CoinDCX co-founders Sumit Surendra Gupta and Niraj Ashok Khandelwal have secured bail from a magistrate court in Thane, India, after a cheating complaint linked them to a fake platform that posed as the crypto exchange. 

Meanwhile, the court said no prima facie case was made out against them in the 71 lakh Indian rupees complaint and allowed their release on bond. The magistrate court issued a common order on March 23 on the bail applications filed by Gupta and Khandelwal. The order said the available material did not show a case against them, even at an initial stage.

The court also recorded that the investigation officer had “no objection” to their release. It added that the two founders were not present in Mumbra when the alleged offence took place, which weakened the complaint filed against them.

The case began after an investor claimed he had been cheated in a deal linked to CoinDCX. The founders were taken in for questioning on Saturday and remained in custody over the weekend before the court heard their bail plea.

During the hearing, the court noted that “some other person by representing as accused cheated the informant,” and said the informant had admitted that fact in court. This point became central to the bail order because it shifted focus away from the CoinDCX founders and toward other individuals tied to the alleged fraud.

In a March 24 statement posted on X, CoinDCX said the court process supported a “third-party impersonation” case. The company said the fraud took place through a lookalike website, coindcx.pro, which it said had no link to its official business.

The judge also referred to an affidavit filed by the informant. In that affidavit, the informant said another accused, Rana, had repaid the lost money and confirmed that the two CoinDCX founders were not the people he met at a café in Kausa Mumbra where the deal happened.

Bail conditions and fraud warning

The court said the matter had been “amicably settled” between the informant and the main accused. Based on that, it found no risk that the founders would interfere with witnesses or evidence if released.

Each founder was granted bail on a 50,000 Indian rupee bond. They must cooperate with the investigation and trial. CoinDCX later said the case reflects a wider rise in phishing and impersonation scams in India’s financial and crypto sectors, and urged users to verify website domains and use only official company channels.

Siren price shot up 127% to $2.34 on Monday morning, becoming the best-performing crypto asset of the day.

According to data from CoinGecko, Siren (SIREN) price soared to an intraday high of $2.34 on Monday morning before stabilizing at $2.19 at the time of writing. Its market cap stood at $1.56 billion, making it the 50th largest crypto asset in the market.

While there was no particular news on development or ecosystem updates to account for SIREN’s rally today, it was likely linked with significant demand for the token in the futures market.

Notably, data from Coinglass show that SIREN futures open interest surged nearly 120% to $121 million over the past 24 hours. At the same time, the long/short ratio sat at over 1, a sign that more traders were going in with a bullish outlook.

While such rallies often spark excitement, it should be noted that they often face a deep retracement as investors rush to book in profits.

For instance, Siren previously rallied to an all-time high of $3.61 on March 22 after climbing up for several straight days owing to its rebrand into an autonomous AI agent on the BNB Chain and a successive perpetuals listing on multiple major crypto exchanges like Binance, Bybit, and MEXC. However, it came crashing down by over 70% from its peak after concerns about its supply concentration gained traction.

As reported by crypto.news earlier, on-chain data compiled by Bubblemaps revealed that nearly 50% of SIREN’s supply was held in one cluster. Subsequently, later reports revealed that the concentration could be as high as 88% of the total supply.

While the token has regained some momentum as seen by today’s surge, the token could be at risk of a reversal again should those large holders decide to sell off their positions.

Key Takeaways

• NTGR opened at $24.75 on Tuesday and traded near $25.15 — marking a 15.9% increase
• The FCC instituted restrictions on new consumer router models produced outside the United States due to security vulnerabilities
• Approximately 60% of U.S. routers are believed to originate from Chinese manufacturing facilities
• While NETGEAR produces devices abroad, the company may pursue Conditional Approval through the DoW or DHS to market new products domestically
• Stifel Nicolaus maintains a Buy recommendation on NTGR with a $36 target, suggesting potential upside exceeding 63%

Shares of NETGEAR experienced a remarkable Tuesday session, climbing almost 16% following the Federal Communications Commission’s declaration that it would restrict new consumer routers produced outside American borders. This policy shift created ripples throughout the networking industry and drove investors toward NTGR.

The regulatory agency cited escalating cyberattack incidents targeting American consumers and small enterprises since 2024 as justification for the restriction. The FCC highlighted vulnerabilities associated with internationally-manufactured routers, emphasizing that roughly 60% of U.S. routers originate from China.

NETGEAR, Inc., NTGR

The restriction applies exclusively to newly introduced router models. Products already carrying FCC authorization — regardless of their manufacturing origin — retain permission for domestic sales.

NETGEAR develops its technology within the United States but relies on international facilities for production. This business model means its upcoming products would technically fall within the ban’s scope. Nevertheless, the company maintains the option to pursue Conditional Approval through the Department of War or Department of Homeland Security, which would permit continued sales of foreign-manufactured routers domestically.

It bears mentioning that no major networking manufacturers currently produce consumer routers on American soil — placing NETGEAR in the same boat as its competitors.

Market enthusiasm for NTGR seemed rooted in two primary assumptions: international competitors will encounter heightened barriers to the U.S. market, and NETGEAR might ultimately relocate production domestically to circumvent the restriction altogether.

Tuesday’s advance followed a 5.85% gain during the prior session, indicating upward momentum had already begun developing before the FCC’s policy announcement.

Latest Financial Performance

NETGEAR’s latest quarterly earnings provided additional momentum for the stock. The company delivered earnings per share of $0.26, significantly surpassing the $0.05 consensus projection. Revenue reached $182.47 million, outperforming analyst expectations of $177.26 million.

Despite exceeding estimates, the overall financial health presents challenges. NETGEAR operates with a negative net margin of 2.56% and a P/E ratio of -41.24. Market watchers currently project full-year EPS of -1.84.

The stock’s 50-day moving average rests at $21.19, with the 200-day average positioned at $25.82. Tuesday’s closing price of $25.15 returned NTGR to proximity of its long-term average.

Wall Street Perspective

Analyst coverage for NTGR remains sparse. During the previous three months, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Tore Svanberg assigned a Buy rating with a $36 price target — indicating potential appreciation exceeding 63% from present levels.

The overall analyst consensus includes two Buy recommendations, one Hold rating, and one Sell rating, with a mean price target of $36.00. Zacks recently upgraded the security from “strong sell” to “hold” in early March, while Wall Street Zen reversed course, downgrading to “sell” at the month’s beginning.

Institutional stakeholders control approximately 82.97% of NTGR shares. Insider ownership represents 2.3%, though insider Pramod Badjate divested 3,000 shares in early February at $20.97 per share.

For the year-to-date period, NTGR continues trading down 10.07%, and has declined 11.05% across the trailing twelve months despite Tuesday’s substantial gain.

Vienna-based crypto broker Bitpanda is launching a new blockchain network aimed at bringing tokenized assets into Europe’s regulated financial system, as institutions look to move toward always-on markets.

The company said Wednesday that its “Vision Chain,” built with the Vision Web3 Foundation and Optimism OP$0.1126, will provide infrastructure for banks and fintechs to issue and settle tokenized assets under EU rules such as MiCA and MiFID II.

The network uses compliant euro-denominated stablecoins for transaction fees to avoid the volatility tied to typical crypto payments on public chains. It also relies on Optimism’s Ethereum-based infrastructure to handle settlement and scaling.

The move comes as firms across global finance push deeper into tokenization to upgrade market plumbing for around-the-clock trading. The technology is widely seen as a way to streamline how assets are issued, traded and recorded, cutting reliance on fragmented legacy systems. It’s potentially a massive market: tokenized assets could grow 53% a year, reaching $18.9 trillion by 2033 across asset classes, a joint report by Boston Consulting Group and Ripple estimated.

The initiative reflects a wider race among financial firms. Rival digital broker Robinhood (HOOD) is currently testing its proprietary blockchain dubbed Robinhood Chain, built specifically for tokenized stocks trading and connecting to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Wall Street behemoths such as Nasdaq and NYSE also work on their blockchain platforms for tokenized securities, merging crypto rails with the same compliance and safeguards as for traditional systems.

Bitpanda’s chain fits into the firms broader strategy to bridge crypto rails and traditional finance, offering banks and financial institutions blockchain plumbing to provide digital asset services to their customers.

“Tokenization is expected to redefine capital markets,” Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, CEO of Bitpanda, said in a statement. “European financial institutions have been ready for this shift for years, but the infrastructure has been missing.

“With Vision Chain, we are building a public blockchain designed around Europe’s regulatory standards, combining the openness of public networks with the reliability institutions require,” he added.

Read more: Crypto broker Bitpanda bets on banks and tokenization to expand globally ahead of IPO plans

Irish authorities said they have gained access to one Bitcoin wallet tied to convicted drug dealer Clifton Collins, years after the recovery phrase was believed lost. 

The wallet held 500 Bitcoin, and the seizure followed support from Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre.

Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau said on Tuesday that it had “gained access to and seized a cryptocurrency wallet” linked to an earlier criminal case. The bureau said the wallet contained 500 Bitcoin, valued at more than $35 million at current market prices.

The agency said Europol supported the operation through meetings in The Hague and by providing technical help. CAB said Europol offered “highly complex technical expertise and decryption resources vital to the success of the operation.” Authorities did not explain how they gained access to the wallet.

The Irish Times reported that the recovered wallet was one of 12 wallets once linked to Collins. Those wallets reportedly held a combined 6,000 Bitcoin bought in late 2011 and early 2012 using proceeds from a cannabis operation.

According to earlier reports, Collins stored the wallet keys on a single sheet of A4 paper. He hid that paper inside the aluminum cap of a fishing rod case kept at his rented home. The paper later went missing, and access to the Bitcoin was widely believed to be gone.

Moreover, blockchain intelligence platform Arkham labeled one wallet “Clifton Collins: Lost Keys.” On Tuesday, that wallet moved 500 Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime, more than a decade after the coins were first deposited.

Arkham also lists Collins as controlling 14 addresses with total holdings of about 5,500 Bitcoin. Based on current prices, those holdings are worth more than $391 million. Cointelegraph said it contacted CAB and An Garda Síochána for more details on the recovery.

Case dates back to Collins arrest in 2017

The Guardian reported that police arrested Collins in 2017 after searching his car and finding cannabis. He was later sentenced to five years in prison for growing and selling the drug.

After the arrest, Collins said the fishing rod case had been stolen before his landlord cleared out the rental property. Authorities, however, later lost access to the wallets after the printed codes disappeared. The newly seized 500 Bitcoin wallet now marks a rare case where law enforcement recovered access to funds once thought unreachable.

On Friday, bitcoin BTC$71,295.56 options or derivative contracts worth billions will expire on crypto exchange Deribit. Traders might want to note that the dynamics of the expiry are such that BTC’s market price could be lifted toward a very specific point: $75,000.

Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options exchange, will settle bitcoin options contracts worth $14.16 billion on Friday at 08:00 UTC. This means nearly 40% of all open interest – the dollar value of all active contracts on the exchange – ware set to expire in roughly 48 hours. On Deribit, one options contract represents one BTC.

Options are contracts that let you bet on whether the price of an asset, such as BTC, will go up or down. A call option is a bet that the price will go up, and a put option is a bet that it will go down. Traders buy options to try to profit from price swings, or write (short) options to earn income while taking on the risk that prices move in favor of the buyer.

Here’s why the expiry matters

According to Deribit’s data, the ‘max pain’ price — the level where the most contracts would expire worthless (lottery tickets that don’t win) — sits right at $75,000.

As such, this level could act as a magnet, according to Deribit’s Chief Commerical Officer Jean-David Péquignot.

“With Bitcoin currently trading near $71k, the $75k Max Pain price represents a gravitational pull. Historically, this encourages delta-hedging by market makers that can drive prices toward the strike where the most options expire worthless,” Péquignot told CoinDesk.

Here’s how it works. As per the max pain theory, option writers — typically large funds, institutions, or market makers with ample capital — control or influence the spot price toward the pain point to limit payouts to buyers and thereby inflict maximum damage on them. This happens through normal trading in the spot or futures markets, rather than as a guaranteed manipulation.

This mechanical buying and selling often pulls the spot price closer to the max pain level, which is $75,000 in bitcoin’s case.

While max pain is well-known in traditional markets, its influence on crypto remains debated. Deribit, however, flags the level as a potential magnet. Adding to the intrigue, several analysts have identified $75,000 as key resistance, above which bitcoin could go into a full-bull mode.

Controlled expiry

Quarterly expiries typically spark massive position adjustments and hedging flows. Still, the impending expiry is likely unfold normally, without an outsized volatility surge.

That’s evident from the decline in the implied volatility index.

“Over the last sessions, we have witnessed an implied volatility (IV) compression, with both BTC and ETH DVOL dropping by ~6 points. This suggests the market is pricing in a controlled expiry rather than an immediate explosion in volatility,” Péquignot said.

He added that the market data suggests that traders aren’t chasing a breakout as geopolitical uncertainty in the form of Iran war lingers. He specifically pointed to call writing by institutions at higher strikes (levels above going spot price) as the evidence of measured bullish sentiment. Traders typically write overhead calls to collect premiums on top of their spot market holdings.

“The Put/Call ratio for Bitcoin options remains healthy (0.63), but the concentration of sell-side calls suggests a ceiling of institutional resistance as traders have been overwriting their positions to bank premium while waiting for the geopolitical clock to run out,” he noted.

All in all, the big expiry with $75,000 acting as a magnet comes at an intriguing juncture: bitcoin has held up remarkably well through the Iran war turbulence, maintaining strength even as equities wobble and energy markets remain fickle.

TLDR:

• Saudi Arabia lost $300 billion in stock market value within 25 days of Gulf conflict escalating regionally.
  
• Brent crude trading at $90–$110 per barrel turns infrastructure losses into net windfall revenue for Riyadh.
  
• Saudi’s Red Sea bypass pipeline positions the kingdom as the dominant exporter while Hormuz stays closed.
  
• MBS continues lobbying Washington for Iran strikes despite Iranian drones hitting Saudi refineries each night.

Saudi Arabia has lost $300 billion in stock market value across 25 days of Gulf conflict. The Tadawul index fell 12 percent in the opening week.

Iranian drone strikes shut down Ras Tanura, the kingdom’s largest refinery, which processes 550,000 barrels daily. Regional output losses reached 10 million barrels per day by March 12.

Despite this damage, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues pushing Washington for more action against Tehran. The kingdom now serves as the conflict’s victim, beneficiary, and accelerant at once.

Saudi Arabia Bears the Costs While Oil Revenue Climbs

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 megaprojects are currently under formal government review. Capital outflows have risen, and investor confidence has declined sharply in recent weeks.

The Crown Prince spent a decade building the very infrastructure now absorbing nightly drone strikes. Eastern Province oil fields have also taken direct hits alongside the Ras Tanura shutdown.

Analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera described the situation on X with pointed directness. He wrote that Saudi Arabia is “simultaneously the war’s victim, its beneficiary, and its accelerant.”

Interceptor stockpiles defending Saudi airspace are drawing down at a steady pace. Each successful Iranian strike raises fresh questions about the kingdom’s long-term air defense capacity.

Meanwhile, Brent crude is trading between $90 and $110 per barrel on global markets. Saudi Arabia’s national budget was originally calculated on oil at $65 to $70 per barrel.

Every barrel sold above that level adds windfall revenue to the Saudi treasury. At $110 Brent, the kingdom earns a surplus on every barrel it can still export.

Goldman Sachs had forecast a widening fiscal gap before the conflict began. At $80 Brent, that deficit narrows to between 3 and 3.5 percent of GDP.

The war damaging Saudi refineries is simultaneously pushing oil prices well above budget assumptions. Both the losses and the gains appear on the same national balance sheet at once.

Saudi Arabia Gains Structural Ground as Hormuz Stays Contested

Saudi Arabia holds between 2 and 3 million barrels per day of spare production capacity. It also operates an East-West pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz entirely.

That pipeline routes crude directly to the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea. Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar have no comparable alternative export infrastructure available.

Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility cannot be rebuilt or restored for at least five years. Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea route has become the most critical active export pipeline in the world.

The New York Times reported that MBS sees a “historic opportunity to remake the region.” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister has also publicly stated that the kingdom’s patience is “not unlimited.”

MBS has called Trump multiple times, lobbying for continued military pressure on Iran. Each American strike generates fresh Iranian retaliation against Gulf energy infrastructure in response.

That retaliation pushes oil prices higher, which funds the next Saudi lobbying push in Washington. This cycle has no exit point while MBS continues treating the conflict as strategic opportunity.

Saudi Arabia is positioned to dominate the post-war energy market as regional rivals weaken. A diminished Iran cuts OPEC competition for Riyadh directly going forward.

Qatar’s delayed North Field expansion benefits Saudi gas over the medium term. Every producer dependent on Hormuz concedes further competitive ground to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea route.

Irish authorities have recovered a portion of a long-dormant Bitcoin stash tied to a convicted drug dealer, signaling a rare success in unlocking a decades-old cryptographic puzzle. The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) announced on Tuesday that it had gained access to and seized a cryptocurrency wallet containing 500 BTC, valued at more than $35 million, with crucial assistance from Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre.

Cabinet-level cooperation appears to have been pivotal. Europol reportedly hosted operational briefings at its headquarters in The Hague and supplied specialized technical expertise and decryption resources that supported CAB investigators and analysts in bringing the operation to fruition.

The wallet is part of a cluster of 12 addresses holding a total of about 6,000 BTC once linked to Clifton Collins, a drug dealer who received a five-year prison sentence for cannabis cultivation and distribution. The keys to these wallets were believed to be irretrievable after the paper containing them vanished from a fishing-rod case at Collins’ rental home.

“CAB gained access to and seized a cryptocurrency wallet” containing 500 BTC, the agency said, with support from Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre.

The disclosure underscores the evolving landscape of crypto asset recovery, where authorities increasingly combine off-chain investigations with on-chain tracing to locate and recover illicit funds long after their acquisition.

Key takeaways

• A 500 BTC wallet, one of 12 tied to Clifton Collins, has been seized by Irish authorities with Europol’s help, valued at over $35 million.
• The broader stash comprises about 6,000 BTC spread across 12 wallets, deposited by Collins in 2011–2012 and guarded by a paper key hidden in a fishing-rod case.
• Blockchain analytics firm Arkham has linked a wallet labeled “Clifton Collins: Lost Keys” to recent movement in the wallet cluster, including a transfer to Coinbase Prime.
• Arkham’s data indicate Collins controls 14 addresses with a total of roughly 5,500 BTC, valued at more than $391 million, highlighting the persistence and scale of his holdings despite prior legal actions.
• The case illustrates how cross-border law enforcement collaboration and decryptive capabilities can unlock “lost” crypto memories that were once deemed inaccessible.

Tracing a decade-old stash and its implications

The seizure traces back to a long-running narrative of how crime proceeds were converted into Bitcoin more than a decade ago. The 6,000 BTC in question reportedly flowed to multiple wallets in late 2011 and early 2012. Police describe the storage as an audacious yet ultimately fragile arrangement: private keys scattered across 12 wallets, and crucially, paper-based credentials hidden inside an aluminum cap within a fishing-rod case. When Collins was arrested in 2017, authorities say the landlord cleared out the rental home and discarded many belongings, complicating any effort to recover the keys.

While this story has a long tail in public reporting, the latest development shows that some of those “lost keys” can still unlock real value under the right circumstances. The Guardian’s coverage of Collins’ case provides the background on the criminal operation and the 2017 arrest, underscoring how a single possession—an apparently ordinary fishing-rod case—could become a cryptographic Achilles’ heel decades later.

Fresh on-chain activity and what it signals

Beyond the 500 BTC seizure, on-chain observers have noted movements linked to the Clifton Collins wallet cluster. Arkham, a blockchain analytics platform, traces a transfer of 500 BTC to Coinbase Prime from a wallet labeled “Clifton Collins: Lost Keys” on a recent Tuesday. Arkham’s explorer shows Collins as the controller of 14 addresses holding a combined 5,500 BTC, currently valued at more than $391 million.

The development has several practical implications. For investors and fund managers, it highlights that even “cold” assets tied to past criminal activity can re-enter the market or be moved to regulated custodians, potentially affecting liquidity and spot availability in sensitive coins. For traders and risk managers, it underscores the ongoing risk of asset provenance concerns—an issue that can influence compliance checks, KYC/AML workflows, and the perception of who ultimately controls large, long-dormant holdings.

Context and what to watch next

The case sits at the intersection of criminal finance, digital asset forensics, and international enforcement. It underscores the growing role of institutional-grade assistance in crypto asset recovery, including decryption resources and cross-border coordination. While only a portion of Collins’ original stash has been recovered to date, authorities have signaled that the collaboration with Europol will continue to pursue the remaining wallets where possible.

Readers should monitor further updates from the CAB and Europol as the investigation unfolds. The Arkham disclosures also warrant attention, as additional wallets in the cluster could surface new movements that shed light on the ultimate disposition of the roughly 6,000 BTC tied to Collins’ operations. The broader takeaway is clear: the line between traditional crime and digital assets is continually being redrawn as investigators apply both on-chain analytics and cooperative legal channels to recover illicit proceeds.

In the coming weeks, observers should watch for any additional wallet recoveries, updates on the status of the 12-wallet cluster, and whether more of Collins’ holdings surface in public or institutional custody. The episode serves as a reminder that even long-standing crypto hoards can be traced, unlocked, and, in some cases, repurposed for asset recovery and restitution.