Hodler’s Digest, March 3-9 – Cointelegraph Magazine

This week's main news

The price of Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high

The price of Bitcoin hit a new high of over $69,200 on March 5, before breaking records again on March 8, when it touched the $70,000 mark. The world's first cryptocurrency rallied more than 8% in a week, supported by the high income of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. ETFs have introduced passive, price-agnostic demand for Bitcoin, strengthening its status as a store of value and fueling its price appreciation, according to a research report from Bitfinex analysts with Cointelegraph.

SEC pushes decision to open trading on spot Bitcoin ETFs

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision to approve trading in Bitcoin ETFs – opening the door for more institutional capital into Bitcoin. In a March 6 filing, the SEC extended the deadline for the Cboe Exchange and Miami International Securities Exchange to respond to the issuance of options on Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC also delayed the decision on Nasdaq's bid to offer options on BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, saying the delay ensured it had “sufficient time to consider” the request.

Pro-Bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis pushed the stablecoin bill

US Senator Cynthia Lammis is reportedly working with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to draft stablecoin regulations. They expect to announce the rules soon after receiving technical input from New York's Department of Financial Services, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the National Economic Council. Previously, in October 2023, Lummis campaigned against Tether, urging the Justice Department to consider criminal charges against the organization. Lummis opposes central bank digital currencies.

Digital currency group files motion to dismiss $3B NYAG lawsuit

Venture capitalist Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its CEO, Barry Silbert, have dismissed a $3 billion lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General's Office (NYAG), arguing that allegations of fraud are baseless. In October 2023, the NYAG filed a lawsuit against Gemini, Genesen and DCG alleging that 230,000 investors, including 29,000 New York residents, were defrauded by the Gemini Earn investment program. D.C.G. And Silbert has denied the lawsuit, calling the claims “baseless defamation, vague characterizations and unsupported conclusory statements.”

BlackRock Wants to Buy Spot Bitcoin ETFs for Global Allocation Fund

BlackRock Plans to Buy Bitcoin ETFs in Place of Global Allocation Fund (MALOX) According to a March 7 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, BlackRock wants to buy its own positions in the Bitcoin ETF, iShares Bitcoin Trust and ETFs by other issuers. MALOX isn't the only one BlackRock wants to take a position on Bitcoin ETFs. The updated filing comes just days after BlackRock made a similar request to the Strategic Income Opportunities Fund on March 4.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $68,852, Ether (ETH) at $3,928 and XRP at $0.62. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $2.6 trillion.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were FLOKI (FLOKI) at 139.40%, Pepe (PEPE) at 122.59% and Shiba Inu (SHIB) at 127.85%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Caspa (KAS) with -12.61%, Flare (FLR) -11.97% and Sui (SUI) -9.02%.

Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices.

The most memorable quotes

“Will we see this many L2s in five years? I don't think so. Only a few will survive,” he said.

Kenny Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Manta Pacific

Because NFTs are part of an established ecosystem. [after the halving] Bitcoin interest is moving to NFTs along with altcoins.

Oscar Franklin Tan, Chief Financial Officer of Atlas Development

Instead of paralleling USDT in the UK, let's have a regime that promotes secure digital assets backed by the pound.

Varun Paul, Senior Director and Business Lead for CBDC and Financial Market Infrastructure at Fireblocks

“All day, every day I'm investing in Bitcoin over gold.”

Mark Cuban, billionaire businessman

“Our current reality [Bitcoin] EFAs probably mean that downturns following current cycle highs are less severe than past downturns.

Bitfinex Research

“People are happy to say the Metaverse is dead, but it's definitely not for us. For Facebook, no. […] It still makes a lot of sense if we have an analogy with crypto, NFTs and cryptocurrencies.

Arthur Madrid, CEO of Sandbox

Forecast of the week

Bitcoin stock level ends when ETFs set new $100K BTC price target

The figures of the on-chain analysis company Glassnode show that since the first quarter of 2023, for the first time since the first quarter, the address of the Bitcoin stock is decreasing. As of February 11, the balance of the accumulator has fallen by 2.6% to 3,176,293 BTC (212 billion dollars) and shows no sign of reversal.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin ETFs continue to have a unique impact on supply volatility. Timothy Peterson, founder and investment manager at Ken Island Alternative Advisors, analyzed the current trajectory and suggested that demand for ETFs could grow to six figures for Bitcoin as early as 2024.

“If the approval of the Bitcoin Spot ETF goes ahead, it looks like a stockpile has started that will keep $BTC at $100K by October 2024,” Peterson told subscribers on X on March 7.

FUD of the week

SEC claims Binance.US ‘refuses to provide information', asked the court to intervene

Binance's United States arm, Binance.US, is not responding to key questions about customer assets and other key parts of an ongoing investigation, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The regulator is now asking the court to intervene to speed up the discovery process. Binance.US pushed back against the SEC's allegations, saying it met all of the regulator's “very broad” information requests and asked the court to stop the expedited discovery process.

MEXC says the ‘clawworks' only affect rogue traders when users report missing money.

Customers of crypto exchange MEXC are reporting missing funds from their accounts in accordance with the company's clawback policies. In a recent X post, it denied claims that the exchange had stolen traders' funds, saying that “users engaged in normal business activities will not be affected by the policy”, saying that the exchange is meant to prevent market manipulation.

Cryptoqueen's Brother Freed After 3 Years in OneCoin Scheme: Report

Ruja's “cryptocoin” brother Ignatova has been released from prison after spending 34 months in prison in OneCoin's infamous $4.4 billion fraud scheme. Ignatov was ordered to spend the next two years under court supervision and to hand over $118,000 of the money he made while operating OneCoin. In the year He was arrested in 2019 and pleaded guilty to money laundering and wire fraud.

The best magazine sections of the week

Is measuring blockchain transactions per second (TPS) stupid in 2024? Big questions

TPS makes a lot of sense when talking about Bitcoin balance, but not for modern contract chains and ZK-rollups.

Hytopia's revenge Minecraft, ‘janky' Otherside demo: Web3 Gamer

NFT Worlds co-founded the Minecraft team in 2011. After quitting the game in 2022, he said he was emotional.

The Truth Behind AI Answers, Assisted Photo Shock, Trump Profound Fakes: AI Eye.

Meet the creator of the AI ​​response service, Trump's Deepest Lies, creating mildly shocking images on Copilot.

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Editorial staff

Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.