Web3 devs, gamers, investors thrive despite India’s crypto policy hurdles
India’s contribution to the global Web3 ecosystem — primarily in software development, gaming, investments and startup funding — increased year-on-year despite an absence of locally tailored crypto regulations.India’s share of global Web3 developers grew from 5% to 12% in the last 10 years, second only to the United States as of 2024, according to the India Web3 Landscape Report 2024 by Hashed Emergent, shared with Cointelegraph.Developer growth in India since 2015. Source: Hashed EmergentSpeaking to Cointelegraph, Tak Lee, CEO and Managing Partner at Hashed Emergent, pointed out four key factors driving India to the top of global crypto adoption: retail crypto transactions on centralized services, highest trading volumes, institutional adoption and retail DeFi transactions.Gen Z dominates the Web3 developer landscape in IndiaThe growth is driven by the younger generation, as roughly 80% of all blockchain developers in India are between 18 and 27 years of age. The Indian developers in DeFi, Payments, AI and SocialFi prefer Solana as the go-to blockchain.Ton, Aptos and Base are steadily gaining momentum across other key sectors, driven by the expanding presence of layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems, the report noted.Web3 sector and ecosystem trends in India. Source: Hashed EmergentWhile funding opportunities and builder initiatives like hackathons support initial growth, Indian developers have pointed out employers’ lack of willingness to pay salaries that match global industry standards. The challenges faced by Web3 gaming projects are the extremely high cost of customer acquisition (CAC) to onboard Web3 users and the lack of quality gameplay beyond financial incentives to retain Web2 gamers. “Therefore, several of these games are now focusing on having great quality games before integrating blockchain mechanics or tapping into Indian gamers’ craze for RMG,” Lee explained.Related: Indian town adopts Avalanche blockchain for tamper-proof land recordsIn contrast, investments into the Indian Web3 landscape saw a 224% increase in 2024 compared to the previous year — sourced from various avenues such as local funds, ecosystem funds and corporate venture arms of leading exchanges.Lee told Cointelegraph that the lack of growth capital in the Web3 world, along with the absence of traditional venture/growth/private equity funds, makes it difficult for Indian firms to raise capital, adding:“Therefore, entrepreneurs explore crowd sales as a way to fund their future growth. Some renowned projects may also explore crowd sales due to higher valuations offered but this is extremely rare and done by the extremely blue chip founders who can raise money from retail with ample certainty and high volumes.”Funding in India’s Web3 finance sector. Source: Hashed EmergentCompared to the previous years, the substantial growth in Web3 investments in 2024 “signals a gradual recovery, with investors focusing on emerging areas of decentralized finance,” the report said.India is a global hub for founders and developers, currently home to the second-largest developer market and third-largest founder base globally. Some of the main barriers preventing large-scale investments, according to Tak, have to do with the “slower than anticipated growth of some of these startups .“ Unclear regulations and compliances also hinder Web3 investments in India. Growing Web3 against all oddsDespite an active high-tax environment on cryptocurrency, small-scale crypto investments saw an uptick in India. Traders generally preferred small, frequent trades, with 96% maintaining positions less than $12 with an average of 11x-20x leverage. Females represented 1 in 10 futures traders in India, highlighting the scope for greater participation. The report called for reforms in crypto tax deductions and reporting in addition to the need for federal guidance and tax implications:“India must overcome its negative policy perception that stifles innovation and instead focus on identifying and addressing the pain points faced by stakeholders with effective regulation that will incentivize the Web3 sector to grow and thrive.”Indian Web3 firms call for progressive regulation for all stakeholders. Source: Hashed EmergentThe policy wish list for the Indian Web3 includes the regulatory framework for virtual asset service providers (VASP), tax rationalization, streamlined banking and payment access for Web3 companies, exemptions from VASP regulations and clarity on existing regulations.Recent regulatory initiatives like URL blocking of locally unlicensed crypto exchanges have resulted in the influx of funds to self-custodial solutions (decentralized exchanges) or domestic exchanges, which are regulated under Indian law.Magazine: Mystery celeb memecoin scam factory, HK firm dumps Bitcoin: Asia Express
Mt. Gox makes second $900M+ move in a week as Bitcoin taps $76K
Defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox moved almost a billion worth of Bitcoin, the second large BTC transfer in a week, as Bitcoin’s price fell to a four-month low on March 11.Of the 11,833 Bitcoin (BTC) moved, 11,501 ($905.1 million) were sent into a new wallet, while the remaining 332 Bitcoin ($26.1 million) were transferred to a warm wallet, according to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, citing Arkham Intelligence data. The transfer cost Mt. Gox just $2.13.Transaction details of Mt. Gox’s $931 million transfer. Source: Arkham IntelligenceIt comes less than a week after Mt. Gox moved 12,000 Bitcoin worth a little over $1 billion on March 6. Arkham noted that $15 million of those funds were sent to BitGo — one of the custodians facilitating Mt. Gox’s creditor repayments.Blockchain analytics firm Spot On Chain said the 332 Bitcoin that recently went into the warm wallet may also be moved to assist with the repayments.The movement coincided with a 2.4% price fall for Bitcoin to $76,784 over 30 minutes, CoinGecko data shows, retreating to November prices when the market was rallying on the back of US President Donald Trump’s election win.While Bitcoin recovered from the slump to $79,275 soon after, Maelstrom chief investment officer Arthur Hayes advised investors to “be fucking patient” in a March 11 X post in which he predicted Bitcoin would bottom around the $70,000 mark.Source: Arthur HayesRelated: Bitcoin may benefit from US stablecoin dominance pushMt. Gox’s main wallets now only hold 24,411 Bitcoin — worth $1.94 billion — after it started offloading around $9.2 billion worth of Bitcoin in June 2024, Spot On Chain data shows.Mt. Gox’s change in Bitcoin holdings since 2015. Source: Spot On ChainLast October, the defunct crypto exchange extended its deadline to fully repay its creditors, saying it would do so by Oct. 31, 2025.Mt. Gox was the largest Bitcoin exchange between 2010 and 2014 — handling around 70-80% of Bitcoin trades before it collapsed from a hack that saw up to 850,000 Bitcoin stolen from the Tokyo-based platform.Magazine: Train AI agents to make better predictions… for token rewards
SEC looking to abandon effort requiring crypto firms to register as exchanges
A proposed rule change pushing for some crypto firms to register as exchanges could be abandoned under a new directive from the acting chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. During a March 10 speech at the Washington Conference of the Institute of International Bankers, acting SEC Chairman Mark Uyeda said he had “asked SEC staff for options on abandoning” part of the proposed changes that would expand regulation of alternative trading systems (ATSs) to include crypto firms.“In light of the significant negative public comment received on the definition of exchange with respect to crypto, I have asked SEC staff for options on abandoning that part of the proposal,” he said.“In my view, it was a mistake for the commission to link together regulation of the Treasury markets with a heavy-handed attempt to tamp down the crypto market.”Uyeda says the rule was initially crafted in 2020 under former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton to establish more straightforward rules for alternative trading systems; the guidance was intended to mainly impact US Treasury market participants.Source: US Securities and Exchange CommissionHowever, when it fell to former SEC Chair Gary Gensler to implement the rule, he took a “very different direction” by expanding the list beyond just ATSs.“Rather than focusing on the narrow issues relating to Government Securities ATSs, a new iteration of the rule was proposed in 2022 that would redefine the regulatory definition of an exchange,” Uyeda said.“The new definition of the term exchange included communications protocols without clearly defining what that term meant. Effectively, the vastly expanded definition of an exchange would have picked up various protocols used with respect to crypto assets,” he added.Related: Coinbase finds flawed analysis in SEC’s proposed exchange definitionGensler’s time at the SEC came with an aggressive regulatory stance toward crypto. He brought upward of 100 regulatory actions against firms from 2021 until his resignation on Jan. 20, the same day as Donald Trump started his second term as US president. Trump had promised to fire Gensler if elected. After Genlers’ resignation, the SEC has since taken a new friendlier approach toward crypto. A growing number of firms facing legal action from the regulator have had their cases dismissed, including crypto exchange Gemini on Feb. 26, Kraken on March 3 and crypto trading firm Cumberland DRW on March 4.Meanwhile, the agency has also launched a crypto task force dedicated to developing a framework for digital assets led by crypto-friendly Commissioner Hester Peirce. Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
Investors flee from risk assets as JPMorgan ups recession odds to 40%
Crypto and tech stocks saw large selloffs on March 10 as fears of a US recession heightened despite efforts from the White House to temper concerns. Economists at Wall Street investment bank JPMorgan have raised their recession risk this year to 40%, up from 30% at the beginning of 2025. “We see a material risk that the US falls into recession this year owing to extreme US policies,” wrote the analysts, according to The Wall Street Journal. Analysts at Goldman Sachs economists also raised their 12-month recession probability to 20%, up from 15%. They said that the forecast could rise further if the Trump administration remains “committed to its policies even in the face of much worse data.” Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley economists lowered their economic growth forecasts last week and raised inflation expectations. The bank predicted a GDP growth of just 1.5% in 2025, falling to 1.2% in 2026. It comes despite a key economic adviser to US President Donald Trump pushed back against talks of a recession. Speaking to CNBC on March 10, Kevin Hassett, who heads the National Economic Council, said there were many reasons to be optimistic about the US economy. “There are a lot of reasons to be extremely bullish about the economy going forward. But for sure, this quarter, there are some blips in the data,” he said. Meanwhile, in an interview with Fox News on March 9, Donald Trump responded to a question about the possibility of a recession by saying the US economy was going through “a period of transition.”Blockchain betting platform Polymarket quipped that recession odds are “the best looking chart in finance right now.”Source: PolymarketTech stock and crypto sell-offThe so-called “Trump bump” has dissipated, with the S&P 500 now lower than it was before his Nov. 5 US election victory. The index has lost almost 10% from last month’s high, and the Nasdaq is already in a correction, having lost 14% in just three weeks.The Nasdaq has lost almost 10% this year. Source: Google Finance All US stock markets ended March 10 in the red, with the S&P 500 dropping 2.7% to its lowest level since September, the tech-heavy Nasdaq having its worst day since 2022 in a 4% fall, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping nearly 900 points or roughly 2.1%.The Magnificent 7 — America’s top tech firms — have had a tumultuous start to the week, collectively shedding more than $750 billion in market cap in one day. Tesla tanked a whopping 15%, becoming the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year.AI giant Nvidia lost 5.1%, Apple shed 4.9%, Meta fell 4.4% and Alphabet lost 4.5% on the day. Related: Biggest red weekly candle ever: 5 things to know in Bitcoin this weekMeanwhile, crypto markets have plunged to their lowest point since early November, with a 7.5% fall in total market capitalization to $2.6 trillion on March 11, with around $240 billion exiting the space. Crypto market cap declines 1 month. Source: CoinMarketCapBitcoin (BTC) has also fallen through previous levels of support, dropping 4% on the day and hitting $76,784 before a minor recovery took the asset back to $79,000 at the time of writing. Magazine: Bitcoin’s odds of June highs, SOL’s $485M outflows, and more: Hodler’s Digest
Pomp: Trump deliberately crashed markets to get interest rates down
The Trump administration may be intentionally creating uncertainty in the stock markets to corner Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell into lowering interest rates, according to a market commentator. Doing so increases the likelihood that the US won’t need to refinance around $7 trillion in debt it owes over the next few months, Bitcoin commentator Anthony Pompliano said in a March 10 X post.US President Donald Trump and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent are “taking matters into their own hands; they’re crashing asset prices in an attempt to force Jerome Powell to cut interest rates,” said Pompliano, who serves as the founder and CEO of Professional Capital Management and host of The Pomp Podcast. The President and his team are intentionally crashing the market.Is this a master plan or are we watching uncontrolled destruction?! pic.twitter.com/Tbc0M9Rjxu— Anthony Pompliano 🌪 (@APompliano) March 10, 2025In late January, Powell announced the Fed was not lowering interest rates from the current target range of 4.25% to 4.5% despite calls from Trump to do so.Pompliano said the recent market panic has been driven in part by Trump’s tariffs — and has been used to create a more favorable bond market while lowering the 10-year Treasury yield.He noted that the 10-year Treasury yield is already down from nearly 4.8% in January to 4.21% now — a sign that Trump’s purported strategy is “heading in the right direction.”Source: Thomas KralowWhether Pompliano’s theory is correct or not, the stock market has been tanking of late, and crypto has been hit even harder.Broad market index funds such as State Street’s Standard & Poor’s 500 index fund (SPY) fell 2.66% on March 10 alone, while the Nasdaq-100% fell 3.8%, Google Finance data shows.Both indexes are down 7.32% and 10.7% over the last month, while Bitcoin (BTC) is down 27.4% from its $108,786 all-time high, and over $1.2 trillion has been wiped from the cryptocurrency market cap since Dec. 17. If the stock market continues to tank, it will come down to a “who blinks first” contest between Trump and Powell, Pompliano said.While Trump hasn’t confirmed such a strategy, Pompliano pointed to a Fox News interview on March 9 where Trump said: “Nobody ever gets rich when the interest rates are high because people can’t borrow money.”Pompliano added that lowering interest rates would also benefit American consumers:“The big goal, get interest rates down, and that will lead to more economic activity, thanks to access to cheap capital. Give the people cheap capital and they’ll go and do things with it.”Related: Bitcoin dips to $80K in ‘ugly start,’ could retest key resistance: HayesCME FedWatch, a tool used to measure expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate change, has tipped a 96% probability that the target rate will remain between 4.25% and 4.50% following the Federal Reserve’s next meeting on March 19. However, it’s near 50-50 odds for the target rate to be lowered in the Federal Reserve’s following meeting on May 7.The Federal Reserve typically avoids lowering interest rates when inflation is high, as one of its primary objectives is to maintain price stability.However, a Trump-inflicted recession, or “Trumpcession,” as some call it, could force America’s top bank to start cutting again.Magazine: Meet lawyer Max Burwick — ‘The ambulance chaser of crypto’
Crypto scam reporting needs to move ‘under one umbrella’ — Coinbase CSO
The reporting of crypto scams in the United States is currently handled by a patchwork of agencies that should be streamlined to better protect consumers, says Coinbase chief security officer Philip Martin.“It’s a very fragmented ecosystem. Where do you report these things? Well, you go here, you go there, you go somewhere else,” Martin told Cointelegraph at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas.“I’d love to see that addressed and really brought under one umbrella, and that then helps us get a better idea of the magnitude of the problem.”“That then helps drive resources from the whole federal government to do more to address some of the underlying causes, he added. The US has dozens of federal and state-level agencies that handle reports of financial and internet crimes, one of which is the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which gives victims a way to report cybercrime.Martin said that crypto scam victims are reporting to authorities, but it “feels like they’re screaming into the void to like IC3 or some of the government reporting websites.”He added the various reporting sites should be consolidated “into a single reporting system that not only has all the data in one place but that also, in a perfect world, gives victims some visibility.”On an earlier panel regarding online fraud, in which Martin took part, retired FBI agent Roger Campbell said many victims of crypto romance scams search the internet for how to report the crime and “all kinds of information comes up.”“It’s kind of frustrating,” he said. Campbell gave the example of the UK as a country with an “awesome reporting system” where one portal is used to report all crimes, and victims can follow the status of their complaints.FBI’s Roger Campbell (center left) on a panel with Coinbase’s Philip Martin (center right). Other panelists include former Twitter safety lead Yoel Roth (right) and MSNBC reporter Mackenzie Sigalos (left). Source: Turner Wright / Cointelegraph“You report something to the IC3, you never hear anything back 99% of the time,” he added. “It gets frustrating again for the victim. They almost feel victimized again.”Related: ‘Victim-blaming’ Americans can deter crypto scams reporting — Regulator Coinbase’s Martin told Cointelegraph that scams have a “lag in reporting,” and the way that attackers carry out schemes today won’t be known for months.“A scam may have happened six months ago, and we might hear about it tomorrow,” he said.Another difficulty in policing crypto scams, according to Martin, is that they’re “by and large” conducted from outside the US in countries including Myanmar and Laos, where “it can be hard for law enforcement to reach into those areas and really sort of strangle the stuff at the root. “He said combatting crypto scams should focus on international relations and the US, “making it a priority to work with governments around the world so that there’s no safe haven for these scammers.”Meanwhile, on March 10, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation said it received over 2,600 complaints last year and found seven types of scams it hadn’t yet discovered, including crypto mining, gaming, jobs and giveaway scams.Magazine: Influencers shilling memecoin scams face severe legal consequences Additional reporting by Turner Wright.
California financial regulator warns of 7 new types of crypto, AI scams
A California financial regulator says users reported seven new types of crypto and AI scams that it hadn’t seen before through thousands of complaints in 2024. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) said in a March 10 statement that it received 2,668 complaints in 2024 and found seven types of scams they didn’t have on record yet, such as fake Bitcoin (BTC) mining schemes, where fraudsters offer fake investments in mining. The DFPI also received complaints about fake crypto gaming schemes, where users are encouraged to deposit funds only to have their wallets drained, and fraudsters offering fake jobs that require victims to transfer crypto and provide private information.Source: California Department of Financial Protection and InnovationVictims also reported the theft of private keys through fake airdrops, fake investment group scams in WhatsApp or Telegram, AI Investment scams offering unusually high returns and losing their crypto after interacting with certain sham websites. The AI industry experienced significant growth in 2024, reaching a market cap of $638 billion, according to Precedence Research. There was also a notable rise in crimeware-as-a-service (CaaS), where experienced hackers and cybercriminals sell their tools and services to less experienced offenders for a price.DFPI Commissioner KC Mohseni said the regulator is urging caution when interacting with unknown platforms and to “verify website domains to avoid fraudulent imitations, and stay wary of crypto recovery scam sites.”Through its partnership with the State, the DFPI says it shut down more than 26 fraudulent crypto websites and uncovered $4.6 million in user losses last year. California DOJ shuts down 42 crypto scam websitesCalifornia’s Department of Justice (DOJ) took down 42 crypto scam websites in 2024 that stole $6.5 million from victims, with an average loss per person of $146,306.In a March 10 statement, the California DOJ said that because international fraudsters often carry out scams, they are difficult to prosecute and arrest.Common threads among the scam websites were promises of high returns, no contact information, offers of prizes for signing up, and no listings on legitimate crypto industry websites such as CoinMarketCap, the California DOJ said. Related: Crypto lost to exploits, scams, hits $1.5B in February with Bybit hack: CertiKA report from on-chain security firm Cyvers identified pig butchering schemes as one of the most costly in 2024, estimating the scam cost the industry over $5.5 billion across 200,000 identified cases. Meanwhile, blockchain security firm CertiK’s annual Web3 security report flagged crypto phishing attacks, which cost users $1 billion across 296 incidents, as the most significant security threat of 2024.Magazine: Bitcoin’s odds of June highs, SOL’s $485M outflows, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 2 – 8
4 things must happen before Ethereum can reclaim $2,600
Ether (ETH) price dropped below $2,600 on Feb. 24 and has since struggled to sustain a meaningful recovery. The latest correction toward the $2,000 level triggered over $918 million in leveraged long (bull) liquidations in ETH futures within 15 days, according to CoinGlass data. Traders now question what needs to happen for ETH to break above $2,500.Ether/USD (left) vs. total altcoin market cap (right). Source: TradingView / CointelegraphEther has underperformed the altcoin market by 10% during this period, as shown in the chart above. More concerningly, this decline followed a memecoin frenzy that boosted Ethereum’s main competitor, Solana (SOL). This suggests that additional factors are hampering ETH’s price, and four major issues need to be addressed before Ether can reclaim a bull market.Ethereum’s upgrades and increased competition For some, the upcoming Pectra upgrade on the Ethereum network falls short of what is needed to drive a meaningful turnaround, whether it lowers base-layer transaction fees or significantly enhances usability. Even if the changes do improve the user experience, analysts argue that Ethereum still lacks interoperability across different layer-2 solutions, both in terms of liquidity and user accessibility.Recent reports of empty blocks on the Ethereum testnet have added to risk perception at a time when investors were already skeptical. Regardless of whether this issue is unrelated to the upcoming upgrade or easily fixable, some traders worry that any potential delay could be perceived negatively by the market.In essence, fear remains the dominant sentiment, and for this to change, several pressing issues must be resolved. Critics argue that part of ETH investors’ disappointment stems from the rise of indirect competitors, such as the modular layer-1 Berachain, which focuses on integrating liquidity and governance for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.7-day protocol fees ranking, USD. Source: DefiLlamaBerachain has successfully captured over $3 billion in deposits, as measured by total value locked (TVL) on DefiLlama. Similarly, Hyperliquid, a perpetual futures application hosted on its own blockchain, has surpassed $2.8 billion in open interest, outpacing competitors on the Ethereum network. In many ways, competition is growing beyond the traditional model.For ETH’s price to regain bullish momentum, traders need reassurance that the Ethereum network offers practical and clear advantages for its projects and users. Ultimately, Ethereum’s focus on decentralization and incremental improvements—whether justified or not—could be stemming demand compared to its competition. Weak onchain activity and institutional demandThe lack of demand from institutional investors is evident in the spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows, which were negative in nine of the last 10 trading days, resulting in $406 million in net withdrawals. Some analysts suggested that demand could surge following the eventual approval of native staking on Ethereum ETFs, but this theory is now less certain, given that the ETH supply is increasing at 0.7% annually.Lower demand for blockchain processing has reduced the burn-fee mechanism, causing Ether to become inflationary. As a result, the adjusted native staking reward is now below 2.5%, while deposits in stablecoins yield up to 4.5% in most DeFi projects. Ultimately, the eventual inclusion of staking in spot ETFs is unlikely to be a game-changer for institutional demand.Related: DeFi TVL drops by $45B, erasing gains since Trump electionLastly, traders are concerned that the US Securities and Exchange Commission may approve a spot Solana ETF in 2025, creating direct competition for investors who currently only have access to Ether and Bitcoin (BTC) ETF products. Therefore, for ETH price to reach $2,500 and beyond, investors need clearer evidence that Ethereum offers sustainable advantages beyond its first-mover advantage.In summary, Ether’s future depends on Ethereum network upgrades, increased network usage, a subsequent decline in supply, and reduced friction for layer-2 interoperability, ensuring that the entire ecosystem benefits from its growth.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.