Author: Benjamin Lee
Bitcoin and the crypto market at large are surging as President Trump announces that the US will establish a “crypto strategic reserve.” On Truth Social, Trump says the reserve will include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA). This announcement triggered a $100 billion surge in the global crypto market, with XRP soaring 37%, SOL 24%, and ADA over 70%, while BTC and ETH rose by 10% and 13%, respectively. Trump framed the reserve as a response to what he called “corrupt attacks” on the crypto industry by the Biden administration, emphasizing his goal to make…
An under-the-radar altcoin defied the wider crypto market slump and surged in price this week amid a new strategic investment. Vana (VANA) is a layer-1 network for user-owned data. The project aims to allow users to contribute, tokenize, and share their data to create next-generation artificial intelligence (AI)-focused applications. The project’s native asset, VANA, launched in December and is trading at $8.88 at time of writing. The 228th-ranked crypto asset by market cap is up nearly 3% in the past day and more than 37% in the past week. VANA’s gains largely materialized after YZi Labs, formerly known as Binance…
The financial services titan CME Group says it’s launching new futures contracts based on the smart contract platform Solana (SOL) in March. In a new press release, the CME Group announces that it will be rolling out two Solana-based futures contract options on March 17th – a micro-sized one worth 25 SOL and a macro-sized contract worth 500 SOL. However, the firm notes that the launch of the products is still pending regulatory review. According to Giovanni Vicioso, CME’s global head of crypto products, the rollout of the contracts is happening due to burgeoning client demand for regulated products based…
Cryptocurrency analyst and trader Ali Martinez is warning that a top memecoin could plunge significantly amid the market downturn. Martinez tells his 128,900 followers on the social media platform X that Pepe (PEPE) is “about to crash” after breaking down below the lower boundary of a parallel channel it has been trading in for almost a year. “Since March 2024, Pepe tends to drop to the lower support trend line and then it rises to the upper resistance trend line. From this level, Pepe tends to drop back to the lower support trend line and from here it rebounds again.…
A popular crypto strategist says that the altcoins currently showing market strength despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) downturn may spearhead the next digital asset rally. Pseudonymous analyst Credible Crypto tells his 463,000 followers on the social media platform X that payment tokens Litecoin (LTC) and XRP may soon be top market performers as they hold key support levels above recent low prices despite Bitcoin’s price collapse this week. “At this time, for the the first time in a while, select alts are holding their own against prior lows while BTC has nuked below its own relative range lows. Look for those alts…
An AI data-focused altcoin avoided the crypto market downtick this week after being added to Coinbase’s listing roadmap. Cookie DAO (COOKIE) aims to serve as an index and data layer for AI agents. The project’s native token, COOKIE, is priced at $0.215 at time of writing and is trading roughly even in the past day and week. The overall crypto market cap, by comparison, is down 5% in the past 24 hours and nearly 16% in the past seven days, according to data from CoinGecko. Coinbase added COOKIE to its listing roadmap after Binance rolled out support for the asset…
Top US-based crypto exchange platform Coinbase is abruptly adding support for one decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol built on Ethereum (ETH) and Base. In a new announcement, Coinbase says it’s adding support for borrowing and lending project Morpho (MORPHO), causing the digital asset to rise in price. News of the addition sent MORPHO flying as the crypto asset went from a low of $2.05 on February 27th to a peak of $2.42 just a day later. MORPHO has since stabilized and is trading for $2.21 at time of writing, a 7.9% gain during the last 24 hours. Morpho, which launched…
Blockchain tracking firm Lookonchain says one crypto trader is looking at multi-million dollar losses after trading the official memecoin of Melania Trump, wife of US President Donald Trump. According to Lookonchain, the trader scooped up nearly 14 million Melania (MELANIA) last month for about $30 million, only to sell off all his holdings this week at a loss of $15.68 million. Lookonchain also noticed another whale lost $3.73 million on his MELANIA trade this week as well. “Whales sold all their MELANIA holdings at a loss recently! DNTpoX…LN2A spent 30 million USDC to buy 13.97 million MELANIA a month ago,…
A new decentralized artificial intelligence (AI)-based altcoin is surging to the upside after abruptly gaining support from the world’s largest crypto exchange platform by volume. In a new announcement, Binance says its adding support for MyShell (SHELL), a protocol that allows users to create, share and own AI agents that can be used for professional and personal assistance as well as companionship. News of addition sent SHELL flying as the digital asset went from a low of $0.462 on February 26th to a peak of $0.661 just a day later. SHELL has since retraced and is trading for $0.597 at…
Online payments giant PayPal is reportedly eyeing to expand the user base of its US-dollar-backed stablecoin by integrating the asset into several of its products this year. Bloomberg reports that the California-based firm is targeting its more than 20 million small-to-medium-sized merchants to use PayPal USD (PYUSD) by giving them the option to use the stablecoin to pay vendors through the company’s bill-pay product that will be launched by the end of 2025. PayPal’s small business and financial services group general manager Michelle Gill says the idea is to encourage merchants to invite their vendors to use the PayPal network…