Few things in crypto are as elusive and misunderstood as the concept of an “altcoin season.” Traditionally, this term referred to a brief window — usually 2–3 months — following a Bitcoin (BTC) price rally, where altcoins outperform BTC in cumulative returns. That pattern held in the 2015–2018 and 2019–2022 cycles, but the verdict is not yet in on whether the current bull market has had its altcoin season. 

The Blockchain Center defines an altcoin season as a period when 75% of the top 50 altcoins outperform Bitcoin over a rolling 90-day time frame. Its Altseason Index registered upticks in March 2024 and again in January 2025 — but neither lasted long enough to qualify as a full-fledged altseason.

Altcoin season index. Source: Blockchain Center

Some analysts argue that memecoins drained liquidity from the broader altcoin market. Others blame the oversaturation of crypto investment products — particularly ETFs — which cater to institutions and spotlight only the largest altcoins.

A third explanation calls for a deeper rethink of what altcoins actually are. Within this view, altcoins are perceived as a unified asset class but are a diverse collection of crypto assets with different functions, value structures, and growth potential.

Memecoins stole the spotlight

For the crypto analyst Miles Deutscher, the launch of Pump.fun is directly correlated to the destruction of the altcoin market vs. BTC.

“The reason we’ve seen no major “altseason” across majors is because the speculative capital that would’ve once poured into top 200 assets, instead decided to jump the gun and flood into onchain low caps instead.”

Deutscher notes that the early birds and insiders got insanely rich from this, but most retail investors who entered late lost. This was also the case in previous altcoin cycles.

However, unlike 2022, where the losses were mainly limited to CEX altcoins with solid liquidity, they got stuck into illiquid onchain memecoins, which quickly retraced 70%-80%. This led to a “wealth destruction event greater than the early 2022 bear (LUNA aside),” even though BTC (and some majors) are still in a macro bull trend.

Solana TVL vs Top 125 Alts (excl. Top 10). Source: Miles Deutscher

Politics in the United States added fuel to the memecoin craze. For example, President Donald Trump’s public embrace of memecoins sparked momentum — but the results quickly disappointed. TRUMP and MELANIA tokens have dropped 83% and 95%, respectively, since launching at the end of January, delivering another hit to retail sentiment.

Related: Will new US SEC rules bring crypto companies onshore?

Institutional investors and ETFs shifted the tide

Another factor impacting the strength of the current bull market’s altcoin season was the arrival of Wall Street. The launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 brought $129 billion in inflows as investors rushed into familiar structures with custody, regulation, and easy access. BlackRock’s IBIT became a dominant vehicle, and the introduction of ETF options in July 2024 added even more depth. 

Some analysts believe that the safety and scalability of spot BTC ETFs sucked capital away from speculative assets. With the ability to hedge through options and futures, the incentive to gamble on illiquid, low-volume altcoins diminishes significantly. 

But this explanation has limits. Crypto is not a zero-sum market — global liquidity is growing, and capital entering the space can flow in many directions. If anything, institutional demand could expand the total crypto pie.

Furthermore, some altcoins already have their ETFs as well. Spot Ether ETFs debuted in July 2024 and have since registered a modest net inflow of $565,000, according to CoinGlass. Such a drastic difference in scale with spot BTC ETFs suggests that the ETF structure alone isn’t enough; investor conviction still matters.

Altcoin’s function and their rallies became more nuanced

The term “altcoin” emerged when any non-Bitcoin token was novel. But in today’s ecosystem, the term lumps together wildly different assets: blockchain-native coins, governance tokens, stablecoins, memecoins, DApp tokens, and real-world asset protocol tokens — each with distinct functions and investor profiles.

Just as it wouldn’t make sense to group gold, Nvidia stock, and the US dollar into a single index in traditional finance, it makes little sense to treat all altcoins as one unified category.

A closer look at price action supports this idea. According to CoinGecko data, major altcoin categories have diverged sharply this cycle. Real-world asset (RWA) tokens surged 15x. GameFi, by contrast, lost half its market cap. This shows that narratives play a growing role in driving investors’ capital allocation decisions.

Crypto categories market cap. Source: CoinGecko

Even core blockchain tokens have started to specialize. Ethereum remains the hub for DeFi. Solana dominates memecoins. Tron now holds second place in stablecoin transfers. ImmutableX is carving out its territory in the gaming space.

In each case, token performance is increasingly tied to ecosystem activity. This means that we might want to abandon the term “altseason” and start to pay more attention to specific narratives within the crypto space.

Altcoins aren’t moving as a pack anymore, and that might be the biggest signal of how the crypto market is maturing.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) member Paul Atkins disclosed combined employment assets of at least $327 million with his wife before a scheduled confirmation hearing with the US Senate Banking Committee.

According to a financial disclosure report made public by the US Office of Government Ethics on March 25, Atkins and his spouse, Sarah Humphreys, held up to a combined $327 million worth of assets, in part through their respective stakes in the prospective SEC chair’s consulting firm Patomak Global Partners and Tamko Building Products.

Sarah and her family members reportedly control a 75% stake in the roofing business founded by her grandfather.

Atkins personally disclosed up to $78.8 million in total employment assets — many of them up to $15,000 each — between $25,000,001 and $50 million in membership interest at Patomak, between $250,001 and $500,000 in call options at the real-world asset tokenization platform Securitize, and between $50,001 and $100,000 at financial technology company Pontoro.

If confirmed as an SEC commissioner, Atkins stated he would resign as CEO of Patomak and divest his membership interest, as well as divest his stock options at Securitize. 

The financial disclosure was made public before Atkins was scheduled to answer questions from US lawmakers in the Senate Banking Committee on March 27 for his nomination as an SEC commissioner. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, ranking member on the committee, called on Atkins to be prepared to answer questions related to his “deep involvement with FTX and other high-paying crypto clients.”

Related: What to expect at Paul Atkins’ SEC confirmation hearing

Atkins could also have some Republican allies on the committee and face some softball questions during his hearing. The prospective SEC commissioner previously met with Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, who told Cointelegraph she expected he would “work quickly to provide regulatory certainty for the digital asset industry.”

Conflicts of interest regulating digital assets?

In addition to Atkins saying he would divest interests potentially causing conflicts of interest regulating the crypto industry, other government officials in the Trump administration have claimed to take similar steps. David Sacks filed a notice on March 5 suggesting that his venture capital firm sold more than $200 million in crypto and related stocks ahead of assuming his role as the White House AI and crypto czar.

President Donald Trump also faces criticism from lawmakers and figures in the crypto industry due to his family’s involvement with the firm World Liberty Financial and the launch of his memecoin in January.

Atkins’ March 27 hearing will mark the first time US lawmakers will consider his nomination since Trump put his name forward as a potential replacement to former SEC Chair Gary Gensler in December. Commissioner Mark Uyeda became acting chair of the agency following Gensler’s departure on Jan. 20.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Paul Atkins, US President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosed combined employment assets of at least $327 million with his wife ahead of a scheduled confirmation hearing with the US Senate Banking Committee.

Atkins and his wife, Sarah Humphreys, held up to a combined $327 million in assets, in part through their respective stakes in Atkins’ consulting firm Patomak Global Partners and Tamko Building Products, according to a financial disclosure report made public by the US Office of Government Ethics on March 25.

Humphreys and her family members reportedly control a 75% stake in Tamco, the roofing business founded by her grandfather.

Atkins personally disclosed up to $78.8 million in total employment assets of: Up to $15,000 each; between $25,000,001 and $50 million in membership interest at Patomak; between $250,001 and $500,000 in call options at Securitize, a real-world asset tokenization platform; and between $50,001 and $100,000 at financial technology company Pontoro.

If confirmed, Atkins said he would resign as CEO of Patomak and divest his membership interest, as well as divest his stock options at Securitize. Atkins served as a commissioner at the agency from 2002 to 2008.

The financial disclosure was made public ahead of Atkins’ March 27 appearance before the Senate Banking Committee. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the committee, called on Atkins to be prepared to answer questions related to his “deep involvement with FTX and other high-paying crypto clients.”

Related: What to expect at Paul Atkins’ SEC confirmation hearing

Atkins could also have some Republican allies on the committee and face some softball questions during his hearing. The prospective SEC commissioner previously met with Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, who told Cointelegraph she expected he would “work quickly to provide regulatory certainty for the digital asset industry.”

Conflicts of interest regulating digital assets?

Other Trump administration officials have taken steps to mitigate any appearance of conflicts of interest.

David Sacks, Trump’s artificial intelligence and crypto czar, filed a notice on March 5 suggesting that his venture capital firm sold more than $200 million in crypto and related stocks ahead of assuming his role.

Trump has faced criticism from lawmakers and figures in the crypto industry for his family’s involvement with World Liberty Financial and the launch of his memecoin in January.

Atkins’ hearing will mark the first time US lawmakers will consider his nomination since Trump put his name forward as a replacement for former SEC Chair Gary Gensler in December. Commissioner Mark Uyeda became acting chair of the agency following Gensler’s departure on Jan. 20.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Paul Atkins, US President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), disclosed combined employment assets of at least $327 million with his wife ahead of a scheduled confirmation hearing with the US Senate Banking Committee.

Atkins and his wife, Sarah Humphreys, held up to a combined $327 million in assets, in part through their respective stakes in Atkins’ consulting firm Patomak Global Partners and Tamko Building Products, according to a financial disclosure report made public by the US Office of Government Ethics on March 25.

Humphreys and her family members reportedly control a 75% stake in Tamco, the roofing business founded by her grandfather.

Atkins personally disclosed up to $78.8 million in total employment assets of: up to $15,000 each; between $25,000,001 and $50 million in membership interest at Patomak; between $250,001 and $500,000 in call options at Securitize, a real-world asset tokenization platform; and between $50,001 and $100,000 at financial technology company Pontoro.

If confirmed, Atkins he would resign as CEO of Patomak and divest his membership interest, as well as divest his stock options at Securitize. Atkins served as a commissioner at the agency from 2002 to 2008.

The financial disclosure was made public ahead of Atkins’ March 27 appearance before the Senate Banking Committee. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the committee, called on Atkins to be prepared to answer questions related to his “deep involvement with FTX and other high-paying crypto clients.”

Related: What to expect at Paul Atkins’ SEC confirmation hearing

Atkins could also have some Republican allies on the committee and face some softball questions during his hearing. The prospective SEC commissioner previously met with Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, who told Cointelegraph she expected he would “work quickly to provide regulatory certainty for the digital asset industry.”

Conflicts of interest regulating digital assets?

Other Trump administration officials have taken steps to mitigate any appearance of conflicts of interest.

David Sacks, Trump’s artificial intelligence and crypto czar, filed a notice on March 5 suggesting that his venture capital firm sold more than $200 million in crypto and related stocks ahead of assuming his role.

Trump has faced criticism from lawmakers and figures in the crypto industry for his family’s involvement with World Liberty Financial and the launch of his memecoin in January.

Atkins’ hearing will mark the first time US lawmakers will consider his nomination since Trump put his name forward as a replacement former SEC Chair Gary Gensler in December. Commissioner Mark Uyeda became acting chair of the agency following Gensler’s departure on Jan. 20.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Brazil’s data protection agency has upheld its decision to restrict cryptocurrency compensation tied to the World ID project, citing user privacy concerns. 

The National Data Protection Authority (ANDP) rejected a petition by World ID developer Tools For Humanity to review its ban on offering financial compensation to users who provide biometric data through iris scans, the agency said in a March 25 announcement.  

ANDP will “maintain the suspension of the granting of financial compensation, in the form of cryptocurrency (Worldcoin — WLD) or in any other format, for any World ID created by collecting iris scans of personal data subjects in Brazil,” a translated version of the announcement reads. 

The company faces a daily fine of 50,000 Brazilian reais ($8,800) if it resumes data collection activities. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Tools for Humanity but had not received a response at the time of publication.

World ID verification in Brazil was short-lived, with the ANDP banning data collection more than two months after it was launched in the country. Source: Worldcoin

ANDP’s investigation into World, formerly known as Worldcoin, began in November of last year amid concerns that financial rewards could compromise users’ ability to consent to offering sensitive biometric data. 

The controversial “World ID” is created when users agree to iris scans, which generates a unique digital passport that can authenticate humans online. 

As Cointelegraph reported, Tools For Humanity was ordered to stop offering services to Brazilians as of Jan. 25. 

Related: Blockchain identity platform Humanity Protocol valued at $1.1B after fundraise

Race for digital identity solution heats up

Although World ID has run afoul of Brazilian law, the use of digital identification methods is growing in other markets due to the rise of AI deepfakes and Sybil attacks.

The rise of bots and AI is also watering down online discourse on social media platforms such as X and Facebook. As Cointelegraph reported, up to 15% of X accounts are believed to be bots. 

Research from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis also showed that generative AI is making crypto scams more profitable by enabling the creation of fake identities. 

Some companies are attempting to create digital identity solutions without triggering privacy concerns and regulatory crackdowns. Earlier this year, Billions Network launched its own digital identity platform that doesn’t require biometric data. 

The platform is based on a zero-knowledge verification technology known as Circom and has already been tested by major financial institutions such as HSBC and Deutsche Bank.

Magazine: 9 curious things about DeepSeek R1: AI Eye

Brazil’s data protection agency has upheld its decision to restrict cryptocurrency compensation tied to the World ID project, citing user privacy concerns. 

The National Data Protection Authority (ANDP) rejected a petition by World ID developer Tools For Humanity to review its ban on offering financial compensation to users who provide biometric data through iris scans, the agency said in a March 25 announcement.  

ANDP will “maintain the suspension of the granting of financial compensation, in the form of cryptocurrency (Worldcoin – WLD) or in any other format, for any World ID created by collecting iris scans of personal data subjects in Brazil,” a translated version of the announcement reads. 

The company faces a daily fine of 50,000 Brazilian reais ($8,800) if it resumes data collection activities. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Tools for Humanity but had not received a response at the time of publication.

World ID verification in Brazil was short-lived, with the ANDP banning data collection more than two months after it was launched in the country. Source: Worldcoin

ANDP’s investigation into World, formerly known as Worldcoin, began in November of last year amid concerns that financial rewards could compromise users’ ability to consent to offering sensitive biometric data. 

The controversial “World ID” is created when users agree to iris scans, which generates a unique digital passport that can authenticate humans online. 

As Cointelegraph reported, Tools For Humanity was ordered to stop offering services to Brazilians as of Jan. 25. 

Related: Blockchain identity platform Humanity Protocol valued at $1.1B after fundraise

Race for digital identity solution heats up

Although World ID has run afoul of Brazilian law, the use of digital identification methods is growing in other markets due to the rise of AI deepfakes and Sybil attacks.

The rise of bots and AI is also watering down online discourse on social media platforms such as X and Facebook. As Cointelegraph reported, up to 15% of X accounts are believed to be bots. 

Research from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis also showed that generative AI is making crypto scams more profitable by enabling the creation of fake identities. 

Some companies are attempting to create digital identity solutions without triggering privacy concerns and regulatory crackdowns. Earlier this year, Billions Network launched its own digital identity platform that doesn’t require biometric data. 

The platform is based on a zero-knowledge verification technology known as Circom and has already been tested by major financial institutions such as HSBC and Deutsche Bank.

Magazine: 9 curious things about DeepSeek R1: AI Eye

Bitcoin (BTC) price opened the week with strength, rallying to a daily high at $88,804, which was met by praise from analysts who have identified the $90,000 to $92,000 zone as the key price level to hit in the short term. 

The market found strength on March 24 after US President Donald Trump suggested that his April 2 “tariff number” announcement could be softer than expected after cars and microchips were removed from the list. 

According to Ben Yorke, the vice president of ecosystem at WOO, “The White House’s decision to walk back the threat of broad tariffs and to deploy a more targeted approach suggests Trump is wary of an economic backlash.”

Proof of the market’s positive response to the tariff news can be seen in the increase in Bitcoin futures open interest, where the general assumption is that traders used leverage to open new margin-long positions. 

BTC/USDT 1-hour chart. Source: MacroCRG / X 

The return of the Coinbase Premium — a measure of the percentage difference between BTC price at Coinbase Pro and Binance — and a seventh consecutive day of spot BTC ETF inflows are also signs that spot demand is returning to the market and could signal an improvement in sentiment as Bitcoin’s last few weeks of price action had been defined by selling and the use of perpetual futures to drive price action within the current range. 

Bitcoin Coinbase premium index. Source: CryptoQuant 

Data from SoSoValue shows US spot Bitcoin ETF net flows of $84.17 million. 

Total spot Bitcoin ETF net inflow. Source: SoSoValue

Is a rally to $100,000 back on the cards?

While the return of the Coinbase premium and positive net flows to the spot BTC ETFs is a sign of improving sentiment, the question of whether the current bullish momentum has enough energy to push Bitcoin back above $100,000 remains unanswered. 

Lingling Jiang, a partner at DWF Labs, said, “We’re witnessing the alignment of both structural and narrative factors driving this upward trend of the movement of Bitcoin.”

Jiang told Cointelegraph:

“At the micro level, we can see a pattern: the resurgence of ETF inflows, the expanding stablecoin market, and breakout patterns across alternative cryptocurrencies collectively signal confidence and perhaps even renewed institutional participation. While market liquidity is strengthening, we notice that volatility remains subdued, and onchain metrics reveal long-term investors accumulating rather than divesting.”

Related: Bitcoin sets sights on ‘spoofy’ $90K resistance in new BTC price boost 

From a technical point of view, Bitcoin continues to trade below the range that had defined its price action from November 2024 until February 2025. While the price trades above the 20-day and 200-day moving average, it remains capped at the descending trendline resistance, which is also aligned with the 50-day moving average ($89,500 – $90,000). 

BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

According to independent market analyst Scott Melker, Bitcoin’s 4-hour relative strength index indicator has shown a “clear bullish trend, with a series of higher lows and higher highs.” 

In a March 24 X post, Melker said:

“All of this preceded by [an] oversold RSI with bullish divergence at the bottom on daily and below. Which I was screaming about.” 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Opinion by: Michael Amar, co-founder of Chain of Events and general partner at v3nture

Once upon a time, in 1848, a man could walk into the wilderness on the brink of poverty and emerge, caked in mud, dust and days-old sweat, a multimillionaire. The discovery of gold in California in the mid-19th century ignited a fuse, causing explosive ripples that transformed the American economy.

In 2025, a relatively new resource, less shiny but no less brilliant and scarce, looks set to reshape the global economy and spark another race for accumulation. Only this time, there won’t be pickaxes and pans. There will be ASICs, algorithms and distributed ledger technology. 

Of course, this refers to Bitcoin (BTC), also known as digital gold.

Just as the gold rush spurred on banking, financial systems, lending, trading and changes to monetary policy, history is repeating itself with Bitcoin, digital payments, asset tokenization and crypto-politicians. Laws, regulations and culture changed to accommodate gold. They’re now doing the same for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at large.

Exploring the historical parallels

The gold rush created wealth “out of thin air,” and Bitcoin is doing the same. With around $2 trillion in market value, those who adopted early and took the most risk are now millionaires (in fact, over 85,000 are confirmed) and, in some cases, billionaires (there are thought to be 17 of them). 

From the hundreds of thousands that descended on California, those who struck real gold used their newfound wealth to build railroads, telegraph lines and entire towns. Bitcoin’s early success stories used their financial muscle to stake further claims by developing applications, growing infrastructure businesses and nurturing the industry. Michael Saylor founded MicroStrategy, which had rebranded to Strategy. This business intelligence company holds over $48 billion worth of Bitcoin, while Changpeng Zhao founded the world’s biggest crypto exchange and is worth over $57 billion. 

Recent: Coinbase, Gemini CEO throws support behind Bitcoin-only US crypto reserve

Today’s business analysts and market experts should look into the American gold rush, where they’ll find striking similarities. Just as gold mining once attracted workers and investors, Bitcoin attracts institutions, startups, talent, governments and capital inflows. Gold-backed reserves changed global economics and drove gold demand. Will a US strategic Bitcoin reserve do the same?

Men started the gold rush with pickaxes and pans and ended it with hydraulic mining equipment. The earliest Bitcoin users mined with their home computers, whereas now there are enormous energy-efficient Bitcoin mining facilities, cutting-edge cooling apparatus and the Lightning Network. Scalability and efficiency have leaped forward.

Broader implications for international finance

Beyond instant wealth, infrastructure, monetary policy and economic ripples, there’s monetary sovereignty. Any country that establishes Bitcoin reserves as a hedge against inflation or geopolitical stability takes the future into its own hands. This is identical to gold, which has been used as a reserve for a long time. Since “The Nixon Shock” in 1971, however, the US dollar has decoupled from gold, creating an overdue opportunity for a new resource to fill its large gilded shoes.

Monetary sovereignty is also a major driving force for retail adoption, with Bitcoin offering protection against inflation and government policy through economic decentralization.

Addressing skepticism from different audiences

Widespread enthusiasm among tech leaders, libertarians, celebrities, businesses and popular political figures has met with years of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) from regulators, skeptics and some of the world’s most prominent investment managers. They say that Bitcoin has no real value, but let it be said that gold is just a shiny, semi-scarce rock.

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock — the world’s largest investment company with $10 trillion in assets under management — once called Bitcoin “an index of money laundering.” Over the years, he has gone from the messiah of the skeptics to purchasing 2.7% of the global Bitcoin supply and publicly stating his belief that it could reach $700,000 per BTC. “As I became a student of crypto, it was very clear to me that crypto is a currency of fear,” Fink said. “But that’s OK. If you’re frightened of the debasement of your currency or the economic or political stability of your country, you can have an international-based instrument called Bitcoin that can overcome those local fears.” 

If Fink can change his mind, so can other skeptics. 

In the run-up to his election win, Trump was quite vocal about a strategic Bitcoin reserve, and has continued to be. Things also seem to be taking shape in terms of individual states moving toward building their own reserves.

Gold has had a transformative effect on the world. Bitcoin is now here to relieve it of its duties.

Opinion by: Michael Amar, co-founder of Chain of Events and general partner at v3nture.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Opinion by: Michael Amar, co-founder of Chain of Events and general partner at v3nture

Once upon a time, in 1848, a man could walk into the wilderness on the brink of poverty and emerge, caked in mud, dust and days-old sweat, a multimillionaire. The discovery of gold in California in the mid-19th century ignited a fuse, causing explosive ripples that transformed the American economy.

In 2025, a relatively new resource, less shiny but no less brilliant and scarce, looks set to reshape the global economy and spark another race for accumulation. Only this time, there won’t be pickaxes and pans. There will be ASICs, algorithms and distributed ledger technology. 

Of course, this refers to Bitcoin (BTC), also known as digital gold.

Just as the gold rush spurred on banking, financial systems, lending, trading and changes to monetary policy, history is repeating itself with Bitcoin, digital payments, asset tokenization and crypto-politicians. Laws, regulations and culture changed to accommodate gold. They’re now doing the same for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at large.

Exploring the historical parallels

The gold rush created wealth “out of thin air,” and Bitcoin is doing the same. With around $2 trillion in market value, those who adopted early and took the most risk are now millionaires (in fact, over 85,000 are confirmed) and, in some cases, billionaires (there are thought to be 17 of them). 

From the hundreds of thousands that descended on California, those who struck real gold used their newfound wealth to build railroads, telegraph lines and entire towns. Bitcoin’s early success stories used their financial muscle to stake further claims by developing applications, growing infrastructure businesses and nurturing the industry. Michael Saylor founded MicroStrategy, which had rebranded to Strategy. This business intelligence company holds over $48 billion worth of Bitcoin, while Changpeng Zhao founded the world’s biggest crypto exchange and is worth over $57 billion. 

Recent: Coinbase, Gemini CEO throws support behind Bitcoin-only US crypto reserve

Today’s business analysts and market experts should look into the American gold rush, where they’ll find striking similarities. Just as gold mining once attracted workers and investors, Bitcoin attracts institutions, startups, talent, governments and capital inflows. Gold-backed reserves changed global economics and drove gold demand. Will a US strategic Bitcoin reserve do the same?

Men started the gold rush with pickaxes and pans and ended it with hydraulic mining equipment. The earliest Bitcoin users mined with their home computers, whereas now there are enormous energy-efficient Bitcoin mining facilities, cutting-edge cooling apparatus and the Lightning Network. Scalability and efficiency have leaped forward.

Broader implications for international finance

Beyond instant wealth, infrastructure, monetary policy and economic ripples, there’s monetary sovereignty. Any country that establishes Bitcoin reserves as a hedge against inflation or geopolitical stability takes the future into its own hands. This is identical to gold, which has been used as a reserve for a long time. Since “The Nixon Shock” in 1971, however, the US dollar has decoupled from gold, creating an overdue opportunity for a new resource to fill its large gilded shoes.

Monetary sovereignty is also a major driving force for retail adoption, with Bitcoin offering protection against inflation and government policy through economic decentralization.

Addressing skepticism from different audiences

Widespread enthusiasm among tech leaders, libertarians, celebrities, businesses and popular political figures has met with years of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) from regulators, skeptics and some of the world’s most prominent investment managers. They say that Bitcoin has no real value, but let it be said that gold is just a shiny, semi-scarce rock.

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock — the world’s largest investment company with $10 trillion in assets under management — once called Bitcoin “an index of money laundering.” Over the years, he has gone from the messiah of the skeptics to purchasing 2.7% of the global Bitcoin supply and publicly stating his belief that it could reach $700,000 per BTC. “As I became a student of crypto, it was very clear to me that crypto is a currency of fear,” Fink said. “But that’s OK. If you’re frightened of the debasement of your currency or the economic or political stability of your country, you can have an international-based instrument called Bitcoin that can overcome those local fears.” 

If Fink can change his mind, so can other skeptics. 

In the run-up to his election win, Trump was quite vocal about a strategic Bitcoin reserve, and has continued to be. Things also seem to be taking shape in terms of individual states moving toward building their own reserves.

Gold has had a transformative effect on the world. Bitcoin is now here to relieve it of its duties.

Opinion by: Michael Amar, co-founder of Chain of Events and general partner at v3nture.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin (BTC) passed $88,000 after the March 25 Wall Street open as risk assets stayed highly sensitive to US trade tariffs.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

BTC price gains anticipate classic April comeback

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD tightly clinging to the daily open.

US stocks opened modestly higher, building on a comeback that provided traders some long-awaited cause for optimism.

A key ingredient in stemming the risk-asset rout were cues from the US government and President Donald Trump over their planned round of trade tariffs set to begin on April 2. 

“Risk assets staged one of their strongest sessions of the year, helped by a temporary easing of fears around the April 2nd tariff deadline,” trading firm QCP Capital summarized in its latest bulletin to Telegram channel subscribers. 

“Trump signalled twice on Monday that trading partners might secure exemptions or reductions, offering a reprieve that helped soothe market jitters.”

BTC/USD vs. S&P 500 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

QCP noted that others were coming to believe that the worst of the equities setback had come and gone, including JPMorgan.

“Q2, and April in particular, has historically been one of the best periods for risk assets, second only to the festive December rally,” it added. 

“The S&P 500 has delivered an average annualised return of 19.6% in Q2, while Bitcoin has also recorded its second-best median performance during this stretch – again, trailing only Q4.”

BTC/USD monthly returns (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

As Cointelegraph reported, expectations for April among Bitcoin market participants are also high, given historical tendencies for strong price performance.

Statistics from monitoring resource CoinGlass put average returns for BTC/USD for both March and April at just under 13% over the past eleven years.

Bitcoin stares down major seller liquidity

Analyzing short-timeframe BTC price action, traders increasingly focused on the $90,000 mark on the day.

Related: Bitcoin flips ‘macro bullish’ amid first Hash Ribbon buy signal in 8 months

“$BTC Is still trading at a solid spot premium during this bounce,” popular trader Daan Crypto Trades acknowledged in one of his latest X posts. 

“If it can maintain that while slowly making its way back into the previous range ($90K+), I’d be confident we’re due for a move back to new highs. For now it still remains a big resistance and price has been correlated to equities.”

BTC/USD 1-day chart with perps basis. Source: Daan Crypto Trades/X

Meanwhile, CoinGlass showed ongoing sell-side liquidity just below $90,000 — previously attributed to market manipulation by a high-volume trader dubbed “Spoofy the Whale.”

Keith Alan, co-founder of trading resource Material Indicators, who coined the phrase, said that this entity alone would keep price trapped at around $87,500 going forward.

BTC liquidation heatmap (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

This week, Alan said that another important level to flip to support is the yearly open at just above $93,000. Failure to do so, he warned, could still trigger a return to multimonth lows.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.