The crypto market is currently facing significant pressure, largely due to US President Donald Trump’s trade war and deteriorating macroeconomic conditions. These factors have put markets under strain, with some analysts predicting that the bull run is over and a bear market may be on the horizon.
In a recent Cointelegraph interview, Kevin O’Leary, also known as “Mr. Wonderful,” shared his thoughts on the current state of the market and what could be ahead. Despite the turbulence, O’Leary remains optimistic about the future of Bitcoin (BTC). He explains that while the market is under pressure, he still expects Bitcoin to end the year higher as a couple of key factors come into play.
A key issue discussed in the interview is the need for regulatory clarity, especially surrounding stablecoins. O’Leary is particularly focused on the GENIUS Act, which he believes will be passed imminently by the US Congress. “We have been waiting for almost seven years for this legislation. I have a feeling it’s going to make it, and when that happens, it’s a game changer,” O’Leary said.
The passage of the GENIUS Act, which aims to provide regulatory clarity around stablecoins, should boost the adoption of dollar-backed stablecoins. This move is expected to bring much-needed stability and legitimacy to the crypto market, helping to mitigate some of the ongoing risks. O’Leary also shared insights into his personal crypto portfolio, revealing a diversified mix of assets in his portfolio.
To dive deeper into O’Leary’s views on the current state of the crypto market and his personal approach to investing in crypto, make sure to watch the full interview on our channel.
Asset manager Canary Capital has filed to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding Pengu (PENGU), the governance token of the Pudgy Penguins non-fungible token (NFT) project, US regulatory filings show.
The ETF is the latest in a slew of filings for new US investment products tied to spot cryptocurrencies, including altcoins and memecoins.
According to the filing, the ETF is intended to hold spot PENGU as well as various Pudgy Penguins NFTs. It would be the first US ETF to hold NFTs if approved.
Additionally, “[t]he Trust will also hold other digital assets, such as SOL and ETH, that are necessary or incidental to the purchase, sale and transfer of the Trust’s PENGU and Pudgy Penguins NFTs,” the filing said.
Launched in December, PUDGY has a roughly $438-million market capitalization as of March 20, according to CoinGecko.
On March 18, Canary filed to list the first US ETF holding Sui (SUI), the native token of the Sui layer-1 blockchain network.
Pudgy Penguins is among the most popular NFT brands. Source: Cointelegraph
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has acknowledged dozens of filings for new crypto investment products since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.
They include filings for proposed ETFs for native L1 tokens such as Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP), as well as for memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Official Trump (TRUMP).
Some industry analysts are skeptical that ETFs holding non-core cryptocurrencies will see a meaningful uptake among traditional investors.
“Pengu ETF announced. Price barely goes up. New ETFs for crypto assets have become an irrelevant joke,” crypto researcher Alex Krüger said in a March 20 post on the X platform. “Most crypto ETFs will fail to attract AUM and cost issuers money.”
Since starting his second presidential term, Trump has reversed the US government’s stance on digital assets, promising to make America “the world’s crypto capital.”
Under his predecessor, former US President Joe Biden, US regulatory agencies brought upward of 100 enforcement actions against crypto firms.
On March 20, asset manager Volatility Shares launched two Solana futures ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT).
They use financial derivatives to track SOL’s performance with one- and two-time leverage, respectively. Spot SOL ETFs are still awaiting regulatory approval.
Onchain sleuth ZachXBT said he had identified the mysterious whale who profited $20 million from highly leveraged trades on Hyperliquid and GMX as a British hacker going by the name William Parker.
According to ZachXBT’s March 20 X post, Parker — who was previously known as Alistair Packover before changing his name — was arrested last year for allegedly stealing around $1 million from two casinos in 2023.
Parker also made headlines a decade ago for allegations of hacking and gambling, ZachXBT said.
“It is abundantly clear WP/AP has not learned his lesson over the years after serving time for fraud and will likely continue gambling,” ZachXBT said.
ZachXBT said his findings are based on a phone number provided by a person who allegedly received a payment from the whale trader’s wallet address.
He also said that public wallet addresses associated with the whale trader received proceeds from past onchain phishing schemes.
Cointelegraph has not independently verified ZachXBT’s claims.
Massive leveraged bets
The mysterious whale rose to prominence after profiting approximately $20 million from highly leveraged trades — in some cases with up to 50x leverage — on decentralized perpetuals exchanges Hyperliquid and GMX.
On March 12, the trader intentionally liquidated an approximately $200 million Ether (ETH) long, causing Hyperliquid’s liquidity pool to lose $4 million.
Meanwhile, the whale earned profits of some $1.8 million.
Hyperliquid said the liquidation was not an exploit but rather a predictable consequence of how the trading platform operates under extreme conditions. The DEX later revised its collateral rules for traders with open positions to guard against such occurrences in the future.
Perpetual futures, or “perps,” are leveraged futures contracts with no expiry date. Traders deposit margin collateral — typically USDC (USDC) for Hyperliquid — to secure open positions.
Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin discussed the future of the smart contract network at the Digital Asset Summit and said layer-2 (L2) scaling networks would continue to be central to the Ethereum ecosystem.
In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright, Lubin said applications will require next-generation databases powered by high-throughput blockchain technologies. The Ethereum co-founder added:
“The Ethereum ecosystem is so big and so mature that it will be best for new kinds of databases — new kinds of layer 2 networks — to set up shop, as layer 2s of Ethereum. We have our own that has some great characteristics called Linea.”
“Another great application, or great layer 2, that’s emerging soon is called MegaETH,” Lubin continued.
The Ethereum co-founder ultimately concluded that newer layer-1 chains will have a tough time competing with the Ethereum network, which already features robust architecture and security guarantees.
According to L2Beat, there are currently over 140 unique scaling solutions for Ethereum, including 60 rollup networks.
Investors have criticized Ethereum’s layer-2 networks as parasitic elements that drain the layer-1 network of revenues while only contributing minimal economic value to the base layer.
Ethereum’s average gas fee dropped by 95% following the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which dramatically lowered transaction fees for layer-2 networks.
This reduction in transaction fees caused a 99% collapse in revenue on the Ethereum base layer by September 2024.
Network fees on the Ethereum layer-1 flatline following the Dencun upgrade. Source: The TIE Terminal
Since that time, the price of Ether (ETH) has generally been in decline, plummeting to a recent low of approximately $1,759 on March 11 and leading many analysts to predict a further price decline in 2025.
Data from Farside Investors shows outflows from Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have continued for 11 consecutive days amid a broader downturn in the crypto markets.
The most significant day of outflows occurred on March 13, when investors pulled a collective $73.6 million from ETH ETFs as they dumped risk-on assets for less volatile alternatives such as cash, government securities and dollar-pegged stablecoins.
Pump.fun has launched its own decentralized exchange (DEX) called PumpSwap, potentially displacing Raydium as the primary trading venue for Solana (SOL) memecoins.
Starting on March 20, memecoins that successfully bootstrap liquidity, or “bond,” on Pump.fun will migrate directly to PumpSwap, Pump.fun said in an X post.
Previously, bonded Pump.fun tokens migrated to Raydium, which emerged as Solana’s most popular DEX largely thanks to memecoins trading activity.
According to Pump.fun, PumpSwap “functions similarly to Raydium V4 & Uniswap V2” and is designed “to create the most frictionless environment for trading coins.”
“[M]igrations were a major point of friction – they slow a coin’s momentum and introduce needless complexity for new users,” Pump.fun said.
“[N]ow, migrations happen instantly and for free.”
Raydium’s trading volumes surged in 2024, largely due to memecoins. Source: DeFiLlama
The launch comes just a few days after Raydium tipped plans to create its own memecoin launchpad — called LaunchLab — to directly compete with Pump.fun.
Pump.fun and Raydium’s transition from partners to competitors stands to reshape Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem at a time when memecoin trading volumes are down dramatically from January highs.
“We welcome competition because users win at the end of the day,” Alon, one of Pump.fun’s co-founders told Cointelegraph on March 20.
Other upstart protocols — such as Daos.fun, GoFundMeme and Pumpkin — are also vying for a share of Solana’s memecoin market.
PumpSwap plans to adopt one of rival GoFundMeme’s most popular features — revenue sharing with memecoin creators.
Soon, “a percentage of protocol revenue will be shared with coin creators,” Pump.fun said.
“[I]f it succeeds, millions of dollars will go towards aligning creators with their communities and incentivizing higher quality launches.”
Pump.fun’s fee revenues are down sharply from January highs. Source: Dune Analytics
Declining memecoin activity
On Feb. 27, Cointelegraph reported that successful memecoin launches on Pump.fun were down some 80% from January highs after a series of memecoin-related scandals cooled sentiment among retail traders.
As a result, Pump.fun’s average daily fee revenue declined from more than $4 million in January to just over $100,000 as of mid-March, according to data from Dune Analytics,
Memecoins drove explosive growth on Solana in 2024, with the chain’s total value locked (TVL) increasing from around $1.4 billion to more than $9 billion that year, according to DefiLlama.
Raydium was among the biggest beneficiaries, with daily volumes soaring from around $245 million to more than $2 billion over the course of 2024, DefiLlama data shows.
In January, Raydium launched a leveraged perpetual futures trading platform in a bid to challenge incumbent Jupiter, another top Solana DeFi protocol.
US President Donald Trump is steadily aligning his administration with the crypto industry. On March 20, he addressed a community conference for the first time since being elected.
Speaking at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit on March 20 in a pre-recorded statement, Trump reiterated that the US would take steps to ensure it is the “crypto capital of the world.”
The president lauded the recent regulatory shift in the crypto industry over the previous administration and added:
“Pioneers like you will be able to improve our banking and payment system and promote greater privacy, safety, security and wealth for American consumers and businesses alike. You will unleash an explosion of economic growth.”
“With dollar-backed stablecoins, you will help expand the dominance of the US dollar for many, many years to come,” the president continued.
President Trump hosted the first White House Crypto Summit, bringing together industry executives to discuss the future of crypto regulatory policy on March 7.
During the meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US would focus on passing stablecoin regulations and touted stablecoins as a way to ensure the US dollar remains the global reserve currency.
Speaking at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit, Bo Hines, executive director of the Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, said that a stablecoin bill will likely be presented to President Trump in the next two months.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discusses stablecoin plans at the White House Crypto Summit. Source: The Associated Press
The highly anticipated crypto summit fell short of expectations, with the crypto community voicing mixed reactions to the summit.
Institutional investors and executives tended to characterize the historical nature of the event as a net positive for the industry, while retail investors and the Bitcoin community tended to view the event as underwhelming.
“The White House crypto summit is a gathering of rent-seeking lobbyists pushing state-approved surveillance tokens,” Bitcoin (BTC) maximalist Justin Bechler wrote in an X post.
The price of Bitcoin declined by 7.3% in the days following the White House Crypto Summit and the Bitcoin strategic reserve order, which stipulated that the government could only acquire more BTC through budget-neutral strategies.
The crypto industry is set to debut the first Solana futures exchange-traded fund (ETF), a significant development that may pave the way for the first Solana spot ETF, as the “next logical step” for crypto-based trading products, according to industry watchers.
Volatility Shares is launching two Solana (SOL) futures ETFs, the Volatility Shares Solana ETF (SOLZ) and the Volatility Shares 2X Solana ETF (SOLT), on March 20.
The debut of the first Solana futures ETF may bring significant new institutional adoption for the SOL token, according to Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research.
“The launch of the first Solana ETFs in the US could significantly boost Solana’s market position by increasing demand and liquidity for SOL, potentially narrowing the gap with Ethereum’s market cap.”
The Solana ETF will grow institutional adoption by “offering a regulated investment vehicle, attracting billions in capital and reinforcing Solana’s competitiveness against Ethereum,” said Lee, adding that “Ethereum’s entrenched ecosystem remains a formidable barrier.”
Still, other industry participants are concerned that the Solana futures ETF will lead to investor disappointment due to a lack of inflows, as we’ve seen with the spot Ether ETF launch, which was only a “sidekick” to Bitcoin ETFs in terms of inflows, as predicted by Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst, Eric Balchunas.
Solana futures ETF may see disappointing inflows, but spot Solana ETFs may be next
While the futures ETF may not bring significant inflows, it legitimizes Solana’s status as a top cryptocurrency, especially after US President Donald Trump announced that his Working Group on Digital Assets would include Solana in the US crypto strategic reserve, along with Cardano’s (ADA) token and XRP (XRP).
“Solana ETFs are in motion creating the possible avenues for more wide-scale adoption,” according to Anmol Singh, co-founder of Bullet, a Solana-native perpetual futures decentralized exchange.
Singh told Cointelegraph:
“Solana spot ETF is yet to be approved but given the increased awareness around Solana and the Futures ETFs this would be a logical next step.”
“We can expect moderate inflows into the futures ETF – spot ETF is generally a better instrument for getting exposure and that will be the major milestone,” he added.
While the adoption rate of futures ETFs is difficult to measure, a spot Solana ETF may attract between $3 billion to $6 billion of net assets in the first six months, eclipsing the adoption rate of Ether ETFs, according to a JPMorgan report seen by Cointelegraph.
SOL and XRP ETPs could attract $3–8 billion. Source: JP Morgan
“When applying these so-called “adoption rates” to SOL and XRP, we see SOL attracting roughly $3 billion-$6 billion of net assets and XRP gathering $4 billion-$8 billion in net new assets,” the report stated.
However, “the timeline could extend into 2026 due to the SEC’s precedent of taking […] 240–260 days to review filings,” James Seyffart, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said on Jan. 16.
The lion’s share of the hacked Bybit funds is still traceable after the historic cybertheft, as blockchain investigators continue their efforts to freeze and recover these funds.
Blockchain security firms, including Arkham Intelligence, have identified North Korea’s Lazarus Group as the likely culprit behind the Bybit exploit, as the attackers have continued swapping the funds in an effort to make them untraceable.
Despite the Lazarus Group’s efforts, over 88% of the stolen $1.4 billion remains traceable, according to Ben Zhou, the co-founder and CEO of Bybit exchange.
“Total hacked funds of USD 1.4bn around 500k ETH. 88.87% remain traceable, 7.59% have gone dark, 3.54% have been frozen.”
“86.29% (440,091 ETH, ~$1.23B) have been converted into 12,836 BTC across 9,117 wallets (Average 1.41 BTC each),” said the CEO, adding that the funds were mainly funneled through Bitcoin (BTC) mixers including Wasbi, CryptoMixer, Railgun and Tornado Cash.
The CEO’s update comes nearly a month after the exchange was hacked. It took the Lazarus Group 10 days to launder 100% of the stolen Bybit funds through the decentralized crosschain protocol THORChain, Cointelegraph reported on March 4.
Still, blockchain security experts are hopeful that a portion of these funds can be frozen and recovered by Bybit.
The crypto industry needs more blockchain “bounty hunters” and white hat, or ethical hackers, to combat the growing illicit activity from North Korean actors.
Decoding transaction patterns through cryptocurrency mixers remains the biggest challenge in tracing these funds, Bybit’s CEO wrote, adding:
“In the past 30 days, 5012 bounty reports were received of which 63 were valid bounty reports. We welcome more reports, we need more bounty hunters that can decode mixers as we need a lot of help there down the road.”
Bybit has awarded over $2.2 million worth of funds to 12 bounty hunters for relevant information that may lead to the freezing of the funds. The exchange is offering 10% of the recovered funds as a bounty for white hat hackers and investigators.
“This incident is another stark reminder that even the strongest security measures can be undone by human error,” Lucien Bourdon, an analyst at Trezor, told Cointelegraph.
Bourdon explained that attackers used a sophisticated social engineering technique, deceiving signers into approving a malicious transaction that drained crypto from one of Bybit’s cold wallets.
The Bybit hack is more than twice the size of the $600 million Poly Network hack in August 2021, making it the largest crypto exchange breach to date.
Crypto exchange Bitnomial has voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of launching its Ripple XRP futures in the United States.
The Chicago-based firm said in a March 19 statement to X that its XRP (XRP) futures are regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and will be available from March 20 for current users.
“Bitnomial is launching the first-ever CFTC-regulated XRP futures in the US — physically settled for real market impact,” Bitnomial said.
“Plus, we’ve voluntarily dismissed our case against the SEC as regulatory clarity improves,” it added.
The exchange filed a self-certification with the CFTC to list XRP futures contracts on its exchange in August 2024. However, the SEC blocked the move, pushing for Bitnomial to register as a securities exchange before it could list the futures.
Bitnomial sued the SEC and its five commissioners on Oct. 10, accusing the agency of overextending its jurisdiction by claiming that XRP is a security.
Bitnomial’s XRP futures launch follows Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s March 19 announcement the SEC opted out of continuing an appeal against a ruling that found XRP is only a security for retail sales.
A July 13, 2023 judgment from Judge Analisa Torres deemed XRP is not a security for retail sales; however, she opined it was when sold to institutional investors, as it met the conditions set in the Howey test. The SEC was appealing Torres’s decision.
The SEC initially launched legal action against Ripple Labs in December 2020, accusing the firm of illegally selling its token as an unregistered security.
The agency’s acting chair, Mark Uyeda, who took the reins after Gensler resigned on Jan. 20, flagged plans on March 17 to scrap a rule proposed under the Biden administration that would tighten crypto custody standards for investment advisers.
Uyeda also said in a March 10 speech that he had asked SEC staff for options to abandon part of proposed changes that would expand regulation of alternative trading systems to include crypto firms, requiring them to register as exchanges.
Bitcoin (BTC) has been clinging to the 200-day simple moving average ($84,359), which suggests that the bulls have kept up the pressure. That improves the prospects of an upside breakout, signaling the corrective phase may be ending.
Derive founder Nick Forster told Cointelegraph that the current pullback is a normal correction that Bitcoin experiences during long-term rallies. He anticipates that Bitcoin’s cycle peak is yet to come.
A positive sign in favor of bulls is that the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have again started to witness inflows. According to Farside Investors data, spot Bitcoin ETFs have recorded $525 million in inflows since March 14.
However, not everyone is bullish on Bitcoin. CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju said in a post on X that Bitcoin could remain in a bearish or sideways trend for the next 6-12 months as the bull cycle is over.
Could Bitcoin break out of the 200-day SMA, triggering a rally in altcoins? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.
Bitcoin price analysis
Bitcoin is facing selling at the 200-day SMA, but the bulls have not given up much ground. That suggests the bulls are not dumping their positions as they expect a breakout in the near term.
The bullish momentum is expected to pick up on a break and close above the 20-day exponential moving average ($85,441). The BTC/USDT pair could then climb to the 50-day SMA ($91,904).
This optimistic view will be negated in the near term if the price turns down sharply from the 20-day EMA and breaks below $80,000. The pair may then tumble to $76,606. Buyers are expected to defend the $76,606 to $73,777 zone with all their might.
Ether price analysis
The narrow range trading in Ether (ETH) resolved to the upside on March 19, indicating that the bulls have overpowered the bears.
Sellers will try to halt the relief rally at the breakdown level of $2,111, but if the bulls prevail, the ETH/USDT pair could ascend to the 50-day SMA ($2,468). If this level is also crossed, the pair could surge to $2,850.
Instead, if the price turns down sharply from $2,111, it will signal that the bears are trying to flip the level into resistance. The bears will gain the upper hand if they sink and maintain the price below $1,800.
XRP price analysis
XRP (XRP) surged above the moving averages on March 19, opening the doors for a rally to the resistance line.
If the price turns down from the resistance line, the XRP/USDT pair is likely to find support at the 20-day EMA ($2.36). A bounce off the 20-day EMA increases the likelihood of a break above the resistance line. The pair may then climb to $3.
On the other hand, if the price turns down from the resistance line and breaks below the moving averages, it heightens the risk of a drop to $2. Sellers will be in control on a close below $2.
BNB price analysis
BNB (BNB) closed above the 50-day SMA ($618) on March 17, but the bulls are struggling to sustain the higher levels.
The pullback is expected to find support at the 20-day EMA ($602). If the price rebounds off the 20-day EMA with strength, it will suggest a change in sentiment from selling on rallies to buying on dips. That increases the possibility of a break above $644. The BNB/USDT pair could then rally to $686.
Conversely, a break and close below the 20-day EMA suggests that the bulls are booking profits. That may sink the pair to $550.
Solana price analysis
Solana (SOL) rebounded off the $120 to $110 support zone on March 18, indicating that the bulls are aggressively defending the zone.
If buyers catapult the price above the 20-day EMA ($137), it will suggest the start of a sustained recovery. The SOL/USDT pair could rally to the 50-day SMA ($167) and, after that, to $180.
Contrarily, if the price turns down from the 20-day EMA, it will signal that the bears remain in control. A break below the support zone suggests the start of the next leg of the downtrend. There is minor support at $98, but if the level breaks down, the pair could plummet to $80.
Cardano price analysis
Cardano (ADA) has been trading between the uptrend line and the moving averages for the past few days, indicating indecision about the next directional move.
The downsloping moving averages and the RSI just below the midpoint give a slight edge to the bears. If the price turns down from the moving averages and breaks below the uptrend line, the ADA/USDT pair could drop to $0.58 and eventually to $0.50.
On the contrary, a break and close above the moving averages suggests that the bulls are back in the game. The pair could ascend to $1.02, where the bears are expected to sell aggressively.
Dogecoin price analysis
Dogecoin (DOGE) is facing selling near the 20-day EMA ($0.18), indicating that the bears are active at higher levels.
The bears will try to sink the price below the $0.14 support. If they manage to do that, it will signal the resumption of the downtrend. The DOGE/USDT pair could plunge to psychological support at $0.10.
If buyers do not give up much ground from the current level, it improves the prospects of a break above the 20-day EMA. If that happens, the pair could climb to $0.25 and thereafter to $0.29.
If the price turns down from the 20-day EMA, the bears will again try to sink the LINK/USDT pair below the $12 support. If they manage to do that, the pair could descend to the crucial support at $10.
Alternatively, a break and close above the 20-day EMA suggests that the breakdown below the channel was a bear trap. The pair may climb to the 50-day SMA ($17.22) and later to $19.25.
UNUS SED LEO price analysis
UNUS SED LEO (LEO) has been trading in a tight range between $10 and $9.60 for the past few days, suggesting that the bulls are holding on to their positions as they anticipate a move higher.
If buyers drive and maintain the price above $10, the LEO/USD pair will complete a bullish ascending triangle pattern. The pair may then start an upmove toward the pattern target of $12.04.
Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns down and breaks below $9.60, it will signal that the bulls have given up. The pair may then drop to the uptrend line, which is again expected to attract buyers.
Toncoin price analysis
Toncoin (TON) has been facing resistance at the 50-day SMA ($3.56), but a positive sign is that the bulls have not ceded ground to the bears.
That increases the likelihood of a break and close above the 50-day SMA. If that happens, the TON/USDT pair could climb to $4.50 and then to $5. Sellers are expected to mount a vigorous defense near $5.
This positive view will be invalidated in the near term if the price turns down and breaks below the 20-day EMA ($3.26). That will indicate selling at higher levels. The pair may then slump to $3.
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.
