Bitcoin bounced off in the last hours of March, reclaiming $28,000 and posting a 23% price increase for the third month of the year.
Several altcoins are also well in the green, with ETH surging past $1,800, while SOL has returned to over $20.
BTC Back Above $28K
The primary cryptocurrency has been on a rollercoaster for the past several days. It dumped by $1,500 on Monday when the US CFTC sued Binance and Changpeng Zhao before the bulls intercepted the move and pushed the asset north hard.
Just a few days later, bitcoin found itself surging beyond $29,000. However, that was short-lived as well, and it started losing value quickly in the following days. Thus, BTC dumped to $27,600 on Friday.
The end of the last day of March, however, was more positive for the

About a week ago, a settlement was reached between Celsius and Celsius Custody account holders. As a result, the latter group was promised a refund of up to 72.5% – half on the spot and half by the end of the year – provided they signed away their right to further litigation.
Earn Users Hung Out to Dry
However, the vast majority of users did not have Custody accounts. Owners of Earn accounts were not promised a refund, as the judge agreed that Celsius’s ToS proved that the customers had signed over their crypto. The only compensation promised to these clients was equity in a new company founded by the deal’s sponsor.Luckily for some Earn users, there is a silver lining.
Yesterday evening, Ray Youssef – Paxful’s CEO – announced he would be refunding those in the Paxful

The hacker behind the largest DeFi exploit of 2023 continues to demonstrate controversial behavior, as this time, they returned the majority of the funds stolen from Euler Finance.
In two separate transactions, the perpetrator sent back over $100 million worth of ETH to the protocol.
CryptoPotato reported the flash loan attack, which took place earlier in March, that saw $198 million worth of USDC, staked ether, wrapped BTC, and DAI siphoned off the DeFi lending protocol. Later reports suggested that this vulnerability was evident for over eight months before the exploit.
The team behind the project offered the attacker a $20 million bounty, which they rejected, and started laundering portions of the proceeds via TornadoCash.
Interestingly, the perpetrator returned some

The trading volumes have gone down during the weekend, resulting in BTC failing to produce any significant moves in either direction.
The altcoins have also stalled on a daily scale, while XRP has emerged as one of the best performers for the past seven days.
Bitcoin Boring at $27.5K
A lot happened in the cryptocurrency industry in the past few weeks, and bitcoin has somewhat expectedly taken a break now.
The asset exploded from under $20,000 to over $28,000 during the US banking crisis, which actually expanded to Europe, with UBS having to acquire Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank’s stocks plummeting. The Fed’s latest interest rate hike on Wednesday brought more volatility to BTC, which dumped by $2,000 in hours.
However, the bulls came back to play almost immediately, and

Bitcoin jumped above $29,000 yesterday to chart a new nine-month high, but that was short-lived and the asset retraced hard in the following hours.
Most altcoins are deep in the red as well, with SOL, APT, LDO, OKB, and others dropping by over 5%.
Bitcoin Fails at $29K
The primary cryptocurrency’s climb had culminated at jumping to $28,800 mid-week ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to continue to increase the interest rates. As many local banks struggled due to the high rates, many experts believed the Fed would finally revert from its policy.
However, that was not the case. The second yearly FOMC meeting copied the first, and the central bank raised the key rates by 25 basis points. Risk-on assets, such as bitcoin, went on a downfall.
The cryptocurrency

Yesterday, lawyers from the FTX Group announced their intention to settle out of court with Modulo Capital, a measure that effectively wiped the VC firms’ books by about 99%.
Mysten Takes it in Stride
Today, in another bid to raise as many funds as possible, FTX outlined intentions to sell its stake in Mysten Labs back to Mysten.
Unlike Modulo – a company whose capital seems to have been almost entirely FTX-sourced – Mysten Labs, the creators of the Sui blockchain, is a solid firm whose funding round last year saw it hit a valuation of $2 billion.
The funding round in question was, indeed, led by FTX. However, the failed exchange was not the only big-league backer: a16z, Binance Labs, Franklin Templeton, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and many more well-known firms

The cryptocurrency space rejoiced recently when several large US banks halted services, and the FDIC, as well as other regulators, had to intervene to stop the contagion. However, the crisis expanded to Europe this week, with two of the most prominent names facing significant problems.
Credit Suisse was acquired by the largest Swiss bank – UBS, for almost $3.3 billion, which was more than 60% less than what the former was worth days ago. This propelled another leg up in terms of price action for bitcoin, which took it to a new nine-month high of almost $29,000. Deutsche Bank is the other name making the headlines recently, as its stock price tumbled 10% daily on Friday and is down by over 25% in a month.
More volatility followed in the next few days as the Federal Reserve

Ever since FTX unceremoniously imploded back in November, regulators and courthouses in both the USA and the Bahamas have been working furiously to get as many FTX-held assets back into the hands of their original owners, with varying degrees of success.
While court cases in the US have temporarily stalled, owed in part to SBF’s plea of innocence, Bahamian regulators were able to seize some assets from the get-go and appear to be closing in on FTX Digital Markets, the Bahamian subsidiary of the failed crypto exchange.
Dispute Over Prominence of Bahamian Entity
The current lawsuit has been filed by FTX US against the Bahamian authorities in charge of liquidating FTX Digital Markets. If the former wins the lawsuit, it could mean that a greater share of the assets that were

Bitcoin’s dominance continues to increase as most of the alts have slumped today, while BTC maintains above $27,000.
ATOM, LDO, and APT are among the most substantial losers today, dropping by up to 7%.
Bitcoin Dominance Spikes to New Peaks
The US banking crisis, in which three banks were closed within days, and the subsequent bailout speculations as well as US Fed lending $300 billion to certain banking institutions, pushed BTC north this week.
The asset stood just inches above $20,000 last Sunday but started marching on as the working week began. After several consecutive massive rallies, the cryptocurrency found itself trading above $26,000 for the first time in months on Tuesday.
It retraced by a couple of grand in the next two days but went on the offensive once more

Bitcoin initiated yet another leg up in the past 24 hours, resulting in nearing $28,000 for the first time since June 2022.
The altcoins are also well in the green, with ETH reclaiming $1,800, while SOL, UNI, AVAX, and ETC have skyrocketed by up to 14%.
BTC Taps Yet Another 9-Month High
The US banking crisis, which later expanded to Europe as well, harmed bitcoin’s price performance at the end of last week as the asset tumbled below $20,000 for the first time in two months. However, the landscape started to change with the start of the new week.
Bitcoin began adding a couple of grand daily, which resulted in breaking above $26,000 on Tuesday. After its initial retracement to $24,000, the cryptocurrency went on a roll once again on Thursday and Friday.
The past 24 hours

Following the collapse of Silvergate bank – one of the two main banks providing financial services to crypto platforms – former clients began pivoting to competitor Signature, only for the latter to be seized by U.S. authorities, citing significant liquidity issues.
Significant Crypto Exposure
Faced with a public lack of trust in the banking sector, U.S. authorities decided over the weekend to place Signature Bank in receivership, informing its leadership mere hours before the public announcement was made. The bank was majorly invested in crypto, with over a quarter of all deposits coming from the industry.
The news dealt a blow to many mainstays of the crypto industry, de-pegging Circle’s USDC and causing uncertainty for Coinbase and Paxos, who, among others, had

The host of CNBC’s Mad Money has been often grilled on social media for advising people to invest in assets that turn unprofitable or vice-versa.
His latest example is the notorious Silicon Valley Bank, which became a victim of a bank run, and ultimately collapsed on Friday.
Cramer Said Buy SVB Stock
“This company is a merchant bank with a deposit base that Wall Street has mistakenly been concerned by,” explained Cramer in his show from February 8. He added that the bank was “less dependent upon private equity and venture capital offerings” before adding that the stock “is still cheap” despite being up by 40% YTD at the time.
Fast-forward to a month later, on March 8, SVN’s woes became known to the mass public as the bank announced it had sold a large portion of securities

The cryptocurrency industry experienced its own set of failures last year when numerous internal companies and projects imploded, resulting in declining prices, countless bankruptcy filings, and, somewhat expectedly, lots of investor losses.
This year started on a positive note, but crypto has once again taken a serious hit – this time, the most apparent reason coming from outside players.
All of this has harmed the performance of bitcoin and most altcoins, resulting in yet another change in the overall sentiment.
BTC Shuttered Amid Banking Issues
The first several weeks of 2023 saw BTC finally overcoming $17,000, which propelled a mini bull run that drove the asset to and beyond $25,000 in February. After adding almost 50% in this timeframe and charting a multi-month

Bitcoin’s woes keep on coming as the asset plummeted to a new two-month low at $19,500 yesterday before bouncing off by over a grand.
This comes amid the Silicon Valley Bank’s troubles and the apparent exposure of certain crypto firms, including Circle and its stablecoin, which lost its dollar parity.
BTC Volatile Around $20K
In a matter of almost a week, bitcoin had calmed at around $22,000 and failed to produce any significant moves in either direction. Yet, the asset is known for its volatile nature, and such occasions are quite rare. In fact, they are usually followed by enhanced fluctuations.
This is precisely what happened on Thursday when the cryptocurrency plummeted by almost $2,000. While the reasons are still debated, BTC kept on plunging and fell all the way

Blockchain.com started out as the first Bitcoin blockchain explorer back in 2011 and later expanded into wallet services, as well as hosting its own crypto exchange.
Following years of growth, the company decided that 2022 was the year they would expand into asset management services. Unfortunately, the years of experience did not save the firm from the bear market.
Operational for Just Under a Year
Blockchain.com, which was worth about $14 billion when BCAM was launched, created the asset management service in collaboration with Altis Partners.
The service was geared towards high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors and upsold the idea of investing in cryptocurrency with less risk due to “algorithm-based risk-managed exposure” – a string of words that don’t

A new report has surfaced from the Wall Street Journal, outlining insider communications between members of Binance and Binance US.
Additionally, the messages discuss how best to deal with regulatory oversight, which is a major point of interest for any business eager to do business in the United States. However, the report hints that Binance’s early days may have been fraught with the issues typical of dotcom startups.
Less Compartmentalized Than Previously Believed
Binance.US was set up shortly after Binance, aiming to separate the business procedures necessary for compliance with US regulators from those applied to the rest of the world. If US regulators were able to regulate Binance, such rules would have been imposed on the platforms’ offerings worldwide. For

The cryptocurrency market has stalled in the past few days in a rather untypical fashion, but all that can change this week as there’re multiple major events and announcements coming from the world’s largest economy.
It starts with US Fed Chair’s testimony to Congress and spreads to jobless claims as well as the unemployment rate.
Powell to Testify
The US central bank reversed its monetary policy after the COVID-19 pandemic began to fade away and started rising the interest rate quite aggressively to battle the galloping inflation. The past several FOMC meetings have all resulted in hikes, some of which of 75 basis points. However, the Fed slowed down at the end of 2022, and the start of the new year brought similar sentiment.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell will head to Capitol

Silvergate Capital Corporation was once among the most preferred banking institutions for cryptocurrency business, but the entity has faced numerous issues in the past few weeks.
The latest saw the bank closing its crypto payment service called the Silvergate Exchange Network.
“Effective immediately Silvergate Bank has made a risk-based decision to discontinue the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN). All other deposit-related services remain operational,” reads the firm’s statement.
The service allowed investors to complete 24/7 transfers to crypto exchanges, which was one of the most utilized products of the bank. It operated a lot faster than traditional banking wire transfers that could take days.
However, the bank raised eyebrows earlier this week when it revealed

Bitcoin tried to recover some of its recently lost value in the past 24 hours but was stopped in its tracks and is back down to $22,300.
The altcoins are quite stagnant on a daily scale, with EOS losing all of its yesterday’s gains.
Bitcoin Maintains $22K
The low trading volumes of last weekend helped bitcoin remain around $23,000 for most of it. The start of the working week saw the asset pushing toward $24,000. In fact, BTC managed to tap that level once on Wednesday, but that was a brief and unsuccessful attempt to reclaim it.
The cryptocurrency remained stuck in a range between $23,000 and $24,000 for most of the week until Friday. This is where the landscape changed amid the Silvegate issues. Bitcoin plummeted by over $1,000 in minutes and fell to an 18-day low of

Bitcoin’s massive crash on Friday drove it south to just under $22,000 to mark its lowest price tag since February 14.
The altcoins experienced similar enhanced volatility, but most have calmed since then. Ripple’s XRP and EOS are among the few alts with notable gains.
Bitcoin Slipped Below $22K
Despite the rising volatility at the end of February, bitcoin managed to close the month with a slight increase and stood at around $23,000. The first few days of March saw a price push towards $24,000, but that was stopped in its tracks.
As such, BTC retraced to $23,500 by Friday when the whole landscape changed. In just a matter of minutes, the cryptocurrency plummeted by over $1,500 and slumped to and under $22,000. While the community continues to speculate on the potential

Lendhub, a relatively small cross-chain crypto lending platform operating on HECO, was exploited to the tune of $6 million dollars earlier this January.
Attack Possible Solely Due to Poor Coding
The attack was carried out due to a poorly-executed removal of a deprecated IBSV cToken. Its replacement, which was already active, had an identical price point at the time, which allowed the unknown bad actor to manipulate the pricing and drain around $6 million worth of crypto from the platform.
According to blockchain security researcher Halborn, a proper analysis of the attack will be difficult to carry out as the smart contracts responsible for the price of the two tokens were both unverified. Furthermore, the smart contracts themselves were not attacked, only the tokens

After falling by roughly $1,000 and marking a multi-week low beneath $23,000, bitcoin has calmed and sits at just over that line amid low trading volumes.
The altcoins are also quiet today, given the trading volumes, aside from the likes of Stacks and Lido Dao, both of which are up by impressive percentages.
Bitcoin Flat at $23K
Bitcoin tried its hand at taking down $25,000 three times in the past 10 days or so, with the most notable surge coming in the middle of last week as it shot up by $3,500 on Thursday.
The volatility only increased as BTC slipped to under $23,500 shortly after, while the latest attempt at $25,000 came on February 21. Bitcoin briefly jumped above that line but was rejected quickly and fell back down to $23,500.
Following another price pump to

Bitcoin didn’t react well to the latest PCE data coming from the US and dropped by almost a grand to a ten-day low.
The altcoins also sit deep in the red, with the most substantial losses coming from MATIC, DOT, UNI, and others.
Bitcoin Fell to $23K
The end of last week went a lot better than this one as BTC skyrocketed by double-digits to chart a six-month high above $25,000. It failed to decisively overcome that line at first but kept trying. However, all three attempts saw quick rejections.
The latest, which came mid-week, pushed the cryptocurrency south to $23,500. The bulls tried to intercept the move and drove bitcoin back to above $24,000 hours later. It seemed that the asset had calmed around that level, but the landscape changed once the US announced that the PCE

Coinbase launched its own Layer-2 blockchain yesterday, built in collaboration with Optimism in its OP stack.
The new Layer-2 blockchain, named Base, will host many of Coinbase’s on-chain products and offer EVMs at low costs to developers.
Piggybacking on Recent News
Unfortunately, opportunistic bad actors are once again trying to make a quick buck off of the success of other firms. Not even a day after Base was launched, Solidus Labs announced via their Token Sniffer website that at least four new tokens had been identified, all with names playing on Coinbase’s new product, such as Base Token and even the very generically named “Coin Chain.”

🚨SCAM ALERT: Since @coinbase‘s testnet launch of @BuildOnBase, four impersonation tokens have been created to capitalize on the

Following the most recent crackdown by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against several crypto companies, Jeremy Allaire opined that the agency is not the best fit to oversee stablecoins in particular.
He believes these assets are part of the banking sector, thus, they need to be regulated by another watchdog in the States.
The past several weeks saw the US securities regulator going after several locally based crypto firms, starting with Kraken and its staking services. The exchange had to settle with the watchdog, pay a $30 million penalty, and halt its staking platform.
Days later, the SEC sent a Wells warning to Paxos, alleging the company of selling unregistered securities when it issues the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin.
This rattled a lot of cages in the

The SEC and other U.S. regulators have, in recent weeks, turned on the heat in regard to crypto exchanges – an understandable, if a somewhat brusque, response to the series of crypto bankruptcies across 2022.
The latest to come under their scope is CoinEx.
Selling Securities Without a License
According to a press release published by the AGs’ office, CoinEx – a Hong Kong-based crypto exchange also known as Vino Global Ltd – was found to be selling cryptocurrencies that U.S. regulators had previously identified as securities and/or commodities.
The cryptocurrencies mentioned by name are LUNA, AMP, LBC, and RLY, which the AG’s office was able to purchase using a New York-based IP – a state in which CoinEx is not a licensed broker.
The office of the attorney general is

Bitcoin tried its hand at overtaking $25,000 once again in the past 24 hours but was stopped in its tracks and is back down to $24,500 as of now.
Most alternative coins have calmed following the recent enhanced volatility, aside from Filecoin, which has produced yet another double-digit price surge.
Bitcoin Fails at $25K
Bitcoin went through a highly-volatile trading week, having surged past $25,000 for the first time since August last year and then dumping by roughly $2,000 hours later.
The bulls stepped up on the gas pedal in the following day or two, pushing the asset to just over $25,000 once again. However, that was short-lived, and BTC retraced back down below that line.
The asset remained calm at around $24,500 on Saturday and initiated another leg up toward $25,000

Bitcoin’s volatile performance as of late continued in the past 24 hours as the asset touched $25,000 once again before falling back down by $500.
Several altcoins are well in the green as well, with OKB stealing the show and tapping a new all-time high beyond $50.
Bitcoin Stopped at $25K Again
It was just several days ago when the primary cryptocurrency had dipped to $21,500 amid the ongoing regulatory scrutiny by the United States authorities. However, the landscape changed in an instant as the bulls came to play.
In a matter of a day, they pushed bitcoin from $21,500 to a multi-month high of just under $25,000. Although BTC was unable to overcome that level at first, it finally did so hours later, reaching its highest price tag since August 2022.
The bears intercepted

Shortly after legally going after Do Kwon and Terraform Labs, the US Securities and Exchange Commission asserted that the former cashed out 10,000 bitcoin after his brainchild collapsed.
Kwon has been on the run ever since the crash last year, reportedly currently hiding in Serbia.
As reported by Bloomberg, the latest allegations from the US securities watchdog indicate that Kwon used an unnamed Swiss bank to cash more than $100 million worth of BTC between “June 2022 and the date of this complaint,” filed February 16.
The agency noted that over 10,000 BTC were transferred away from a centralized exchange to a cold wallet where they remained briefly after the Terra ecosystem crumbled.
However, the bitcoin wealth began moving in May last year. They were sent to a bank based

It’s been over half a year since the Harmony bridge was breached, allowing hackers believed to be a part of the Lazarus Group to make off with about $100 million in cryptocurrencies at the time they were stolen.
Multiple Cashout Attempts
Nearly $91 million of those funds have seen attempted cashouts so far. The most recent attempt at laundering the stolen funds saw about $27 million worth of crypto being moved. The operation was detected by security researchers, although it is unclear how much of the identified amount – if any – was seized.
However, exchanges are doing what they can to prevent the flow of illicit funds, despite the resurrection of Blender, a sanctioned crypto mixer now allegedly brought back as “Sinbad.”
Continued Coordination
About a month ago, Elliptic,