulnerable addresses should not be at risk until stage 3, when a quantum computer can break the 256-bit ECC key.
The white paper said that the first public key may be broken in the mid-2030s, citing a consensus target by companies including Google, IBM and Microsoft.
Bitcoin must implement quantum-safe address formats despite governance challenge
Quantum computers will inevitably reach stage 4 and become a threat to the Bitcoin network, which means that Bitcoin must implement a quantum-safe address format, the paper argues.
The measure will require the integration of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) into Bitcoin, such as the ML-DSA lattice-based signature scheme and the SLH-DSA hash-based signature.
“Those standards give us confidence in the capabilities of post-quantum cryptography,” wrote Ark Invest, cautioning that upgrading to PQC on the consensus level will be more difficult due to Bitcoin’s decentralized governance structure, which requires the majority of network participants to agree to a soft fork.
The paper said Bitcoin will eventually need quantum-safe address formats and, over time, post-quantum cryptography. One draft path under discussion, BIP-360, proposes a Pay-to-Merkle-Root output type designed to reduce long-exposure quantum risk by removing Taproot’s key-path vulnerability, though it does not itself add post-quantum digital signatures.
Related: Whale’s $9B Bitcoin sale was not due to quantum concerns: Galaxy Digital
However, BIP-360 is not the final solution to Bitcoin’s quantum threat, according to Chris Tam, president and head of quantum innovation at BTQ Technologies.
“The proposal introduces a new address format but critically does not include post-quantum digital signatures, which are essential for any meaningful long-term defense against quantum attacks,” he told Cointelegraph.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum: BIP-360 co-author
Update (March 12 at 8:56 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from CME Group Chief Executive Terry Duffy.
Michael Selig, chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has proposed a rule that could amend or issue new regulations over event contracts on prediction markets platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.
In a Thursday notice, the CFTC issued a staff advisory classifying event contracts on prediction markets as a “financial asset class.” The regulator also submitted an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to be published in the Federal Register, asking for public comment on how the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) would apply to prediction markets.
“Prediction markets are one of the most exciting innovations in financial markets,” said Selig in a Thursday X post. “Yet for too long, the CFTC has failed to provide guidance for these markets being used by millions of Americans. This ends today.”
The staff advisory and proposed rule followed Selig publicly reiterating claims that the CFTC had “exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets in response to many state-level authorities filing lawsuits against companies like Kalshi and Polymarket for unlicensed sports betting. The CFTC chair said that he would take to court any state-level challenges to the agency’s authority over prediction markets.
Related: Utah set to block prediction markets as state-federal tensions rise
On Monday, an Ohio judge pushed back against Selig’s narrative in her denial of a preliminary injunction by Kalshi against Ohio gaming authorities and the state’s attorney general. She said in the ruling that the company had failed to show the CEA “would necessarily preempt Ohio’s sports gambling laws,” or that sports event contracts were subject to the “exclusive jurisdiction” of the CFTC.
“The courts have gone both ways here, as we’ve seen — some in favor and some opposed to the prediction markets,” said CME Group Chief Executive Terry Duffy, according to a Thursday Reuters report. “The states are all over the map on this. I don’t see how it doesn’t go to the Supreme Court for a definition of what is a prediction market on sports, and if that is the same as gambling.”
Selig is sole CFTC commissioner absent any White House nominations for vacant seats
Selig noted that he “voted in the affirmative” on the matter, while “no commissioner voted in the negative.” The CFTC chair sits alone in the agency’s leadership following the departure of acting chair Caroline Pham in December, on a panel normally filled with a bipartisan group of five commissioners.
Because only a majority of the quorum of CFTC commissioners are needed to sign off on a rule, Selig may have the sole authority to approve the prediction markets proposal after the required public notice and comment periods. As of Thursday, US President Donald Trump had not announced any additional nominations to the agency.
The public will have 45 days to submit comments following publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register.
Magazine: Fly’s mind ‘uploaded,’ human brain cell wetware plays Doom: AI Eye
The Nasdaq is moving on AI spending again. Nvidia just invested $2 billion into an AI cloud company, and the GTC conference starts Monday. For stock investors, this is familiar territory: buy NVIDIA and hope the AI cycle has another leg.
But one asset class is producing returns that even the best NVIDIA stock price prediction cannot touch. Crypto presales with real revenue infrastructure are delivering pre IPO entries that Wall Street does not offer, and the math is not close.
Nvidia announced a $2 billion strategic investment in Nebius Group, an AI cloud infrastructure company, sending NBIS shares up over 15% according to CNBC. The GTC 2026 conference runs March 16 to 19 in San Jose, with multiple AI partnerships already announced per Motley Fool reporting.
The NVIDIA stock price prediction stays bullish, but $264 is a 42% gain on a $4.5 trillion company. The returns that change financial lives are not on the Nasdaq. They are in the presale market.
Where the Real Returns Live: Pepeto Exchange vs Wall Street’s Best Stocks in 2026
Pepeto: The Pre IPO Entry That Delivers What NVIDIA’s 42% Gain Cannot
The recent freeze of $5 million in Bitcoin at a centralized lending firm reminded the market how fast things can go wrong when you trust the wrong institution. That kind of vulnerability is exactly why smart capital is flowing into projects with audited infrastructure and transparent revenue models. Pepeto is one of those projects, and it is outpacing every presale in the market right now.
The presale is the equivalent of a pre IPO round still open to the public. The exchange is built, the SolidProof audit is complete, and the cofounder already took a previous project to a $7 billion market cap. In stock terms, that is like backing a founder who already built a company worth more than Palantir.
The presale has attracted $7.87 million and fills faster with every round. A former Binance expert on the advisory board is guiding the listing onto the largest crypto exchange in the world. The listing is the IPO moment, the event where the market prices this asset for the first time on the open market.
The 300x target follows the revenue model. The exchange processes trades across three blockchain networks with zero fees, and every trade sends revenue back to every holder through the audited smart contract. NVIDIA delivered a 10x over five years. The 300x math requires only the listing valuation that exchange tokens routinely achieve, in months, not half a decade.
Even if you have never touched crypto, the staking mechanics speak in a language every investor understands. At 209% annual yield, a $10,000 position generates roughly $20,900 in additional tokens over a year, which is about $1,741 per month. The S&P 500 averages 10%. Treasury bonds pay 4.5%. This is 209%, compounding daily, with no lock period on your capital. And the listing is approaching, which means the yield builds your position while the market prepares to price it for the first time. Every day you are not inside the presale is a day where that yield is working for someone else.
NVIDIA Stock Price Prediction: Analysts Target $264 but Return Math Has Changed
NVDA trades at $184, with a 12 month consensus target of $264 from 37 analysts, reflecting a 42% gain per Stock Analysis data. Revenue hit $215 billion in fiscal 2026, up 65% year over year.
Source : TradingView
The GTC conference supports the thesis. But at $4.5 trillion, even hitting $380 gives 104% over a year, which is solid for stocks but modest compared to pre listing entries.
Apple Stock Price Prediction: AAPL Consolidates Near $255
AAPL trades at $255, down 2.1% on the day per Yahoo Finance. The 52 week range spans $169 to $288. Medium term forecasts suggest a climb above $300, representing roughly 18% from current levels.
Apple generates strong cash flow, but at $3.8 trillion, the returns are single digit percentages that stock investors accept as normal.
Conclusion
The investors who bought Tesla at $17 before it listed on the mainstream exchange understood something that most people learn too late: the biggest gains come before the ticker goes public. Pepeto is sitting at that same stage right now, with a SolidProof audited exchange, 209% APY staking, and a Binance listing approaching.
Pepeto gives you 209% APY starting today and exchange token math that trillion dollar stocks cannot touch. Visit the Pepeto official website and enter the presale before the listing arrives and this pre IPO window closes behind every investor who missed it while it was still open.
Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale
FAQ
Is NVIDIA stock or Pepeto a better investment right now?
NVIDIA targets $264 for a 42% return. Pepeto at presale pricing with 209% APY and exchange infrastructure offers returns that trillion dollar stocks cannot produce. Visit the Pepeto official website for full details.
Can a crypto presale outperform the Nasdaq?
The Nasdaq averages 12 to 15% annually. Pepeto with $7.87 million raised, a SolidProof audit, and a Binance listing approaching offers multiples that decades of stock investing cannot match.
What is the NVIDIA stock price prediction for 2026?
Analysts target $264 with a high of $380 for NVIDIA. Pepeto at presale pricing targets the kind of returns that NVIDIA delivered once over five years, except the timeline is months, not years.
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.
BlackRock’s newly launched staked Ethereum exchange-traded fund posted a strong first trading day, drawing roughly $15.5 million in volume as institutional interest in Ether investment products continues to grow.
Summary
- BlackRock’s staked Ethereum ETF (ETHB) recorded $15.5M in day-one trading volume.
- Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart called the debut “very, very solid” for a new ETF.
- Ethereum is trading around $2,110 at press time, hovering near the key $2K level amid market volatility.
BlackRock’s staked Ethereum ETF posts strong debut with $15.5M in trading
Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart said the debut performance of BlackRock’s staked Ethereum ETF, trading under the ticker ETHB, was impressive for a new listing.
“Vast majority of the trading is done and we are at $15.5 million in trading volume for the BlackRock staked Ethereum ETF — $ETHB. Very very solid for a day 1 ETF launch,” Seyffart wrote on X.
Earlier in the day, Seyffart noted that the fund launched with just over $100 million in assets and had already recorded approximately $11.1 million in trading volume by mid-afternoon in U.S. markets.
The ETF is managed by BlackRock and provides exposure to Ethereum while also incorporating staking, allowing the fund to generate yield from validator participation on the Ethereum network.
Trading data indicates that ETHB’s debut volume reached about $15.5 million with more than 590,000 shares changing hands during its first session. Analysts said that level of activity is considered a solid start for a newly launched ETF, even though some earlier crypto-linked funds recorded larger opening volumes.
The launch comes as Ethereum continues to hover around the psychologically important $2,000 level. Ether is currently trading at roughly $2,110, up about 4% over the past 24 hours.
Market data also shows the cryptocurrency has fluctuated near the $2,000 range in recent days after failing to sustain a rally above $2,200 earlier in the month, highlighting ongoing volatility in the second-largest digital asset.
BlackRock already operates other major crypto investment products, including spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs.
BlackRock’s new staked ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund got off to a solid start Friday, pulling in more than $15 million in trading volume on its first day as Wall Street begins experimenting with yield-generating crypto ETFs.
The iShares Staked Ethereum Trust, trading under the ticker ETHB, launched with just over $100 million in assets and had already seen about $11 million in trading by early afternoon, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart. By late session, trading volume had climbed to roughly $15.5 million, suggesting strong initial demand for the product.
Those numbers are considered strong for an ETF launch, market watchers say.
“BlackRock’s Staked Ether ETF launched with just over $100 million in assets and has traded about $11.1 million through early afternoon,” Seyffart said on X, calling it “a pretty good start for any ETF.”
The product marks a significant evolution in crypto exchange-traded funds. Unlike traditional spot crypto ETFs that simply track the underlying asset, ETHB will generate yield by staking ethereum, distributing most of the rewards back to investors. Staking refers to locking coins in a cryptocurrency network in return for rewards. This is losely analogous to investing in fixed income instruments like bonds.
According to the prospectus, the fund will stake between 70% and 95% of its ether holdings at any given time. About 82% of the staking rewards will be paid out to investors through monthly distributions, similar to how dividend-paying ETFs distribute income.
The remaining 18% will be allocated among the trust, custodians and staking service providers.
The fund charges a 0.25% sponsor fee, though BlackRock is offering a temporary discounted rate of 0.12% on the first $2.5 billion in assets as it seeks to attract early investors.
ETHB is the latest addition to BlackRock’s growing digital assets ETF lineup. The firm already runs the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which launched in January 2024 and quickly became the dominant bitcoin ETF, as well as the iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) introduced in July 2024.
Ethereum’s staking mechanism allows holders to lock up ETH to help secure the network in exchange for rewards, effectively creating a crypto-native yield. By packaging that yield inside an ETF wrapper, firms like BlackRock are attempting to make the structure accessible to traditional investors who cannot easily participate directly on-chain.
If staking ETFs gain traction, they may open the door to similar structures across other proof-of-stake networks — potentially turning crypto ETFs from passive exposure vehicles into income-generating financial instruments.
The crypto market rose 2.4% to $2.51 trillion on Friday primarily due to a shift in global risk sentiment following signals of potential de-escalation in the Middle East.
Summary
- Crypto prices rebounded on Friday after crude oil prices retreated following multi-year highs.
- A wave of short liquidations across leveraged markets and back-to-back inflows into major crypto ETFs also supported the recovery.
Bitcoin (BTC), the leading crypto asset by market cap, rallied nearly 4%, hitting close to the $72,000 mark. Ethereum (ETH) was up 4.3% over the past day, trading at $2,100 when writing. Other major crypto assets, such as BNB (BNB), XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), and Dogecoin (DOGE), had also posted modest gains on the day.
It should be noted that today’s market rally was a standalone event as it detached from both the U.S. traditional stock indexes and tech stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 739 points or 1.56% in U.S. trading hours, while tech-heavy stocks such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 fell by 103 and 431 points, respectively.
The crypto market rallied as Investor risk-on sentiment improved after oil prices dropped sharply across the globe. Notably, Brent crude oil fell over 7% today, easing immediate fears of inflation and providing a more favorable environment for digital assets.
Short liquidations mount
As crypto prices rallied, it caught short sellers off guard, triggering liquidations of these highly leveraged positions. Data from CoinGlass shows that nearly $246 million was liquidated from leveraged markets, with the majority coming from short positions.
The total crypto market open interest also rose 5.2% on Friday, signalling that investors were injecting fresh capital into the market.
ETF inflows and Coinbase premium
Inflows into spot ETF products have also supported the recent gains. According to data from SoSoValue, on Thursday, $53.87 had entered spot Bitcoin ETFs, which marks the fourth straight day of inflows for these funds. A similar trend was visible across their Ethereum counterparts, which have posted three back-to-back days of inflows.
At the same time, Coinbase Premium has also risen sharply over the past 24 hours, indicating that U.S. institutions are paying a premium over global prices to secure Bitcoin. Traders often view this as a strong bullish signal that institutional “smart money” is leading the current market charge.
Crypto market rallied following Trump’s recent comments
Crypto prices also benefited after U.S. President Donald Trump recently hinted that the ongoing war between the two countries may be coming to an end.
This seemed to have calmed investor fears of a prolonged war, which in turn sparked a risk-on sentiment among investors who have begun moving capital from safe havens back into risk assets like crypto.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
The Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) says it will push the US Federal Reserve to change how Bitcoin is treated, as the central bank is set to issue rules on how banks should implement international guidelines for asset risk weighting.
“BPI will be reviewing this proposal closely and submitting a public comment to ensure that US regulators get Bitcoin’s treatment right,” Bitcoin Policy Institute managing director Conner Brown said in an X post on Wednesday.
It comes just a day after the Fed announced it will issue a proposal for public comment on how US banks should implement risk-weighting guidance, which determines how risky different assets are on a bank’s balance sheet, from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
Brown said Bitcoin (BTC) is “treated as a toxic asset under the Basel framework, a global standard for banking regulations.
He added it carries a 1,250% risk weighting, which was “harsher than virtually all other asset classes.”
“More efficient regulation” is the aim: Fed
Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision Michelle Boman said on Thursday that the agency will be proposing rules in the coming weeks to implement the final phase of Basel in the US.
Bowman said that the aim is “more efficient regulation and banks that are better [positioned] to support economic growth, while preserving safety and soundness.”
The 1,250% capital requirement means that banks must back any Bitcoin on their balance sheets at a 1:1 ratio with approved collateral, making holding the cryptocurrency more costly than other asset classes.
Cash, physical gold and government debt carry a 0% risk weight under the Basel framework.
“The most punitive classification”: Bitcoin Policy Institute
Brown said in a blog post last month that the treatment of Bitcoin is the “most punitive classification” in the Basel Committee’s capital framework and a “category error.”
Related: Bitcoin hugs $70K range as March Fed rate cut odds fall below 1%
In 2021, the Basel Committee proposed placing crypto in its high-risk Group 2 set of assets. Group 2 holdings were restricted to under 1% of the value of their Group 1 holdings.
“This risk weighting makes it extremely difficult for banks to provide financial services to Bitcoiners and Bitcoin companies,” Brown said.
Magazine: All 21 million Bitcoin is at risk from quantum computers
Many Bitcoin miners are struggling to turn a profit this market cycle due to diminishing returns, so they may need to pivot to artificial intelligence hosting or put their holdings to work to generate yields, says market maker Wintermute.
Wintermute said in a blog post on Thursday that Bitcoin (BTC) miners have spent years building large-scale power infrastructure in low-cost energy markets, and they now find themselves “sitting on exactly what the AI industry needs most urgently and cannot easily replicate.”
It said that Bitcoin mining is a “structurally rigid business model,” and while the AI pivot is a compelling one, it is also a “drastic and capital-intensive step.”
The report comes as mining giant MARA Holdings is the latest to eye AI, filing with the SEC on March 3 to signal its intent to sell some of its BTC to pivot to the technology. Meanwhile, publicly listed miners have sold more than 15,000 Bitcoin since October.
Miners hanging onto Bitcoin is “legacy of the HODL era”
Wintermute said that Bitcoin miners are collectively holding close to 1% of the total BTC supply, which it argued was a “legacy of the HODL era,” and that the “full toolkit of treasury management remains largely untapped.”
Crypto yield generation has been traditionally limited to staking and DeFi, but Wintermute said miners could tap yields through active management, such as monetizing market risk through derivatives structures, covered calls, and cash-secured puts.
Passive management options include deploying BTC into lending protocols to earn interest.
“We believe active balance sheet management is the most underutilized lever available to miners and one that deserves far greater strategic attention,” Wintermute said. “The miners who treat their BTC holdings as a working asset rather than a passive reserve will carry a structural edge into the next halving.”
Related: Mining companies move deeper into AI, HPC as MARA may sell Bitcoin
Wintermute said that for the first time in a four-year market cycle, Bitcoin has failed to deliver the two-times price return needed to offset halving-driven revenue cuts, and gross margins have peaked at levels that previously marked bear market floors.
Additionally, the transaction fee market has not filled the gap as it is “episodic” and not structural. At the same time, energy costs continue to squeeze margins.
The company noted that data suggests this squeeze is unlike previous cycles in 2018 and 2022, describing it as a “healthy shakeup” that fits within the design of Bitcoin and will make the mining industry “more efficient as a result.”
Magazine: All 21 million Bitcoin is at risk from quantum computers
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