Из жизни альткоинов

UK National Security Panel has deemed donations made with crypto assets as an “unnecessary and unacceptably high risk” and it is asking the government for an immediate ban.

Too High Of A Crypto-Risk

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy has called today for a moratorium on crypto political donations (an official temporary ban), alongside new donor‑verification rules, to tackle illicit finance and foreign interference in UK politics. The latest report of the Joint Committee warns that crypto donations to UK political parties are a high‑risk channel for illicit and foreign money. Crypto donations pose an “unnecessary and unacceptably high risk to the integrity of the political finance system”, the report reads.

The Government must immediately ban political donations made through cryptocurrency until firm rules can be developed, in order to keep UK politics safe from illicit finance, a cross-party Committee has found.

This decision follows a letter issued on February 24 by Committee Chair of the House of Commons Matt Western to Housing Secretary Steve Reed, urging the government to act before the next general election, warning that hostile states may exploit opaque crypto flows, as reported by Bitcoinist.

Inside The Warning Report

The main concerns expressed by the parliamentary include pseudonymous wallets, mixers and foreign‑based payment processors make it hard to verify who is really bankrolling UK parties, creating a “gaping hole” in national‑security defenses. In order to tackle this, the committee is asking for stricter donor‑identity checks and wealth‑source verification, plus a clear single‑agency lead over political finance enforcement to avoid the current fragmentation across multiple bodies.

Responsibility for policing risks of foreign influence in political finance is dispersed across several services, including the Electoral Commission, Metropolitan Police, Counter Terrorism Policing, MI5, the National Crime Agency and other police services. The Committee argues that accountability and governance are “inadequate”, and notes that a clearer set up with a single national lead would help address low public trust in enforcement of the rules.

What Happens Next?

Under the specific conditions proposed for any future digital assets donations after the moratorium, parties would only be allowed to accept coins that move through fully FCA‑registered platforms, closing off the offshore exchanges and bespoke portals currently used to route funds into Westminster. Any crypto that has passed through mixers or tumblers would be flat‑out prohibited and, on top of that, parties would have to convert donated tokens into pounds within roughly 48 hours, sharply limiting the time funds remain on‑chain and making it easier for regulators and watchdogs to audit who is really paying for UK politics.

The UK is trying to position itself as a “global hub” for digital assets in trading and custody, even as its national‑security apparatus moves aggressively to regulate crypto assets. 

The committee frames this as a national‑security and anti‑corruption issue, not a blanket attack on crypto markets, but the political narrative still feeds into a broader crackdown theme investors cannot ignore. While spot crypto trading in the UK remains unaffected in the short term, headlines about “illicit money” and “foreign interference” can sap risk appetite, weigh on politically exposed tokens, and add another layer of regulatory overhang for any UK‑facing exchanges or payment rails.

Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Московский суд вынес приговор криптоинвестору Григорию Мулузяну: его признали виновным в мошенничестве в особо крупном размере и приговорили к шести годам лишения свободы в колонии общего режима. Среди пострадавших назван актер Павел Деревянко.

Главный инвестиционный директор компании по управлению криптоактивами Arca Джефф Дорман (Jeff Dorman) заявил, что доминирование биткоина, эфира, Solana и XRP сдерживает развитие крипторынка.

Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty says the SEC’s latest crypto guidance does more than clarify policy. In his reading, it effectively cements what Ripple has argued for years: XRP is not a security, but a digital commodity.

The comment came after the US Securities and Exchange Commission said it had issued “an interpretation that clarifies the application of federal securities laws to crypto assets,” calling the move “a major step” toward giving markets, investors and innovators more clarity.

Ripple’s Top Lawyer Reacts

Alderoty quickly tied that announcement to Ripple’s long-running legal fight with the agency, writing via X: “We always knew XRP wasn’t a security – and now the SEC has made clear what it is: a digital commodity. Grateful to the Crypto Task Force for working to deliver the clarity that markets, investors, and innovators have long deserved.”

We always knew XRP wasn’t a security – and now the @SECGov has made clear what it is: a digital commodity. Grateful to the Crypto Task Force for working to deliver the clarity that markets, investors, and innovators have long deserved. https://t.co/jJ7QTUiJbJ

— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) March 18, 2026

That framing matters because it pushes the conversation beyond the narrower question of whether XRP sales can fall within securities laws in certain contexts. Alderoty’s post suggests Ripple sees the SEC’s latest interpretation as broader validation of the company’s core position: that XRP itself should be treated as a commodity-style crypto asset rather than a security instrument.

Notably, the Commission’s new guidance defines how federal securities laws apply to crypto assets. Even so, the market reaction around XRP was immediate, with several legal commentators and crypto experts reading the move as a meaningful shift in the regulatory ground beneath the asset.

Among the strongest reactions was from pro-XRP lawyer Bill Morgan, who linked the development directly to the Ripple case and Judge Analisa Torres’ reasoning. “So Judge Torres’ reasoning in SEC v. Ripple about XRP was 100% correct and is now accepted by the SEC in relation to most cryptos,” Morgan wrote.

Chad Steingraber wrote, “We have the official list of Digital Commodities from the SEC,” then named a group of tokens which are included as examples inside the SEC document: APT, AVAX, BTC, BCH, ADA, LINK, DOGE, ETH, HBAR, LTC, DOT, SHIB, SOL, XLM, XTZ and XRP.

Luke Martin pushed the bullish interpretation further, arguing that “If XRP isn’t a security, nothing is a security. Unfathomably bullish.”

For XRP holders and Ripple supporters, the significance lies not only in the SEC’s updated crypto guidance, but in the fact that Ripple’s legal win appears to have gained another regulatory seal of approval, cementing XRP’s standing as a digital commodity.

At press time, XRP traded at $1.52.

Основатель аналитического сервиса Checkonchain Джеймс Чек (James Check) заявил в подкасте Coin Stories, что биткоин перешел из «пресноводного бассейна» в «соленый океан» — на уровень традиционных финансовых рынков.

Криптоплатформа Bitrefill, позволяющая оплачивать товары и подарочные карты с помощью криптовалют, сообщила, что 1 марта стала жертвой хакерской атаки. Компания не раскрыла сумму ущерба, однако заявила, что покроет потери за счет собственного капитала.

This week has been quite bullish for the Bitcoin price as it has seen a momentous break above $70,000. Although this is bullish, there are still some reservations as to the performance of the digital asset and what it could mean for its future. To this end, Bitget research analyst Lacie Zhang shares views on what the BTC price is doing, outlining the major factors that are currently influencing its price and the broader crypto market.

Bitcoin Price At A Major Structural Level

In a statement shared with Bitcoinist, Bitget Research Analyst Lacie Zhang said there has been a convergence of the Bitcoin realized price and the MVRV. Taking into account the performance of past cycles, the analyst points out that this could mean that Bitcoin could be nearing the end of its bear market.

The convergence of these indicators in the past has previously happened toward the tail end of a bear market, and this time could be no different. Not only this, but it is also associated with long-term accumulation, a trend that has usually preceded the bottom of a bear market.

As Zhang further explains, this could mean that investors are now moving from speculative selling to patient capital deployment. This speaks to the long-term accumulation trend, usually as large investors begin to shift their stance. Other factors are the fact that Bitcoin ETF inflows continue to rise, showing confidence from institutional players.

With these factors all aligning at almost the same time for BTC, it could mean that a trend reversal is coming. However, there is still the possibility that the price continues to decline, especially given that the broader macro dynamics have not been clear.

For one, there are still geopolitical tensions, with the US-Iran war shaking the market earlier this month. Zhang also points to the relationship between the US dollar Index and oil prices, which are tightening liquidity conditions. In such a case, risk assets tend to suffer the most, as evidenced by the decline that Bitcoin has suffered.

Predicting where the Bitcoin price could be headed, Zhang explained that “In the short term, Bitcoin is likely to fluctuate between $68,000 and $84,000 as markets search for equilibrium, while Ethereum may trade in a $1,800 to $2,500 range, supported by continued ecosystem development and growing adoption across decentralized finance and tokenized asset infrastructure.”

В Красноярском крае сотрудник компании «Водоотведение» почти два года незаконно использовал служебные электросети для майнинга криптовалюты, нанеся предприятию ущерб более 1 млн рублей, сообщили в региональной прокуратуре.

Инфраструктурная компания Maestro запустила платформу Mezzamine — рынок кредитования в биткоинах. Проект ориентирован на крупных инвесторов и призван расширить возможности финансирования для майнинговых компаний.

Комиссия по торговле товарными фьючерсами США (CFTC) решила не применять санкции к компании Phantom Technologies, оператору криптокошелька Phantom, несмотря на отсутствие регистрации в качестве брокера.

PayPal has expanded access to its stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD) to 70 markets, allowing users worldwide to send, hold, and receive the token while enabling faster, lower-cost global transactions.

PayPal Expands PYUSD Across 70 Markets

On Tuesday, payments giant PayPal announced that its USD-pegged stablecoin, PYUSD, will be available to users in 70 markets worldwide following its expansion into 68 new countries this month.

The fintech launched the stablecoin in August 2023 after initially pausing development due to scrutiny of PayPal’s issuance partner, Paxos. That same year, PayPal received a subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to its stablecoin.

As crypto regulation gained momentum and financial watchdogs loosened their grip under the Trump Administration, the Commission concluded its 16-month investigation into PYUSD without enforcement action in February 2025. Since then, PYUSD’s total market capitalization has reached $4.1 billion, a fivefold increase over the past year.

Previously, only customers in the US and the UK had access to the PYUSD. However, the latest expansion has made PYUSD available to users across multiple global regions, including Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America.

This includes Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Meanwhile, users in the remaining markets will have access to PYUSD in the coming weeks.

Users in the newly supported regions will be able to hold, send, and receive the stablecoin directly on their PayPal accounts, enabling faster settlement and lower cost than traditional payment methods.

Users will also be eligible to earn rewards on their stablecoin holdings, but rewards won’t be available to users in Singapore or the United Kingdom, the official announcement noted. Existing holders in the United States receive an annual 4% reward.

PayPal Eyes ‘More Inclusive, Global Commerce Ecosystem’

The payments giant affirmed that this geographical expansion marks a critical step in its stablecoin push to build “the liquidity, utility, and ubiquity of PYUSD necessary to create a more inclusive, global commerce ecosystem.”

While consumers and businesses worldwide are seeking faster, more seamless global transactions, the current system still incurs excessive charges and adheres to outdated timelines, May Zabaneh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto at PayPal, noted, adding that the company is working to change that.

“Enabling PYUSD in users’ accounts across 70 markets gives people faster access to their funds, lower-cost ways to send money across borders, and a more direct path to participating in the global economy, and that is what drives commerce forward for everyone,” she affirmed in the official announcement.

“Now you’re really opening up not only access—especially in places where they need it most— but also cross-border transfers and volume, where the pain is felt so high,” Zabaneh also told Fortune.

The stablecoin was initially launched on Ethereum and later expanded to other networks, including Tron, Avalanche, Aptos, and Sei, through LayerZero in September. In addition, YouTube added a new payout option last December that allows US creators to receive earnings in PYUSD.

На мероприятии, организованном при участии Dash, обсудят как фундаментальные, так и прикладные аспекты privacy-tech и децентрализации: от разработки до анализа транзакций и внедрения криптографии в финтех.

Mastercard has announced an acquisition of stablecoins infrastructure firm BVNK, which was previously in talks with Coinbase over a $2 billion deal.

Mastercard Will Be Acquiring BVNK For Up To $1.8 Billion

As announced in a press release, Mastercard has reached a definitive agreement to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent payments.

BVNK is an enterprise stablecoins infrastructure solutions provider that operates across more than 130 countries. Last year, the company was in discussion with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase over a merger, but in November, the deal fell through.

Now, it would appear that Mastercard has been successful in obtaining a signature from the stablecoins infrastructure firm. “The deal further expands Mastercard’s end-to-end support of digital assets and value movement across currencies, rails and regions,” noted the press release.

In January, another major payments card provider, Visa, also formed a partnership with BVNK, seeking its expertise to enable stablecoin payments on the Visa Direct platform.

Mastercard is also eyeing an integration of its fiat rails with on-chain payments in this acquisition. Jorn Lambert, Mastercard Chief Product Officer, said:

This acquisition reinforces what we have always done, using innovation and technology to power economies and empower people. Adding on-chain rails to our network will support speed and programmability for virtually every type of transaction.

Stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies tied to fiat currencies, have been gaining adoption around the world in recent years, owing to positive regulation like the United States’ GENIUS Act. “We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs will in time provide digital currency services, be it with stablecoins or tokenized deposits,” noted Lambert.

Mastercard’s transaction with BVNK is expected to close before the end of the year, but according to the statement, it’s subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.

Jesse Hemson-Struthers, BVNK co-founder and CEO, said:

This deal brings together complementary capabilities to define and deliver the future of money. Together, we’re able to deliver an unprecedented infrastructure for digital currency-based financial services.

During 2024 and most of 2025, the stablecoin sector enjoyed a notable uptrend, with the combined market cap of these tokens ballooning in size. Since October, however, the slowdown in the wider cryptocurrency market has also affected the fiat-pegged coins, as data from DefiLlama shows.

From the chart, it’s visible that the stablecoin market cap has seen its growth stall in recent months. However, unlike the rest of the sector, these assets haven’t actually faced any drawdown, at least not yet. As such, stablecoins have still been holding up relatively well in the wider context.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $74,700, up nearly 7% over the past week.

On-chain data shows the total number of non-empty XRP addresses has set a new all-time high alongside a 5-week high in network activity.

XRP Total Amount Of Holders Is Sitting At A Fresh Record

As pointed out by on-chain analytics firm Santiment in a new post on X, XRP has set a new record in Total Amount Of Holders. This indicator measures, as its name suggests, the total number of addresses present on the network that are carrying a non-zero balance.

When the value of this metric rises, it can be a sign that investors are joining the network or old ones who had sold earlier are returning. The trend can also arise due to existing users creating fresh wallets for a purpose like privacy. In general, all of these factors can be assumed to simultaneously be at play whenever the Total Amount Of Holders goes up, so some net adoption of the asset could be considered to have occurred.

Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the XRP Total Amount Of Holders over the past month:

As displayed in the above graph, the XRP Total Amount Of Holders has followed an uptrend in recent weeks, implying that the cryptocurrency has been getting a steady stream of new users. Today, the indicator is sitting at a value above 7.7 million, which is a new record for the blockchain.

The Total Amount Of Holders isn’t the only indicator that has seen a rise for XRP recently. As the analytics firm has highlighted in the same chart, the Daily Active Addresses has just witnessed a spike. This metric tracks the daily total number of addresses that are participating in some kind of transaction activity on the network.

While the Total Amount Of Holders measures the pure number of users that exist on the blockchain, the Daily Active Addresses provides an estimate for the amount of them who are active in their participation.

Following the latest spike in the Daily Active Addresses, 46,767 addresses are making transactions on the XRP network, which is the highest level in about five weeks. The elevation in activity has appeared alongside a price surge for the cryptocurrency.

Sharp price action tends to attract attention to the network, so it may not be a surprise that this rise in the Daily Active Addresses took place. Generally, price moves like this are sustainable so long as they can continue to invite engagement from investors, so it only remains to be seen whether the indicator will also be elevated in the coming days.

XRP Price

XRP briefly touched the $1.6 level during its latest rally, but the coin has since cooled back down to $1.5.

Ripple has announced plans to expand operations in Brazil, South America’s largest economy, aiming to improve its digital asset services in the country and obtain a key license from Brazilian regulatory authorities. 

The company revealed that it is now the only provider in the region capable of addressing a comprehensive range of financial needs, including cross-border payments, digital asset custody, prime brokerage, and treasury management.

Ripple Prepares To Launch Custody Services

As part of its growth strategy, Ripple aims to apply for a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license with the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), in accordance with the nation’s newly established virtual asset regulatory framework. 

“Latin America has always been a priority market for Ripple—not just for the size of the opportunity but also because Brazil has developed one of the most advanced and forward-thinking financial ecosystems worldwide,” stated Monica Long, President at Ripple. 

She emphasized that Ripple has spent years building the trust, licensing, and technological infrastructure necessary to thrive in regulated markets, and with the expansion of its platform, the firm is now equipped to meet the needs of institutions throughout the region.

Ripple has also showcased significant collaborations with major institutions utilizing its technology to address real-world challenges related to liquidity and payments. Notable partners include Brazil’s Banco Genial, Nomad, and Braza Bank.

Additionally, Ripple Custody is set to launch in Brazil, offering bank-grade security, real-time compliance features, and flexible deployment options for regulated institutions. 

Established following the firm’s acquisition of Metaco in 2023, Ripple Custody provides institutions with the infrastructure required to hold digital assets, as well as facilitate payments, trading, and tokenization workflows. 

The service is designed to support a wide array of hardware security module (HSM) providers and integrates with Chainalysis and Elliptic for real-time transaction monitoring, as well as enabling institutional staking across Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks.

Tokenization Initiatives And RLUSD Expansion In Brazil

In Tuesday’s release, it was also stated that Brazil-based CRX, which specializes in tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs), is leveraging the XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ripple Custody to issue and manage tokenized RWAs on a large scale, with approximately $100 million settled on blockchain. 

Similarly, Justoken, which has already tokenized over $1.7 billion in assets on the XRPL, plans to utilize the firm’s Custody tools to create institutional-grade infrastructure for natural resources tokenization in Latin America.

The company’s RLUSD stablecoin is reportedly gaining notable momentum in Latin America, where institutions are seeking trusted, regulated digital dollar options. 

Ripple disclosed that RLUSD is already being adopted by some of the largest exchanges and fintech companies in the country, including Mercado Bitcoin, Foxbit, Ripio, and Attrus. 

At the time of writing, Ripple’s associated cryptocurrency, XRP, was trading at $1.52, up 7% in the last week and 1% in the last 24 hours. 

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

A crypto analyst has revealed that Bitcoin (BTC) could be entering a cycle that looks very different from the one that led to the sharp 2022 downturn. The analyst’s chart review suggests that the current bull market is developing on a stronger foundation, reinforcing the possibility that future corrections may deviate from past cycle patterns.

Bitcoin Shows Deviation From 2022 Bear Cycle Patterns

According to a new technical analysis shared in an X post by pseudonymous analyst DorkChicken on March 14, Bitcoin is showing signs of a different market structure than the setup that led to the massive 2022 crash. The analyst explained that the current cycle is developing on stronger support levels, which could change the market’s trajectory and how it behaves during future corrections in the bear market. 

The analyst’s accompanying chart shows Bitcoin on the two-week timeframe, highlighting several large support or consolidation zones that formed across multiple market cycles. One zone formed after the 2018 cycle top, another developed during the 2021 bull market, and a new range appears to be forming in the current cycle near the 2024 to 2026 price area. 

DorkChicken pointed out that the 2022 bear market crash occurred after Bitcoin fell below $30,000, leaving very little historical support below. The analyst noted that at the time, because the structure below that level was “nothing but open air,” it exposed the market to a much deeper selloff.

In contrast, the current cycle shows a structure in which Bitcoin builds support step by step as the bull market progresses. The analyst’s chart suggests that instead of moving straight up and leaving gaps underneath, the price has been forming ranges that could act as support if the market corrects later in the cycle. 

DorkChicken noted that this difference in structure means that the present bull market is built on a stronger foundation than the one seen before the 2022 market crash. Because of this, he suggests that Bitcoin may not follow the same devastating bear market correction as it did in the last cycle. 

Analyst Asserts BTC Bears Are Done

Following its recovery above $70,000, Bitcoin is showing signs of strength, with analysts predicting another short-term upward move. According to crypto expert ‘Investor Jordan’ on X, Bitcoin’s current bear market may have ended after a recent breakout from a key short-term pattern.

The chart analysis suggests that bearish selling pressure is likely in its final stages after BTC’s price cleared an important support level around $74,000. Investor Jordan noted that this level had served as the last major line holding the range, and once BTC cleared it, the structure supporting its bearish outlook was no longer in place.  

The analyst noted that Bitcoin had previously traded within a Bull Flag formation on the four-hour timeframe. However, now this Bull Flag has broken out cleanly, with price moving above the upper boundary of the range. Following this breakout, Investor Jordan projects that Bitcoin could move to two main targets. The first is the unfilled Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) gap between $81,500 and $83,000, before a final run to reclaim the BMSB level above $84,000.  

Bitrefill, a Sweden-based crypto e-commerce platform, revealed on Tuesday that it fell victim to a cyberattack on March 1, 2026, carried out by suspected North Korean hackers linked to the notorious Lazarus group. 

The company released a post-mortem report detailing the breach, which resulted in drained funds and the exposure of a subset of user data.

18,500 Purchase Records Exposed

In a statement shared on social media platform X, Bitrefill explained that the attack exhibited several indicators consistent with previous incursions attributed to the North Korean Lazarus and Bluenoroff groups. 

The attack was initiated through a compromised employee laptop, from which legacy credentials were extracted. These credentials reportedly allowed the attackers to access sensitive data, including a snapshot containing crucial production secrets, ultimately leading to broader access within Bitrefill’s infrastructure, database, and wallets.

The cyberattack was first detected when the team noticed “suspicious purchasing patterns,” indicating that gift card inventories were being misused. As a result, some of the company’s hot wallets were compromised, with funds being redirected to wallets controlled by the attackers. 

Regarding customer data, Bitrefill emphasized that its investigation did not indicate that customers’ information was the primary target of the breach. 

The firm asserted there is no evidence suggesting the attackers accessed the entire database; rather, they executed a limited number of queries, likely in an attempt to probe the system for valuable data, including cryptocurrency and gift card inventories.

However, the company did confirm that the breach involved access to approximately 18,500 purchase records, which contained limited customer information such as email addresses, cryptocurrency payment addresses, and metadata including IP addresses. 

For around 1,000 purchases, customers had to provide names for specific products, and while this information is encrypted, the attackers may have accessed the encryption keys. 

Bitrefill Strengthens Cybersecurity Post-Attack

In response to the cyberattack, Bitrefill is enhancing its cybersecurity measures. This includes thorough reviews and penetration tests conducted by various external experts, and implementing their recommendations. 

The platform is also tightening internal access controls, improving logging and monitoring for quicker detection, and refining its incident response protocols alongside automated shutdown strategies.

Additionally, Bitrefill has been collaborating with top industry security experts, incident response teams, on-chain analysts, and law enforcement agencies to gain a deeper understanding of the breach and to implement measures that prevent future occurrences. 

In its statement, the firm clarified that operations are returning to normal. Payment processing, stock availability, and account functionalities are stabilizing. The Bitrefill team concluded:

Bitrefill was designed to limit the impact if something like this ever happened. Bitrefill remains well funded, has been profitable for several years and will absorb these losses from our operational capital… We will continue to do our best to continue deserving your trust.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

While its price action has been trending sideways over the past few weeks, Ethereum has been seeing robust network performance and adoption. Recent updates are showing that the ETH network is now at the forefront of tokenized assets as the sector experiences substantial growth.

Tokenized Asset Boom On The Ethereum Network

Tokenized assets are becoming the order of the day in the ever-evolving blockchain sector, with the Ethereum network turning up at the center of the development. As the market for tokenized assets keeps growing, Ethereum has remained the top blockchain network driving this quickly expanding industry.

Leon Waidmann, a market expert and head of research at Lisk, shared this development on X, which suggests that the leading network is witnessing a strong wave of demand and interest. Developers and institutions are rapidly using ETH’s well-established infrastructure and substantial liquidity for everything from tokenized real-world assets to blockchain-based financial instruments.

Looking at the chart, the Ethereum mainnet is clearly dominating the tokenized assets market, controlling more than 61% of the entire market share. The chart shows that the current value of tokenized assets settling on the ETH Layer 1 blockchain has reached approximately $200 billion.

After falling to about 50% during the multi-chain expansion phase, Ethereum’s share has been increasing since the middle of 2024. This dominance is a result of both the network’s strong ecosystem of decentralized apps and its early-mover advantage. 

Offering insights into why the tokenized market is climbing again, the expert claims that this is because when institutions tokenize real value, they often pick the chain with the deepest liquidity. Other things they look out for are the strongest security guarantees and the most battle-tested infrastructure, especially in a bear market. 

Has ETH’s Downward Trend Come To An End?

After a period of downward action, the price of Ethereum may be approaching the end of the bearish phase. Ali Martinez, a seasoned technical analyst, revealed that ETH just flashed a signal that the downward trend is potentially nearing its end. This implies that bearish momentum is gradually weakening, with buyers stepping back into the market.

Market indicators and shifting price structure are key indicators of the development. For the first time since September, the SupperTrend indicator has transitioned from Sell to Buy. The setup could spur an upward move, as observed in the last two scenarios, which triggered moves of 52% and 174%.

Currently, a major shift is developing under the surface. ETH has experienced a reclaim of the $2,200 level as support after a 39% decline below it. At the same time, demand has picked up pace, with ETFs accumulating over 83,000 ETH valued at roughly $193 million, in the last 3 weeks. Given that ETH has survived the volatile market conditions from September 2025 to March 2026, Martinez predicts that the next key levels to reclaim are $2,400 and $2,600.

The XRP Ledger has received a quiet but important update, as developers moved quickly to resolve a vulnerability that had the potential to affect server infrastructure on the network. A recent announcement revealed that Ripple released Rippled Version 3.1.2, which is a new update for the XRP Ledger server software.

The release of Rippled version 3.1.2 comes shortly after concerns came up around a newly introduced feature, which, in turn, led to a quick response in order to protect users of the XRP Ledger.

Ripple Patches Major Issue

According to the announcement from the XRP Ledger website, the issue traces back to the Batch amendment, a feature that was introduced to expand transaction capabilities on the XRP Ledger. Early implementation of the amendment exposed a flaw that could lead to unintended issues under certain edge conditions.

Developers identified that the security issues, in the worst-case scenario, could cause the servers to crash or restart. This placed added pressure on the XRP Ledger team to act quickly, and the fix was developed in collaboration with the team at RippleX. 

Keeping server infrastructure stable is important, especially as the XRP Ledger network continues to grow in both usage and complexity. Therefore, if Rippled users do not upgrade to the new version, they may continue to experience restarts or outages.

The latest patch is the third release in a rapid succession of updates that came from a significant bug discovered in Rippled 3.1.0. That original version introduced the XRPL Batch amendment, which contained a flaw severe enough to allow an attacker to execute inner transactions on behalf of arbitrary victim accounts without their private keys. 

The payment firm initially responded to that vulnerability with an emergency release of version 3.1.1, which marked both Batch and fixBatchInnerSigs as unsupported, preventing activation. 

CTO Responds As Debate Around XRP Sales Resurfaces

As Ripple moves to stabilize its network infrastructure, the company is also contending with questions over its XRP funding model. Particularly, Ripple CTO emeritus David Schwartz recently addressed criticism regarding the company’s XRP sales following comments on the social media platform X from crypto commentator Zach Rynes.

Crypto commentator Zach Rynes, known on X as @ChainLinkGod, questioned Ripple’s practice of selling XRP to fund operations. According to him, this arrangement of XRP purchases makes it so that retail investors indirectly subsidize the company’s corporate growth. This proposition led to a direct response from David Schwartz, who challenged the logic of the argument.

According to Schwartz, the logic behind the criticism does not apply. Going by that logic, one could just as easily claim that Ripple’s XRP sales actually benefit investors trying to profit from holding the token.

Michael Saylor says Bitcoin could emerge as one of the biggest winners if artificial intelligence compresses corporate “terminal value” and forces markets to stop paying up for long-dated growth. His argument came in response to Chamath Palihapitiya’s latest thought experiment, which framed AI not simply as a productivity engine, but as a force that could undermine the basic assumptions behind modern equity valuation.

Palihapitiya’s core thesis was stark. If AI makes disruption faster, cheaper, and more relentless, investors may no longer be willing to underwrite cash flows far into the future. In that world, equities would stop being valued as long-duration assets and instead trade closer to what they generate right now.

“The entire architecture of modern capital markets rests on a single, rarely examined assumption: that competitive advantages compound over time. Moats persist. Brands endure. Network effects defend,” Palihapitiya wrote. “Strip that assumption away, and you aren’t just repricing some stocks, you would be dismantling the philosophical foundation of how capital has been allocated for a century.”

He then pushed that logic through a valuation framework built around disruption risk. Using a US 10-year yield of roughly 4.5% as a starting point and an equity risk premium of 4% to 5%, Palihapitiya argued that a stable, durable business might justify a 10x to 12x free cash flow multiple. But once AI-driven obsolescence becomes a serious annual risk, those multiples fall fast. At a 20% annual disruption probability, he estimated fair value at about 3.9x FCF. At 30%, it drops to 2.8x. Even 10% only gets to roughly 6.5x.

That matters because, in his telling, markets have done this before. He pointed to newspapers after digital advertising, retailers facing Amazon, oil majors during the energy transition, and even New York taxi medallions after Uber. In each case, the market was not denying the existence of current cash flows. It was repricing how long those cash flows could realistically last.

Palihapitiya extended that argument to the broader market. With the S&P 500 valued at around $58 trillion and corporate free cash flow near $2.8 trillion annually, he argued that repricing the index at 5x FCF would imply a market value of about $14 trillion, or a 75% drawdown. Even a less severe compression would radically change how capital gets allocated.

Bitcoin Could Surge as AI Destroys Traditional Moats

Saylor’s response was brief and reiterated his previous public stance. “If AI compresses terminal value and makes every moat temporary, capital will rotate to assets with no disruption risk,” he wrote. “Bitcoin is Digital Capital – scarce, neutral, and impervious to AI disruption. $BTC should be the primary beneficiary of this shift.”

That exchange quickly turned to a familiar fault line in Bitcoin debates: quantum risk. Palihapitiya answered that Bitcoin “would need to be quantum resistant by then,” prompting Saylor to push back. “Your AI thesis assumes the digital world is quantum-resistant. If quantum breaks cryptography, it breaks AI, cloud infrastructure, banks, and the internet—not just Bitcoin. The entire stack upgrades together.”

Palihapitiya was unconvinced. “No. A store of value has to be 100% hacking resistant. It’s an existential feature,” he wrote. “For other industries it will be important but less binary/existential.”

Others in crypto added nuance. BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said both sides were partially right, arguing that Bitcoin is likely the “low-hanging fruit” for quantum attackers even if other systems would also be affected. He added: “It’s just too easy relative to other efforts. Similarly, Bitcoin also has the easiest job to be Quantum Resistant – it’s a clean solve technically, suffering only from lack of governance and decisiveness. The banking solution(s) to Quantum will be much harder with a much longer tail of work, but at least the centralized decision making is easier.”

Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz made a similar distinction from another angle: “Those systems can detect, mitigate, and fix against a quantum threat infinitely faster than bitcoin in a non-messy way. That is the cost of decentralization. An EC2 machine getting hacked (won’t happen anyway) is nowhere near the severity of your entire financial getting drained.”

At press time, Bitcoin traded at $74,140.