Paul Atkins closes in on SEC chair role amid setbacks: Report
Paul Atkins could move one step closer to becoming the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s new crypto-friendly chair, with a Senate committee hearing reportedly in the works for March 27.President Donald Trump nominated Atkins to lead the SEC on Dec. 4, but his marriage into a billionaire family has reportedly caused headaches with financial disclosures — delaying his potential start date.While it isn’t clear whether the White House has produced those papers to the Senate, Senate Banking, House and Urban Affairs Chair Tim Scott is reportedly eyeing a March 27 hearing to review Atkins’ standing, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller said in a March 17 X post.“No clarity yet on whether the committee has Atkins’ paperwork in hand, but either way, this is the most momentum we’ve seen so far.”Atkins would, however, need to be voted in by the Senate at a later date. Mueller also said the Senate banking committee is also planning to hold a bipartisan meeting on Atkins’ nomination on March 21.Source: Eleanor MuellerIt follows an earlier March 3 Semafor report, where Mueller said financial disclosures had held Atkins back from scheduling a Senate hearing to review his standing.His wife’s family is tied to TAMKO Building Products LLC — a manufacturer of residential roofing shingles that reportedly turned over $1.2 billion in revenue in 2023, Forbes said on Dec. 14, 2024.“It’s a lot to go through,” one former Senate Banking Committee staffer reportedly told Mueller on March 3.“But he got named so early on, so I think that’s why people are starting to be like, ‘What the hell’s taking so long?’” Atkins previously served as an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008 and worked as a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP in New York before that. He is expected to regulate the crypto arena with a more collaborative approach than former SEC Chair Gary Gensler.It’s been almost four months since Atkins was chosen by Trump to lead the SEC on Dec. 4, and over two months since Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20.A late start for an SEC chair wouldn’t be too unusual, however.The two most recent SEC chairs, Gary Gensler and Jay Clayton, started on April 17, 2021, and May 4, 2017 — months after presidential transitions occurred in those years.Related: SEC’s enforcement case against Ripple may be wrapping upMeanwhile, Mark Uyeda has been serving as the SEC’s acting chair since Gensler left on Jan. 20.Since then, the Uyeda-led SEC has established a Crypto Task Force led by SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and canceled a controversial rule that asked financial firms holding crypto to record them as liabilities on their balance sheets.The SEC has dropped several investigations and lawsuits that the Gensler-led commission filed against the likes of Coinbase, Consensys, Robinhood, Gemini, Uniswap and OpenSea over the last month.The SEC is also looking to abandon a rule requiring crypto firms to register as exchanges and may even axe the Biden administration’s proposed crypto custody rules, Uyeda said on March 17.Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
Solana futures finish first trading day on CME
Solana (SOL) futures traded for the first time on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group’s US derivatives exchange on March 17 as the cryptocurrency’s mainstream adoption gains momentum. In February, CME tipped plans to list two types of SOL futures contracts: standard contracts representing 500 SOL and retail-friendly “micro” contracts representing 25 SOL each. They are the first regulated Solana futures to hit the US market after Coinbase’s launched in February. The contracts are settled in cash, not physical SOL. On March 17, the contracts’ first trading day, SOL futures representing a notional value of nearly 40,000 SOL, or nearly $5 million at current prices, changed hands on the exchange, according to preliminary data from CME’s website.Early pricing data indicates a potentially bearish sentiment on SOL among traders. The CME does not publish finalized data on daily trading volumes until the subsequent business day. The CME’s April futures contracts traded at a price of $127 per SOL — $2 per token less than contracts expiring in March, CME data shows. On March 16, trading firms FalconX and StoneX completed the first-ever SOL futures trade on CME, they said. “Solana has come a long way in the last five years,” Chris Chung, founder of Solana-based swap platform Titan, told Cointelegraph on March 17.“Solana futures are going live on the CME today, and SOL [exchange-traded funds] will surely follow shortly behind,” Chung said. CME listed SOL futures on March 17. Source: CMERelated: Solana CME futures tip impending US ETF approvals — ExecETF approval oddsOn March 13, Chung told Cointelegraph he expects the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve asset managers VanEck and Canary Capital’s proposed spot Solana ETFs as soon as May.At least five ETF issuers have filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to list spot Solana ETFs. The regulator has until October 2025 to make a final decision on the filings. Bloomberg Intelligence gauges the likelihood that SOL ETFs are ultimately approved at approximately 70%. Futures contracts are standardized agreements to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date. They are commonly used for hedging and speculation by retail and institutional investors. Futures also play a crucial supporting role for spot cryptocurrency ETFs because regulated futures markets provide a stable benchmark for measuring a digital asset’s performance.CME already lists futures contracts for Bitcoin BTC and Ether ETH. US regulators approved ETFs for both of those cryptocurrencies last year.Magazine: 5 real use cases for useless memecoins
Hashdex amends S-1 for crypto index ETF, adds seven altcoins
Asset manager Hashdex has amended its S-1 regulatory filing for its cryptocurrency index exchange-traded fund (ETF) to include seven altcoins in addition to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), according to a March 14 filing. The revision proposes adding seven specific altcoins to the index ETF — Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), Avalanche (AVAX), Litecoin (LTC), and Uniswap (UNI). As of March 17, the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF holds only Bitcoin and Ether. Previous versions of Hashdex’s S-1 suggested the possibility of adding other cryptocurrencies in the future but didn’t specify which ones.According to the filing, the proposed altcoins additions “are decentralized peer-to-peer computer systems that rely on public key cryptography for security, and their values are primarily influenced by market supply and demand.”The revised filing signals how ETF issuers are accelerating planned crypto product rollouts now that US President Donald Trump has instructed federal regulators to take a more lenient stance on digital asset regulation. As part of the transition, the ETF plans to switch its reference index from the Nasdaq Crypto US Index — which only tracks BTC and ETH — to the more comprehensive Nasdaq Crypto Index, the filing said. The asset manager did not specify when it plans to make the change. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) must sign off on the proposed changes before they can take effect. Hashdex plans to add seven altcoins to its index ETF. Source: SECRelated: US crypto index ETFs off to slow start in first days since listingAccelerating approvalsIn December, the SEC gave the green light to both Hashdex and Franklin Templeton’s respective Bitcoin and Ether index ETFs. Both ETFs were listed in February, initially drawing relatively modest inflows, data shows. They are the first US ETFs aiming to offer investors a one-stop-shop diversified crypto index. Asset manager Grayscale has also applied to convert its Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund to an ETF. Created in 2018, the fund holds a crypto index portfolio comprising BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP, among others. Industry analysts say crypto index ETFs are the next big focus for issuers after ETFs holding BTC and ETH listed in January and July, respectively.“The next logical step is index ETFs because indices are efficient for investors — just like how people buy the S&P 500 in an ETF. This will be the same in crypto,” Katalin Tischhauser, head of investment research at crypto bank Sygnum, told Cointelegraph in August.In February, the SEC acknowledged more than a dozen exchange filings related to cryptocurrency ETFs, according to records.The filings, submitted by Cboe and other exchanges, addressed proposed rule changes concerning staking, options, in-kind redemptions and new types of altcoin funds.Magazine: US enforcement agencies are turning up the heat on crypto-related crime
Ethena Labs, Securitize launch blockchain for DeFi and tokenized assets
Stablecoin developer Ethena Labs and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization company Securitize are launching a new blockchain for retail and institutional investors seeking access to the DeFi and tokenization economies. According to a March 17 announcement, the forthcoming Converge blockchain is an Ethereum Virtual Machine that will provide retail investors with access to “standard DeFi applications.” It will also specialize in institutional-grade offerings that will help bridge traditional finance with DeFi opportunities. The Converge blockchain is announced at the Tokenize NYC conference on March 17. Source: CointelegraphConverge will launch with various product offerings, including Ethereal, Morpho, Maple Labs, Pendle and Aave Labs’ Horizon. Converge’s RWA infrastructure will benefit from Securitize’s growing presence in the tokenization market, with nearly $2 billion minted across various blockchains. The company recently announced that BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) has surpassed $1 billion in net assets one year after launch. The Converge blockchain will receive custodial support from Anchorage and Copper as well as custodial support from Securitize’s latest partner, RedStone.On the DeFi side, Converge will allow users to stake Ethena’s native governance token, ENA. Ethena’s USDe (USDE) and USDtb stablecoins will serve as the network’s gas tokens. Related: BlackRock CEO wants SEC to ‘rapidly approve’ tokenization of bonds, stocks: What it means for cryptoInstitutional DeFi on the riseInstitutional DeFi — when traditional financial institutions adopt regulatory-compliant DeFi systems — appears to be gaining traction as companies look to optimize their operations and access new yield opportunities. Even JPMorgan, once a blockchain and Bitcoin (BTC) skeptic, said institutional DeFi “has the potential for growth and transformative impact.”RWAs are accelerating this trend, with the likes of McKinsey forecasting a $2 trillion tokenization market by 2030.As Neoclassic Capital co-founder Michael Bucella noted in an interview with Cointelegraph, RWAs are attracting big investors because they address “pricing inefficiencies” in both traditional and digital assets. “To TradFi, that is mispriced credit facilities (i.e., cost of capital) or exposure to underpriced volume. To crypto-native, that is low-volume, secure assets,” said Bucella.Including stablecoins, which are onchain representations of fiat currencies, the total RWA market has exceeded $240 billion, according to industry data. Excluding stablecoins, the total value of RWAs onchain is fast approaching $20 billion across more than 90,500 holders, according to RWA.xyz. The new issuance volume of RWA shows a significant growth in stablecoins, US Treasury and private credit debt. Source: RWA.xyzRelated: Bitwise makes first institutional DeFi allocation
Bitcoin sees 30% retracement as selling pressure increases — Bitfinex
Bitcoin (BTC) has undergone its second-largest correction of this bull run, according to analysts at crypto exchange Bitfinex. The correction, from the coin’s all-time high of $109,590 set on Jan. 20 to a low of $77,041 during the week of March 9-15, represents a 30% retracement triggered by selling pressure from short-term holders.In its report, Bitfinex defines short-term holders as those who have bought within the last seven to 30 days. According to the exchange, they have suffered net unrealized losses and are often more subject to capitulation. Bitfinex notes that ongoing outflows from Bitcoin ETFs, which totaled around $920 million during the week of March 9-15, suggest that institutional buyers have not yet returned with enough strength to combat selling pressure.Bitcoin capital flow by short-term holders. Source: Glassnode/BitfinexTrading at around $84,357, Bitcoin has rebounded 9.5% from its low. According to Bitfinex, a key factor moving forward will be whether institutional demand picks up at these lower levels, potentially leading to supply absorption and price stabilization.“While institutional flows and the macro situation is pivotal for market direction in the mid-term, statistically, a 30 percent drawdown has often marked the low before continuation higher,” Bitfinex analysts told Cointelegraph. “If Bitcoin stabilizes around this level, history suggests a strong recovery could follow.”Bitcoin ETPs see $5.4B in outflows over five weeksWeekly outflows from crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) have reached a streak of five weeks, totaling $6.4 billion as of March 14. According to data from CoinShares, Bitcoin ETPs have borne the brunt of outflows, with $5.4 billion in losses.The current macroeconomic climate may be weighing on the markets, according to Bitfinex. US consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in two years, and there are expectations of higher inflation along with economic uncertainty. On March 4, a Federal Reserve’s model predicted that the US economy would shrink by 2.8% in the first quarter of 2025.Meanwhile, talks of trade wars continue to dominate the news, putting Bitcoin’s status as a safe-haven asset in doubt, keeping miners on their toes, and perhaps putting the bull market in peril — despite the White House’s recent announcement of a US Bitcoin strategic reserve and digital asset stockpile.Magazine: X Hall of Flame, Benjamin Cowen: Bitcoin dominance will fall in 2025
NymVPN launches fully decentralized VPN amid privacy crackdown
Privacy protocol Nym has launched NymVPN, which it describes as the “world’s most secure VPN” and says will help protect users from government, corporate and AI surveillance.The release comes amid an increasingly hostile global environment for privacy-focused products — one that is seeing governments crack down on privacy projects and demand backdoors to encryption.The decentralized VPN, which launched on March 13, uses the Nym protocol’s “mixnet” to keep users fully anonymous and ensure no metadata can be linked to any specific user, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph.Halpin and Nym security adviser Chelsea Manning sat down with Jonathan DeYoung, co-host of Cointelegraph’s The Agenda podcast, to discuss the release, the importance of privacy and how Nym plans to navigate what seems to be an increasingly precarious privacy space.How NymVPN’s mixnet worksHalpin and Manning appeared on The Agenda podcast back in December 2023 to discuss what was then their upcoming VPN project. Halpin explained that mixnets work by sending encrypted data across multiple servers while also adding “a bit of fake data” to throw off whoever may be attempting to surveil the traffic, such as an advanced AI algorithm.“Each packet is like a card, and it like shuffles the pack of cards and then sends it to the next server and sends it to the next server,” Halpin explained.This is in contrast with traditional centralized VPNs, where everything a user does is routed through the VPN provider’s servers and where customers must put their trust in a specific company. Halpin said:“If you send your VPN data to ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Mullvad VPN, they know everything about you. They know your IP address. They connect to your billing information. They know what websites you’re going to. It’s actually kind of scary.”Developing privacy software amid global crackdownsA few months after their Agenda podcast appearance, Alexey Pertsev, a developer for crypto mixer Tornado Cash, was convicted of money laundering charges and sentenced for his role in developing the privacy protocol — a move that sent shockwaves through the industry.According to Halpin, Nym is less likely to face the same sort of legal trouble because it’s not financial infrastructure. “In all countries except a few repressive ones, VPNs are legal, at least for now,” he said. “They fall under what’s called third-party intermediary lack of liability. […] We are not liable, at least under US law, for shipping bits from point A to point B.”Related: AI makes it even easier for governments to surveil you — Nym CEOThe nature of operating a fully decentralized VPN that can be used entirely anonymously means there is no way to prevent anyone from using it for whatever reasons they want to. Manning said it is not Nym’s role to be “the arbiter or the determiner of what is and is not nefarious.” She added:“It’s not possible in a fully decentralized environment to stop them [bad actors]. Like we don’t have a way to. If we did, I mean, we would be centralized.”More recently, various governments have pushed developers to implement backdoors in their encrypted products. Apple withdrew its end-to-end-encrypted iCloud service from the UK market after the government demanded a backdoor, while the US Federal Bureau of Investigation recently told Forbes it wants “responsibly managed encryption,” where “U.S. tech companies can provide readable content in response to a lawful court order.”Halpin and Manning said that if a government were to ever attempt to shut NymVPN down or arrest its developers, the Nym network is decentralized, so it should be able to continue running as usual. “In theory, we should be able to get run over with a car, and the network would keep operating,” Halpin said.Who will use NymVPN?The Nym team was in Ukraine in 2024 to demo the VPN and present it to the Ukrainian government, and a representative from the humanitarian NGO Doctors Without Borders spoke at the March 13 launch event. Halpin also shared that the team has had conversations with people in Syria.The Nym team demos NymVPN in Ukraine. Source: NymHowever, an anonymous and decentralized VPN is just that — anonymous and decentralized. This means the team behind it has no way of knowing who is actually using it and what they are using it for, only that it is being used.As Manning put it, “One of the problems with that question is that if people are using the technology, if they don’t tell us that they’re using the technology, we won’t know.”Magazine: Cypherpunk AI — Guide to uncensored, unbiased, anonymous AI in 2025
Standard Chartered drops 2025 ETH price estimate by 60% to $4K
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has been facing a downward trend since its peak in December 2024. Currently, it is down more than 52% from its all-time high of $4,107 and has seen a 42% decline since the beginning of 2025. Despite its dominance in the Web3 and DeFi space, many analysts are predicting a grim short-term outlook for ETH.
One such analyst, Askel Kibar, a chartered market technician, warns traders against assuming that ETH is trading at a discount simply based on its current price. He explains that bottom reversals take time and all the supply needs to be accumulated before a price increase can occur. Looking at the chart, Kibar notes that ETH’s current chart does not show any signs of bottoming formation, making trading Ethereum akin to “catching a falling knife.”
Adding to the dim outlook, Standard Chartered, a multinational banking and financial services company, recently revised down their end of 2025 ETH price estimate from $10,000 to $4,000, a drastic 60% reduction. Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s global head of Digital Assets Research, believes that ETH will continue its structural decline. He cites lower fees, higher net issuance, and layer 2 blockchains taking Ethereum’s GDP as unexpected results of the Dencun upgrade.
Other analysts, such as VanEck’s Head of Digital Assets Research Matthew Sigel and Senior Analyst Patrick Bush, share a similar view on ETH’s price decline. They attribute it to the erosion of the core factors that once made Ethereum valuable, such as layer 2 blockchains Arbitrum and Base, and the popularity of memecoin trading on the Solana blockchain.
In conclusion, while Ethereum remains a dominant player in the crypto market, its short-term price prospects seem grim. Analysts warn against assuming that ETH is trading at a discount and predict a continued decline in its value. As always, it is important for investors to conduct their own research and make informed decisions when it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin price fails to go parabolic as the US Dollar Index (DXY) falls — Why?
Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen 12% since March 2, when it nearly reached $94,000. Interestingly, during the same period, the US dollar weakened against a basket of foreign currencies, which is usually seen as a positive sign for scarce assets like BTC. Investors are now puzzled as to why Bitcoin hasn’t reacted positively to the declining DXY and what could be the next factor to trigger a decoupling from this trend.US Dollar Index (DXY, left) vs. Bitcoin/USD (right). Source: TradingView / CointelegraphUp to mid-2024, the US Dollar Index (DXY) had an inverse relationship with Bitcoin’s price, meaning the cryptocurrency often rose when the dollar weakened. During that time, Bitcoin was widely viewed as a hedge against inflation, thanks to its lack of correlation with the stock market and its fixed monetary policy, similar to digital gold.However, correlation does not imply causation, and the past eight months have shown that the rationale for investing in Bitcoin evolves over time. For instance, some analysts claim that Bitcoin’s price aligns with global monetary supply as central banks adjust economic policies, while others emphasize its role as uncensorable money, enabling free transactions for governments and individuals alike.Bitcoin gains from DXY weakness can take months or years to materializeJulien Bittel, the head of macro research at Global Macro Investor, pointed out that the recent drop in the US Dollar Index—from 107.6 on Feb. 28 to 103.60 on March 7—has occurred only three times in the past twelve years.Source: BittelJulienBittel’s post on X highlights that Bitcoin’s price surged after the last significant drop in the DXY Index in November 2022, as well as following the March 2020 event, when the US dollar fell from 99.5 to 95 during the early weeks of the COVID-19 crisis. His analysis emphasizes that “financial conditions lead risk assets by a couple of months. Right now, financial conditions are easing – and fast.”While Bittel’s comments are highly bullish for Bitcoin’s price, the positive effects of past US dollar weakness took more than six months to materialize and, in some cases, even a couple of years, such as during the 2016-17 cycle. The current underperformance of Bitcoin may be due to “short-term macro fears,” according to user @21_XBT.Source: 21_XBTThe analyst briefly cites several reasons for Bitcoin’s recent price weakness, including “Tariffs, Doge, Yen carry trade, yields, DXY, growth scares,” but concludes that none of these factors alter Bitcoin’s long-term fundamentals, suggesting its price will eventually benefit.For example, cuts by the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are highly positive for the economy in the medium term, as they reduce overall debt and interest payments, freeing up resources for productivity-boosting measures. Similarly, tariffs could prove beneficial if the Trump administration achieves a more favorable trade balance by increasing US exports, as this could pave the way for sustainable economic growth.Related: Crypto market’s biggest risks in 2025: US recession, circular crypto economyThe measures taken by the US government have trimmed excessive but unsustainable growth, causing short-term pain while lowering yields on US Treasury notes, making it cheaper to refinance debt. However, there is no indication that the US dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency is weakening, nor is there reduced demand for US Treasurys. As a result, the recent decline in the DXY Index does not directly correlate with Bitcoin’s appeal.Over time, as user @21_XBT noted, macroeconomic fears will fade as central banks adopt more expansionary monetary policies to stimulate economies. This will likely lead Bitcoin to decouple from the DXY Index, setting the stage for a new all-time high in 2025.This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment 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.