Из жизни альткоинов

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum accumulation continues to accelerate amongst major crypto treasury companies, with Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) adding a new tranche to its substantial ETH holdings. According to the latest reports, Bitmine recently acquired more than 65,000 ETH, doubling down on its crypto strategy even as geopolitical tensions and weak investor sentiment weigh on the broader crypto market. 

Bitmine Ethereum Holdings Hit 4.66 Million ETH

In a March 23 press release, Bitmine announced that its Ethereum holdings have risen to exactly 4,660,903 ETH following its latest purchase. The digital asset treasury acquired an additional 65,341 ETH, valued at above $138 million, in the past week. Notably, Bitmine has been on a major accumulation spree throughout March, consistently buying large amounts of ETH worth millions of dollars. This latest purchase marks its third consecutive weekly buy this month. 

Between late February and early March, the company bought 51,000 ETH at an average price of $1,976 per coin. Around March 9, it added another 60,976 ETH at $1,965 per token. By mid-March, Bitmine’s holdings had risen to 4,595,562 ETH after acquiring 60,999 ETH the same week. Following this, the company executed its most recent purchase at roughly $2,072 per ETH. 

After acquiring more Ethereum, Bitmine’s total cryptocurrency and cash holdings have increased to approximately $11 billion, with cash reserves accounting for $1.1 billion of this total. The company remains the largest ETH treasury in the world, led by its founder, Tom Lee, and current CEO, Chi Tsang. 

Bitmine currently holds 3.6% of Ethereum’s total circulating supply, which is over 120.6 million. At the pace and scale of its aggressive accumulation strategy, the treasury company has shown clear intent to expand its stake to 5% of ETH’s supply, a milestone that could propel its holdings to roughly 6 million ETH.

Notably, Bitmine continues to purchase Ethereum despite US-Iran war tensions and broader market decline influencing ETH’s price performance. The company appears to be leveraging the market weakness to increase its holdings at relatively lower prices, underscoring its confidence in Ethereum’s long-term recovery potential and sustained growth trajectory.

Lee has echoed similar bullish sentiments, publicly stating that the crypto winter is finally nearing its end. The Bitmine CEO has maintained a consistently optimistic outlook on Ethereum, with his most ambitious projection suggesting that the cryptocurrency could hit $250,000. He attributed this potential surge to a full-scale tokenization supercycle, in which Ethereum becomes a core infrastructure layer for Wall Street. 

Bitmine’s Bitcoin Holdings

In addition to Ethereum, Bitmine has also been accumulating Bitcoin. In its press release, the company revealed that its Bitcoin stash has now increased to 196 BTC, adding just one coin to the 195 BTC it had held since early March.

Unlike its large weekly ETH purchases, Bitmine’s Bitcoin holdings have seen only minimal changes, fluctuating slightly as the treasury company adds about one to three BTC regularly.

The world’s largest asset manager has yet to file for a spot XRP exchange-traded fund, but a growing body of evidence suggests the distance between BlackRock and that step is narrowing. 

Discussion regarding whether BlackRock is preparing to move into XRP has picked up again, but the real reason is not coming from filings or official announcements. It is coming from recent comments on how the investment firm is talking about the next phase of crypto ETFs and the criteria it is watching closely.

BlackRock’s ETF Strategy

BlackRock was among the earliest major institutions to push into crypto-based spot ETFs, setting the pace with the launch of the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT). IBIT quickly became the most traded spot Bitcoin ETP, with assets surpassing $100 billion by early 2026. 

The firm has since expanded that strategy beyond Bitcoin. Its spot Ethereum ETF followed, and more recently, the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) began trading on Nasdaq on March 12, 2026.

The leading investment manager has yet to enter into XRP-based spot ETFs, though this hasn’t stopped XRP investors from dissecting every signal coming from its leadership. The most recent window into BlackRock’s thinking on a possible XRP ETF came from Robert Mitchnick, Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock, during an appearance on CNBC’s Crypto World. 

In a recent interview on CNBC Crypto World, BlackRock’s Head of Digital Assets Robert Mitchnick made it clear that the firm is not rushing into new crypto ETFs, but it is actively evaluating them. 

He explained that Bitcoin and Ethereum are where “overwhelmingly, the interest” is but added that there are pockets of interest in other digital assets. He went further to state that BlackRock continues to assess these assets as maturity, liquidity, scale and use cases develop, while maintaining a very discerning approach to what qualifies for an iShares ETF.

Does XRP Fit The iShares ETF Template?

XRP already operates at a level that aligns with the criteria Mitchnick outlined. It has deep liquidity across global markets, a large market cap, and a clear use case tied to payments, settlement, and now tokenized assets.

BlackRock has not yet signaled that the altcoin meets the bar required for its iShares ETF lineup, which explains the absence of a filing so far. However, XRP already ticks the box for other investment companies, as there are XRP-based spot ETFs in the US from investment firms such as Canary, Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, and 21Shares. 

Canary Capital CEO Steven McClurg expects BlackRock could file a Spot XRP ETF by late 2026 or 2027. According to him, XRP ETF assets would need to reach above $3 billion in net inflow before the commercial case is strong enough for BlackRock to act. This is about three times the current level. 

XRP’s price is bullish once again, holding strong above the $1.40 level following a recovery across the broader cryptocurrency market. This bullish performance of the price is turning up on several key metrics, such as Realized Volatility, which has recently fallen to one of its lowest levels yet.

Volatility In XRP Plunges To Its Lowest Point

After a brief rebound on Wednesday, market conditions around XRP seem to have entered an unusually calm phase as the price displays signs of stability. The Realized Volatility on Binance has been steadily dropping and has recently reached its lowest level of 2026.

While on-chain data is flashing at reduced volatility, Xaif Crypto, a technical analyst and investor, has declared the trend a calm before the storm rather than a bearish signal. With both buyers and sellers exhibiting less aggressive positioning, the decrease in price swings points to a period of less uncertainty.

Looking at the chart on the 30-Day time frame, the realized volatility is positioned at 0.5266, marking a multi-month low. Volatility Z-Score is at -0.9048, sitting well below the historical average, while price is holding steady at the $1.43 level. 

When volatility compresses this hard, it implies that the market is coiling. At the same time, supply and demand have reached have reached have reached equilibrium, with panic and euphoria lacking among investors across the market. The chart is signaling a clear path for XRP based on historical patterns.

In the current market structure, every significant increase or decrease in XRP was preceded by a similar time frame. For now, the altcoin is set to experience a period of a tightening range, low volume, and silent charts before the spring takes place without any warning signs.

As a result of this setup, Xaif Crypto stated that the question is not whether a move is coming, but rather, if investors are positioned before the impending move occurs. At this point, the expert urges investors to closely watch the Volatility Z-Score because the metric is key to determining the upcoming move.

Once the metric moves back into positive territory, this will serve as the signal that momentum is returning to the market and the next move is close. XRP at $1.43 may look like things are slow, but Xaif Crypto predicts that the altcoin won’t remain in the range for long.

Activity On The XRP Ledger Explodes

While volatility has reduced to the lowest level this year, activity on the XRP Ledger has witnessed explosive growth. Arthur stated that transaction volumes across the Ledger are spiking, hitting nearly 4 million in a single day. As more users interact with transfers, payments, and decentralized apps, the spike in on-chain activity marks the beginning of sustained growth.

According to the expert, this is the highest level seen since the rally in late 2024 following the US election. With the market showing signs of life, this surge suggests that on-chain usage is clearly accelerating again, alongside rising utility and adoption turning up on the Ledger.

Crypto pundit Pumpius has explained how the XRP Ledger fits into SWIFT’s plans to process on-chain payments through its partnership with banks. This came as the pundit alleged that SWIFT plans to use the network as the front end rather than its own distributed ledger. 

XRP Ledger’s Role In SWIFT’s Plan For On-Chain Transactions

In an X post, Pumpius alleged that SWIFT is quietly whitelabeling the XRP Ledger front-end while pretending that the network is their innovation. He made this comment in response to news that SWIFT plans to launch 24/7 cross-border payments using blockchain technology in partnership with over 25 major banks. 

Pumpius further alleged that SWIFT has been running pilots with Ripple partners, bridging ISO 20022, and that now it is clear what they are trying to achieve. He declared that the old financial guard is being forced to adopt what they spent years fighting. The pundit added that SWIFT is adopting the Ledger because XRP has always been the neutral bridge asset they could never build themselves. 

However, it is worth noting that SWIFT has announced it is developing its distributed ledger in partnership with ConsenSys to enable 24/7 cross-border payments. SWIFT is also developing the ledger in partnership with over 30 financial institutions, which will use it. So far, there hasn’t been any mention of SWIFT using the Ledger as Pumpius claims.  

However, crypto pundit Archie pointed out that some of these banks that SWIFT has partnered with are also Ripple’s partners, a development he said is the ultimate bull signal for holders. The pundit suggested that these banks could still integrate in one way or another, even as they move to create their own distributed ledger. 

BIS Highlights XRP’s Dominance Among Top 5 Cryptos 

Archie drew attention to the Bank for International Settlements post, which highlighted XRP as one of the major cryptocurrencies investors were seeking exposure to. The pundit again described this as the ultimate bull signal. The BIS released its updated Basel III monitoring dashboard and identified the altcoin as one of the top 5 cryptocurrencies for which underlying banks are reporting exposures. 

XRP is notably mentioned alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Archie noted that banks worldwide are now classifying and disclosing their holdings under the global regulatory framework. He added that traditional finance (TradFi) is no longer fighting crypto but is instead measuring and preparing for its adoption. Based on this, he declared that the floodgates are opening and that the original bridge asset, which is XRP, is already inside the system. 

At the time of writing, the altcoin’s price is trading at around $1.40, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Активность крупных держателей биткоина снизилась до минимального с сентября 2023 года уровня. Аналитики Santiment назвали это признаком осторожности «китов», наблюдающих за внешнеполитической обстановкой.

Fannie Mae will soon allow mortgages backed by cryptocurrency holdings, a significant shift that reflects growing regulatory clarity in the United States and opens a path for digital-asset holders to use nontraditional wealth as part of the homebuying process.

Crypto Down Payment Options For Fannie Mortgages

On Thursday, Better Home & Finance and Coinbase announced a joint mortgage product that lets prospective buyers pledge crypto as collateral for the down payment on a Fannie Mae‑backed loan rather than selling their digital assets to generate cash. 

The offering is structured so the pledged holdings — such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Circle’s USDC stablecoin held in a Coinbase account — secure a separate loan to fund the down payment; the home mortgage itself remains a conventional Fannie‑backed loan.

Better Home & Finance’s founder and CEO, Vishal Garg, framed the partnership as a way to broaden access to homeownership: 

Better was founded to make homeownership more accessible for all Americans, and this partnership with Coinbase introduces a new pathway to realizing the American Dream for the 52 million Americans who own digital assets.  

Coinbase, in its announcement, described the product as the first time an “AI‑native” mortgage lender has combined secured digital‑asset loans with the platform of a major crypto exchange to bridge digital wealth and traditional real‑estate finance.

Unaffected By Bitcoin Price Swings

Coinbase representatives emphasized that, once active, the mortgage terms and interest rates will function like a standard home loan and will not be affected by fluctuations in Bitcoin’s price. 

Coinbase also noted its ongoing engagement with policymakers. “We maintain an active, bipartisan dialogue with Washington,” said a company representative, adding that the product aims to expand homeownership opportunities for Americans whose wealth is tied up in digital assets rather than traditional bank accounts.

At the time of writing, the crypto exchange’s stock, which trades under the symbol COIN, is worth $176 a share. This extends the downturn, which has seen the price decline from $200, the opening price at the start of this week’s trade. 

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Bernstein analysts remain bullish on Bitcoin’s price, maintaining their year-end optimistic outlook. The analysts have confirmed that Bitcoin has officially reached its market bottom, with its price at around $60,000, the lowest since its all-time high above $126,000 in October 2026. If this is true, it could mean the prolonged BTC bear market has ended, and the market is heading upwards from here. 

Bernstein Confirms Bitcoin Price Bottom And Next Target

In a Tuesday note to clients, Bernstein analysts doubled down on their year-end price target of $150,000 for Bitcoin. Their reiteration of this bullish outlook comes as the world’s largest cryptocurrency faces major headwinds in its ongoing bear market.

Recently, the Bitcoin price dropped below $70,000 once again amid increased geopolitical uncertainty and state-level selling pressure. Market volatility resurfaced after President Donald Trump pushed to end the US-Iran war within weeks, and the Bhutan government sold more than 519 BTC for approximately $36.7 million.

Despite these bearish developments pushing the price lower, Bernstein analysts believe that Bitcoin’s move from here on out could be a slow but steady recovery, followed by a rebound toward a new all-time high. This isn’t the first time they have made such a prediction. Earlier in January, they stated that BTC had hit a price floor at $80,000 and might be on its way to a $150,000 target. 

Importantly, the analysts confirmed again in their recent note that the Bitcoin price has officially reached its market bottom this cycle. This comes after the cryptocurrency plunged from $90,000 to $60,000 in early February, marking its lowest level since its cycle top last year. This price floor is also approximately 47% below the cryptocurrency’s all-time high levels. 

Major factors had fueled this crash, including the hawkish FED Chair nomination of Kevin Warsh by Trump in January 2026, which triggered a risk-off sell-off in the crypto market. Moreover, at the time, the market had recorded massive outflows in Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) worth billions of dollars. Heightened tensions in the Middle East, as well as the oil shock, had also fueled BTC’s decline to this claimed $60,000 price bottom. 

Why They Believe BTC Could Hit $150,000 This Year    

Three major bullish catalysts are driving Bernstein’s optimistic Bitcoin prediction this cycle. The first is the continuous corporate accumulation by the business intelligence company and BTC treasury Strategy (MSTR). Notably, Strategy has continued to buy Bitcoin despite its ongoing volatility and declining price action. The firm now holds 3.6% of Bitcoin’s total supply, valued at roughly $53.5 billion, after its latest purchase of 1,031 BTC for $76.6 million this March. 

Another major reason Bernstein believes BTC could hit a new ATH this year is attributed to its ETF. Analysts at the firm suggest that ETF inflows could remain strong despite market volatility, thereby continuing to increase demand for BTC. Over the past week, Bitcoin ETFs have already attracted significant inflows, driven largely by wealth managers, pension funds, sovereign entities, and other major institutional investors. 

The final reason mentioned is the strong conviction of long-term BTC holders. Notably, 60% of Bitcoin’s total supply has been held by inactive wallets for more than 1 year. This behavior reflects long-term holding as investors continue to see the cryptocurrency as a strategic allocation and a store of value. 

Майнинговая компания MARA Holdings продала 15 133 биткоина за $1,1 млрд ради погашения долгов по конвертируемым облигациям MARA с нулевой процентной ставкой.

Криптовалютная компания Swan Bitcoin подала в суд ходатайство с просьбой изъять документы инвестбанка Cantor Fitzgerald, а также допросить его бывшего генерального директора и нынешнего министра торговли США Говарда Латника (Howard Lutnick).

Fidelity Digital Assets has used a new research report to make a sharper institutional case for bitcoin: not that every allocator must own it, but that a zero position now needs to be actively defended. In a study published March 25, Chris Kuiper argues bitcoin’s role in portfolios can no longer be dismissed as a fringe question, especially as the assumptions behind the classic 60/40 mix come under pressure.

The report opens with an unusually direct framing. “The central question is no longer” whether bitcoin merits consideration, Fidelity says. Instead, it asks: “What is your current bitcoin allocation, and why?” For the firm’s research team, zero exposure may still be valid, but it now requires a “well-informed rationale.”

Tiny Bitcoin Exposure, Big Portfolio Impact

That argument rests first on bitcoin’s historical numbers. Fidelity says bitcoin has been the top-performing asset in 11 of the past 15 years and, over multiple time horizons, has posted the highest returns as well as the highest risk-adjusted returns among the assets it examined. The report acknowledges the familiar objection, bitcoin’s volatility remains the highest in the group, but argues that Sharpe and Sortino ratios still compare favorably, while bonds have looked particularly weak on both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms.

From there, the paper tries to move the discussion away from philosophy and into portfolio construction. Fidelity leans on bitcoin’s hard cap, its low long-term correlation to major asset classes, and its sensitivity to monetary expansion.

One of the report’s stronger macro claims is that changes in global M2 have explained 87% of BTC’s price changes over the past 15 years on an r-squared basis, though Fidelity explicitly notes that correlation does not by itself prove causation. It also argues that bitcoin and gold are similar enough to share an inflation-hedge narrative, but distinct enough to remain complementary rather than interchangeable in diversified portfolios.

The most consequential section for allocators is the portfolio work. Using a traditional 60/40 portfolio of US stocks and aggregate US bonds as the base case, Fidelity says adding BTC would have historically lifted both annual and total returns. Volatility rose, as expected, but the report says the increase was compensated by stronger risk-adjusted returns, with the biggest improvement in Sharpe and Sortino ratios showing up when allocations moved from 1% to 3%.

Perhaps more notable for conservative managers, Fidelity says maximum drawdowns did not increase as dramatically as many would assume, partly because of low correlation and partly because annual rebalancing kept the bitcoin sleeve from dominating the portfolio.

Fidelity’s modeling gets more aggressive deeper in the paper. In a mean-variance optimization exercise using what it calls conservative bitcoin assumptions, 25% expected annual return and 50% volatility, against 14.5% expected equity returns and 2% for bonds, the maximum-Sharpe portfolio included 9.4% bitcoin and no bonds at all.

A separate Kelly Criterion exercise produced a 65% position size using historical annual returns, though Fidelity immediately warns that this is not an investment recommendation and notes that more conservative assumptions bring that figure down to 10%. The point is less that institutions should adopt those weights than that BTC’s asymmetric payoff profile can justify larger allocations than intuition might suggest.

That is where the report’s challenge to 60/40 becomes explicit. Fidelity argues the last decade’s strength in traditional portfolios was helped by four decades of falling rates, richening equity valuations, and repeated policy support for credit markets.

It questions whether those tailwinds are durable. On bonds, the paper points to episodes of sharp losses, rising stock-bond correlations, and the risk of negative real returns in a world of persistent debt expansion; on equities, it argues that elevated valuations may leave markets “priced for perfection” even if AI and capital-light business models support margins.

The report stops short of prescribing a universal BTC weight, but its message is clear enough. Fidelity is not presenting bitcoin as a replacement for every traditional asset or as a one-way macro hedge. It is arguing that in a world where fixed income may no longer offer the same ballast and equity valuations already reflect high expectations, even a small bitcoin allocation can produce what it calls a “material outcome” from a non-material starting weight.

At press time; BTC traded at $69,935.

Two different acts banning congressional staff, members of congress and federal officials from trading on prediction markets were introduced on Wednesday, March 25, one of them being effective immediately.

Massachusetts Bans Crypto Prediction Market

Washington’s battle against prediction markets rages on. Following a bipartisan Senate bill introduced on Monday that targets sports‑style bets on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, democratic representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts (MA-06) formally banned all of his staff from “participating in prediction markets”, such as the aforementioned, “to trade or hold positions on political, legislative, regulatory, geopolitical outcomes, or any information that is learned in an official capacity”. The press release frames it as the first such explicit office-wide ban in Congress.

Moulton’s rationale is clear: staff are meant to serve constituents, not profit from policy choices and global events. As he views it, prediction markets have become ethically questionable “playgrounds for corrupt insiders”:

Prediction markets have become a playground for corrupt insiders who are able to place bets on things like election outcomes, wars, and even the deaths of public figures. This is creating a perverse incentive structure that poses a genuine threat to American society today.

Congressional staff and the Members they work for exist to serve the constituents of the districts they represent, not to profit off of the very policy decisions and world events that we are here to respond to.

Nebraska Bans Crypto Prediction Market Too

On Nebraska’s side, Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE-03) and Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (D-IL-13) introduced the Preventing Real-time Exploitation and Deceptive Insider Congressional Trading Act (PREDICT Act), another bipartisan effort that aims to ban members of Congress, their spouses and children, the president and vice president, and senior appointees from trading on political and policy outcome markets.

Their core argument and statement are very similar to Moulton’s. Recent episodes of little‑known traders making massive profits on contracts tied to war with Iran or the length of government shutdowns have sharpened fears about insider information leaking into these markets. Smith said:

Serving the American people is a privilege, not a pathway to profit. Our commonsense, bipartisan bill will give Americans confidence that the decisions of their elected officials are guided by merit, not personal profit.

Budzinski added:

 The American people are tired of politicians using their influence for personal gain, and the rise of prediction markets has made those concerns even more relevant. In recent months, we’ve seen instances of little-known traders making massive profits on events ranging from war with Iran to how long a government shutdown will last, raising necessary questions about the use of inside information.

Breaking the PREDICT Act would trigger a civil fine equal to 10% of the value of the banned trade, plus a requirement to hand over all profits from it to the U.S. Treasury, the announcement states.

A Growing Concern For Washington?

These new episodes come on top of earlier efforts like Rep. Ritchie Torres’s Financial Prediction Markets Public Integrity Act, following the capture of Venezuela’s former dictator Nicolás Maduro, which also targeted insider trading on platforms such as Polymarket.

For on‑chain and offshore prediction markets, a hard ban on US officials could actually de‑risk the space by reducing headline “insider” scandals, but it also raises the odds of stricter KYC and monitoring requirements in the US.

As it becomes increasingly clear that Washington has its attention set on ethically questionable crypto ventures, it is not too far-fetched to think that similar logic could be extended to other high‑beta crypto venues where policy and profit visibly collide (e.g., tokens tightly linked to election or war outcomes). Traders would do well pricing in regulatory overhang alongside usual market risk.

Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Резервный банк Австралии планирует создать так называемую нормативную песочницу для тестирования токенизированных активов и цифровой валюты центрального банка (CBDC). Об этом сообщил заместитель управляющего финансового регулятора Брэд Джонс (Brad Jones)

Миллиардер, глава Tesla и SpaceX Илон Маск (Elon Musk) назначил создателя криптокошелька Family Бенджи Тейлора (Benji Taylor) главой команды дизайна социальной сети X. Об этом рассказал сам Тейлор.

Использование цифрового рубля не станет обязательным для россиян, заявила председатель Банка России Эльвира Набиуллина.

Первая криптовалюта закрепилась на уровне $70 000 на фоне возобновления притока капитала в спотовые биткоин-ETF, который за неделю превысил $95 млн, сообщили аналитики компании Glassnode.

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson says Midnight’s new partnership with Monument Bank could become one of the biggest commercial wins yet for the privacy-focused network, after the UK lender unveiled plans to put retail customer deposits on a public blockchain. In a post on X, the Cardano founder wrote:

“This is one of the largest deals we’ve ever done and could bring hundreds of millions to billions of TVL to the Midnight ecosystem. I’m extremely proud of Fahmi Syed and his team at the Midnight Foundation for the hard work they put into the negotiations with Monument. Midnight is the home of Web 2.5 ventures.”

Why The Cardano So Enthusiastic

Monument, a UK digital bank serving the mass-affluent segment, said it plans to become the first UK bank to tokenize retail customer deposits on a public blockchain, with Midnight providing the underlying network and privacy-preserving architecture.

The first phase is concrete. Monument said it is targeting up to £250 million in tokenized deposits, with each token representing a one-to-one claim on funds held at the bank. Those deposits are intended to remain interest-bearing, redeemable in pounds sterling and protected within the existing regulatory framework, including the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Monument says it currently serves more than 100,000 clients and has over £7 billion in savings deposits, giving the project a real balance-sheet base rather than a purely experimental starting point.

That setup is central to Midnight’s pitch. The tokenized deposits are not being framed as a new synthetic asset or an offshore wrapper, but as a blockchain mirror of traditional bank deposits. According to the release, transaction data on Midnight will be shielded and visible only to Monument and its customers, an architecture aimed at preserving the confidentiality banks need while still using public-chain rails.

Midnight Foundation President Fahmi Syed used the deal to make a broader point about institutional blockchain adoption. Financial firms, he said, have struggled with the tension between openness and banking-grade confidentiality. Midnight, in his words, is designed to “represent assets on public networks” while protecting “sensitive financial information,” and Monument’s rollout is meant to show that regulated products can move on-chain without stepping outside existing compliance and consumer-protection frameworks.

The longer-term roadmap explains why Hoskinson is talking in terms of billions rather than the initial £250 million. Phase two would expand beyond tokenized deposits into tokenized investment products delivered through the Monument app, including access to private equity, commodity funds and structured products. Phase three would introduce Lombard-style lending, allowing clients to borrow against investments without selling them. Monument also said its technology affiliate aims to extend tokenized-deposit functionality to other institutions through its Banking-as-a-Service platform.

In that sense, Hoskinson’s TVL projection reads less like a claim about day-one inflows and more like a statement about the size of the pipeline if the rollout expands as planned. The hard figure disclosed so far is £250 million in the first phase. But if Monument can move from deposit tokenization into investment products, lending and third-party enablement, Midnight would be competing for balance-sheet-linked activity that is structurally different from mercenary DeFi liquidity.

For Midnight, the partnership is also a live test of its core thesis: that privacy-enhancing infrastructure can make public blockchains usable for regulated finance. If Monument executes beyond the pilot, the deal would give the Cardano-linked network something many crypto projects still lack, a banking use case tied to real deposits, real customers and a product roadmap built to stay inside the guardrails of traditional finance.

At press time, Cardano traded at $0.26.

Nvidia is facing a certified class action over alleged under‑disclosure of crypto mining revenue.

A Crypto Scandal Resurrects Just In Time For Holy Week

After years of grueling legal back and forth between the giant gaming company and the American courts, a U.S. federal judge has certified a securities-fraud class action against Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang over alleged under‑disclosure of crypto mining revenue in 2017–2018, according to a Wednesday order from Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. in a California federal court. A class certification means the case can move ahead on behalf of a broad group of shareholders (the plaintiffs), raising the legal and financial stakes for Nvidia.

Investors claim Nvidia hid how much of its “gaming” GPU sales were actually driven by cryptocurrency miners, creating “revenue gaps” between public guidance and internal reality.

A Recap Of The Legal Battle

In order to properly understand this development, we must first go back to almost a decade ago, when investors sued the American tech company for the first time in 2018. Back then, the investors argued that $1 billion in crypto-linked GPU sales were misclassified or downplayed, with internal emails suggesting management knew the stock was “held high” by these statements.

It is important to remember that this happened in the context of the 2017–2018 mining boom, when Ethereum and other coins sent demand for Nvidia GPUs surging. Despite this, the company publicly emphasized gaming as the main growth driver.

The extent of Nvidia’s risk only became clear on November 2018, when CFO Colette Kress acknowledged that gaming revenue had fallen “short of expectations” because excess inventory built up during the crypto boom was taking longer than anticipated to clear. Gaming GPU prices were slower than expected to return to normal after the “sharp crypto falloff”, she claimed.

This disclosure not only triggered a roughly 28–29% share price crash, but also forward, in 2022, a $5.5 million SEC fine over inadequate crypto-mining disclosures in fiscal 2018, which the company already paid. Bitcoinist covered the story back then.

The lawsuit was first thrown out in 2021, then brought back to life on appeal, withstanding Nvidia’s unsuccessful attempt to get the U.S. Supreme Court to shut it down, and is now advancing as a certified class action.

And Now What?

Today, plaintiffs contend that a large portion of Nvidia’s crypto-fueled sales actually ran through its GeForce gaming GPUs, with most of that income booked under the gaming division, leaving the company heavily exposed to the boom‑and‑bust swings of the crypto market. Despite that, Nvidia had long insisted that the bulk of mining-related demand was captured in a distinct line item rather than in its main gaming segment and that crypto mining was a minor contributor to its overall business.

The judge highlighted an internal email from an Nvidia vice president, describing it as especially revealing:

The Court also notes that internal company emails support its conclusion here. Just before the November 2018 disclosure, NVIDIA’s then-VP of Investor Relations and Strategic Finance opined in response to a question from Huang that one reason “the market isn’t pricing in a bigger miss” following news that AMD had one or two quarters of post-crypto channel inventory was in part “because of comments we’ve made on . . . ring-fencing the crypto impact in OEM”

The newly certified class includes investors who purchased Nvidia shares between August 10, 2017 and November 15, 2018. A case management conference is set for April 21, when the judge is expected to lay out how the litigation will proceed.

It is notable that one of NVIDIA’s own VPs expressed the view that its stock price remained high because of the same types of earlier comments that Plaintiffs are pointing to, and the Court cannot conclude that there was no price impact in the face of such evidence.

For NVDA stock traders, a live, certified class action injects headline risk into one of the market’s most crowded AI plays, and any adverse ruling or settlement could weigh on multiples in a risk‑off tape. For crypto and mining‑adjacent names, the case is a reminder that opaque revenue accounting around mining cycles can come back years later, potentially tightening disclosure standards just as the sector eyes the next bull run.

Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Сооснователь венчурной компании Fenbushi Capital Бо Шэнь (Bo Shen) объявил о вознаграждении за возврат цифровых активов на сумму около $42 млн, похищенных из его личного криптокошелька Trust Wallet в 2022 году.

Партнер фонда Castle Island Ventures Ник Картер (Nic Carter) заявил, что разработчики Биткоина должны ускорить работу над квантовой устойчивостью, иначе сеть может уступить Эфириуму.

Себестоимость добычи биткоина для части майнеров превысила $100 000, сообщили аналитики CoinShares. По их оценке, доля выручки от майнинга у крупных центров обработки данных (ЦОД) к концу года может снизиться с 85% до менее чем 20%.