Bitcoin whales hint at $80K 'market rebound' as Binance inflows cool
Bitcoin whales are back buying BTC while “panic” is keeping smaller investors away, according to new research.Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant shows sell-side pressure from Binance whales cooling.Bitcoin whales reset market approachBitcoin (BTC) at $80,000 is proving attractive for large-volume investors, or at least a poor value selling proposition for those wishing to exit the market.In a “Quicktake” blog post on March 12, CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost revealed that the proportion of the top 10 largest inflows to Binance attributed to whales has declined.“Monitoring whale behavior has consistently provided valuable insights into potential market movements,” they summarized. “Given that Binance handles the highest volumes, analyzing the Bitcoin exchange whale ratio on Binance provides a good insight into broader whale activity.”Bitcoin exchange whale ratio (Binance). Source: CryptoQuantThe exchange’s whale ratio has, in fact, exhibited a broad downtrend since mid-January when BTC/USD hit its latest all-time highs.“Currently, this ratio is declining, implying that Binance’s whales are reducing their selling pressure,” the post continued. “Historically, an increasing ratio has been associated with short-term price corrections or consolidation phases, while a decreasing ratio has often preceded bullish trends. If this trend of diminishing selling pressure continues, it could help end the current correction and potentially signal a market rebound.”As Cointelegraph reported, both whales and larger entities holding at least 10 BTC have begun to accumulate coins this month, albeit at modest rates.Prospective BTC buyers “hesitant” at $80,000Overall appetite for BTC exposure nonetheless remains suppressed.Related: Bitcoin gets March 25 ‘blast-off date’ as US dollar hits 4-month lowIn the latest edition of its regular newsletter, “The Week Onchain,” analytics firm Glassnode pointed to lackluster demand at current prices.It referenced capital flows by short-term holders (STHs) — speculative entities holding coins for up to six months. Within this cohort, buyers holding between one week and one month now have a lower cost basis than those holding for between one and three months.“With Bitcoin prices dropping below $95k, this model also confirmed a transition into net capital outflows, as the 1w–1m cost basis fell below the 1m–3m cost basis,” the researchers explained. “This reversal indicates that macro uncertainty has spooked demand, reducing new inflows and arguably increasing the probability of further sell pressure and a prolonged correction. This transition suggests that new buyers are now hesitant to absorb sell-side pressure, reinforcing the shift from post-ATH euphoria into a more cautious market environment.”Bitcoin STH capital inflows (screenshot). Source: GlassnodeThis 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.
Luxury fashion giant LVMH sued over NFT patent tech for watches
A company selling smartwatch face designs through non-fungible tokens has sued LVMH, accusing the luxury fashion conglomerate of patent infringement.In a March 10 complaint filed to a Texas federal court, Watch Skins Corporation alleged that LVMH misappropriated its “pioneering NFT display technology.”Watch Skins claimed it developed a unique system that allows users to display verified NFT artworks on smartwatches and holds multiple patents related to the technology.It claimed that a smartwatch from the LVMH-owned watch brand TAG Heuer and other products from the conglomerate’s brands unlawfully used NFT display technology that was based on three patents that Watch Skins owned.The TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E4 (pictured) was one of the watches Watch Skins claimed infringed on its patent. Source: TAG HeuerLVMH is a multinational holding company that owns dozens of well-known luxury goods brands, including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, TAG Heuer, Tiffany, Christian Dior, Hennessy and the champagne brand Moët & Chandon.Watch Skins said its first patent covers a system that verifies NFT ownership before allowing it to be displayed on a watch face, the second one covers a system where an NFT must be verified through a blockchain wallet before being displayed on a smartwatch, and the third focuses on the retrieval and display of customized watch faces based on NFT ownership.It claimed TAG Heuer encouraged customers to infringe on the patents by providing instructions on how to use its NFT display features.“The watch allows the NFT to be displayed if owned by the user’s crypto wallet [and] connects to a user’s crypto wallet to guarantee authenticity of works displayed,” the complaint explained. Related: NFTs just had their worst performing year since 2020: DappRadarWatch Skins requested a jury trial and compensation for lost profits and royalties due to infringement and a court order preventing LVMH from further use of the patented technology.The company announced the launch of the world’s first blockchain NFT watch face marketplace at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 2020. The mobile app gives consumers “the ability to purchase authentic, licensed smartwatch faces from their favorite brands,” Watch Skins stated at the time.Cointelegraph has contacted LVMH for comment.Magazine: Mystery celeb memecoin scam factory, HK firm dumps Bitcoin: Asia Express
Bitcoin high-entry buyers are driving sell pressure, price may ‘floor’ at $70K
Bitcoin buyers who purchased around when it hit a $109,000 all-time peak in January are now panic-selling as the cryptocurrency declines, says onchain analytics firm Glassnode, which isn’t ruling out that Bitcoin could slide to $70,000.Glassnode said in a March 11 markets report that a recent sell-off by top buyers has driven “intense loss realization and a moderate capitulation event.”Short-term holders fled as Bitcoin dropped from peakThe surge in buyers paying higher prices for Bitcoin (BTC) in recent months is reflected in the short-term holder realized price — the average purchase price for those holding Bitcoin for less than 155 days.In October, the short-term realized price was $62,000. At the time of publication, it’s $91,362 — up about 47% in five months, according to Bitbo data.Meanwhile, Bitcoin is trading at $81,930 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap. This leaves the average short-term holder with an unrealized loss of roughly 10.6%.Bitcoin is down 5.90% over the past seven days. Source: CoinMarketCapGlassnode said that short-term holders’ realized price shows it is apparent that “market momentum and capital flows have turned negative, signaling a decline in demand strength.” “Investor uncertainty is affecting sentiment and confidence,” it added.Glassnode said that short-term holders are “deeply underwater” between $71,300 and $91,900 and warns that Bitcoin could bottom out as low as $70,000 if selling persists.“The probability of forming a temporary floor in this zone is meaningful, at least in the near term,” Glassnode said.Bitcoin short-term holders are “deeply underwater” between $71,300 and $91,900. Source: GlassnodeMarket research firm 10x Research labeled it a “textbook correction” in a March 10 note, adding that with Bitcoin’s dip below $80,000, “approximately 70% of all selling came from investors who bought within the last three months.”Related: Bitcoin slides another 3% — Is BTC price headed for $69K next?On the same day, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said that Bitcoin may retest the $78,000 price level and, if that fails, may head to $75,000 next.Glassnode explained that a similar sell-off Bitcoin pattern was seen in August when Bitcoin fell from $68,000 to around $49,000 amid fears of a recession, poor employment data in the United States, and sluggish growth among leading tech stocks.However, Bitcoin has spiked 7.5% over the past 24 hours as the US market steaded on March 11 after plunging a day earlier after US President Donald Trump refused to rule out that a recession was on the cards.Magazine:The Sandbox’s Sebastien Borget cringes at the word ‘influencer’: X Hall of FlameThis 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.
Bitcoin jumps 7% despite metrics flashing ‘bearish territory’
Bitcoin has clocked a 7% gain over the past 24 hours despite all of its valuation metrics leaning bearish and US demand recently waning off.“All Bitcoin valuation metrics indicate that we are in bearish territory,” onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant said in a March 11 markets report viewed by Cointelegraph. Demand falling at “fastest pace” since JulyCryptoQuant said its Bitcoin Bull-Bear Market Cycle Indicator is at its “most bearish level’ of this cycle, and Bitcoin’s MVRV Ratio Z-score — a key metric to assess whether Bitcoin (BTC) is overvalued or undervalued — has crossed the 365-day moving average, “indicating that the upward price trend has lost momentum.”At the time of publication, Bitcoin is trading at $82,910, up from a 24-hour low of $79,356, according to CoinMarketCap data. CryptoQuant’s Bitcoin Bull-Bear Market Cycle Indicator is at its “most bearish level” this cycle. Source: CryptoQuantBitcoin has spiked 7.5% over the past 24 hours as the US market steaded on March 11 after plunging a day earlier after US President Donald Trump refused to rule out that a recession was on the cards.Most of Bitcoin’s gains followed Senator Cynthia Lummis’ reintroduction of the BITCOIN Act, which proposes that the US government buy 1 million BTC over five years.Bitcoin is trading at $82,910 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCapHowever, some traders are not convinced that the downtrend is over.Crypto analyst Bitcoin Rachy said in a March 11 X post, “Fake pump, right?” Similarly, crypto trader BitcoinHyper said in an X post, “Every pump feels like the beginning. This is how the market takes your money.”Meanwhile, CryptoQuant said that Bitcoin’s demand fell by 103,000 BTC last week compared to the previous week, “marking its fastest pace of contraction since July 2024.” Bitcoin demand in “contradiction territory”CryptoQuant said the reason for the decline in Bitcoin’s demand in the US recently was due to uncertainty around US inflation rates and US President Donald Trump’s imposed tariffs on Feb. 1. On March 7, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell reiterated that he was in no hurry to adjust interest rates.“Bitcoin demand remains in contraction territory, whales have slowed down their Bitcoin accumulation, and spot ETFs in the US have turned into net sellers of Bitcoin,” the firm said.Related: 4 signs that $76.7K Bitcoin is probably the ultimate lowBitcoin is still down 14% over the past month, and CryptoQuant says the drawdown is not “unusual in terms of magnitude, as similar corrections have occurred in past bull markets.”However, it warned if Bitcoin that breaks its current support at the $75,000 to $78,000 price level, its next target could be as low as $63,000, a level not seen since Oct. 14.Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten recently told Cointelegraph his forecast is that “there’s more than 50% chance we will see all-time highs before the end of June this year.” Bitcoin’s current all-time high of $109,000 was reached on Jan. 20.Magazine: The Sandbox’s Sebastien Borget cringes at the word ‘influencer’: X Hall of FlameThis 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.
SEC delays decision on XRP, Solana, Litecoin, Dogecoin ETFs
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed its decision to approve several XRP, Solana, Litecoin and Dogecoin exchange-traded funds.In a slew of filings on March 11, the agency said it has “designated a longer period” to decide on the proposed rule changes that would allow the ETFs to proceed.Among the affected ETFs are Grayscale’s XRP (XRP) and Cboe BZX Exchange’s spot Solana (SOL) ETF filings, with the decisions on them pushed until May.The SEC has delayed making a decision to approve several altcoin ETFs. Source: SECBloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said in a March 11 X post that while the SEC just “punted on a bunch of altcoin ETF filings,” he didn’t see it as a cause for concern. “It’s expected, as this is standard procedure.” He added that US President Donald Trump’s pick to chair the SEC, Paul Atkins, “hasn’t even been confirmed yet.”“This doesn’t change our (relatively high) odds of approval. Also note that the final deadlines aren’t until October,” Seyffart said.Source: Samuel MaverickFellow Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas also chimed in, saying that “everything [is] delayed,” including ETFs featuring Ether (ETH) staking and in-kind redemptions.Un early December, Trump picked pro-crypto businessman and former SEC Commissioner Atkins to be the agency’s next chair. However, congressional confirmation hearings are yet to be scheduled.This is not the first time the SEC has extended an ETF decision deadline. On Feb. 28, it extended the deadline for Cboe Exchange’s request to list options tied to Ether (ETH) ETFs.This followed the SEC receiving a raft of altcoin ETF filings in the wake of Trump’s election and the resignation of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler.Related: Altcoin ETFs are coming, but demand may be limited: AnalystsGensler’s time at the SEC came with what the industry said was an aggressive regulatory stance toward crypto, with 100 crypto-related regulatory actions during his tenure from 2021 until his resignation on Jan. 20.Since Gensler’s departure, a growing number of firms facing legal action from the regulator have had their cases dismissed, including crypto exchange Gemini on Feb. 26 and crypto trading firm Cumberland DRW on March 4.Meanwhile, acting SEC Chairman Mark Uyeda has also proposed abandoning part of a rule change that would have expanded regulation of alternative trading systems to include crypto firms.Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
Lone Bitcoin miner wins block using tiny, cheap rig — ‘1 in a million chance’
A solo Bitcoin miner using a relatively cheap, pocket-sized crypto mining rig has solved one of the blockchain’s blocks and earned the full $263,000 reward.The miner became the 297th solo miner to mine a Bitcoin block from the solo.ckpool Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool, its developer, Con Kolivas, said in a March 10 X post.He added the miner used a 480-gigahash per second (GH/s) Bitaxe machine. For comparison, many big crypto-mining companies use machines that can operate at over 230,000 GH/s.“A miner of this size has only less than a 1 in a million chance of finding a block per day, or put alternatively, would take 3,500 years to find a block on average,” Kolivas added.The miner snared a total of 3.15 BTC for solving block 887,212, which was timestamped on March 10 at 7:22 pm UTC. That bounty includes the current 3.125 Bitcoin mining reward and another 0.025 Bitcoin from transaction fees, mempool.space data shows.Source: Con KolivasA 1,200 gigahash Bitaxe Gamma 601 machine, which is nearly three times more powerful than the one used by the solo miner, is priced at around $158, according to Bitcoin miner marketplace ASIC Miner Value.ASIC Miner Value estimates that the Bitaxe Gamma 601 will make just over $20 a year while using around $18 worth of electricity, coming out to a yearly net profit of under $3.The Bitaxe Gamma 601 is roughly the size of a smartphone. Source: ASIC Miner ValueIt also states the odds of the Bitaxe Gamma 601 mining a solo block on any given day is one in 4.6 million, or one in 12,700 over a year.Related: Solo miner snags Bitcoin block reward worth $300KSolo Bitcoin miners rarely solve blocks, let alone those with tiny mining rigs.Most Bitcoin is mined from the larger pools such as Foundry USA — which obtains a large share of its hashrate from public Bitcoin miners like Cipher Mining, Bitfarms and Hut 8.The largest public Bitcoin mining firm by market cap and hashrate, MARA Holdings, uses its own Bitcoin mining pool, MARA Pool.While pocket-sized Bitcoin miners are hardly profitable, some of these micro miners are being built in an open-source manner to fight the “secrecy and exclusivity” of the Bitcoin mining industry, one of the builders of Bitaxe miners, “Skot,” told Cointelegraph in a September 2023 interview.Most Bitcoin miners, such as those made by Bitmai,n are closed-sourced, which runs contrary to Bitcoin’s ethos, Skot said.“The advent of these open-source projects serves to shed light on this often opaque area, making it more transparent and accessible to the public.”Magazine: Train AI agents to make better predictions… for token rewards
US House follows Senate in passing resolution to kill IRS DeFi broker rule
The US House of Representatives has voted in favor of nullifying a rule that would have required decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to report to the Internal Revenue Service.On March 11, the House of Representatives voted 292 for and 132 against a motion to repeal the so-called IRS DeFi broker rule that aimed to expand existing IRS reporting requirements to crypto.All 132 votes to keep the rule were Democrats. However, 76 of those in the party joined the Republican vote to repeal it. This follows the US Senate’s March 4 vote on the motion to repeal, which saw it pass with a vote of 70 to 27.The rule would force DeFi platforms, such as decentralized exchanges, to disclose gross proceeds from crypto sales, including information regarding taxpayers involved in the transactions.Speaking after the vote, Republican Representative Mike Carey, who submitted the repeal motion, said, “The DeFi broker rule invades the privacy of tens of millions of Americans, hinders the development of an important new industry in the United States and would overwhelm the IRS.”Congressman Mike Carey speaking after the vote. Source: Mike CareyHouse Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill also applauded the overturning of the rule, calling it “a clear example of government overreach that threatens to push American digital asset development overseas.”The resolution will need to pass another Senate vote before being sent to President Donald Trump, who has signaled he’d support it.Those opposing the rule repeal included Democrat Representative Lloyd Doggett, who said getting a “special interest exemption” from IRS disclosures “makes tax evasion and money laundering so much easier for wealthy Republican donors who have been using these decentralized exchanges.”He claimed killing the rule would create a “loophole that would be exploited by wealthy tax cheats, drug traffickers and terrorist financiers.”Related: US lawmakers advance resolution to repeal ‘unfair’ crypto tax ruleIn early March, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks said the administration would support congressional efforts to rescind the DeFi broker rule.At the time, officials from the Office of Management and Budget wrote “This rule … would stifle American innovation and raise privacy concerns over the sharing of taxpayers’ personal information, while imposing an unprecedented compliance burden on American DeFi companies.” Magazine: Mystery celeb memecoin scam factory, HK firm dumps Bitcoin: Asia Express
Starknet to settle on Bitcoin and Ethereum to unify the chains
Starknet, a layer 2 solution for Ethereum, is making strides towards unifying the two largest blockchains, Bitcoin and Ethereum, on a single layer. The Starknet Foundation recently announced its Bitcoin roadmap, with the goal of making Starknet the execution layer for Bitcoin. This would allow for scalability, faster transaction speeds, and lower gas fees, ultimately creating a better user experience.
The foundation believes that there is a demand for utilizing Bitcoin beyond just being a store of value. With the integration of Starknet, developers would be able to build applications on the Bitcoin network through smart contracts. This would enable various use cases such as staking, borrowing, lending, leveraged trading, and yield farming.
In addition to its plans for Bitcoin, Starknet has also joined the growing trend of companies holding a portion of their treasury in crypto. This move towards a Bitcoin reserve further solidifies the belief in the potential of the cryptocurrency.
Starknet will also be teaming up with Xverse, a Bitcoin Web3 wallet, to achieve what they call the “DeFi take-off moment” for Bitcoin. This integration, set for the second quarter of 2025, will allow for trustless DeFi on Bitcoin and make it easier for users to access its growing utility.
During a recent discussion, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his support for a proper Bitcoin layer 2 solution, stating that it would make crypto payments great again and open up new possibilities for decentralized exchange.
The potential for a unified layer for Bitcoin and Ethereum has been met with excitement and optimism from the crypto community. With the growing demand for DeFi and the limitations of the current blockchain infrastructure, the integration of Starknet could be a game-changer for the industry.
However, there are also concerns about the potential cost and impact on the Ethereum network. As the community eagerly awaits the launch of Starknet, it remains to be seen how this integration will affect the overall landscape of the crypto world.