Coinbase has denied lobbying against a de minimis tax exemption for bitcoin (BTC), despite a vehement claim by podcaster and Ten31 managing partner Marty Bent that it has.

Bent reported on March 11 that the exchange was quietly telling lawmakers that a de minimis tax exemption for BTC payments was unnecessary.

According to Bent and his “multiple” Capitol Hill sources, Coinbase lobbyists allegedly told legislators “no one is using BTC as money” and that such a tax change would be “dead on arrival.” 

He also claimed that the company only wanted the exemption to apply to specifically regulated, dollar-pegged tokens like the Coinbase-supported USDC.

Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad denied the allegation flatly. “This is a total lie, Marty Bent. We have never and will never lobby against Bitcoin. Ever.” 

Kara Calvert, Coinbase’s VP of US policy, called the claim “categorically false.” She said Coinbase has advocated for a de minimis exemption covering “all digital assets,” including BTC, since 2017.

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal also called the allegation a lie while Nic Carter dismissed Bent’s allegation out of hand. 

Jack Dorsey quote-tweeted Shirzad’s claim that Coinbase had “never and will never lobby against Bitcoin” and asked for a confirmation from Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong. “Hope this is true for de minimis as well. @brian_armstrong?”

Armstrong confirmed.

Disagreeing, Conner Brown, head of strategy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, partially reiterated Bent’s concern.

Without naming Coinbase directly, “I can confirm that over the past three months, there’s been a strong shift on the Hill to limiting the de minimis exemption to stablecoins only,” Brown wrote.

Pierre Rochard also thinks Coinbase isn’t telling the whole truth. “Bitcoin should be tax exempt. It’s really sad to see Brian Armstrong lobbying against that,” he wrote.

Even when Grewal called him out for defamation, Rochard stuck to his story, “Wait until you see the bill.”

Bitcoin price is consolidating beneath major resistance near $72,400 as volatility compresses and momentum weakens.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price action has entered a period of low volatility as the market consolidates beneath a major resistance cluster near the upper boundary of its current trading range. After previously rejecting the $72,400 range high, the asset has rallied back toward the value area high but is now struggling to build sufficient momentum to push higher.

With trading volume declining during the current move, the probability of a rejection and a move toward lower support levels is beginning to increase.

Bitcoin price key technical points

• Major Resistance: $72,400 range high aligns with the 0.618 Fibonacci and value area high.
• Low-Volume Rally: Weak momentum suggests the current move lacks strong buyer participation.
• Downside Target: Potential rotation toward $65,000 support.

Bitcoin’s current price structure is centered around the value area high, a key technical level derived from the volume profile that often acts as a pivot for price direction. This region also aligns closely with the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement and the broader range resistance located near $72,400. When multiple technical indicators converge at the same level, the zone often becomes a strong barrier for price continuation.

Previously, Bitcoin attempted to break above this range high but formed a deviation above the level before quickly moving back into the range. Such deviations typically signal weakening momentum, as they indicate that buyers were unable to sustain price above resistance. The rejection from that level established $72,400 as a clear ceiling within the current trading structure.

Since that rejection, Bitcoin has gradually moved back toward the upper boundary of the range, but the recovery has occurred under noticeably lower trading volume. In technical analysis, volume often acts as a confirmation signal for price movement. Strong breakouts usually require expanding volume to demonstrate strong participation from market participants.

When price approaches major resistance levels on declining volume, it frequently suggests that the move lacks conviction. This type of environment often precedes a rejection or a continuation of the broader range structure rather than a sustained breakout.

As a result, the current low-volatility consolidation may simply represent a pause before the market expands toward the next liquidity zone. In range-bound markets, price tends to oscillate between the value area high and value area low as traders search for liquidity and rebalance positions. 

Recent analysis from CryptoQuant also suggests Bitcoin may be approaching a supply shock, as retail investors continue selling while long-term holders keep their coins dormant, a dynamic that could tighten available supply once volatility returns.

If Bitcoin rejects from the current resistance cluster, the next major support sits near $65,000. This level represents an internal support zone within the broader trading range and aligns closely with the value area low. Because of this confluence, it becomes a natural liquidity target for price if selling pressure begins to increase.

A rotation toward $65,000 would maintain the broader range structure that has defined Bitcoin’s price action between approximately $60,600 and $72,400. Such movements are common during consolidation phases, where price repeatedly tests both sides of the range before a decisive breakout eventually occurs.

However, the loss of the $65,000 support level could significantly increase downside risk. If price breaks below this internal support, the probability of a sharper decline toward the lower boundary of the range around $60,600 would increase. This region represents the next major liquidity pool that has not yet been fully tapped during the current trading cycle.

From a market structure perspective, this means that Bitcoin is currently positioned at a technically sensitive point. Consolidation beneath resistance often leads to volatility expansion, and the direction of that expansion is typically determined by which key level fails first.

What to expect in the coming price action

As long as Bitcoin remains below the $72,400 resistance zone, the probability favors a rotational move toward the $65,000 support region. A break below this level could open the door to deeper downside toward the $60,600 range low, while a strong breakout above resistance with increasing volume would invalidate the bearish outlook.

Cryptio, a Paris-based platform focused on regulated digital-asset accounting and data reconciliation, has closed a $45 million Series B round, underscoring a widening appetite among institutions for tools that translate blockchain activity into familiar accounting records. The financing was led by BlackFin Capital Partners and Sentinel Global, with participation from 1kx, BlueYard Capital, Alven and Ledger Cathay Capital among others. Cryptio positions itself as the connective tissue between on-chain activity and traditional financial reporting, audits and compliance workflows, offering software that reconciles activity across wallets, custodians and exchanges into conventional ledgers. In a period of accelerating tokenization and new asset classes, such infrastructure can be decisive for banks, asset managers and fintechs seeking to scale securely.

Key takeaways

• Cryptio raised $45 million in a Series B led by BlackFin Capital Partners and Sentinel Global, with participation from 1kx, BlueYard Capital, Alven and Ledger Cathay Capital.
• The platform reconcilies blockchain activity from wallets, custodians and exchanges and translates it into accounting records used for financial reporting, audits and compliance.
• Cryptio counts more than 400 enterprise clients and has processed over $3 trillion in transaction volume, including names such as Circle, Gemini, Securitize, and SG-Forge.
• Institutional interest in tokenization is driving demand for institutional-grade infrastructure that supports regulated markets and auditable reporting.
• The broader market for tokenized real-world assets is expanding, with estimates surpassing $26 billion in value and ongoing growth in tokenized money market funds.

Sentiment: Bullish

Price impact: Positive. The funding round signals continued willingness among traditional investors to back specialized infrastructure for on-chain assets, potentially unlocking further capital flows into tokenized finance.

Trading idea (Not Financial Advice): Buy. The round underscores a structural shift toward institutional-grade tooling for crypto-enabled assets, a trend likely to widen as tokenization activities mature.

Market context: The funding aligns with a broader push by traditional finance into tokenization and regulated crypto markets, where firms seek auditable systems that bridge on-chain data with conventional financial controls. As major banks and asset managers back tokenization networks and tools, the ecosystem is increasingly anchored by infrastructure providers that can scale governance, compliance and reporting alongside new asset classes.

Why it matters

The rise of tokenized assets has moved beyond a niche experiment to a form of finance that interacts with mainstream accounting and regulatory regimes. Cryptio’s value proposition centers on turning the frictions of reconciling on-chain activity into familiar, auditable records. By translating blockchain events into balanced ledgers, the platform enables clients to produce reliable financial statements, support audits and meet regulatory requirements without manual, error-prone reconciliation processes. The company’s current client roster reads like a who’s who of crypto-native and traditional finance players—Circle, Gemini, Securitize and SG-Forge—demonstrating demand across a spectrum of use cases from custody to token issuance and asset servicing.

The momentum around tokenized finance is only growing. Tokenization networks and governance bodies have gained traction as banks and asset managers explore how to extend traditional market activities to blockchain rails. The Canton Foundation, a consortium-backed initiative focused on regulated markets, has drawn backing from HSBC, BNP Paribas and Goldman Sachs, highlighting how large incumbents view tokenized infrastructure as essential to risk controls and governance. In parallel, State Street’s January rollout of a crypto tokenization tool illustrates a tangible move by a major custodian to enable clients to create tokenized money-market funds, exchange-traded funds and tokenized deposits—an evolution that expands the practical use cases for tokenized assets while increasing the demand for reliable accounting tooling.

Industry data suggest a meaningful market for tokenized real-world assets, excluding stablecoins, with estimates topping $26 billion in value. Much of this demand is driven by private-credit and U.S. Treasurys-backed funds, with tokenized money-market funds emerging as a fast-growing subsegment. In this context, the need for robust reconciliation, data integrity and reporting frameworks becomes more acute. As tokenized securities and asset-backed arrangements proliferate, institutions require platforms that can maintain transparency, support regulatory reporting and provide an auditable trail for external audits and internal risk management.

Executives from investment and technology houses stress that digital assets are being embedded into regulated markets, calling for infrastructure that meets institutional standards. Sidra Pervez, senior vice president at tokenization specialist Securitize, has emphasized that maintaining accurate financial records across capital markets will become increasingly important as traditional finance expands into tokenized securities. Equally, Loic Fonteneau, managing director at BlackFin Capital Partners, notes that the integration of digital assets into regulated markets will demand what he calls “institutional-grade infrastructure” to support accounting, reporting and lending tied to tokenized assets. The confluence of these viewpoints reflects a sector-wide shift toward interoperability between on-chain activity and conventional governance, risk and compliance practices.

What to watch next

• Cryptio’s client expansion and adoption across regulated markets, including new deployments with existing enterprise customers.
• Updates from the Canton Foundation and Canton Network governance as more financial institutions participate in regulated tokenization ecosystems.
• State Street’s tokenization platform rollout and its uptake by clients seeking tokenized money-market funds and deposits.
• Data on tokenized asset volumes from market trackers such as RWA.xyz to gauge growth trajectories in real-world asset tokenization.
• Regulatory developments affecting tokenized securities and reporting standards that could affect the demand for reconciliation and accounting infrastructure.

Sources & verification

• Cryptio’s Series B announcement and investor roster (BlackFin Capital Partners, Sentinel Global, 1kx, BlueYard, Alven, Ledger Cathay Capital).
• Commentary from Sidra Pervez of Securitize on the importance of accurate cross-market financial records.
• Remarks by Loic Fonteneau of BlackFin Capital Partners on the institutional embedding of digital assets in regulated markets.
• Backers of the Canton Foundation (HSBC, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs) and coverage of the Canton Network for regulated financial markets.
• State Street’s January tokenization platform rollout for tokenized money-market funds, ETFs and deposits.
• Market data from RWA.xyz indicating the value and growth of tokenized real-world assets outside of stablecoins.

Institutional momentum reshapes crypto accounting infrastructure

Cryptio’s Series B signals more than capital inflows; it reflects a broader validation of the infrastructure needed to manage regulated digital assets at scale. By translating on-chain events into conventional accounting entries, the company aims to reduce the friction that has long separated crypto activity from traditional financial reporting. The platform’s ability to reconcile across multiple on-chain and off-chain venues addresses a core pain point for enterprises navigating complex custody arrangements, multiple exchanges and disparate governance frameworks. With more than 400 enterprise clients and trillions of dollars in on-chain transaction volume processed, Cryptio is positioning itself at the center of a growing ecosystem where tokenization, compliance and reporting converge.

The alignment between traditional finance and crypto-native activity is not incidental. It is being reinforced by major financial institutions’ participation in tokenization initiatives and the rollouts of institutional-grade tools to handle tokenized assets. The convergence is creating a demand curve for robust accounting and reporting layers that can withstand regulatory scrutiny while enabling the efficiency gains promised by blockchain-based finance. In this context, Cryptio’s growth—alongside other players like Lukka, TaxBit, Bitwave and CoinLedger—points to a developing market for specialized software that makes crypto activity auditable, transparent and comparable to conventional financial data.

As tokenization becomes a more common mechanism for issuing and servicing assets, the need for accuracy, traceability and interoperability grows. For investors and builders, the trajectory suggests new opportunities in data platforms, interoperability standards and governance-enabled finance that can unlock institutional participation in digital assets while preserving the safeguards and controls valued in regulated markets.

On December 3, the Ethereum network executed the Fusaka upgrade which had one focus: “scaling without compromise.”

Gas fees, once a major impediment to Ethereum’s usability for all but those with the deepest of pockets, plummeted sharply, with transfers and swaps costing just a few cents per transaction.

Cheap transactions don’t just benefit regular users, however. 

Indeed, the increased affordability of long-running address poisoning campaigns has seen losses, as well as activity, skyrocket since Fusaka.

Protos spoke to Andrey Sergeenkov, an independent researcher analysing address poisoning on Ethereum, who believes that “the wallets aren’t ready, and the protocol keeps scaling anyway.”

Cheap gas, a boon for users and scammers alike

In an article published last month, Sergeenkov identified a six-fold reduction in gas costs resulting in an almost identical increase in the volume of address poisoning, from an average of 30,000 to 167,000 per day (5.6x).

The surge in transactions has, unsurprisingly, been accompanied by increased losses.

Sergeenkov tracked dust transactions of 101 tokens and identified “confirmed payoffs” over 73-day windows before and after Fusaka.

The value of funds stolen increased from $4.9 million pre-Fukasa to $63.3 million in the period after the upgrade.

He also observed a “2.6-fold increase in [the number of] successful payoff events.”

Even subtracting the largest post-Fusaka loss, a $50 million outlier just before Christmas, the total is “still $13.3M, a 2.7-fold increase over the pre-Fusaka rate.”

Sergeenkov told Protos that, since the end of the dataset used in his most recent article, there have been a number of significant losses. The top three of these were a $600,000 loss on February 17, a $157,000 loss the following day, a $30,000 loss on February 28.

In all, he identified almost $900,000 in losses from 91 victims between those discussed in his article and his response to Protos on March 9.

Adjusting for the recent losses, and ignoring the outlier, brings the average amount stolen per day to 2.1x that of the pre-Fusaka rate. 

“The attack volume hasn’t slowed either,” he says, and is still picking up “200,000–350,000 poisoning transactions per day.”

While the individual transactions themselves may be cheap, the potential rewards justify splashing large sums on casting as wide a net as possible.

A federal court in Alabama has granted a motion to dismiss a 2024 complaint filed against Binance, its separate US entity Binance.US and former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao over allegations that the cryptocurrency exchange facilitated transferring funds to terrorist groups.

In a Wednesday order, US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Magistrate Judge Chad Bryan granted a motion filed by Zhao requesting that significant portions of the complaint be dismissed. The complaint, filed in February 2024, alleged that the three defendants “violated, and may be continuing to violate, the Anti-Terrorism Act” by facilitating the transfer of funds to Hamas.

While Bryan granted the motion to dismiss, he also ordered that the group of plaintiffs submit a second amended complaint no later than April 10 or potentially face “the prospect of a total or partial dismissal.”

“The underlying harm here is serious; the allegation that the defendants are implicated is serious; the potential liability the plaintiffs seek to impose is serious; and the weight upon the court is serious,” said Bryan. “The operative pleading thus must demonstrate a commensurate level of seriousness before the action will be permitted to proceed.”

In a Thursday statement following the ruling, Binance said it represented “full and complete legal victory.”

A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York last week granted a dismissal for “lack of personal jurisdiction” in a similar case against the company. However, US District Judge Jeannette Vargas acknowledged that another court in the district had ruled that allegations of “widespread, intentional circumvention of anti-terror financing regulations” from Binance had been sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss in a different case.

“Sanctions compliance and terrorism financing are serious matters of law – they require evidence, legal rigour, and due process,” said Binance general counsel Eleanor Hughes. “Courts have now examined these claims on two separate occasions and found them to be without merit.” 

Related: Binance says US Senate Iran probe is based on ‘defamatory’ reports

“While the Court has stayed discovery, this case is not closed,” said Judge Vargas in a Wednesday order regarding Binance’s New York case. “Moreover, this Court retains the inherent authority to determine if counsel and the parties are abiding by their preservation obligations.”

Binance under media, congressional scrutiny over Iran

Amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, many media outlets reported that Binance fired employees who reported the company had facilitated more than $1 billion in crypto transactions to entities connected to the country, leading to a probe by the US Senate.

Binance has largely denied the claims and has filed a defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting of a Justice Department probe into Iran’s alleged use of the exchange to avoid sanctions.

Magazine: All 21 million Bitcoin is at risk from quantum computers