TLDR

• South Korea has allocated 3 billion won to build an AI-powered system to track cryptocurrency gains before 2027.
• The National Tax Service will use machine learning to detect unusual crypto transactions and possible tax evasion.
• South Korea will impose a 22% tax on virtual asset income above 2.5 million won starting January 1, 2027.
• The tracking system will share data with the Korea Customs Service and the Bank of Korea.
• Coinbase has denied claims that it lobbied for a stablecoin-only tax exemption in the United States.

South Korea has committed 3 billion won to build an AI-based crypto tracking system before new taxes begin in 2027. The National Tax Service will deploy the platform to monitor virtual asset gains and enforce a 22% tax rate. At the same time, U.S. lawmakers face pressure as Coinbase denies claims that it seeks stablecoin-only tax exemptions.

South Korea Moves to Enforce Crypto Tax Rules

South Korea’s National Tax Service has launched a public bidding process for an integrated crypto tracking system. The agency listed the project on the Public Procurement Service platform with a value of 3 billion won, or about $2.02 million. The NTS plans to select a contractor within this month and start system design in April.

The agency will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect unusual transaction patterns. Officials will share findings with the Korea Customs Service, the Bank of Korea, and the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The NTS aims to begin pilot testing in November and complete the full launch by December 2026.

South Korea will start taxing virtual asset profits on Jan. 1, 2027. Income exceeding 2.5 million won will face a 22% tax rate, which includes 20% national tax and 2% local tax. Authorities said the system will ensure that taxpayers report accurate gains under the new framework.

The NTS stated that the platform will analyze large datasets from exchanges and wallets. The system will flag transactions that suggest concealment or tax evasion. Officials said the program will strengthen oversight before enforcement begins in 2027.

Coinbase Faces Claims Over Stablecoin Tax Exemption Push

U.S. lawmakers continue to debate de minimis exemptions for small crypto payments. Companies such as Block have urged Congress to treat Bitcoin like foreign currency for minor transactions. However, reports claim Coinbase has told lawmakers that “no one is using Bitcoin as money.”

Sources allege that Coinbase supports a tax exemption limited to stablecoins. A stablecoin-only rule would exempt tokens like USDC from capital gains taxes on small purchases. Coinbase holds a financial interest in USDC, which has raised concerns among industry advocates.

Faryar Shirzad, Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer, rejected the accusations. He said the claims are “a total lie” and stated that Coinbase has never lobbied against Bitcoin. Shirzad added that the company will not support measures that undermine Bitcoin adoption.

Representatives from Block said Congress now leans toward limiting exemptions to stablecoins. Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream, said stablecoins rarely generate taxable gains for retail users. He argued that policymakers should exempt Bitcoin from capital gains if they want it to function as a digital currency.

Ethereum’s price has risen for four consecutive days and is now hovering around the crucial support level of $2,000, as BlackRock launches its first staking ETF today, March 12.

Ethereum (ETH), the second-biggest cryptocurrency, trades at $2,056, inside a range it has remained in in the past 30 days. This price is nearly 60% below its all-time high.

A major catalyst for ETH price is that BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, will launch its staking ETF today. This is a big milestone that will address a key challenge that has existed in the existing funds.

Existing Ethereum ETFs, which have over $11.85 billion in assets, don’t offer staking rewards, making them less ideal to most investors. In BlackRock’s case, holders of the ETHA ETF pay an annual fee of 0.25% and forego a monthly return. Data shows that Ethereum has a staking return of about 3%.

The new ETF will have a ticker of ETHB and an annual fee of 0.25%. It will initially have a fee waiver of 0.12% for the first year or when it hits $2.5 billion in assets.

Therefore, a likely scenario is where there is a rotation from ETHA and other Ethereum ETFs to ETHB. It may also lead to more inflows from investors who have not invested in these funds yet. 

Ethereum price prediction

The daily timeframe chart shows that the ETH price crashed from the all-time high of $4,950 to the current $2,065. It has constantly remained below the 50-day and 200-day moving averages since November last year when it formed a death cross pattern. 

Ethereum price has formed a horizontal channel whose support and resistance levels are at $1,843 and $2,193. It has remained inside this channel since February 6 this year. 

This channel formed after the coin declined sharply, meaning that this is part of a bearish flag pattern. In most cases, this pattern often leads to a strong bearish breakout. 

Therefore, the coin will likely have a strong bearish breakout in the near term. If this happens, the initial target will be the lower side of the channel at $1,843. A drop below that price will lead to further downside, potentially to $1,500.

JPMorgan faces a U.S. class action for allegedly enabling Goliath Ventures’ $328M crypto Ponzi via Chase accounts and exchange transfers.

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.”​

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.

XRP price has gone nowhere in the last 30 days as third-party data reveals that demand from Wall Street investors has stalled.

Ripple (XRP) token was trading at $1.3825 today, March 12, inside a range it has remained at in the past few weeks. This price is 63% below its highest point last year.

Data compiled by SoSoValue shows that spot XRP ETFs have shed over $26 million in assets this month. This is the first month that these funds have experienced outflows since they were launched in November.

The numbers show that the funds did not experience any inflow on Wednesday. Before that, they experienced outflows in the previous four consecutive days. They now hold $985 million in assets under management.

A recent report showed that some of the biggest companies in Wall Street holds XRP ETFs. Goldman Sachs holds XRP ETFs worth $154 million, and is followed by top companies like Millennium Management, Logan Stone Capital, Citadel, and Jain Global. 

More data shows that demand for XRP has dropped in the past few weeks. For example, according to CoinGecko, the daily volume stood at $2.3 billion today, down from over $4 billion the same day last week.

XRP’s futures open interest has dropped in the past few months, moving from last year’s high of over $10 billion to $2.4 billion today. The same has happened in the CME, where futures contracts are seeing weak demand.

XRP price technical analysis 

The four-hour chart shows that the Ripple token has remained in a narrow range in the past few months. It has remained inside the key support and resistance levels at $1.3160 and $1.4627. 

The volatility has dropped, with the Average True Range has remained in a downward trend. It is also oscillating at the 50-period and 100-period moving averages.

On the positive side, this is a sign that coin is in the accumulation phase of the Wyckoff Theory. This phase is usually characterized by sideways movements.

Therefore, while its too early to predict, there is a possibility that the coin will have a strong bullish breakout. Its initial target will be at $1.4627, the upper side of the channel. A move above that price will point to more gains, potentially to the psychological level at $1.6658, its highest point in February this year.

Key Takeaways

• NIO has successfully broken above both its 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages, with both trend lines now pointing upward
• Technical indicators show bullish RSI divergence alongside significant volume increases during rallies, suggesting diminishing bearish pressure
• Chart analysis reveals a double bottom formation with a breakout level at $5.79, projecting a move toward $8 by late 2026
• Call option volume reached 58,591 contracts with an exceptionally low put/call ratio of 0.30, indicating bullish sentiment
• Fellow Chinese EV competitor XPeng (XPEV) climbed 14% this week, reinforcing sector-wide momentum

Holding NIO shares has tested investors’ patience considerably. Following its peak above $60 in the first quarter of 2021, the Chinese electric vehicle maker endured a prolonged decline that ultimately bottomed in single-digit territory. However, recent price action suggests a potential turning point.

NIO Inc., NIO

Shares were changing hands near $5.60 on Thursday, marking an approximate 19% weekly advance — positioning this week as the strongest performance since late August 2025, assuming momentum holds through Friday’s trading session.

The technical configuration is capturing market attention. NIO has successfully recaptured both its 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages during this week’s rally, with both indicators now trending upward. This represents a significant departure from the stock’s positioning just a few months earlier.

Technical analysts have identified a bullish RSI divergence, characterized by ascending RSI lows despite the stock printing lower price lows. This divergence typically indicates weakening downside momentum. Trading volume corroborates this interpretation — pronounced volume surges accompanying upward price movement represent a textbook indication of institutional accumulation.

The stock has also successfully retested a bull flag breakout pattern that originated in August. A double bottom formation has emerged with a pivot point established at $5.79. The catalyst for this pattern was a bearish island reversal that concluded with a 7.3% downward gap on December 31. NIO subsequently printed a bullish hammer candlestick on March 3, followed immediately by a bullish island reversal to the upside in the next trading session.

Analysts are projecting an upside objective of $8 by the latter half of 2026 — representing a 42% appreciation from current price levels. The bullish scenario remains viable above support at $4.75.

Extended Time Frame Analysis

Examining the five-year weekly chart provides greater clarity regarding the bottoming process. Since early 2024, NIO has been trading within what appears to be a base-building consolidation pattern. Beginning in October, the right shoulder of a bullish inverse head-and-shoulders formation has been developing.

Should the stock clear the $8 resistance threshold later in 2026, the extended-term projection based on this pattern suggests a potential move toward $13 by early 2027.

Accumulation patterns have been evident since the previous summer, with buyers consistently defending lower price levels.

Options Activity Reflects Bullish Positioning

The derivatives market is reflecting the underlying momentum. Thursday saw 58,591 call contracts trade hands in NIO. Short-dated contracts expiring March 13 and March 26 comprised approximately 19,900 of that total. The put/call ratio currently stands at just 0.30 — an unusually low figure indicating traders are purchasing call options at more than three times the rate of protective puts.

Implied volatility has also expanded, reflecting heightened speculative interest in the name.

NIO’s upcoming quarterly earnings announcement is scheduled for June 2, which may be contributing to the increased options positioning.

On a year-to-date basis, NIO has advanced 7.25%. The company’s current market capitalization is $12.48 billion.

XPeng is experiencing similar strength this week, climbing 14% as of Thursday afternoon and positioned to break a three-week losing streak.

Vitalik Buterin reframes Ethereum as censorship‑resistant “global shared memory,” with PeerDAS scaling its data layer for voting, identity, and on‑chain coordination.

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin says the network’s real value lies in acting as a globally shared “bulletin board” for data availability, rather than just a smart contract or payments platform, sharpening the narrative around Ethereum’s role in the broader crypto stack.

Vitalik reframes Ethereum’s core value

In a new post on X, Buterin argued that Ethereum’s fundamental contribution is providing a publicly readable and writable data layer that cryptographic protocols can reliably anchor to. He highlighted that many high-value use cases—secure online voting, software version control, certificate revocation and more—depend on having an open, persistent data space rather than purely on complex smart contract logic.

Buterin framed ETH not only as a payment asset, but as a core instrument for Sybil resistance and as collateral for smart contracts, positioning it at the center of a decentralized, privacy-preserving, open-source technology stack. In his view, smart contracts and DeFi are extensions built atop this shared memory, not the base value proposition itself.​

Buterin also pointed to Ethereum’s PeerDAS upgrade as a key step in scaling this data availability layer, saying it already increases Ethereum’s data capacity by about 2.3x, with a path toward 10–100x gains over time. Improved data throughput, combined with lower fees, is meant to support a broader range of applications beyond DeFi, including governance systems, identity, and new classes of on-chain coordination tools.​

He summed up Ethereum as a kind of “global shared memory,” where applications can reliably publish and read data in a neutral environment secured by ETH-based economic incentives. For developers and protocols, the message is clear: treat Ethereum first as a durable, censorship-resistant data availability layer, and only secondarily as a smart contract execution chain.

BlackRock’s staked Ethereum exchange-traded fund has tallied $15.5 million in trading volume on its first trading day, which a market analyst described as “very, very solid” despite falling short of two similar Solana staking products that launched last year.

Nasdaq data shows the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) had 592,804 shares traded on its debut on Thursday, with Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart noting on X that the product turned over around $15.5 million.

“Very, very solid for a day 1 ETF launch,” Seyffart said.

The ETF invests and stakes Ether (ETH), locking up the tokens on the blockchain with the aim of providing a yield. The fund relies on network validators to capture staking rewards, typically offering a yield of 4% annually.

ETHB’s $15.5 million in debut trading volume trailed similar staking funds tied to the Solana (SOL) token, including the $55.4 million in volume recorded by the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) when it debuted in October. Another similar fund, the REX-Osprey SOL + Staking ETF (SSK), also recorded $33.7 million on its debut in July.

ETHB adds to BlackRock’s crypto product lineup, which includes its two flagship crypto funds, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) and iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA). 

Related: Basic adds VanEck crypto ETFs to 401(k) plans amid US retirement shift

The two ETFs have respectively attracted over $62.8 billion and $11.9 billion worth of inflows since launching in 2024, Farside Investors data shows.