ECB Study Questions How Decentralized DeFi Governance Really is

The European Central Bank published a working paper on March 26, finding that governance in four major DeFi protocols was heavily concentrated. The staff paper looks at Aave, MakerDAO, Ampleforth and Uniswap, and finds that while governance tokens are held across tens of thousands of addresses, the top 100 holders control more than 80% of the supply in each protocol. Based on holdings snapshots from November 2022 and May 2023, the authors found that a large share of governance tokens could be linked either to the protocols themselves or to…

UK Slaps Sanctions On $20B Crypto Black Market Tied To Southeast Asia Scam Rings

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis puts the number at close to $20 billion — the estimated volume of dirty money that flowed through Xinbi, a Chinese-language crypto marketplace, between 2021 and 2025. Now the UK government wants to shut it down. Related Reading Scam Hubs At The Center Of It All Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office announced Thursday that it has imposed sweeping sanctions on Xinbi, a platform accused of providing crypto-based services, scam tools, and other criminal resources to bad actors across Southeast Asia. The move freezes any UK-linked…

SBF Pardon Chances Continue Drop on Betting Markets

The chances of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried getting a pardon didn’t seem great this year, and a recent downtick on prediction markets shows that they aren’t getting any better.  Both major prediction markets in the United States, Polymarket and Kalshi, have the likelihood of Bankman-Fried receiving a presidential pardon this year at 11% and 9%, respectively.  Chances of a pardon have decreased 1% on Kalshi and 2% on Polymarket after a CNN interview on March 21 with Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. In the interview, both explained…

XRP yet to ‘price in’ 3 bullish catalysts, Bitcoin to $80K? Trade Secrets

Bitcoin holds ground as rate cut hopes fade Bitcoin’s price is holding firm despite the market losing faith in more rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve, according to Kraken chief economist Thomas Perfumo. (Alex Thorn) “Bitcoin has remained range-bound even as rate expectations have shifted meaningfully,” Perfumo tells Magazine. Perfumo pointed out that not long ago, crypto traders were pricing in three Fed rate cuts by the end of 2026. He said that outlook has since flipped due to rising geopolitical tensions — particularly the conflict in Iran —…

Options Market Flashes Red Warning Signal

Bitcoin fell to its lowest level in over two weeks as traders adopted a more cautious stance after the year’s biggest options expiration, Bloomberg reported. At the moment of writing, BTC trades for the highs $66k. Related Reading Bitcoin Options Market Turns Defensive The drop followed the largest Bitcoin options expiry of 2026 so far, with roughly $14 billion in notional contracts rolling off on Friday. Around 30–40% of open interest in front‑month Bitcoin options was wiped out in a single session, leaving a “cleaner” positioning landscape. Spot volumes picked…

Bitcoin Slumps on Oil Fears as March Monthly Close Risks Deeper Sell-Off

Bitcoin grabbed downside liquidity as oil-supply pressure sent BTC price action below $66,500 to its lowest levels since March 9. Bitcoin (BTC) neared three-week lows into Friday’s Wall Street open amid reports of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz oil route. Key points: Bitcoin reacts badly to fresh oil-supply threats ahead of Friday’s Wall Street open. BTC price action hunts bid liquidity, continuing a week of low-time frame liquidity grabs. Another bear flag threatens to send the market below $50,000, analysis says. Bitcoin eyes range lows into monthly close Data…

Bitcoin Drops Below $68K but Long-Term Holder Buying Accelerates

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped toward $67,000 during the European trading session on Friday despite an increase in long-term buying. Exchange withdrawals also increased to 16-month highs, suggesting reduced “immediate selling pressure,” a new analysis said. Key takeaways: Bitcoin withdrawals from exchanges increases, reducing BTC available for sale. Long-term holders accelerate accumulation, adding 155,450 BTC over the past 30 days. Bitcoin analysts view $65,000–$66,000 as a potential support zone for a bounce. Bitcoin supply tightens as long-term buying accelerates CryptoQuant’s exchange flow data highlighted “renewed signs of supply tightening,” as large Bitcoin…

Trust Will Become Crypto’s Real Currency In The AI Economy

Opinion by: Kirill Avery, founder and CEO of Alien AI-generated voices are already being used in ransom scams. Synthetic agents now trade, vote and interact on blockchain networks. In this environment, the greatest threat to crypto is no longer scalability or regulation; it is the collapse of trust. As deepfakes, bots and synthetic agents saturate every corner of the internet and as scams increased by 1,400% in 2025, authenticity is becoming a scarce resource. Scarcity produces markets. Every major technological shift has centered on what becomes hard to fake and…

What Every XRP Holder Must Understand As Activity Wanes

XRP holders have spent years waiting for the kind of breakout that turns patience into confidence. But a recent message from XRP analyst Bird cuts through the usual price talk with a more uncomfortable point: tokens do not go on a price rally by themselves. Holders who do not understand this may be waiting for a rally driver that they themselves are failing to build. The Lesson Every XRP Holder Must Understand Blockchain history does not leave much room for debate on the point of price appreciation. The chains that…

JPMorgan Says Bitcoin Is Beating Gold, Silver During The Iran War

JPMorgan says the Iran war has produced an unusual market split: bitcoin is showing signs of safe-haven demand while gold and silver, the traditional geopolitical hedges, have weakened under the pressure of outflows, profit-taking and deteriorating liquidity. In a report dated March 26, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou and his team said bitcoin has held up better than precious metals since the conflict escalated. Gold is down about 15% this month, according to the bank, while gold ETFs recorded nearly $11 billion in outflows in the first three weeks of March. Silver has…