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.
Investors’ risk appetite for Bitcoin and crypto fragmented as AI, tech stocks and gold took center stage. Will increasing global money supply put wind in BTC’s sails?
Morgan Stanley filed for a de novo national trust bank charter that would allow it to custody digital assets, according to Bloomberg.
President Trump gave government agencies six months to phase out Anthropic's products after a clash over military safeguards.
Nine lawmakers asked the federal agencies to investigate the global crypto exchange after reports of potential funding channeled to terrorist groups.
Institutional capital has transformed the cryptocurrency market dynamics, changing who participates and how digital assets are traded. The arrival of spot exchange-traded funds, corporate treasury allocations, and access through major brokerage platforms has pulled Bitcoin and Ethereum deeper into traditional finance. Vanguard, for instance, reversed its long-held anti-crypto stance just a few months ago, allowing trading in funds that hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana. However, talking about bad timing, these cryptocurrencies have struggled in the months following that policy change. Challenging Months For Institutional Investors The entrance of major asset managers such as BlackRock and Fidelity Investments was a structural turning point for Bitcoin. The January 2024 launch of Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States opened the door for pension funds, registered investment advisors, and other conservative capital pools to gain exposure without directly holding Bitcoin. These ETFs have accumulated billions of dollars in inflows, with custodians now holding a meaningful share of Bitcoin’s circulating supply. Related Reading: Here’s All You Need To Know About The Bitcoin Price This Week However, the past few months have been really challenging for investors. Notably, the last month of inflows into Spot Bitcoin ETFs was in October 2025, when it was pushing to new all-time highs above $126,000. Since then, it has been months of net outflows, and this has weighed down on Bitcoin’s price action. Same goes for Spot Ethereum ETFs, which recorded consecutive months of outflows since November 2025. Vanguard clients are likely among those feeling the impact most directly. In December 2025, US-based investment management company Vanguard reversed its anti-crypto stance and started allowing trading of ETFs and mutual funds that hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana. The availability of these crypto products on a major mainstream brokerage like Vanguard was a milestone for crypto investing. Vanguard manages over $12 trillion in assets and serves tens of millions of investors. Unsurprisingly, the price action of Bitcoin and other top cryptocurrencies initially reacted positively to the Vanguard news. However, the timing coincided with a downturn across the entire crypto market, which has been having a red 2026 so far. Since Vanguard’s rollout, Bitcoin’s price has fallen by about 30%, while Ethereum, Solana, and XRP have fallen by about 40% in the same period. Is Institutional Involvement A Threat Or A Sign Of Maturity? It is clear that institutional entry has not erased the volatile nature of crypto markets. Bitcoin and Ethereum are still subject to swings in investor risk appetite, although this is now at a larger scale. Therefore, the question of whether institutions are killing Bitcoin and Ethereum is based on perspective. Related Reading: Why Investors Are Not Buying Bitcoin And Ethereum Despite ‘Low’ Prices The presence of regulated ETFs means that downturns are now absorbed by a wider set of market participants. Companies like BitMine and Strategy are still in the business of huge purchases. New investor bases like this can help sustain prices over time. However, one thing is clear: cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana are no longer fringe assets operating outside the traditional investment system; they now sit within it. This integration will even become more clear once the CLARITY Act is passed in the US. Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
Publicly traded banking giant Barclays is considering making a push into crypto payments and deposits, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Trump orders federal agencies to halt Anthropic use, citing dispute over AI terms and military applications.
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Ryan VanGrack says states are misrepresenting federal law as they move to block prediction markets.
SOL is down 72% from its all-time high, but several data points paint a compelling investment scenario. Is SOL trading at a deep discount?
SpaceX's potential IPO could reshape global market dynamics, positioning it among the top public companies and fueling ambitious space projects.
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The proposal acknowledges it would require a coordinated network upgrade and could risk a chain split if parts refuse to adopt the change.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is once again facing mounting scrutiny in Washington, as lawmakers question whether the company is living up to the terms of its 2023 settlement with US authorities — an agreement that ultimately led to the resignation of its founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). Democrats Urge DOJ And Treasury Investigation On Friday, journalist Eleanor Terrett of Crypto In America reported that eleven Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, led by crypto-skeptic Elizabeth Warren, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging their departments to examine Binance’s operations. Related Reading: Jane Street Faces New Lawsuit: Trump Media Calls For Federal Investigation The lawmakers pointed to recent media reports alleging illicit finance activity on the platform, including transactions reportedly linked to Iran, and warned that such conduct could place Binance in violation of its 2023 settlement. In their letter, the senators also referenced Binance’s expanding business relationships with President Donald Trump’s crypto ventures, as well as Trump’s pardon of Zhao. They called for what they described as a “thorough, impartial” investigation into whether the exchange is adhering to its legal obligations. The latest pressure follows a separate inquiry launched earlier in the week. As previously reported by Bitcoinist, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal initiated a formal probe through the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Binance Denies Sanctions Violations In a letter dated February 24 and addressed to Binance co-CEO Richard Teng, Blumenthal cited reporting that suggested the exchange may have facilitated “large-scale violations” of US and international sanctions on Iran. Related Reading: Circle Tops Q4 Revenue Forecasts, Shares Surge 30% — Key Numbers Inside Blumenthal noted that Binance appeared to ignore warnings and recommendations aimed at reducing Iranian money laundering operations. He also referred to the same reports cited by the Senate banking committee Democrats, indicating that $1.7 billion in transactions to Iran may have passed through the platform. Binance has strongly denied the allegations. The company said it conducted an internal review and found “no evidence of violations of applicable sanctions laws.” The exchange also rejected claims that it had dismissed investigators for raising concerns related to sanctions compliance. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
XRP is hovering at a critical inflection point as price presses directly against the 200-week EMA, a level that has historically separated prolonged bear phases from powerful cycle expansions. This isn’t just another short-term test; it’s a high-timeframe battleground that has defined XRP’s macro direction in prior cycles. With the price sitting right on this line, the next decisive move could set the tone for months to come, making this a pivotal moment that traders cannot afford to ignore. Resistance Still Intact — Macro Plan Unchanged In a recent XRP update, ChartNerd stressed that the market is at a pivotal macro moment. The 200-week EMA has historically served as a clear dividing line in XRP’s long-term structure, separating full-scale bear markets and extended accumulation phases from the beginning of new cycle expansions. Related Reading: XRP Is About To Create History With This Latest Move At present, XRP is trading at the moving average, hovering around the $1.41 level. This positioning places price at a technically decisive zone that has repeatedly dictated broader trend direction in previous cycles. Looking back at historical behavior, decisive breakdowns below the 200-week EMA have often led to prolonged downside pressure or drawn-out accumulation periods before any meaningful recovery took shape. Losing this level convincingly could therefore signal a tougher macro environment ahead. Conversely, when XRP has successfully defended the 200-week EMA, it has frequently acted as a springboard for multi-month reversals and strong upside expansions. As ChartNerd underscores, this is a genuine make-or-break moment that could define its trajectory for months to come. A Defining Macro Crossroads For XRP XRP has yet to break through resistance, meaning the broader macro plan remains firmly in place. CasiTrades pointed out that although price staged a bounce, it failed to clear the key resistance level, and importantly, it has not formed a new low either. As a result, the overall range structure persists, with no confirmed shift in trend. Related Reading: XRP Triangle Could Point To Support Between $0.60 And $0.90 The outlook only changes if one of two clear scenarios plays out. Either XRP drops into the lower support zones at $1.11 or $0.87, where deeper downside targets would come into focus, or it decisively breaks above the $1.67 resistance level, signaling strength and a potential structural reversal. Until one of those levels is breached, there is no reason to adjust the larger macro framework. For now, price action is simply oscillating within the same established range. CasiTrades is closely monitoring for signs of increasing selling pressure that could develop into a clear Wave 3 down (subwave of 5). If that structure begins to form, it would align with expectations for another leg lower before any meaningful breakout attempt. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com
A UBS report dinged US stocks for being “overvalued” suggesting that better investment opportunities exist outside of US markets. Is this the next rally catalyst for Bitcoin?
Paramount Skydance to acquire Warner Bros Discovery in $110B deal as PSKY jumps 20% and Netflix rises 13%.
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Bitcoin treasury companies face investor backlash as stablecoin issuers post strong earnings and legacy payment giants navigate mounting pressure.
Japan's SBI Holdings will issue a ¥10 billion retail bond on March 24, but the story is the XRP perk dangled in front of buyers, conditional on opening an account at SBI VC Trade and completing receipt procedures by noon on May 11. Pricing drops on March 10, subscription runs from March 11-23, and secondary […]
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The system enables AI agents to automatically pay for blockchain data and compute credits in USDC, as autonomous crypto applications gain traction.
The AI’s Substack lands amid growing questions about identity, sentience, and how models are retired.
The seizures and freezing over three months were conducted by the District of Columbia’s Scam Center Strike Force, established by US Attorney Jeanine Pirro in November.
Magic Eden to shut Bitcoin and EVM marketplaces and wallet as it pivots to Solana and iGaming platform Dicey.
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