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US recession would be a big catalyst for Bitcoin: BlackRock

BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robbie Mitchnick, says that Bitcoin will most likely thrive in a recessionary macro environment, contrary to what some analysts may think.

“I don’t know if we’ll have a recession or not, but a recession would be a big catalyst for Bitcoin,” Mitchnick said in a March 19 interview with Yahoo Finance.

Mitchnick said Bitcoin (BTC) is catalyzed by increased fiscal spending, deficit accumulation, lower interest rates and monetary stimulus — all of which tend to happen in recessions.

“And it’s catalyzed to some extent over fears of general social disorder,” Mitchnick pointed out. “And that too, unfortunately, is something that can happen in a recession.”

🚨 LATEST: BlackRock Global Head of Digital Assets Robbie Mitchnick says, “If you look at Bitcoin fundamentally on a long-term basis, it really seems like an asset that

Leveraged bets on FOMC meeting ‘guaranteed recipe to lose money’ — Trader

A crypto trader warns that going heavy on leverage before the monthly United States interest rate decision is a surefire way to lose money in crypto trading.

After the Federal Reserve’s statement confirmed the US central bank intends to leave interest rates unchanged in its target range between 4.25% to 4.5%, Bitcoin’s price barely moved, as the market had already widely expected no change in the interest rate.

However, after Fed chair Jerome Powell said the probability of a recession is “not high,” despite independent economists raising the odds of one, the overall crypto market saw an upswing, leaving traders betting on the downside caught off guard.

“A guaranteed recipe to lose money,” MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said in a March 19 X post.

CoinGlass data, which <a data-ct-non-breakable="null"

Kraken nears $1.5B deal allowing it to offer US crypto futures: Report

Crypto exchange Kraken is reportedly closing in on a $1.5 billion acquisition of trading platform NinjaTrader, a move that would expand Kraken’s customer base and enable it to offer crypto futures and derivatives in the US.

The deal could be confirmed by the morning of March 20 in the US, The Wall Street Journal said in a March 19 report, citing people familiar with the matter.

Kraken’s expanded offerings would be made possible through NinjaTrader’s registration as a Futures Commission Merchant.

The move would help Kraken’s strategy to work across several asset classes — including plans for equities trading and payments — while enabling NinjaTrader to expand into the UK, continental Europe and Australian markets, the sources told WSJ.

NinjaTrader is expected to remain a standalone platform under Kraken.

Cointelegraph reached out to Kraken and NinjaTrader for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/WSJmarkets/status/1902496460509261915" rel="null"

Sanctioned crypto exchange Garantex shifts millions as it reboots platform

Shuttered crypto exchange Garantex is reportedly back under a new name after laundering millions in ruble-backed stablecoins and sending them to a freshly created exchange, according to a Swiss blockchain analytics company.

Global Ledger claims the operators of the Russian exchange have shifted liquidity and customer deposits to Grinex, which they say is “Garantex’s full-fledged successor,” in a report released to X on March 19.

“We can confidently state that Grinex and Garantex are directly connected both onchain and offchain.”

“The movement of funds, including the systematic transfer of A7A5 liquidity, the use of one-time-use wallets, and the involvement of addresses previously associated with Garantex, provides clear onchain proof of their link,” the Global Ledger team said in the report.

After completing its investigation on March 13, Global Ledger says it had found onchain data <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://tronscan.org/#/transaction/a0dfabd3369dcbe5e0c7642ce3161c6f9ce5372593737557b233bfacb84c1211" rel="nofollow

Bakkt names new co-CEO amid re-focus on crypto offerings

Crypto custody and trading firm Bakkt Holdings has appointed a new co-CEO and is cutting some of its services to focus on its crypto offerings after recently losing two major clients.

Akshay Naheta, the founder of stablecoin payments infrastructure firm Distributed Technologies Research (DTR), will join Bakkt CEO Andy Main in the role, the company said on March 19.

Bakkt added that it will enter into an agreement with DTR to integrate its stablecoin-based payment infrastructure with Bakkt’s crypto trading and brokerage technology, subject to regulatory approval.

Bakkt said the partnership would open new revenue streams in stablecoin payments and crypto trading while increasing efficiency in cross-border payments, a popular use case for crypto.

Naheta founded DTR in 2022 after a nearly six-year stint in various executive roles at investment management giant SoftBank Group, which has a history of

‘I am ashamed’ — Solana CEO breaks silence over controversial ad backlash

Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko has broken his silence over the “America Is Back — Time to Accelerate” advertisement, which blended American patriotism and tech innovation with political messaging around gender identity.

“The ad was bad, and it’s still gnawing at my soul,” Yakovenko said in a March 19 X post after receiving immense backlash over the controversial ad.

“I am ashamed I downplayed it instead of just calling it what it is – mean and punching down on a marginalized group.”

Yakovenko praised those in the Solana ecosystem who called out the “mess” that was posted on Solana’s X account, which accumulated around 1.2 million views and 1,300 comments before it was deleted roughly nine hours later.

Yakovenko said he will use the learning experience to ensure Solana stays focused on open-source software development and decentralization while staying “out of cultural wars.”

Source: Anatoly

Bitcoin long-term holder behavior shift signals 'unique market dynamic' — Research

Bitcoin’s corrective phase set a four-month low at $76,600 on March 11. Despite this decline, long-term holders have continued to hold large amounts of BTC, suggesting a “unique market dynamic moving forward,” new research says.

“Long-Term Holder activity remains largely subdued, with a notable decline in their sell-side pressure,” Glassnode said in a March 18 markets report.

Long-term holders show signs of bullishness

Bitcoin’s recovery comes as selling pressure among Long-Term Holders (LTHs) — wallets that have held Bitcoin for at least 155 days — begins to wane.

The Binary Spending Indicator, a metric used to determine when LTHs are spending a significant proportion of their holdings in a sustained manner, shows a slowdown (see chart below) while the LTH supply is also beginning to rebound after several months of decline.

“This suggests that there is a greater willingness to hold than to spend coins among this cohort,” Glassnode

Crypto regulation must go through Congress for lasting change — Wiley Nickel

Crypto regulations must be enacted through an act of Congress to become permanent and meaningful pieces of legislation, according to former Congressman Wiley Nickel.

In an exclusive video interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright, Nickel urged bipartisan collaboration to push through comprehensive crypto regulations. The former Congressman added:

“I think it’s really important for anybody who cares about this issue to step back and realize that if you want lasting change in Washington, you must move legislation through Congress. Otherwise, if you’re talking about executive orders, it will just go back and forth.”

“You don’t want to have the mess that we saw just months ago with Gary Gensler’s SEC — you need to get legislation through Congress,” Nickel reiterated.

President Trump’s Jan. 23 executive order establishing the Working Group on Digital Assets, which also prohibited the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC),

Solana rallies 8% as crypto markets recover — Is there room for more SOL upside?

Solana’s native token, SOL (SOL), rose 8% on March 19 as investors turned to riskier assets ahead of US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks. While interest rates are expected to stay unchanged, analysts anticipate a softer inflation outlook for 2025. Meanwhile, key onchain and derivatives metrics for Solana suggest further upside for SOL price.

The cryptocurrency market mirrored intraday movements in the US stock market, suggesting SOL’s gains were not driven by industry-specific news, such as reports that the US Securities and Exchange Commission may drop its lawsuit against Ripple after clinging to it for four years.

Russell 2000 small-cap index futures (left) vs. SOL/USD (right). Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph

On March 19, the Russell 2000 index futures, tracking US-listed small-cap companies, surged to their highest level in twelve days. Despite a broader slowdown in decentralized application (DApp) activity, Solana stands out.

Solana’s

Trump to speak at Digital Asset Summit: Report

United States President Donald Trump will reportedly speak at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in New York on March 20, Blockworks said.

His speech will mark the first time a sitting US president has ever spoken at a cryptocurrency conference, Blockworks said in a March 19 announcement.

Trump’s presence at the event underscores his embrace of an industry that, under former US president Joe Biden, was the target of more than 100 enforcement actions by federal regulators.

“When we started Blockworks we could barely get someone from a bank to attend an event,” Jason Yanowitz, one of Blockworks co-founders, said in a March 19 post on the X platform.

“Now we have a sitting US President addressing […] 2,500 institutional participants. It is incredible how far this industry has come,” Yanowitz said.

Blockworks reportedly confirmed Trump will address attendees via a video recording at 10:40 am,