Bitcoin whale accumulation trend mirrors 2020-era bullish activity after BTC price bounces off $81K

Bitcoin (BTC) price dipped below its ascending channel pattern over the weekend, dropping to $81,222 on March 31. The top cryptocurrency is set to register its worst quarterly return since 2018, but a group of whale entities are mirroring a 2020-era bull run signal.

Bitcoin 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

In a recent quick take post, onchain analyst Mignolet explained that “market-leading” whale addresses holding between 1,000 to 10,000 BTC exhibited a high correlation with Bitcoin price. The analyst said that these entities are resilient to market volatility and show accumulation behavior, mirroring patterns of the 2020 bull cycle.

Bitcoin whale accumulation analysis. Source: CryptoQuant

In the current bull market, this distinct pattern emerged three times and is marked by Bitcoin whales’ rapid BTC accumulation, even as retail investors doubted a positive directional bias.

These periods were riddled with bearish market sentiment and

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'Dire consequences' if Musk accesses SEC — US lawmaker

The top Democrat on the US House Financial Services Committee issued a warning after reports suggested that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s “government efficiency” team would be given access to data and systems at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In a March 31 notice, Representative Maxine Waters reiterated a warning from a letter she sent to acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda in February in response to the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s reported access to sensitive SEC information. DOGE is an advisory body to US President Donald Trump rather than an official department established by Congress. According to the California lawmaker, giving Musk such access would have “dire consequences” for US investors and present conflicts of interest.

“[…] as a result of this takeover, the agency is at greater risk of data breaches and market disruptions, both of which could result in investors, including retirees, losing their

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Price analysis 3/31: SPX, DXY, BTC, ETH, XRP, BNB, SOL, DOGE, ADA, TON

Bitcoin (BTC) fell 4.29% last week, but the bulls started a recovery by pushing the price back above $83,500 on March 31. However, traders are likely to remain on edge until April 2, when new US trade tariffs are set to kick in. The event could trigger a sharp, knee-jerk reaction on either side of the market.

Traders remain cautious in the near term, but a minor positive is that lower levels are attracting buyers. Cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) witnessed modest inflows of $226 million last week, CoinShares reported on March 31. 

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Strategy took advantage of the pullback in Bitcoin by adding 22,048 Bitcoin for $1.92 billion at an average price of $86,969. After the latest purchase, the company holds 528,185 Bitcoin bought for roughly $35.63 billion.

Could

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Bitcoin could reduce dominance of US dollar — BlackRock

The US dollar could lose its status as the world’s reserve currency to Bitcoin or other digital assets if the United States does not get its debt under control, according to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

Fink wrote in his Annual Chairman’s Letter to Investors that “decentralized finance is an extraordinary innovation” that makes “markets faster, cheaper, and more transparent.” But “that same innovation could undermine America’s economic advantage if investors begin seeing Bitcoin as a safer bet than the dollar.”

According to Trading Economics, the US debt equaled 122.3% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2023. That is a considerably higher percentage than the 105% observed in 2018. Moody’s Ratings retains the US’s AAA credit rating but has downgraded its outlook to negative, indicating a possible future rating downgrade.

The US’s Joint Economic Committee <a

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XRP funding rate flips negative — Will smart traders flip long or short?

On March 19, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the company had been cleared by the US Securities and Exchange Commission regarding an alleged $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering. Following the news, XRP (XRP) surged to $2.59, but the gains gradually faded as the cryptocurrency experienced a 22% correction, dropping to $2.02 by March 31.

Investors worry that a deeper price correction is imminent, as XRP is trading 39% below its all-time high of $3.40 from Jan. 16. Additionally, XRP perpetual futures (inverse swaps) indicate strong demand for leveraged bearish bets. 

Demand for bearish bets increased amid XRP’s decline

The funding rate turns positive when longs (buyers) seek more leverage and negative when demand for shorts (sellers) dominates. In neutral markets, it typically fluctuates between 0.1% and 0.3% per seven days to offset exchange risks and capital costs. Conversely, negative funding rates are

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Trump’s focus on cartels highlights new risks for digital assets

Opinion by: Genny Ngai and Will Roth of Morrison Cohen LLP

Since taking office, the Trump administration has designated several drug and violent cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). US President Donald Trump has also called for the “total elimination” of these cartels and the like. These executive directives are not good developments for the cryptocurrency industry. On their face, these mandates appear focused only on criminal cartels. Make no mistake: These executive actions will cause unforeseen collateral damage to the digital asset community. Crypto actors, including software developers and investors, may very well get caught in the crosshairs of aggressive anti-terrorism prosecutions and follow-on civil lawsuits.

Increased threat of criminal anti-terrorism investigations 

The biggest threat stemming from Trump’s executive order on cartels is the Department of Justice (DOJ). Almost immediately after President Trump called for the designation of cartels as terrorists, the DOJ issued a memo

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Bitcoin’s ‘digital gold’ claim challenged as traders move into bonds and gold hits new highs

April 2 is shaping up to be a pivotal moment in global trade policy. US President Donald Trump has dubbed it “Liberation Day,” in reference to when new tariffs—exceeding 20%—will hit imports from over 25 countries. According to The Wall Street Journal, the administration is also weighing “broader and higher tariffs” beyond this initial wave, meaning that April 2nd is unlikely to be the end of economic uncertainty.

Markets reacted negatively over the past week, with the S&P 500 dropping 3.5%, while the Nasdaq 100 slid 5%, underscoring investor anxiety. At the same time, gold surged 4%, reaching a record high above $3,150 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 4.2%, even as recent inflation data showed an uptick in some of the core components. 

The markets’ is a classic sign of a risk-off environment—one that often precedes economic contraction.

Throughout the volatility, Bitcoin (<a

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‘Contrary to popular belief,’ regulation isn’t slowing tokenization — Prometheum CEO

The market for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) is growing by the day, but contrary to belief, the biggest hurdle to broader adoption isn’t regulation, but a lack of dedicated secondary markets for buying and selling tokenized securities, according to Prometheum founder and co-CEO Aaron Kaplan. 

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Kaplan drew attention to ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood’s recent appearance at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, where she said that a lack of regulatory clarity is preventing her company from tokenizing its funds.

“Contrary to popular belief, however, the hurdle isn’t ambiguous regulation,” said Kaplan, who noted that the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) special purpose broker-dealer framework and Alternative Trading System (ATS) licensing “already provide a regulated pathway for issuing blockchain-native funds that offer efficiency advantages over traditional issuances.”

“The real bottleneck lies in the limited market infrastructure for delivering tokenized securities trading

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Bitcoin trader issues 'overbought' warning as BTC price eyes $84K

Bitcoin (BTC) ticked higher at the March 31 Wall Street open as traders stayed risk-averse on the short-term BTC price outlook.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bitcoin RSI teases bearish continuation

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed local highs of $83,914 on Bitstamp, with BTC/USD up 1.5% on the day.

With hours to go until the quarterly candle close, Bitcoin saw some much-needed relief, even as US stocks opened lower.

Market momentum remained tied to upcoming US trade tariffs set to go live on April 2, with gold also slipping after touching fresh all-time highs of $3,128 per ounce.

XAU/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Commenting on BTC price action, many market participants nonetheless favored caution.

“Retesting our 84k area of interest,” popular trader Roman wrote in his latest X analysis of the 4-hour BTC/USD chart. 

Roman referenced

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Memecoins 2.0: The market crashed, but the billion-dollar circus rolls on

Opinion by: Igor Zemtsov, chief technology officer at TBCC

Following “Libragate,” memecoin prices crashed, with their market cap falling nearly 60% from 2025’s highs. But meme tokens, dead? They’ve got more lives than a cat on caffeine.

Despite the chaos, memecoins were still holding a $47.9-billion market cap as of March 10. It’s not exactly spare change. Meanwhile, degens are still out here “buying the dip” like it’s a Black Friday sale, convinced that absurdly named tokens like Unicorn Fart Dust, Fartcoin and Buttcoin will print them a 100x profit before year’s end.

Some call it irrational. Others call it degeneracy. But when has that ever stopped anyone in crypto?

Down bad, but not dead yet

Sure, memecoins aren’t exactly outshining Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or Solana (SOL) right now.

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