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Crypto exchange Kraken exploring $1B raise ahead of IPO: Report

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is considering a major capital raise ahead of a potential initial public offering (IPO) early next year, Bloomberg reported on March 24. 

Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg said Kraken is exploring a debt package worth anywhere between $200 million and $1 billion. The exchange is reportedly in preliminary talks with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase about facilitating the transaction.

The funds would be used to support Kraken’s growth and not for operational expenses, Bloomberg cited the source as saying. 

Bloomberg has been reporting about Kraken’s IPO ambitions for the better part of a year. Talks of going public have intensified following the election of US President Donald Trump, with Bloomberg reporting that Kraken’s IPO could come in the first quarter of 2026.

A Kraken representative declined to comment on the potential debt package when contacted by Cointelegraph.

Kraken is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, facilitating more than $1.1 billion in trading volume over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data

The exchange grew rapidly in 2024, with year-end financial statements showing $1.5 billion in revenue — a gain of 128% from 2023. The company’s adjusted earnings reached $380 million for the year. 

Kraken, Bloomberg, Cryptocurrency Exchange, IPO

Kraken’s year-end financial statements show significant growth in revenue, funded accounts and assets. Source: Kraken

Related: Kraken secures MiFID license to offer derivatives in Europe

Kraken’s latest acquisition

Kraken is expanding its footprint in the derivatives market with the $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader, a popular brokerage service specializing in futures contracts. The acquisition is part of the exchange’s broader push into multi-asset services, including equities and payments. 

NinjaTrader was founded in 2003 and is registered with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. 

Kraken, Bloomberg, Cryptocurrency Exchange, IPO

Source: Arjun Sethi

The acquisition suggests crypto companies are growing their businesses with confidence following the election of a pro-crypto Republican administration. As Cointelegraph reported, Kraken was one of several crypto exchanges to be freed from enforcement action by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. 

A positive regulatory climate may have contributed to Kraken’s decision to resume crypto staking services for US clients after a nearly two-year hiatus. Clients in 37 states can now access staking services across 17 cryptocurrencies, including Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL).

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Read more at cointelegraph.com

DeFi lender Nostra pauses borrowing after price feed error

Nostra, a lending protocol on Starknet, has paused borrowing for two liquid staking tokens after identifying a “critical issue” with its price feeds, the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol said. 

On March 24, errors in Nostra’s price feed inflated the reported prices of xSTRK and sSTRK — two liquid staking derivatives of Starknet’s native STRK token — to approximately three times the tokens’ actual value, Nostra said in a post on the X platform.

According to Nostra, “[s]uch an inflated price feed could have caused unnecessary liquidations of otherwise safe positions, resulting in users with healthy positions getting liquidated.” 

In response, the DeFi protocol has disabled any further borrowing against xSTRK and sSTRK collateral deposits, Nostra said. 

Nostra has also recommended that users with existing xSTRK and sSTRK deposits withdraw the collateral immediately. 

“Since we don’t have a secondary (fallback) oracle to support these assets, as none are available, we are unable to fully prevent similar events from occurring in the future,” Nostra added.

“Our priority has always been and continues to be to keep existing user funds safe and with no fallback oracle, the risks outweigh the benefits,” it said. 

DeFi lender Nostra pauses borrowing after price feed error

Nostra’s collateral token options. Source: Nostra

Related: Starknet to settle on Bitcoin and Ethereum to unify the chains

Starknet DeFi protocol

Starknet is a layer-2 scaling chain of Ethereum secured using zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. It launched its mainnet in late 2021, according to Messari.

It has a total value locked (TVL) of approximately $575 million, according to data from L2Beat. 

Lending protocol Nostra is among the larger DeFi projects operating on the chain. It has a TVL of approximately $55 million, according to its website. 

On Nostra, users post collateral in one token to borrow in another token. The DeFi protocol’s most popular collateral tokens are Ether, STRK, and stablecoins USDC (USDC) and Tether (USDT). 

Starknet designed STRK to be staked in exchange for a portion of the network’s fee revenues, according to its documentation.

xSTRK and sSTRK are liquid staking tokens issued by independent DeFi protocols Endur and Nimbura, respectively. 

Magazine: What are native rollups? Full guide to Ethereum’s latest innovation

Read more at cointelegraph.com

Bhutan government moves $63M BTC to three wallets

The Bhutan government moved $63 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) on March 24 to three wallets, according to Onchain Lens, which analyzed data from Arkham Intelligence.

One of the wallets now holds 600 BTC worth approximately $53 million at the time of writing.

Bhutan has leveraged its abundant hydroelectric power to mine Bitcoin since 2019. In September 2024, Arkham indicated that it had found the first wallet tied to the Bhutan government’s investment arm, Druk Holdings. After the March 24 transfers, the wallet holds $889.9 million invested in Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrencies, Asia, Bitcoin Adoption

Source: Onchain Lens

The statistics indicate that Bhutan’s cryptocurrency holdings represent 30.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP), which, according to the latest data from the World Bank, reached $2.9 billion in 2023.

Although Bitcoin is the primary holding of the Bhutan government, the nation does not seem to be pursuing a solely Bitcoin-based strategic reserve. Other stacks in the Druk Holdings wallet are $334,580 of Ether (ETH) and smaller amounts of LinqAI (LNQ), Phil (PHIL), and Apu Apustaja (APU), among other coins.

Bhutan government moves $63M BTC to three wallets

Crypto holdings of the Bhutan government as of March 24, 2025. Source: Arkham Intelligence

In October 2024, Bhutan moved $66 million of its BTC holdings to Binance. Over the past two months, the government has been moving small portions of Bitcoin and Ether out of its main wallet to other addresses.

Governments adopt cryptocurrency reserves

Bhutan’s national government isn’t the only government body adopting cryptocurrency in the country — the practice has also filtered down to the city level. In January 2025, Bhutan’s Gelephu Special Administrative Region announced plans to recognize a variety of digital assets as part of its strategic reserve.

Related: Bitcoin’s role as a reserve asset gains traction in US as states adopt

Governments that have adopted a Bitcoin strategic reserve have seen their holdings multiply during this 2024-present bull run. El Salvador saw the value of its Bitcoin holdings surge to $100 million in November 2024, and the United States government now holds over $17 billion in Bitcoin.

While national governments garner the most attention, some state governments are thinking of creating Bitcoin reserves as well. In the US, Texas has passed its Bitcoin reserve bill, although it still must be signed into law by the state’s governor.

Bitcoin reserve bills in some states like Arizona are inching closer to becoming law, though a few states have already rejected their Bitcoin bills for a variety of reasons.

Magazine: Chinese Tether laundromat, Bhutan enjoys recent Bitcoin boost: Asia Express

Read more at cointelegraph.com

What to expect at Paul Atkins’ SEC confirmation hearing

Former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) member Paul Atkins is scheduled to appear before lawmakers in the Senate Banking Committee on March 27 as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to get the president’s picks into high-level government positions.

Since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, the SEC, under the leadership of acting chair Mark Uyeda, has dropped several investigations and enforcement actions against major crypto firms, many of which had been in court for months or years. Many analysts see the SEC’s recent actions as the administration acting on its campaign promises to the crypto industry, of which some figures donated directly to the then-presidential candidate or his inauguration fund after the Nov. 5 election.

The commission’s actions — which include declaring that memecoins aren’t securities —  also stand in stark contrast to its position under former chair Gary Gensler, leading many to speculate that the SEC under Trump will lead to a booming US crypto industry essentially free of regulatory scrutiny.

Atkins, whom Trump picked in December 2024 and officially nominated after taking office, received support from industry players at Coinbase and Ripple, both of which had ongoing enforcement actions brought by the SEC. The cases have since been dropped.

Given the SEC’s seeming about-face on crypto enforcement and Trump’s potential conflicts of interest with the industry — with ties to the crypto firm World Liberty Financial and the launch of his own memecoin — some lawmakers are likely to question Atkins’ views on digital assets at the confirmation hearing.

If confirmed by the Senate, Atkins could return to a soon-to-be entirely Republican-controlled SEC, with Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw expected to leave by 2026.

It’s unclear if Atkins will have the votes to pass a confirmation hearing in the banking committee or a full floor vote in the Senate. Republicans hold a 53-seat majority in the chamber with only 51 votes required to confirm a nominee, and — with the exception of former Representative Matt Gaetz for US Attorney General — have not suggested that they intend to oppose any of Trump’s picks for crucial government positions.

Democratic opposition to Atkins’ nomination

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the banking committee who has often equated crypto with drug trafficking and other illicit actions, said in a March 23 letter to Atkins that she had concerns about his potential role at the SEC after his consulting firm, Patomak Global Partners, was an adviser to defunct crypto exchange FTX. He was also an adviser to the advocacy group Chamber of Digital Commerce. 

“Your deep involvement with FTX and other high-paying crypto clients raises questions about your approach to crypto regulation — and concerns about the extent of your knowledge of FTX’s illegal activities,” said Warren, adding:

“Your financial ties to the industries you will soon regulate raise serious concerns about your ability to avoid conflicts of interest as a regulator.”

Warren suggested that some members of the Senate would likely question Trump’s pick about the SEC recently dropping enforcement cases against crypto firms, reports that Trump’s family had held talks with Binance about acquiring a stake in the company as well as a possible pardon for former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, how Atkins intends to apply securities laws to digital assets if confirmed, and the commission’s recent opinion that memecoins were not securities.

She hinted that Atkins may have also communicated with Republican SEC commissioners Uyeda and Hester Peirce after being nominated.

Related: SEC is waiting for a chair before setting crypto agenda — Hester Peirce

Ahead of his hearing, Atkins has already met with Republican lawmakers on the committee, including Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis. Cointelegraph contacted Lummis’ office to comment on Atkins’ nomination but didn’t receive a response at the time of publication.

If his nomination moves through the Banking Committee and the Senate, Atkins would likely be confirmed to a term ending in June 2031, taking over as chair from Uyeda. In addition to the commission dropping investigations and enforcement actions, the SEC acting chair has proposed abandoning rules requiring crypto firms to register with the agency.

Magazine: Ripple says SEC lawsuit ‘over,’ Trump at DAS, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 16 – 22

Read more at cointelegraph.com

Tabit offers USD insurance policies backed by Bitcoin regulatory capital

Barbados-based insurer Tabit has raised $40 million in Bitcoin for its insurance facility, in a move the company said would bolster its balance sheet and allow the insurance sector to capitalize on digital assets.

Tabit’s Bitcoin (BTC) regulatory capital will be used to back traditional insurance policies, which are all denominated in US dollars, the company disclosed in a March 24 announcement. 

Tabit claims to be the first property and casualty insurer to hold its entire regulatory reserve in BTC. The company was founded by former executives of Bittrex, a Liechtenstein-based cryptocurrency exchange that was shuttered in 2023.

“This solution offers a regulated dollar return, which we’re excited to earn on an alternative asset class such as Bitcoin,” said William Shihara, Tabit’s co-founder. 

Tabit co-founder and CEO Stephen Stonberg said Bitcoin allows the insurance sector to “Access a largely new and untapped source of insurance capital: digital assets.” 

“Bitcoin means Tabit has access to a whole new pool of capital,” a company spokesperson told Cointelegraph. “BTC has limited regulated use cases where a hodler can earn a return, but insurance is one of them.”

Tabit launched in January as a Bitcoin-backed insurer, receiving a Class 2 license from Barbados’ Financial Services Commission. 

VC Roundup: Bitcoin RWA, BNB incubator, Web3 gaming secure funding

Blockchain and the insurance sector

So far, most of the discussion around cryptocurrency and insurance has been tied to helping users recover financial losses and using blockchain technology to improve the industry’s transparency. According to a 2023 report by Boston Consulting Group, the blockchain-insurance nexus could become a $37 billion opportunity by 2030.

Behind the scenes, there’s also a growing industry for matching insurance brokers and underwriters with digital asset capital providers. 

One such company is Nayms, an onchain insurance marketplace that facilitates the connection between capital providers and brokers via segregated accounts.

Ensuro is another such provider that curates insurance market opportunities and provides underwriting capacity through the use of stablecoins. According to its website, Ensuro has over 12,000 active policies, with APYs up to 22%. 

Magazine: Best and worst countries for crypto taxes — Plus crypto tax tips

Read more at cointelegraph.com

Retail investors will dominate the crypto markets

Opinion by: Hatu Sheikh, founder of Coin Terminal

Crypto began its journey with Bitcoin (BTC) — the epitome of decentralization — promising open access and equitable distribution of financial resources. It evolved into starkly different territories, where lucrative market opportunities are often inaccessible for retail investors.

Wealthy individuals, high-net-worth family offices, company insiders and venture capitalists secure early access to prime crypto deals. Retailers are left in the lurch as their late entry leads to higher market risks and limited profitability.

The table is turning, mainly with the rise of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and a decisive repudiation of venture capital-backed tokens. Crypto is no longer a niche asset class for institutional investors — retail users are now actively shaping the future of finance.

Crypto has a retail-institutional divide

Retail investors have long stayed away from the crypto market. Analyzing the Bitcoin wallet activities of retail tokenholders demonstrates this.

According to Glassnode, Bitcoin retail spend volumes of user wallets holding less than 0.1 BTC have dropped by 48% since November 2024. A crypto commentator has corroborated the data, showing retail interest reached a three-year low.

Institutional investors like Metaplanet, Strategy and Intesa Sanpaolo have recently increased their Bitcoin holdings, taking advantage of BTC’s price drop. Simultaneously, large Bitcoin holders or crypto whales have accumulated over 39,620 BTC worth $3.79 billion in a single day.

Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, said, “There is an absolutely massive disconnect between retail and professional sentiment in crypto right now.” The data suggests that retail sentiment is bearish while professional investors remain bullish, almost like two parallel worlds.

The expanding adoption of BTC reserves by corporations and institutional demand for Bitcoin futures has led to shrinking retail investors. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) controls 85% of the monthly futures market, while crypto exchanges control retail-led perpetual contracts.

CME’s open interest in monthly BTC futures offers hedge funds and investment banks exposure to BTC and liquidity access. It also indicates, however, a diminishing influence of retail investors’ participation in Bitcoin’s price discovery.

The market structurally restricts retail investors’ access to capital reserves, denying them early-stage opportunities in financial markets. The psychological “unit bias” adds to the problem as retailers cannot own a complete unit of assets like Bitcoin.

Related: Crypto shows how powerful tokenizing private stocks would be

As governments contemplate the formation of strategic Bitcoin reserves, they risk being locked in central bank cold wallets. For optimal utilization, it’s essential to keep Bitcoin accessible to retail investors through open reserves.

Despite such constricted market opportunities, the crypto industry offers innovative products like asset tokenization and memecoins to democratize access for retail investors.

Retail investors are reclaiming crypto

Sometimes, the best way to achieve financial inclusion is to remove complexities and make investing fun and relatable. Memecoins have done that successfully, leveraging speculation as a utility to make a statement against low-float-high-fully diluted valuation coins backed by VCs. That’s the reason retail investors are buying memecoins in such large numbers.

Although memecoins are subject to severe market volatily, they continue to dominate retail speculation. Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, thinks the altcoin season is yet to come because memecoins have topped investor mindshare and capital allocation. 

The memecoin phenomenon shows the power of ordinary people to monetize virality and harness mimetic desire through collective community-led wealth generation. But more importantly, it shows retail investors’ rejection of VC-led token pumps that deny fair entry to high-value token launches.

Memecoins also give tokenholders a sense of belonging to facilitate bonding over shared values and culture. Thus, when US President Donald Trump launched his memecoin, 42% of investors were first-time buyers, signaling memecoins’ potential to onboard retailers.

Beyond speculative memecoin trading, retail investors adopt tokenized real-world assets to hedge against uncertain market conditions. The RWA tokenization market has recently surpassed $17 billion, enhancing retail investor accessibility and market opportunities through improved liquidity and fractional ownership.

Retailers and small investors can now participate in tokenized capital markets, previously reserved for institutions and wealthy individuals. Thus, tokenization is a democratic and inclusive market strategy to help new investors access the financial system without facing liquidity challenges.

Mastercard recently published a white paper explaining how RWA tokenization offers significant socio-economic benefits to people from emerging economies, such as Latin America. In developing economies, tokenization resolves the trust deficit by enabling transparent ownership tracking for seamless asset transfers.

Asset tokenization helps retail investors participate in DeFi markets by improving capital efficiency. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report shows tokenization benefits buyers and sellers in the opaque $1.5 trillion private credit market through fractionalized lending and borrowing.

Amid turbulent market conditions, institutional investors with abundant capital reserves have the luxury of continuing to accumulate Bitcoin and other altcoins. However, retail investors with a fixed capital supply must find asset classes with the lowest entry barriers.

With the crypto industry providing diversified investment options and innovative products, retailers now have the freedom to invest in their preferred assets. It’s finally time for retail investors to come onchain.

Opinion by: Hatu Sheikh, founder of Coin Terminal.

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.

Read more at cointelegraph.com

SEC acting chair voted against suing Elon Musk over Twitter stock disclosure

The acting chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly voted against the agency suing Elon Musk over the billionaire’s alleged securities violations concerning the disclosure of Twitter stocks. 

Citing anonymous sources, Reuters reported on March 24 that the SEC’s five commissioners conducted a vote on whether to sue Musk or not before the agency filed its lawsuit against the billionaire. 

Four commissioners voted in favor, while the lone dissent came from Mark Uyeda, who was appointed acting chair by US President Donald Trump on Jan. 20. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce voted along with three other commissioners to sue Musk. 

Uyeda and Peirce are known for their dissenting opinions on the SEC’s enforcement actions against the crypto industry during former SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s time in office.

SEC lawsuit against Elon Musk

In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and rebranded the social media platform to X. After the acquisition, the SEC began investigating whether Musk violated any securities laws as he acquired the platform. 

The SEC filed a lawsuit on Jan. 14 alleging that Musk failed to disclose his purchase of Twitter shares within the required 10-day window after surpassing the 5% ownership threshold. The agency said Musk delayed the disclosure by 11 days, allowing him to continue acquiring shares at lower prices, ultimately saving an estimated $150 million.

Related: Musk says he found ‘magic money computers’ printing money ‘out of thin air’

Elon Musk claps back at “broken” organization

Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, previously told Cointelegraph that the SEC’s action is an “admission” that it cannot bring an actual case. Meanwhile, Musk described the SEC as a “totally broken organization” on X, saying “so many actual crimes” go unpunished. 

Around a month after the lawsuit was filed, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a US government agency led by Musk, set its sights on the SEC. On Feb. 17, a page affiliated with DOGE called on the public to disclose any “waste, fraud and abuse” related to the SEC. Musk also shared the post to his over 200 million followers on X. 

A court filing indicates Musk has until April 4 to respond to the lawsuit. Meanwhile, President Trump has issued an executive order calling for a review of what he calls politically motivated investigations at the SEC and other federal agencies under the previous administration.

Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge

Read more at cointelegraph.com

XRP, Solana lead altcoin ETP inflows as Ethereum slumps — CoinShares

XRP and Solana led all altcoin-based exchange-traded product (ETP) inflows during the week ending March 21, with $6.71 million and $6.44 million respectively, according to digital asset investment firm CoinShares.

Other altcoin inflows were comparatively modest, with Polygon (POL) logging $400,000 and Chainlink (LINK) adding $200,000.

Sentiment toward altcoins remained mixed overall, as Ether (ETH) alone saw significant outflows totaling $86 million. Other notable outflows included Sui (SUI), with $1.3 million, Polkadot (DOT), with $1.3 million and Tron (TRX) with $950,000.

Despite Ether’s substantial outflows dragging down the altcoin sector, digital assets collectively reversed a five-week streak of net outflows, registering inflows of $644 million. Bitcoin (BTC) led this recovery with inflows amounting to $724 million, snapping its own five-week negative streak.

XRP, Solana lead altcoin ETP inflows as Ethereum slumps — CoinShares

Ethereum outflows pull down altcoins ETP performance, but Bitcoin carries digital assets. Source: CoinShares

As Cointelegraph reported, Ethereum has now experienced net weekly outflows for four consecutive weeks, while Bitcoin recorded its largest net inflow since January.

Related: Bitcoin ETFs log first net inflows in weeks, while Ether outflows continue

Sentiment on digital assets ETPs shifting across the world

CoinShares noted that the majority of inflows originated from the US, which accounted for $632 million, driven primarily by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). 

Positive sentiment, however, extended beyond the US, with Switzerland leading other regions at $15.9 million, followed closely by Germany ($13.9 million) and Hong Kong ($1.2 million).

XRP, Solana lead altcoin ETP inflows as Ethereum slumps — CoinShares

Canada and Sweden lead outflows. Source: CoinShares

Stars lining up for Solana and XRP

Although altcoins collectively suffered a net outflow driven primarily by Ethereum’s performance, Solana and XRP emerged as the standout altcoin performers.

In Solana’s case, the US market is poised to introduce its first Solana futures exchange-traded funds (ETF), potentially paving the way for a future spot Solana ETF.

Related: XRP and Solana race toward the next crypto ETF approval

In Bitcoin’s case, the approval of futures-based ETFs was initially favored by regulators due to the existence of a regulated market (the Chicago Mercantile Exchange), which provided assurances against potential market manipulation. However, this raised controversy over the SEC’s continued rejection of spot Bitcoin ETFs, which directly hold the cryptocurrency. 

A pivotal lawsuit by Grayscale successfully challenged this inconsistency, compelling the SEC to revisit its stance and ultimately paving the way for approval of the long-awaited spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Meanwhile, XRP has seen a significant boost from the recent dismissal by the SEC of its long-running lawsuit against Ripple Labs.

Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge 

Read more at cointelegraph.com

$52M Canadian commercial property tokenized by Polymesh, Ocree Capital

Securities dealer Ocree Capital has launched a regulated real estate platform in Canada, giving investors access to tokenized shares of commercial property on the Polymesh blockchain.

The new Ocree platform debuted on March 24 with a $51.9 million commercial real estate listing in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The featured property is a Class “A” multi-residential development with 156 units. 

Ocree said $4 million of equity is being offered to investors via fractional shares.

“Investors are not providing debt; they are participating in the equity of the asset,” Ocree CEO Ted Davis told Cointelegraph. “The investors purchase an interest in a limited partnership that invests in the underlying property.”

Canada, Tokenization, RWA Tokenization

15 Berwick Court in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the first commercial property listing on Ocree’s platform. Source: Google Maps

The property was tokenized entirely on Polymesh, a purpose-built blockchain for real-world assets (RWAs). As Cointelegraph reported, Polymesh was selected to tokenize a $2.5 million church in Colorado last summer. 

“By building on Polymesh’s institutional-grade public permissioned blockchain, we’ve created a platform that benefits both property owners seeking liquidity and investors looking for access to premium real estate opportunities,” Davis said.

Ocree is an exempt market dealer (EMD) registered with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and has licenses in all Canadian provinces and territories, except Quebec. The EMD status allows Ocree to distribute properties to accredited investors and other qualified individuals.

“The registration process took close to one year to complete, with multiple conversations with the OSC both before and during the registration process,” said Davis.

Related: Dubai Land Department begins real estate tokenization project

Tokenization takes off

Tokenization, or the process of representing real-world assets on a blockchain, has taken the traditional finance industry by storm in recent years. 

Major financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Citibank, HSBC and BlackRock have signaled their intent to offer tokenized products and services. In Canada, RWA players like Atlas One, Taurus and Polymath have also emerged with institutional-grade RWA platforms on offer.

Canada, Tokenization, RWA Tokenization

The tokenization process, from deal structuring to secondary market trading. Source: Cointelegraph 

There’s a reason why big banks are pivoting to tokenization. In addition to boosting liquidity and making it easier to connect buyers and sellers, RWAs solve many bottlenecks in the traditional finance industry, according to Matthew Burgoyne, a partner at Canadian business law firm Osler. He wrote:

“Financial transactions, especially those that cross borders, are often delayed as a result of the large number of intermediaries that are required, particularly in execution and settlement. However, the distributed and transparent nature of token-underpinned ledgers facilitates near-instant settlement at a reduced cost compared to traditional finance.”

For these reasons, tokenized securities could become a multitrillion-dollar market by 2030, according to industry research.

Canada, Tokenization, RWA Tokenization

The tokenized property market remains tiny in comparison to other tokenization trends. Source: RWA.xyz

Excluding stablecoins, the total value of RWAs onchain has reached $31.3 billion, according to RWA.xyz. This represents an increase of 94% over the past 30 days.

Related: Trump-era policies may fuel tokenized real-world assets surge

Read more at cointelegraph.com

Bitcoin ‘more likely’ to hit $110K before $76.5K — Arthur Hayes

Bitcoin may reach a new all-time high of $110,000 before any significant retracement, according to some market analysts who cite easing inflation and increasing global liquidity as key factors supporting a price rally.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been rising for two consecutive weeks, achieving a bullish weekly close just above $86,000 on March 23, TradingView data shows.

Combined with fading inflation-related concerns, this may set the stage for Bitcoin’s rally to a $110,000 all-time high, according to Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX and chief investment officer of Maelstrom.

Bitcoin ‘more likely’ to hit $110K before $76.5K — Arthur Hayes

BTC/USD, 1-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Hayes wrote in a March 24 X post:

“I bet $BTC hits $110k before it retests $76.5k. Y? The Fed is going from QT to QE for treasuries. And tariffs don’t matter cause of “transitory inflation.” JAYPOW told me so.”

Bitcoin ‘more likely’ to hit $110K before $76.5K — Arthur Hayes

Source: Arthur Hayes

“What I mean is that the price is more likely to hit $110k than $76.5k next. If we hit $110k, then it’s yachtzee time and we ain’t looking back until $250k,” Hayes added in a follow-up X post.

Quantitative tightening (QT) is when the US Federal Reserve shrinks its balance sheet by selling bonds or letting them mature without reinvesting proceeds, while quantitative easing (QE) means that the Fed is buying bonds and pumping money into the economy to lower interest rates and encourage spending during difficult financial conditions.

Other analysts pointed out that while the Fed has slowed QT, it has not yet fully pivoted to easing.

“QT is not ‘basically over’ on April 1st. They still have $35B/mo coming off from mortgage backed securities. They just slowed QT from $60B/mo to $40B/mo,” according to Benjamin Cowen, founder and CEO of IntoTheCryptoVerse.

Related: Bitcoin may recover to $90K amid easing inflation concerns after FOMC meeting

Meanwhile, market participants await the Fed’s expected pivot to quantitative easing, which has historically been positive for Bitcoin’s price.

Bitcoin ‘more likely’ to hit $110K before $76.5K — Arthur Hayes

BTC/USD, 1-week chart, 2020–2021. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The last period of QE in 2020 led to a more than 1,000% surge in Bitcoin’s price, from around $6,000 in March 2020 to a then-record high of $69,000 in November 2021. Analysts say a similar setup may be forming again.

Related: Bitcoin reserve backlash signals unrealistic industry expectations

Macro conditions may support Bitcoin’s rally to $110,000

Bitcoin’s recovery to above $85,000 after last week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting was a bullish sign for investor sentiment that may signal more upside, according to Emmanuel Cardozo, market analyst at real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform Brikken.

The macroeconomic environment also “supports” a Bitcoin rally to $110,000, the analyst told Cointelegraph.

“Global liquidity has risen, discussions around a US Bitcoin strategic reserve, potentially driving Bitcoin toward that $110,000 mark as BTC liquidity available in exchanges keeps dropping, leading to a supply squeeze scenario,” he said.

“However, a correction to $76,500 aligns with Bitcoin’s historical volatility, often triggered by profit-taking or unexpected market shifts,” he added.

Other analysts also see a high likelihood of Hayes’ prediction playing out.

“Given Bitcoin’s recent close above the 21-day and 200-day moving averages, this bullish momentum aligns with his view. However, the $88K resistance remains a key hurdle,” Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, told Cointelegraph.

Magazine: Bitcoin’s odds of June highs, SOL’s $485M outflows, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 2 – 8

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.

Read more at cointelegraph.com