Crypto Vesting

US President Donald Trump wants to make his country a “Bitcoin superpower,” but the question remains as to who he is competing against. 

Speaking at Blockwork’s Digital Asset Summit on March 20 to a crowd of crypto industry executives and observers, he said, “Together we will make America the undisputed Bitcoin superpower and the crypto capital of the world.”

The US crypto industry has benefited greatly from preferential executive orders from Trump’s White House, including the establishment of a “strategic Bitcoin reserve” — a move advocates regard as a key metric for Bitcoin adoption. 

However, many other countries, including major US trade partners, are just not ready to take on Bitcoin as a reserve asset, begging the question of who the US is competing against to become a “Bitcoin superpower.”

US allies, trade partners and rivals aren’t competing on Bitcoin

Compared to major trade partners and geopolitical

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The US Treasury Department has dropped cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash from its sanctions list, the agency said on March 21. 

The removal follows a January ruling by a US appeals court, which said the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) cannot sanction Tornado’s smart contracts because they are not the property of any foreign national. 

According to the January court ruling, “Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts (the lines of privacy-enabling software code) are not the ‘property’ of a foreign national or entity, meaning […] OFAC overstepped its congressionally defined authority.”

In a March 21 statement, the Treasury said OFAC removed several dozen Tornado-affiliated smart contract addresses on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain network from its sanctions list. 

Tornado’s native token, Tornado Cash (TORN), is up around 60% on the news, according to data from

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BaFin, the German financial regulatory authority, has prohibited all public sales of Ethena GmbH’s USDe — a synthetic dollar — claiming that the token violates the European Union’s MiCAR regulations.

According to the announcement from the regulator, BaFin has ordered the firm to freeze the reserve assets that back the token, close down the website portal, and has ordered the firm to stop taking new customers. In a translated statement, the regulator wrote:

“The BaFin also has reasonable grounds to suspect that Ethena GmbH in Germany sells securities in the form of sUSDe  tokens from Ethena OpCo. Ltd. without the required prospectus.”

“The USDe and sUSDe tokens are interconnected in such a way that investors can receive a sUSDe token in exchange for a USDe token,” the regulator continued.

Despite the ban on primary sales and issuance of the token, the regulator said that secondary sales of the token will

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Opinion by: Abdul Rafay Gadit, co-founder of ZIGChain

America’s tariff regime has apparently fueled a global trade war, forcing investors to explore stable, yield-generating alternatives. A closer look reveals that illiquidity, opacity and scalability challenges have plagued global financial markets for long. They weren’t in great shape anyway, trade war or no trade war.

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) have risen to this occasion — thankfully. For one, they ensure predictable yields, providing a haven for investors amid uncertain market conditions and unproductive volatility. 

Above all, though, RWAs are a lifeboat for legacy finance, as they enhance market liquidity, bring transparency to opaque markets, and make finance more democratic. Traditional financial markets need to integrate — not resist — RWAs to stay relevant in the coming decade. 

RWAs to the rescue

In legacy finance, capital’s “computability” occurs through slow, expensive and unreliable intermediaries like banks. For example, these entities are primarily unable

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South Korean authorities are reportedly looking into blocking crypto exchange platforms that may have operated without adhering to the requirements set by the country’s financial regulator. 

On March 21, local media Hankyung reported that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Financial Services Commission is considering sanctions against crypto exchanges for allegedly operating in the country without reporting as an operator to the appropriate regulators. 

South Korean financial authorities require crypto exchanges to report to regulators as virtual asset service providers (VASPs) under the country’s Specified Financial Information Act. 

The FIU is investigating a list of exchanges and is conducting consultations with related agencies. The regulator is also considering sanctions, such as blocking access to the exchanges, as they begin to prepare countermeasures. 

South Korean regulators eye crypto exchanges

The regulator will reportedly crackdown on exchanges allegedly providing services to South Koreans without the appropriate VASP reports. The exchanges in

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Crypto investors rejoiced after one of the industry’s longest-standing legal battles was overturned by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, yet markets have seemingly accounted for the victory months ahead of the announcement, according to industry watchers.

On March 19, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed that the SEC would dismiss its legal action against Ripple, ending four years of litigation against the blockchain developer for an alleged $1.3-billion unregistered securities offering in 2020.

However, the outcome may not be as “bullish” since markets may have already priced in this development since President Trump’s election, according to Dmitrij Radin, the founder of Zekret and chief technology officer of Fideum, a regulatory and blockchain infrastructure firm focused on institutions.

Ripple’s CEO said the SEC is dropping its case against the blockchain developer. Source: Brad Garlinghouse

“Yes, they are dropping the

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Bitcoin (BTC) rebounded by as much as 14% after plunging to a four-month low near $76,600 on March 11. But BTC price is down approximately 25% from its record high of around $110,000, which is normal for a “bull market correction.”

Still, some analysts anticipate the Bitcoin price declines to continue in the future.

“Dark cloud” hints Bitcoin is topping out

Bitcoin faces renewed bearish pressure after rejecting at $87,470, the descending channel resistance, with a “dark cloud cover” pattern reinforcing the downtrend, according to an analysis shared by GDXTrader on X.

BTC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView/@GDXTrader

The dark cloud cover pattern occurs when a strong green candle is followed by a red candle that opens above the previous close but closes below the midpoint of the first candle’s body.

Illustration of a dark cloud cover. Source: GoldenEye Analysis

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Key takeawaysIn 2025, you can have your digital wallet ready to pay with Bitcoin directly at 15,000 merchants and restaurants worldwide.Whether you’re using your own Bitcoin wallet to pay directly at accepting merchants or pay with cards, you’ll find plenty of options to buy food with Bitcoin.Bitcoin has evolved since Laszlo Hanyecz’s first purchase of food. A new whole payment structure has formed around Bitcoin, with innovative creative ways to use it to pay for food.Bitcoin payment processors, such as Bitrefill and BitPay, are now known globally. They handle thousands of transactions each month. 

As Bitcoin becomes more accepted worldwide, many retailers, restaurants and food delivery services are embracing it. They now allow customers to pay for food with Bitcoin (BTC).

You can still buy food with Bitcoin, even if merchants don’t accept it directly. Use methods like crypto cards or crypto gift cards to make your purchase.

Bitcoin has long been recognized

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Speculative appetite is vanishing from the crypto markets, as investors are looking for safer digital asset investments following the recent wave of memecoin scams and macroeconomic uncertainty.

Bitcoin’s hot supply metric, which measures the Bitcoin (BTC) aged one week or less, is down over 50%, from 5.9% at the end of November to just 2.3% on March 20, Glassnode data shows.

The metric’s decline signals an investor shift to safer investment positioning amid the recent market volatility, according to Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research.

Bitcoin hot supply metric. Source: Glassnode 

Global trade tensions and fluctuating market dynamics are making investors reconsider their strategies, the analyst told Cointelegraph, adding:

“During uncertain times, investors are not only seeking security but are also focused on rational decision-making. In many instances, that rational choice is represented by

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