Escalating military actions risk destabilizing the region, potentially leading to broader geopolitical tensions and economic repercussions.
The post Trump confirms launch of operation against Iran appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
Bitcoin faced geopolitical instability alone as a weekend move on Iran saw traditional markets closed, with key support still holding.
The crypto market saw a sudden and sharp crash after news of U.S. and Israel strikes Iran, raising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. In just one hour, the total crypto market cap fell 5.42%, wiping out billions in recent gains. Bitcoin dropped nearly 6%, falling to around $63,410. This quick sell-off has pushed the …
After a week of bullish optimism around Bitcoin, the Cryptocurrency has experienced a new shock amid geopolitical tensions. BTC dips to $ 64,000 on the last day of the month, down 6% in 24 hours. The asset has hit its lowest since February, near $63000. Altcons also react bearishly to this. This reaction came suddenly after …
Ethereum has perhaps taken the largest hit of all the large-cap altcoins in February, with its value dropping by more than 36% over the past month. The second-largest cryptocurrency deepened its woes over the past week, struggling to keep its price above the $2,000 level. On Friday, February 27th, the price of Ethereum fell by more than 5%, falling to just above the $1,900 mark. Interestingly, a recent on-chain evaluation shows the potential reason behind the altcoin’s latest struggles below $2,000. ETH Taker Volume Sees Steady Rise On Friday In a February 27th post on the social media platform, crypto pundit Maartunn revealed the source of the recent bearish pressure witnessed by the Ethereum price. The relevant on-chain indicator here is the Taker Sell Volume, which saw steady spikes across all exchanges throughout Friday. Related Reading: XRP Emerging As Safe Haven? CEO Points To Steady Inflows As BTC, ETH Struggle For context, the Taker Sell Volume metric measures the total volume of sell orders filled by takers (market participants who match existing orders created by market makers) in Ethereum perpetual swaps. Hence, a rise in the indicator can be interpreted as a bearish signal, implying that the market is being flooded with sell orders. As observed in the chart above, the Ethereum Taker Sell Volume rose as high as 105 million ETH on Friday. Now, this puts some context to the fall in the ETH price seen on the day, as the spike in this metric is a sign of heavy selling pressure in the market earlier. The price of ETH, which started the day above the $2,000 mark, soon dropped to around $1,920 as the weekend approached. Ethereum Price Overview As of this writing, the price of ETH stands at around $1,925, reflecting an over 5% decline in the past 24 hours. However, the past week’s action was relatively mild, with the second-largest cryptocurrency losing nearly 2% of its value in the past seven days. The selling pressure witnessed by the Ethereum price over the past day is not new, as it has been the case over the past few weeks. This trend can be seen in the recent performance of ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs). According to recent market data, the US-based Ethereum ETFs have seen roughly 563,600 ETH (worth nearly $1.13 billion) withdrawn by investors over the past five weeks. This significant ETF outflow highlights the shift in investor sentiment and demand since the last week of January. Market sentiment and demand need to shift optimistically for the ETH price to witness a bullish reversal soon. Related Reading: The $2,000 Fault Line: Why Ethereum’s Record Volatility Signals An Imminent Explosion Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView
Bitcoin fell 6.25% to $63,442 in 24 hours, hit by a wave of liquidations and growing risk aversion across markets. About $87.8 million in BTC positions were wiped out as funding rates turned negative, signaling heavy leveraged selling. Heavy liquidations, nearly $100 million in long positions, were triggered when prices slid, flushing out leveraged traders. …
February 28, 2026 08:20:09 UTC Israel Launches Preemptive Strike on Iran, Nationwide Emergency Declared According to CNN, Israel Katz said Israel carried out a “preemptive strike” against Iran early Saturday. Israeli authorities simultaneously declared a nationwide state of emergency, warning of possible Iranian retaliation involving drones and ballistic missiles. The move sharply escalates regional tensions, …
Bitcoin fell sharply below $65,000 today after the latest U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) came in higher than expected, putting pressure on risk assets. The weak sentiment also hit spot Bitcoin ETFs, which recorded a net outflow of $27.5 million. BlackRock Bitcoin ETF led the outflow with $32.99 million, as BTC erased all its recent gains. …
OpenAI will deploy its AI models on Pentagon classified networks after the US government ordered agencies to stop using rival Anthropic over national security concerns.
The drop extends a pattern where bitcoin sells off on geopolitical shocks before recovering, as the token's 24/7 liquidity makes it one of the few large assets traders can exit over the weekend.
Heightened geopolitical tensions can lead to significant volatility in cryptocurrency markets, impacting investor confidence and market stability.
The post Bitcoin tumbles after Israel launches strike on Iran, triggering $100M in longs liquidated in 15 minutes appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
Bitcoin dropped to around $63,000 after reports of an Israeli strike on Iran escalated geopolitical tensions and rattled global markets. The sudden risk-off reaction triggered over $100 million in leveraged long liquidations within minutes, amplifying the downside move. Crypto markets saw a sharp spike in volatility as traders reduced exposure, with derivatives funding rates flipping …
As volatility continues to dominate the broader crypto market, traders are increasingly focused on identifying the top altcoins to watch this March, tokens that are holding key levels and showing early signs of trend expansion. While Bitcoin and the wider market remain range-bound, Pippin, Decred, and Polkadot are standing out due to constructive technical structures, …
Tether has frozen roughly $4.2 billion in USDT linked to illegal activities, including $3.5 billion since 2023. Recently, the company helped the U.S. Department of Justice block $61 million connected to “pig-butchering” scams. With a total circulating supply now above $180 billion, Tether can remotely freeze tokens in user wallets when requested by authorities, demonstrating …
An analyst has pointed out where Solana support levels could lie based on a Parallel Channel forming in the asset’s weekly price chart. Solana Parallel Channel Could Indicate Support At These Levels In a new post on X, analyst Ali Martinez has discussed how support is looking for Solana from the perspective of a Parallel Channel that may be emerging in its 7-day price. Related Reading: XRP Triangle Could Point To Support Between $0.60 And $0.90 The “Parallel Channel” is a pattern from technical analysis (TA) that forms whenever an asset trades between two parallel trendlines. There are a few different ways a Parallel Channel can be categorized based on the orientation of its trendlines. Ascending Channels involve lines that are pointing up, while Descending Channels have a downward slope. These types correspond to periods of parallel consolidation to a net upside and downside, respectively. In the context of the current topic, the third and the most basic type is of interest: a Parallel Channel that’s parallel to the time-axis. As the price moves inside such a channel, it observes a phase of perfectly sideways action. Now, here is the chart shared by Martinez that shows the Parallel Channel that the weekly price of Solana has potentially been moving inside in recent years: As displayed in the above graph, Solana retested the upper level of the Parallel Channel a couple of times during 2025. Each time, the price ended up topping out and a decline followed. The upper line of a Parallel Channel is considered to be a source of resistance, so these rejections may have been signs of the pattern being in action. Since the latest rejection, SOL has been moving down in a sharp manner as the cryptocurrency sector as a whole has observed a bearish shift. So far, the coin is still contained inside the upper half of the channel, but if momentum weakens, it might end up traveling lower. According to the analyst, these levels could act as support in such a scenario: $50.22, $22.47, and $9.98. These levels correspond to a point 50%, 75%, and 100% down the channel, respectively. Solana last tested the lower-most of these levels during the bear market of the previous cycle. Back then, it had helped the cryptocurrency reach a bottom. It now remains to be seen which direction the asset will go next and if a retest of any of these levels will take place. Related Reading: Ethereum Still Undervalued As Bitcoin, XRP Sit Near Neutral, Santiment Says SOL isn’t the only cryptocurrency observing a Parallel Channel setup. As Martinez has highlighted in another X post, the monthly price of Stellar (XLM) has also been moving down such a pattern, with possible support levels existing at 0.147, 0.078, and 0.041. SOL Price At the time of writing, SOL is floating around $81, down 5.5% in the last 24 hours. Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
Hyperliquid (HYPE), one of the largest decentralized exchanges (DEXs) in the crypto sector, is preparing a significant upgrade that could reshape how new projects launch tokens on its platform. The proposal, known as HIP-6, introduces a framework designed to enable permissionless, on-chain token launches without relying on the off‑chain capital-raising methods that many teams currently use. New Hyperliquid Proposal Details of the proposal were shared on social media by James Evans of Reciprocal Ventures. According to Evans, HIP-6 establishes a permissionless token launch auction for new HIP-1 assets, specifically tailored for teams seeking to issue tokens directly on Hyperliquid. The system adapts Uniswap’s continuous clearing auction model to function within Hyperliquid’s central limit order book (CLOB) environment, allowing token launches to occur natively within the exchange’s infrastructure. Related Reading: Jane Street Faces New Lawsuit: Trump Media Calls For Federal Investigation At present, while HIP-1 and HIP-2 already allow permissionless token deployment and automated liquidity provisioning, gaps remain in capital formation and price discovery. Teams launching tokens on Hyperliquid often need to secure funding off chain, manually provide their own liquidity to seed HIP-2 pools, or release tokens into relatively thin order books. These limitations have meant that, despite its technical strengths, Hyperliquid has not yet reached feature parity with other high-performance ecosystems and exchanges when it comes to initial token offerings. HIP-6 is designed to close that gap, though participation will remain optional for projects. By integrating capital raising and liquidity seeding into a single on-chain flow, the proposal aims to simplify the process for founders. Funds raised during the auction would be split automatically between the token deployer and liquidity provision through HIP-2, reducing operational friction and reliance on external arrangements. Auction Structure And Ecosystem Growth A core component of the proposal is its approach to price discovery. Instead of a one‑time auction vulnerable to timing strategies, HIP-6 uses a continuous clearing auction that unfolds over multiple blocks. This structure is intended to determine a fair market price while minimizing the “sniping” and last‑minute bidding behavior often seen in traditional token launches. The upgrade also seeks to strengthen the broader ecosystem around Hyperliquid. By creating utility for aligned quote assets, HIP-6 could contribute to higher total value locked (TVL) in those assets and generate yield for the platform’s Assistance Fund. Related Reading: Circle Tops Q4 Revenue Forecasts, Shares Surge 30% — Key Numbers Inside While HIP-6 addresses how new tokens raise funds and establish initial liquidity, it does not dictate how those tokens create long-term value or how their governance systems operate. Mechanisms such as revenue sharing, buybacks, staking rewards, treasury oversight, or voting rights would remain up to individual projects. Similarly, tokenholder protections—such as treasury lockups, on-chain transparency requirements, or vesting schedules affecting both buyers and team allocations—would need to be built on top of the HIP-6 framework. The proposal’s stated objective is to make the initial auction process as efficient and equitable as possible, leaving post-launch design choices to the creativity of the Hyperliquid community. At the time of writing, HYPE, the platform’s native token, was trading at $27.430, representing a 3% drop over the previous 24 hours. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
Mark Karpelès said it has been 12 years since the start of Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy proceedings and “this is probably the last sore point on this whole case.”
The pullback erased most of Wednesday's push toward $70,000 as hot producer-price data and a post-earnings Nvidia decline dragged risk assets lower heading into the weekend.
Spot Bitcoin (BTC) Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) have shown strength amid the crypto market’s correction and the flagship crypto’s latest performance. Some experts have praised investors’ resilience, suggesting that the “real story” is not in the recent outflows. Related Reading: Ethereum’s Fate Hangs On This Multi-Year Support – Recovery Or Deeper Pullback Next? ETFs Investors Hold Strong Despite Market Downturn On Thursday, Nate Geraci, co-founder of the ETF Institute, affirmed that Bitcoin ETF investors have “largely displayed diamond hands” during the recent crypto market downturn. The flagship crypto has seen a 48.2% correction from its October 6, 2025, all-time high (ATH), recording five consecutive months of strong bleeding after the October 10 market crash. Since then, spot BTC ETFs have seen about $6.5 billion in outflows, the expert observed, which he considers a “drop in the bucket” compared to the $55 billion in cumulative total net inflows that the category has seen since launching in January 2024. It’s worth noting that crypto-based investment products have seen five weeks of outflows this year, with Bitcoin having the weakest sentiment among major assets amid the negative market sentiment of the past month. According to SoSoValue data, BTC funds have recorded $3.81 billion in net outflows since January 23, starting the week with $203.82 million in outflows on Monday. However, Geraci highlighted potential renewed demand for the investment products as the category sees a three-day streak of consistent inflows. Notably, Bitcoin ETFs have seen over $1 billion in inflows over the past three days, setting the stage for their potential biggest week since mid-January. The ETF expert emphasized that 50% drawdowns “are a walk in the park for long-time BTC investors,” but observed that newer ETF investors also appear unfazed by the current market conditions. “Not first time btc has experienced 50% decline & likely won’t be the last. ETF investors clearly aren’t panicking, though. Apparently buying the dip,” he wrote on X. Bitcoin ETFs Strength Is The ‘Real Story’ Bloomberg Intelligence Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas backed Geraci’s comment, praising the remarkable performance of spot Bitcoin ETFs over the past two years. “As an ETF watcher, you know just how absurd this strength amid a 50% drawdown,” Balchunas stated. “This is the real story, vs focusing on the $6b that came out, which most stories do.” “Further, the narrative that crypto is ‘paying the price’ for getting financialized is absurd. $55b in net new cash in two years is the opposite of paying the price,” he added on X. In a recent interview, the senior analyst observed that the amount of Bitcoin held by ETFs is only down around 6% despite the market pullback. He noted that these types of corrections happen to every asset, including bonds and stocks, before recovering. Stocks have the same thing. Every time stocks go down, I remind myself and then other people that stocks have a 100% perfect record of coming back to hit all-time highs from a downturn. So, why would I worry that much, right? Related Reading: XRP Rally Incoming? Analyst Forecasts March-April Recovery If This Level Breaks Balchunas affirmed that these assets can have “really horrible streaks, but then when they come back around, the flows come back.” He concluded that the price volatility and the negative market sentiment are “the cost of the holy grail returns that most people have gotten.” Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
Bitcoin has reclaimed the $66,000 level and is now attempting to consolidate above it in order to extend its recovery. The move has improved short-term momentum, but structural signals suggest that upside conviction remains fragile. Holding above $66K is technically important, yet the broader supply backdrop may limit the sustainability of further gains. Related Reading: Engine Stalled: How The $8 Billion ‘October Shock’ Left Bitcoin’s Spot Market In A Liquidity Trap According to analyst Axel Adler, cumulative exchange netflows remain a critical constraint. As long as netflows stay positive — meaning more Bitcoin is moving onto exchanges than leaving them — the probability of sustained price expansion remains limited. Recent data from the Bitcoin Exchange Reserve (All Exchanges, Daily) metric reinforces this caution. Since January 14, total BTC held across major exchanges has increased from 2.723 million to 2.752 million BTC, representing a net addition of roughly 28,489 BTC, or about 1% over 45 days. Although the trajectory has not been linear — with a local peak near 2.794 million BTC in early February followed by a partial pullback — reserves have consistently re-established themselves near the upper bound of the range. This stepwise growth structure signals a persistent return of coins to exchanges. Historically, rising exchange balances imply expanding potential sell-side supply. Until reserves break decisively below January’s 2.723 million BTC baseline, structural selling pressure remains embedded in the market. Netflow Regime Shift Signals Structural Distribution The 30-day moving average of Bitcoin exchange netflows provides critical confirmation that the recent reserve growth is not incidental. The transition from -1,187 BTC on January 14 to +628 BTC by February 27 represents more than a short-term fluctuation — it reflects a structural regime shift from accumulation to distribution. When the SMA(30) netflow remains negative, it indicates coins are being withdrawn from exchanges faster than they are deposited, typically associated with accumulation behavior. The steady climb toward zero throughout January, followed by a decisive cross into positive territory on February 1, marks a clear behavioral pivot. The fact that the indicator has held above zero for nearly four consecutive weeks significantly reduces the probability of a false breakout. The mid-February impulse toward +1,069 BTC highlights the intensity of inflows during peak distribution pressure. Although the metric moderated afterward, it did not revert below zero, suggesting that coins continue to migrate toward exchanges at a sustained pace. At an average structural inflow rate of roughly 628 BTC per day, the supply available for potential sale is expanding. Until the SMA(30) decisively flips back into negative territory, exchange-side pressure remains dominant, limiting the probability of a durable bullish regime reestablishing itself. Related Reading: The $2,000 Fault Line: Why Ethereum’s Record Volatility Signals An Imminent Explosion Bitcoin Tests Macro Support After Rejection From Highs Bitcoin’s weekly structure reflects a clear transition from expansion to correction following rejection near the $120K–$130K region. The chart shows a decisive breakdown below the $90K–$95K zone, which previously acted as structural support. That level has now flipped into resistance, confirming a shift in market control. Price is currently consolidating near $66K after a sharp decline, hovering just above the 200-week moving average. This level historically acts as a macro support during deeper corrective phases. Holding above it is technically significant; sustained closes below would likely signal a more prolonged bear cycle. The 50-week moving average has rolled over and is trending downward, while the 100-week average is flattening. This alignment indicates weakening intermediate momentum and suggests rallies may face overhead pressure unless key trend levels are reclaimed. Related Reading: Digital Gold Is Dead: The Institutional Architecture Binding Bitcoin To The Nasdaq In The 2026 Downturn Volume expanded notably during the breakdown phase, pointing to forced liquidations and distribution rather than orderly consolidation. Since then, participation has moderated, implying that panic selling has eased but conviction remains limited. Structurally, Bitcoin sits at a pivotal inflection point. A reclaim of the mid-$80K region would be required to restore bullish structure. Conversely, failure to defend current support could expose deeper liquidity zones below. Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com
On February 28, Wall Street giant Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) filed for a de novo national trust bank charter with the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The bank intends to use this charter to become a legal custodian of cryptocurrencies, while offering crypto trading and staking to its investors. Should the …
The Wall Street banking giant has been accelerating its foray into crypto, filing to launch Bitcoin, Ether and Solana ETFs in January.
The latest Jane Street debate on X is meeting a blunt rebuttal from Ari Paul. The BlockTower founder, who says he used to work as a Wall Street market maker 15 years ago, argues that Bitcoin’s failure to push higher is better explained by spot sell-side than by a long-running suppression campaign. Paul’s answer was direct. “In short: no,” he wrote, before adding that market makers do “game the system” in many ways, but that in liquid products such as BTC ETFs, the effect is usually limited to “meaningful but small costs to consumers,” not a lasting distortion of the underlying asset price. He framed the distinction as one between short-term microstructure games and a broader claim that one firm kept Bitcoin from reaching far higher levels. Bitcoin Manipulation? Small Moves, Fast Reversions To make that case, Paul pointed to the kind of behavior traders on desks know well. “For example, market makers may manipulate the price to run stop limit orders,” he wrote. “But that’s typically on an intraday timeframe. So they might run an asset like MSFT or BTC 2% in a weak market to trigger stops, then a few seconds or minutes later, the price is mostly back to where it was before.” In his telling, that is still manipulation, but it is not the same as structurally pinning Bitcoin below some imagined fair value for months. Related Reading: Bitcoin Spot Volumes Sink To 2024 Lows As Coinbase Selling Pressure Eases That argument lands against a more conspiratorial narrative now circulating online, why Bitcoin is not already at $150,000. Paul’s pushback does not deny that large Wall Street firms can shape short-term trading conditions. It rejects the stronger claim that such activity is the central explanation for Bitcoin’s broader price path. Paul’s core point was much less dramatic. “Why is BTC down? Because OGs sold tens of thousands of coins, and not enough people wanted to buy them.” That line closely matched the view from renowned on-chain analyst James Check, who argued that “Jane Street didn’t suppress the Bitcoin price” and that “HODLers all did,” by selling large amounts of spot into the market. Jane Street didn’t suppress the Bitcoin price folks. HODLers all did. It’s just not that hard, stop summoning your inner salty goldbug but blaming manipulators. People. Sold. A. Fucktonne. Of. Spot. Bitcoin. https://t.co/CrWgPUzUFP pic.twitter.com/N3VhgYjKhm — _Checkmate ????????⚡☢️????️ (@_Checkmatey_) February 26, 2026 He added: “My point has always been the same; manipulation is a thing that has always, will always, and is indeed the literal job of large wall street firms. However, you do not need that as the central argument to explain why the price didn’t go higher, nor why it went lower. That can be well and truly explained by looking at spot sell-side.” Paul did leave room for exceptions. He wrote that there are rare cases where Wall Street manipulates an asset in major ways over a longer period, but said those cases are uncommon because they are risky and harder to profit from than people assume. Related Reading: Is Jane Street Why Bitcoin Isn’t At $150K? Expert Debunks The Myth “There are rare exceptions where Wall Street manipulates an asset in major ways longer term, but this is quite rare because it’s very risky and not as easy as it looks to profit. 99% of the time that an asset isn’t moving like you want and people are crying “manipulation”, it’s best to embrace the cognitive dissonance, avoid the “easy way out” of blaming manipulation,” Paul wrote. That leaves the current Jane Street argument in a narrower frame. Yes, large firms can influence intraday flows, liquidity, and execution quality. But based on Paul’s account, that is a long way from proving that one market maker is the reason Bitcoin is not trading materially higher. Notably, the Jane Street theory picked up fresh attention after Terraform Labs’ wind-down administrator sued the firm in Manhattan federal court, alleging insider trading tied to Terra’s 2022 collapse. The complaint says Jane Street used a private chat called “Bryce’s Secret” to obtain non-public information and alleges an 85 million UST trade on Curve that helped trigger a selloff; Jane Street has denied wrongdoing and called the case opportunistic. At press time, BTC traded at $66,090. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
Cardano has launched its native USDCx stablecoin, backed 1:1 by Circle’s USDC stablecoin via Circle’s xReserve smart contract. According to the Input Output Group (IOG), the research and engineering organization behind Cardano, USDCx will “make moving and using dollar value across supported blockchains seamless, providing streamlined access to cross-chain USDC liquidity.” This will effectively support …
Ethereum is attempting to stabilize around the $2,000 level as the broader crypto market shows tentative signs of relief. After weeks of persistent pressure, price action has paused its decline, but sentiment remains fragile. The recent rebound has helped ease immediate downside momentum, yet the technical structure still reflects a market recovering from significant damage rather than entering a confirmed uptrend. Related Reading: Engine Stalled: How The $8 Billion ‘October Shock’ Left Bitcoin’s Spot Market In A Liquidity Trap According to a CryptoQuant analyst, Ethereum endured a severe liquidation-driven sell-off in recent weeks, falling sharply from local highs near $3,300 to lows around the $1,850 region. The intensity of this move becomes particularly evident when analyzing the Net Taker Volume (30-day moving average), a metric that measures aggressive market order activity. In February, this indicator plunged to its most negative level since last November, highlighting the dominance of aggressive sellers during the decline. Such extreme negative readings typically reflect panic-driven execution rather than orderly repositioning. When taker volume skews heavily to the sell side, it often signals forced exits, stop-outs, and cascading liquidations across derivatives markets. While Ethereum’s attempt to hold $2,000 suggests that immediate selling pressure may be easing, the underlying data confirms that the market recently absorbed one of its most intense bouts of downside aggression in months. Net Taker Volume Signals Capitulation — But Not Confirmation The dominance of towering red bars in Ethereum’s Net Taker Volume underscores how aggressively sellers controlled the order books during the recent decline. When taker sell orders consistently exceed taker buy orders by such a magnitude, it reflects urgency. This is not passive distribution; it is market participants hitting bids aggressively, often under stress. The combination of panic-driven exits, systematic short positioning, and forced long liquidations likely amplified the move from $3,300 to sub-$1,900 levels. Notably, the only meaningful cluster of green bars — representing aggressive buying — emerged in mid-January, coinciding with Ethereum’s local peak near $3,400. That brief resurgence in demand failed to sustain itself, after which sell-side momentum reasserted control. Structurally, this pattern suggests that upside liquidity was exhausted before a broader deleveraging cycle unfolded. Extreme negative Net Taker Volume readings are often associated with capitulation phases. Historically, such flushes can mark exhaustion points, as aggressive sellers eventually deplete themselves. However, capitulation alone does not confirm reversal. For a structural shift to materialize, the imbalance must normalize. A contraction in red bars followed by sustained green dominance would signal renewed conviction from aggressive buyers. Related Reading: The $2,000 Fault Line: Why Ethereum’s Record Volatility Signals An Imminent Explosion Ethereum Struggles To Reclaim $2,000 As Downtrend Persists Ethereum remains structurally weak despite brief stabilization attempts near the $2,000 level. The chart shows a clear breakdown from the $3,400–$3,600 region earlier this year, followed by a sequence of lower highs and lower lows — a textbook downtrend formation. The recent bounce has not altered this structure. Price is currently trading below the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages, all of which are sloping downward. This alignment confirms bearish momentum across short-, medium-, and long-term horizons. Notably, the 50-day average has accelerated lower, reflecting sustained selling pressure rather than a temporary liquidity vacuum. Related Reading: Digital Gold Is Dead: The Institutional Architecture Binding Bitcoin To The Nasdaq In The 2026 Downturn The sharp decline toward the $1,850 zone was accompanied by a significant spike in volume, suggesting forced liquidations and aggressive distribution. Since then, volume has moderated during consolidation, indicating that while panic may have eased, conviction among buyers remains limited. Technically, $2,000 functions as a psychological pivot rather than confirmed support. A sustained move above the 50-day average would be required to signal improving momentum. Conversely, failure to hold the current range could reopen downside risk toward deeper liquidity pockets. Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com
Paradigm's Matt Huang previously said developments in AI were "too interesting to ignore" and that both AI and crypto will have plenty of overlap.
When US crypto regulators cracked down on Tornado Cash in 2022, the assumption was simple: shut down the tool, shut down the problem. It didn’t work out that way. Related Reading: Is Bitcoin The Poor Man’s Hedge Against Inflation? Coinbase CEO Thinks So New research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) shows that coin mixer usage has climbed back toward pre-ban levels — and that the people most effectively pushed out by the sanctions were not the criminals, but ordinary users seeking financial privacy. Railgun Now Dominates A Recovering Market According to CCAF researchers Wenbin Wu and Keith Bear, total crypto mixer transactions reached approximately 32,000 in 2025 — a significant jump from roughly 21,000 in 2024 and 16,000 in 2023. Usage has been climbing steadily since the US Treasury lifted its sanctions against Tornado Cash on March 21, 2025. Railgun, a protocol that screens deposits against lists of flagged addresses, now handles 71% of all mixer transaction volume. Tornado Cash accounts for around 25% of 2025 transactions, while Privacy Pools holds the remaining 5%. Both Railgun and Privacy Pools attempt to filter out known bad actors before crypto funds enter the system. But reports from CCAF note a meaningful gap — blacklists are updated only as new exploits are discovered, leaving a window where funds from freshly flagged addresses can still pass through. Sanctions Scared Off Legitimate Users More Than Criminals The 2022 crackdown caused immediate disruption. Tornado Cash’s daily transactions collapsed by 97% within days. Across the broader mixer market, volume fell 45%. But the disruption was uneven. Wu told researchers that sanctions “primarily deterred compliant users while illicit actors adapted” — first by migrating to alternative platforms, then to cross-chain bridges and decentralized exchanges altogether. Deposit patterns tell the same story. Before 2022, centralized exchanges — which require identity verification — contributed meaningfully to mixer funding. After the ban, those deposits essentially vanished. By 2025, 95% of all crypto mixer funding came from unlabeled wallet addresses with no recorded entity ties, up from 76% in 2020. Related Reading: Bitcoin Sell-Off Slows Down, But The Road To Recovery Is Long — Analyst Most Transactions Now Happen Within 24 Hours Before the ban, most mixer activity occurred more than 24 hours after wallet creation. That pattern has flipped. Researchers say this faster behavior is “consistent with users seeking to avoid identification.” Still, a 2023 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis paper found that only around 30% of Tornado Cash traffic could be linked to illegitimate sources — a reminder that privacy tools serve lawful purposes too. The demand, from both camps, never went away. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Ethereum creator and co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined 8 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that comprise the upcoming Glamsterdam hardfork scheduled for the first half of 2026. Ethereum: 2026 Glamsterdam hardfork The proposals follow Ethereum’s three-track roadmap enshrined in its 2025 “predictable engineering delivery model” and comprising: Scalability. Improved user experience. Heightened security, censorship-resistance, and quantum-resistance. …
XRP’s liquidity structure on higher timeframes is in a situation where the path of least resistance could extend to the $4 level. The remark came from crypto analyst Bird in response to hourly and daily liquidity heatmaps shared by Cryptoinsightuk, which show a clear contrast between short-term and higher-timeframe liquidity positioning. At the time of writing, XRP is trading around $1.45, still below the large liquidity clusters visible above the current price. According to Bird, that imbalance may not stay unresolved for long. Hourly Liquidity Cleared, Short-Term Volatility Reduced XRP’s liquidity heatmap on the hourly candlestick chart shows that much of the nearby liquidity below the current price has already been swept. The visible clusters around the $1.30-$1.50 range have all been cleared, meaning that the short-term stop hunts and liquidation pools have largely been cleared out. Related Reading: Analyst Predicts Bitcoin Price Surge To $500,000 As Ribbon Fractal Emerges According to Bird, this trend shows that hourly XRP liquidity is basically gone. This means there is less immediate incentive for XRP to stay around current levels on lower timeframes. When short-term liquidity dries up like this, the outlook is that the price will gravitate to areas where larger pools are untouched. Since the nearby liquidity has already been taken, the next logical target is now where there are larger concentrations of resting orders. As noted by the analyst, these resting orders are stacked all the way up past $4. XRP Hourly Liquidity. Source: @Cryptoinsightuk on X Daily Liquidity Stacked Above $4 Liquidity on the daily heatmap appears layered and dense above the current price, stretching through multiple resistance bands and extending above the $4 price level. The upper regions show heavy trading activity and visible liquidity clusters between $2.50 and $4.00, which is a reflection of a thick concentration of stop orders and resting interest. Related Reading: Bitcoin Final Sell-Off Coming? Analyst Says It’s Time To ‘Buckle Up’ In liquidity-based trading theory, price action is often drawn to areas where there are large position orders, especially when those zones have not yet been tapped. Bird described this higher-timeframe liquidity as stacked all the way up past $4, with the notion that the higher-timeframe liquidity is sitting there like a magnet. XRP Daily Liquidity. Source: @Cryptoinsightuk on X Bird also referenced a five-month breakdown in Bitcoin dominance. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin dominance is at 57.9%, down from 58.2% last week. This means Bitcoin has been steadily losing dominance. A decline in dominance is always due to capital rotation into altcoins. If that trend continues, XRP could easily become one of the best beneficiaries, particularly given its visible higher-timeframe liquidity targets. The analyst also noted that sentiment has not yet reached extreme lows. XRP, in particular, has maintained a relatively positive positioning among investors compared to other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. That combination of declining dominance and neutral-to-cautious sentiment can create conditions for XRP’s projected rally above $4. Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com
The SEC is working to regain momentum on crypto after what Atkins described as a “big missed opportunity” under the prior administration.