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Fenbushi Capital Co-Founder Bo Shen Launches Bounty to Recover $42M Crypto Theft From 2022 – Crypto News Bitcoin News

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Fenbushi Capital Co-Founder Offers up to 20% of $42M to Recover Stolen Crypto

Shen disclosed the theft publicly on Nov. 23, 2022, roughly two weeks after the breach occurred in the early morning hours of Nov. 10, 2022. The compromised wallet, ending in the digits 894, held the bulk of his personal digital assets. Fenbushi Capital, the Shanghai-based blockchain venture firm Shen co-founded, was not affected.

The stolen assets included approximately $38.2 million in USDC, 1,607 ETH, roughly 720,000 USDT, and 4.13 BTC, along with smaller positions in tokens including UNI, REP, and LQTY. Blockchain security firms Slowmist and Beosin traced the root cause to a compromised mnemonic seed phrase, which gave the attacker direct control over the wallet.

At the time, the theft took place against the backdrop of the FTX collapse, which had rattled crypto markets and overwhelmed the attention of on-chain investigators. Shen reported the incident to law enforcement, including the FBI, and engaged legal counsel. Progress stalled.

“A total of 42M worth of crypto assets, including 38M in USDC were stolen from my personal wallet ending in 894 in the early morning of November 10 EST,” Shen wrote in his original November 2022 statement.

He added:

“The stolen assets are personal funds and do not affect on Fenbushi related entities.”

More than 1,200 days later, Shen said improved blockchain analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) tools have made the stolen asset flow paths significantly clearer. His team has gathered what he described as additional key clues and evidence pointing to where the funds moved after the initial theft.

The drained assets were funneled through mixing services before being converted into other tokens, with some flows ending in DAI. That layering made early tracing difficult, but Shen indicated that cross-platform collaboration has changed the equation.

Onchain investigator ZachXBT and security researcher Tayvano have already assisted in freezing approximately $1.2 million in related assets. Shen said his team is working to formally claim those funds and will honor the bounty on them promptly. He also credited Chiachih Wu, Bitrace Team, and Slowmist Team for their ongoing contributions.

The bounty is structured on a sliding scale based on contribution. Anyone whose work leads to a material recovery — individuals, white-hat researchers, analytics firms, or other organizations — is eligible regardless of background or affiliation.

Shen posted the full announcement in Chinese on X, calling on anyone with credible information to come forward. The contact email for submissions is shenbo.case@gmail.com.

The case illustrates a persistent vulnerability in self-custodied crypto holdings: seed phrase exposure. Even experienced investors with significant holdings remain at risk when recovery phrases are stored or transmitted insecurely. Onchain data is permanent, and in Shen’s case, that permanence could work in his favor.

Recovery remains difficult. The funds have had more than three years to be laundered and dispersed across wallets and services. Shen has acknowledged the challenge but expressed confidence that modern forensic tools give his team a credible path forward.

Whether the bounty produces results will depend on whether anyone with direct knowledge of the attacker’s identity or wallet infrastructure comes forward. The investigation is ongoing, and Shen said updates will be posted to his X account.

FAQ 🔎

  • What was stolen from Bo Shen’s crypto wallet? Approximately $42 million in cryptocurrency — including $38.2 million in USDC, 1,607 ETH, 720,000 USDT, and 4.13 BTC — was drained from his personal Ethereum wallet on Nov. 10, 2022.
  • How was Bo Shen’s Ethereum wallet hacked? Security firms SlowMist and Beosin determined the attacker gained access by compromising Shen’s mnemonic seed phrase, allowing direct control over the wallet.
  • What is the bounty Bo Shen is offering for the stolen crypto? Shen is offering 10% to 20% of any recovered amount to individuals or organizations that make a material contribution to recovering the funds.
  • How can someone submit tips about the Bo Shen crypto theft? Anyone with credible information can contact Shen’s team directly at shenbo.case@gmail.com.

Behind the Idea: Lorum | The Fintech Times

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Global financial systems often depend on brittle, legacy processes where the incentives behind clearing are fundamentally misaligned. Seeking to realign these structures is Lorum, a specialist correspondent institution focused on providing predictable clearing, settlement, and treasury infrastructure for the modern financial world.

George Davis, founder of Lorum

Lorum provides direct access to local and major payment rails through a single API and ledger, issuing regulated, segregated custody accounts in the end customer’s name. By focusing exclusively on clearing and cash management—rather than lending or competing for deposits—the institution ensures that third-party funds move with certainty on a 100% reserved basis.

George Davis, founder of Lorum, shares his journey from founding a machine learning company at 18 to building the operational backbone for global financial platforms.

Tell us about your career path prior to starting your company

I’ve spent my career across several regulated payments and financial technology businesses, starting with founding a machine learning company in London at 18. Later, I joined TrueLayer as head of product, where I led their payments expansion and saw first-hand how much the global financial system depends on brittle, legacy processes. Most recently, I co-founded BVNK as chief product officer, co-building an institutional payments business on stablecoin rails. That experience highlighted where existing clearing and settlement frameworks were holding the industry back, which ultimately led to the creation of Lorum.

Tell us more about your company and its offering

Lorum is a specialist correspondent institution focused on clearing, settlement, and treasury infrastructure. We provide direct access to major payment rails through a single API and ledger, issuing regulated custody accounts in the end customer’s name. Importantly, we do not lend or take balance sheet risk; our sole purpose is to help financial institutions move third-party funds in a controlled way. Clients use us to collect and pay out locally, hold balances, and manage multi-currency liquidity without needing to maintain fragmented bank relationships.

What problem was your company set up to solve?

The problem isn’t that global payments are “broken,” but that clearing incentives are misaligned. Clearing typically sits inside lending banks that profit from holding funds to earn yield, which creates slow settlement and trapped liquidity. While many blame SWIFT for delays, the lag actually lives in the chain of custody and the balance sheet incentives of these banks. Lorum realigns these incentives by holding client funds on a 100% reserved basis, allowing money to move with certainty and fewer intermediaries.

Since launch, how has your company evolved?

We originally launched as Fuse, focused on specific clearing use cases in the Middle East. We rebranded to Lorum—from the correspondent banking term Loro, meaning funds held for a third party—to reflect our evolution into a new type of institution built entirely around our clients’ money. We’ve since expanded our regulatory footprint and scaled into a clearing backbone for major global platforms. We have also extended our infrastructure to support stablecoins and tokenised money market funds for multi-asset treasury.

What has been the biggest challenge or most tricky moment to overcome?

The hardest part has been shifting how the market understands the problem. Many are conditioned to blame technical rails or messaging layers like SWIFT, or to view blockchain as the only solution. Getting treasury and compliance teams to see that the issue is structural—based on balance sheet incentives rather than just technical speed—takes significant patience.

What are your biggest achievements or proudest moments so far?

Becoming a part of the operational backbone for clients like dLocal, Remotepass, TerraPay, and OpenFX is a major highlight. Scaling to 45x volume growth in 2025 while maintaining strict regulatory rigour and safeguarding standards is the achievement we are most proud of.

How would you describe the culture of your company?

The culture at Lorum is direct, transparent, and obsessive. We treat everyone as an owner because they all have skin in the game. We specifically hire people who are deeply obsessive about a subject—not necessarily payments—because that intensity is vital to solving the structural problems we face. Many of us have lived with the consequences of settlement uncertainty first-hand, which keeps us aligned on why this work matters.

What’s in store for the future?

We are building toward comprehensive treasury and trade services, extending beyond clearing into cash management, FX optimisation, and multi-asset liquidity. A major focus is tokenised money market funds, allowing institutions to earn interest on liquidity pools around the clock without sacrificing control

Bitcoin (BTC) holds ground as precious metals slide on ETF outflows and liquidity strains, JPMorgan says

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Bitcoin is proving more resilient than traditional safe-haven assets as gold and silver come under pressure from outflows, positioning unwinds and deteriorating liquidity, according to Wall Street investment bank JPMorgan.

“The deterioration in liquidity conditions in gold has seen its market breadth
decline below that of bitcoin currently,” analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, wrote in the Wednesday report.

Bitcoin has shown relative resilience in recent weeks following the outbreak of war in Iran, even after a steep correction from its October all-time highs.

The cryptocurrency initially dropped sharply alongside broader risk assets, briefly falling into the low-$60,000 range and triggering large liquidations as investors rushed to de-risk amid geopolitical uncertainty.

But the sell-off proved short-lived. Prices have since stabilized in the high-$60,000 to low-$70,000 range, even as tensions persist and oil prices surge above $100 a barrel.

The price action suggests bitcoin is behaving less like a pure safe haven in the immediate shock phase and more like a high-beta macro asset, selling off initially, then finding support as flows return and longer-term holders step in once panic subsides.

Gold has fallen roughly 15% month to date, reversing a crowded rally that pushed prices to record highs near $5,500 in January. Silver, which peaked near $120, has followed a similar path lower. JPMorgan analysts attributed the sell-off to rising interest rates, a stronger U.S. dollar and broad profit-taking by both retail and institutional investors.

Flows data reinforce the shift. Gold ETFs saw nearly $11 billion in outflows in the first three weeks of March, while silver ETF inflows built since last summer have been unwound, the report said. In contrast, bitcoin funds have continued to attract net inflows over the same period.

Positioning data tells a similar story. JPMorgan’s proxy for institutional activity, based on Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) futures open interest, shows a sharp buildup in gold and silver exposure through late 2025 into early 2026, followed by a steep decline since January as investors cut positions. Bitcoin futures positioning, by comparison, has remained relatively stable in recent weeks.

Momentum signals also diverge. The bank noted that trend-following investors, such as Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs), have aggressively reduced exposure to gold and silver, with indicators swinging from overbought to below-neutral levels. That positioning shift has likely amplified recent price declines. Bitcoin momentum, meanwhile, is recovering from oversold conditions toward neutral, suggesting selling pressure may be easing.

Liquidity conditions further highlight the divergence. Gold’s market breadth has deteriorated to the point where it now trails bitcoin, a reversal of the typical relationship. Silver’s liquidity has weakened further, with thinner market depth exacerbating recent price moves, the report added.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading around $69,000 at the time of publication. Gold was trading around $4,450/oz, and silver $69/oz.

Read more: Wall Street broker Bernstein calls bitcoin bottom, keeps $150,000 year-end target

Brazil Passes Law to Use Seized Bitcoin, Crypto to Fund Public Security Measures

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In brief

  • A new law was signed in Brazil on Tuesday allowing authorities to seize digital assets like Bitcoin as a means to combat organized crime.
  • The law allows judges to authorize the sale of assets as well, with proceeds going to fund public security.
  • Brazil introduced the bill in November, shortly after it cracked down on an illegal Bitcoin mining operation.

A new law passed in Brazil designed to bolster the fight against organized crime will allow authorities to seize digital assets from criminals and potentially use them in the public’s interest. 

The “Anti-Gang Law” was signed into law by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday, creating much harsher penalties for crime leaders while providing authorities the means “for the financial, logistical, and material strangulation” of organized crime entities. 

“The law represents progress in combating organized crime, by incorporating mechanisms for financial strangulation and strengthening the state’s capacity to respond to the growing complexity of these criminal structures,” said Brazil’s Minister of Justice and Public Security Wellington Lima, in a statement. 

“The focus is on reaching their highest levels, with more effective instruments and coordinated action,” he added.

While the bill does not specifically mention any crypto assets by name, it allows judges to order precautionary measures like “seizure, attachment, blocking or freezing of movable and immovable property, rights and assets, including digital or virtual assets” in cases where there is sufficient evidence of a serious crime as defined in the law. 

In certain cases, the judge may also be able to authorize the early sale of assets, with proceeds then flowing to public security funds.

Custody of seized assets based on precautionary measures will fall to the public authorities, except in cases where a judge determines “the material impossibility or technical inadequacy of custody by the public authorities is demonstrated.”

In other jurisdictions, authorities have had difficulty in maintaining custody of crypto assets gathered from investigations. For example, law enforcement in South Korea didn’t adhere to crypto custody guidelines, and lost access to $1.4 million in Bitcoin

Later, representatives for the National Tax Service in South Korea posted photos of seed phrases, the 12-word phrases that unlock a crypto wallet’s private key, allowing an unknown individual to grab $4.8 million in crypto tokens at face value—before ultimately returning them. 

The newly passed law in Brazil was sent to congress in November as the nation’s government and central bank introduced proposals to crack down on crime and illegal Bitcoin or stablecoin use. The nation also clamped down on an illegal Bitcoin mining operation in September.

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OpenAI Rethinks ChatGPT Shopping Strategy

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The generative AI vendor is pulling back on plans to make ChatGPT a direct e-commerce channel after a series of problems with its Instant Checkout feature.

The vendor publicized a number of changes in a blog post on March 24 confirming a rethink in strategy from last year, when the company launched a shopping assistant.

At the time, OpenAI highlighted the potential of Instant Checkout, which enabled users to discuss potential purchases with a chatbot before adding products to a checkout cart within ChatGPT itself.

Although users ultimately bought the items from the retailers — big names such as Etsy, Walmart and Shopify were among those who signed up — ChatGPT essentially acted as an agent or portal for them.

It appears that has not gone smoothly, however, with OpenAI conceding: “We’ve found that the initial version of Instant Checkout did not offer the level of flexibility that we aspire to provide, so we’re allowing merchants to use their own checkout experiences.”

Related:Anthropic Auto Mode Means No More Babysitting Claude

Among the glitches OpenAI is said to have encountered are problems with onboarding retailers, handling multi-item carts, and connecting with sellers’ loyalty programs.

While retailers will apparently still have the option of using the feature within apps in ChatGPT, developing it further is not a priority for OpenAI, which said it will now focus its efforts on product discovery.

What this means for users is more detailed assistance in figuring out what to buy. While ChatGPT has previously offered advice on potential purchases and relevant comparisons, it is now promising to improve the experience with “richer and more visual shopping”.

Users can refine requests by budget, dimensions and preferences, and upload images for inspiration, while OpenAI claims it has improved the bot’s speed, relevance and product coverage for a more comprehensive service.

The updates are rolling out to all ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users this week.

The entire ChatGPT shopping experience is being enabled by the expansion of OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open standard for AI commerce developed in tandem with fintech vendor Stripe and merchant partners.

Currently, ACP lets merchants share product feeds and promotions in ChatGPT, but according to OpenAI, it will enable broader experiences such as enhanced personalization and greater localization. Target, Sephora, Nordstrom, Lowe’s, Best Buy, The Home Depot, and Wayfair are among the retailers that have already integrated into ACP for product discovery.

 

Bernstein Analysts Say Bitcoin Price Has Bottomed, Here’s Where It’s Headed

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Bernstein analysts remain bullish on Bitcoin’s price, maintaining their year-end optimistic outlook. The analysts have confirmed that Bitcoin has officially reached its market bottom, with its price at around $60,000, the lowest since its all-time high above $126,000 in October 2026. If this is true, it could mean the prolonged BTC bear market has ended, and the market is heading upwards from here. 

Bernstein Confirms Bitcoin Price Bottom And Next Target

In a Tuesday note to clients, Bernstein analysts doubled down on their year-end price target of $150,000 for Bitcoin. Their reiteration of this bullish outlook comes as the world’s largest cryptocurrency faces major headwinds in its ongoing bear market.

Recently, the Bitcoin price dropped below $70,000 once again amid increased geopolitical uncertainty and state-level selling pressure. Market volatility resurfaced after President Donald Trump pushed to end the US-Iran war within weeks, and the Bhutan government sold more than 519 BTC for approximately $36.7 million.

Despite these bearish developments pushing the price lower, Bernstein analysts believe that Bitcoin’s move from here on out could be a slow but steady recovery, followed by a rebound toward a new all-time high. This isn’t the first time they have made such a prediction. Earlier in January, they stated that BTC had hit a price floor at $80,000 and might be on its way to a $150,000 target. 

Importantly, the analysts confirmed again in their recent note that the Bitcoin price has officially reached its market bottom this cycle. This comes after the cryptocurrency plunged from $90,000 to $60,000 in early February, marking its lowest level since its cycle top last year. This price floor is also approximately 47% below the cryptocurrency’s all-time high levels. 

Major factors had fueled this crash, including the hawkish FED Chair nomination of Kevin Warsh by Trump in January 2026, which triggered a risk-off sell-off in the crypto market. Moreover, at the time, the market had recorded massive outflows in Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) worth billions of dollars. Heightened tensions in the Middle East, as well as the oil shock, had also fueled BTC’s decline to this claimed $60,000 price bottom. 

Why They Believe BTC Could Hit $150,000 This Year    

Three major bullish catalysts are driving Bernstein’s optimistic Bitcoin prediction this cycle. The first is the continuous corporate accumulation by the business intelligence company and BTC treasury Strategy (MSTR). Notably, Strategy has continued to buy Bitcoin despite its ongoing volatility and declining price action. The firm now holds 3.6% of Bitcoin’s total supply, valued at roughly $53.5 billion, after its latest purchase of 1,031 BTC for $76.6 million this March. 

Another major reason Bernstein believes BTC could hit a new ATH this year is attributed to its ETF. Analysts at the firm suggest that ETF inflows could remain strong despite market volatility, thereby continuing to increase demand for BTC. Over the past week, Bitcoin ETFs have already attracted significant inflows, driven largely by wealth managers, pension funds, sovereign entities, and other major institutional investors. 

The final reason mentioned is the strong conviction of long-term BTC holders. Notably, 60% of Bitcoin’s total supply has been held by inactive wallets for more than 1 year. This behavior reflects long-term holding as investors continue to see the cryptocurrency as a strategic allocation and a store of value. 

Bitcoin price chart from Tradingview.com
BTC bears drag price below $70,000 | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com

Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com

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Bitcoin Drops Under $70K, Stuck Mid-Range With Fading Strength – Markets and Prices Bitcoin News

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Bitcoin Chart Outlook

The daily timeframe on Thursday continues to reflect a broad consolidation range, with price holding within the wider $62,500 to $76,000 structure implied by recent highs and lows. Current positioning near $69,000 places bitcoin in the lower half of that range, following rejection from the upper boundary near $71,570 in the latest one-day session.

The lack of trend strength at this level suggests a market in pause mode rather than one preparing for immediate expansion, with neither side showing dominant control.

BTC/USD 1-day chart via Bitstamp on March 26, 2026.

On the four-hour timeframe, bitcoin’s structure has softened. Price action shows a pullback from recent highs into the $69,000 region, with the market failing to sustain moves above the $70,000 handle. The shift lower within the intraday range, combined with repeated inability to hold higher levels, reflects short-term pressure building beneath the surface. The broader tone here leans cautious, as upside attempts continue to lose follow-through.

Bitcoin Drops Under $70K, Stuck Mid-Range With Fading Strength
BTC/USD 4-hour chart via Bitstamp on March 26, 2026.

Alongside this, the one-hour bitcoin chart on Bitstamp reinforces that short-term weakness, with price clustering tightly around $69,519 and repeated small- volume trades indicating reduced participation. This type of compression near support—specifically the $69,500 level—often precedes expansion, but direction remains unclear. Order book data shows bids stacked at $69,500, $69,000, and $68,500, while immediate resistance sits just above at $69,537 to $69,560, keeping the price pinned in a narrow range.

Bitcoin Drops Under $70K, Stuck Mid-Range With Fading Strength
BTC/USD 1-hour chart via Bitstamp on March 26, 2026.

Oscillators via the daily reflect a market lacking momentum. The relative strength index ( RSI) at 48, Stochastic at 36, and commodity channel index (CCI) at −16 all register fairly neutral readings, while the average directional index (ADX) at 17 confirms weak trend strength. The Awesome oscillator also remains neutral.

However, momentum prints −5,222, and the moving average convergence divergence ( MACD) level at 44 both signal downside pressure, suggesting that while the market appears balanced on the surface, underlying momentum is tilting lower.

Moving averages (MAs) skew decisively negative despite the sideways price action. The exponential moving average (EMA) and simple moving average (SMA) cluster shows 13 bearish signals, with only one bullish and one neutral reading.

Short-term resistance is clearly defined by the $70,373 EMA (10) and $70,474 SMA (10), along with the $70,275 EMA (20) and $70,350 SMA (20), all of which sit above the current price. Even as the $68,887 SMA (50) offers nearby support, longer-term levels such as the $77,813 EMA (100) and $86,062 EMA (200) remain far above, reinforcing the broader weight of resistance pressing down on price.

Bull Verdict:

Bitcoin holding above the $69,000 support zone while maintaining a broader daily range structure keeps the upside scenario intact, but it lacks confirmation. A sustained move back above the $70,800 to $71,500 resistance band would be required to shift momentum and invalidate the current short-term weakness, otherwise bullish conditions remain conditional rather than convincing.

Bear Verdict:

Short-term momentum continues to weaken, with negative momentum and moving average convergence divergence ( MACD) signals aligning against price while multiple exponential moving averages (EMA) and simple moving averages (SMA) sit overhead. Failure to hold the $69,000 support zone would likely expose downside toward deeper support levels, reinforcing the growing pressure already visible beneath the surface.

FAQ 🔎

  • What is bitcoin’s price on March 26, 2026? Bitcoin is trading near $69,678, consolidating after a pullback from $71,570.45.
  • Is bitcoin trending up or down right now? Short-term momentum is weakening while the broader daily range remains intact.
  • What are key bitcoin support and resistance levels? Support sits near $69,000 while resistance is stacked between $70,800 and $71,500.
  • What do indicators say about bitcoin’s outlook? Oscillators are mostly neutral, but momentum and MACD signals lean bearish.

AI Legal Platform Startup Reaches $11B Valuation

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U.S. legal AI vendor Harvey attracted $200 million in investment as AI technology floods the legal sector.

The latest funding round, revealed on March 25, was led by two returning investors, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and California-based venture capital firm Sequoia. Other existing investors that participated were Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue and Evantic.

The new round, which brought Harvey to an $11 billion market valuation, follows a previous $160 million fundraise in December, when the company was valued at $8 billion.

Harvey has emerged as one of the leading players in the burgeoning legal AI sector, where agentic tools are increasingly being used to perform increasingly complex tasks.

The vendor said more than 25,000 custom agents run on its platform, and are capable of handling mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, contract drafting and document reviews.

Within the platform, Harvey has also developed a security-focused area called Shared Spaces, where businesses’ legal teams can coordinate work with external partners.

Related:Billionaire’s Startup Aims to Transform Personal AI

“AI isn’t just assisting lawyers. It’s becoming the system through which legal work gets done. The law firms and in-house teams leading the way are building agents that execute complex workflows so lawyers can focus on judgment, strategy, and outcomes,” Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg said in a blog post, referring to the extent to which AI is transforming the industry.

The scale of the impact is underscored by Harvey’s dramatic rate of growth. Since its founding in 2022, it has already raised more than $1 billion and claims that more than 100,000 lawyers across 1,300 organizations in 60 countries use the platform, including those from global law firms and Fortune 500 enterprises.

Harvey said the latest investment will be used to expand the agents being used by clients, as well as grow the engineering teams that are embedded with customers.

As the AI rollout continues apace, the legal profession has become one of the most interesting and potentially lucrative battlegrounds, with Harvey’s Swedish rival Legora raising $550 million in Series D funding earlier this month, bringing the company’s valuation to $5.5 billion.

Canada’s Clio, meanwhile, closed a $500 million Series G round in November, valuing the company at $5 billion.

 

 

 

XRP Risks 50% Crash as Goldman Sachs ETF Exposure Fails to Lift Price

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XRP (XRP) traded at $1.37 after a 3.5% decline in the last 24 hours, shrugging off Goldman Sachs’ disclosure of exposure to spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

While this highlights long-term institutional confidence, it comes amid fragile risk sentiment and a typical breakdown from a bearish setup.

Key takeaways:

  • Goldman Sachs disclosed $152.17 million in spot XRP ETF holdings across four funds, making it the largest institutional holder in this segment.

  • XRP maintains its bear pennant breakdown setup targeting $0.72.

Goldman Sachs discloses $152 million exposure to XRP ETFs

Goldman Sachs has emerged as the largest disclosed institutional holder of US spot XRP ETFs, revealing a $152 million position in its Q4 2025 13F filing with the SEC. 

Related: XRP treasury Evernorth files with SEC to list shares on Nasdaq

The $3.5 trillion asset manager has spread its exposure across four funds: $39.8 million in Bitwise XRP ETF, $38.5 million in Franklin XRP Trust, $38 million in Grayscale XRP ETF, and $35.9 million in 21Shares XRP ETF. 

Goldman isn’t alone. Its allocation accounts for roughly 73% of the about $211 million held by the top 30 institutional investors in XRP ETFs, according to Bloomberg Senior ETF analyst James  Seyffart.

Top 30 institutional spot XRP investors. Source: X/James/Seyffart

While this institutional move highlights long-term confidence, XRP price remains 25% below its yearly open around $1.84, driven by slowing ETF inflows and macro headwinds.

Cumulative net inflows into US-based XRP ETFs crossed the $1 billion mark within the first few months of trading, peaking at $1.28 billion on Jan. 16. The pace has since cooled to $1.21 billion today.

Total assets under management peaked around $1.65 billion in early January but have dropped to roughly $995 billion, dragged down by XRP’s price decline and a stretch of net outflows, according to data from SoSoValue.

XRP ETFs recorded a total of $56.5 million in net outflows between March 3 and March 16. Since then, the daily inflows have been muted below $5 million. 

Spot XRP ETF flows chart. Source: SoSoValue

XRP bear pennant breakdown underway

XRP price broke down from its prevailing bear pennant when it dropped below the lower trend line of the pattern at $1.40 on Thursday. The price could retest the lower trend line as new resistance, a move that could confirm the breakdown.

XRP/USD weekly chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bull pennants form when price consolidates inside a triangle following a steep decline. Once the price breaks below that triangle, it triggers another massive downward move.

For XRP, the measured target of the bear pennant is $0.72, roughly 48% below the current price. 

As Cointelegraph reported, a break below $1.27 would suggest that the bears are still in control, fueling XRP/USD drop toward $1.

Declining XRP volatility hints at “sharp” price move next

XRP’s volatility metrics are warning of an imminent massive price move.

The 30-day Realized Volatility (RV 30D) has dropped to around 0.5266, marking the lowest level for 2026. 

Meanwhile, the Volatility Z-Score is at -0.9048, “reflecting a clear decline in volatility compared to the historical average,” CryptoQuant analyst Arab Chain said in a recent Quicktake note, adding:

“This type of volatility contraction is commonly referred to as volatility compression, a phase that often precedes a sharp price movement in either direction.”

XRP realized volatility on Binance