Bitcoin traded at $70,646 on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m., holding within a narrow intraday range as technical indicators reflected a broadly neutral stance across key timeframes. Market participants continue to monitor consolidation near the $70,000 level as momentum signals diverge and volatility compresses. Bitcoin Chart Outlook Price action on the daily chart shows bitcoin […]
SBF angles for presidential pardon with tweets praising Donald Trump
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence for fraud, has renewed public praise of U.S. President Donald Trump, adding to speculation that he hopes to secure a pardon.
In a recent post on X, written through a proxy using prison-approved communications, Bankman-Fried backed Trump’s decision to launch strikes against Iran. He framed the move as necessary to counter nuclear risk and claimed the operation had sharply reduced Iran’s military capacity.
The comments mark his latest in a string of statements supportive of the U.S. president. In earlier posts, he pointed to lower gas prices under Trump than in the Biden era and in other countries. He also credited Trump with “saving” the SEC by replacing former chair Gary Gensler with Paul Atkins, arguing the shift eased pressure on crypto firms and reduced inter-agency conflict.
The tone has drawn attention, given Bankman-Fried’s legal position. Presidential pardons have historically extended to financial crimes, and Trump has shown a willingness to grant clemency in high-profile cases. Ross Ulbricht, who operated a digital black market platform called Silk Road, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2015 before Trump freed him shortly after being sworn in in 2025. For Bankman-Fried, whose conviction stemmed from one of the largest financial collapses in crypto history, public alignment with the president may serve a clear purpose.
His outreach comes as the remnants of his former empire continue to unwind. Earlier this week, the FTX Recovery Trust said it will distribute about $2.2 billion to creditors as part of an ongoing Chapter 11 process, pushing recovery rates close to full repayment for many claim classes.
Still, the damage from FTX’s collapse runs deep. Millions of customers lost access to funds in 2022, and the event shook trust in crypto markets. Prices fell, firms failed, and regulators stepped in with tighter scrutiny. The case remains a reference point for risk in the industry.
Bankman-Fried’s praise of Trump’s Iran policy lands as that decision faces growing criticism, with some warning the conflict could strain public finances and disrupt global oil supply, as well as concerns about inflation and higher costs for households and businesses.
For now, Bankman-Fried remains behind bars, communicating through intermediaries while his former company repays creditors. His lawyers filed a motion for a new trial in February, which the government opposed. His public messaging, however, suggests he is trying to shape an outcome beyond the courtroom.
Mastercard just super-charged Wall Street’s crypto land grab with $1.8bn BVNK acquisition – DL News
- Mastercard this week announced it was buying stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for $1.8 billion.
- The deal accelerates the payment giant’s move into the crypto space.
- Traditional financial firms are rushing to get involved with stablecoins.
Mastercard is the latest payments giant to bet heavily on crypto.
The $451 billion company added stablecoin infrastructure startup BVNK to its portfolio just as traditional financial players ramp up their adoption of blockchain technology.
Market watchers say the move is part of a bigger financial industry land grab where Wall Street giants are vying for dominance.
“Everyone wants the orchestrators,” Wyatt Lonergan, general partner at VanEck Ventures, told DL News. “Why? Because moving between the fiat and stablecoin layer is where the complexity [is], and complexity is where they can extract margin.
“The goal is to build distribution and whoever does that can likely begin to eat at other layers of the stack to further increase margin and increase loyalty — think wallets, stablecoin issuance, maybe even their own chain.”
Mastercard’s move comes on the back of high-profile acquisitions and initiatives from rival firms.
Stripe, the $159 billion fintech, is a key example. Over the past two years, it has not only bought businesses like stablecoin venture Bridge, but has also backed the creation of its own blockchain, Tempo, which debuted this week.
Wall Street’s adoption of blockchain rails saw the total value of crypto M&As surge more than sevenfold in 2025 to reach $37 billion, according to Architect Partner’s data. Yet 2026 will easily outpace that number thanks to institutions buying other businesses rather than developing in-house, analysts said at the beginning of the year.
The race for blockchain dominance is on and Lonergan “wouldn’t be surprised” if more acquisitions are announced soon by leading financial firms.
Mastercard did not answer questions about further acquisitions.
Mastercard’s crypto play
Mastercard has explored blockchain technology for years. In 2016, it started to develop a set of blockchain APIs in a bid to stoke interest among banks and merchant developers.
While Mastercard and many other financial services firms went a bit quiet about their blockchain efforts during the Biden Administration’s years-long crypto crackdown, they seem emboldened by the pro-digital asset policies championed by US President Donald Trump.
Now, investment giants like BlackRock and banks like Morgan Stanley have announced initiatives to tap into digital ledger technologies. Big banks like Goldman Sachs and CitiGroup are actively recruiting for crypto talent.
Mastercard’s acquisition of BVNK is part of this wave. The deal will enable the payments giant to tap into BVNK’s stablecoin infrastructure.
“Stablecoins and tokenised deposits have potential where cards may not be as fit for purpose, in areas like cross border payments, payouts, B2B payments, settlement and liquidity management,” a Mastercard spokesperson told DL News.
The BVNK deal comes on the back of Mastercard launching a partnership programme earlier in March. The scheme already includes over 100 companies to “shape the future” of finance, as Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president of digital asset blockchain products partnerships, said in a statement.
The partners span both traditional financial players like PayPal as well as crypto native firms like Ripple, Circle, Ava Labs, and Kraken.
Top crypto networks like Solana, Arbitrum, and Aptos were also included in the mix.
“Participation isn’t about endorsing a specific protocol or asset,” a Mastercard spokesperson said when asked about the wide-ranging choice of companies and protocols.
“Instead, we’re focused on where partners are solving concrete problems for consumers, businesses and financial institutions today, and where we can help connect those solutions to trusted payment rails at scale.”
Everyone wants a stablecoin
Mastercard’s acquisition comes as other traditional finance players frantically rush into the stablecoin space.
Since Trump signed the Genius Act, a landmark stablecoin bill, into law last year, banks and other entities can issue the tokens if they are backed by assets like US Treasuries and provide monthly disclosures of their reserves.
And with a $316 billion market value, according to DeFiLlama data, everyone wants a piece of the action.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of Wall Street titan JP Morgan Chase, has praised stablecoins. The bank already has a cash-backed cryptocurrency, JPM Coin, which runs on Coinbase’s layer 2 network, Base.
JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo are in talks to issue a stablecoin.
And 11 European banks have already joined forces to launch a euro-denominated stablecoin — expected to be released this year.
The issue is infrastructure: blockchain rails may be foreign to a number of traditional financial players — hence the amount of research and investment going into the space.
“Mastercard’s core strategic problem is that stablecoin rails are becoming a legitimate alternative settlement layer but until the BVNK deal — they didn’t own any of it,” added Lonergan.
“BVNK now gives them infrastructure built over the last seven years that they couldn’t build faster internally.”
Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Eric Johansson is DL News’ managing editor. Got a tip? Email them at mdisalvo@dlnews.comand eric@dlnews.com.
Crypto ETFs Struggle Again: Bitcoin Loses $90 Million, Ether $136 Million
Crypto ETFs remained under pressure on Thursday, with bitcoin and ether posting another round of outflows. Solana offered a rare bright spot, while XRP activity stayed flat. Solana Bucks Trend as Bitcoin, Ether ETFs See Fresh Outflows The mood around crypto ETFs remains cautious. Another day, another round of outflows, and this time the selling […]
Active Addresses Set New Record
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Data shows the Ethereum network has recently set a new all-time high (ATH) in the Active Addresses indicator, suggesting elevated user activity.
30-Day MA Of Ethereum Active Addresses Has Reached A New ATH
As highlighted by CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn in an X post, the Ethereum Active Addresses has set a new record in its 30-day moving average (MA) value. This on-chain indicator keeps track of the unique total number of addresses that are participating in some kind of transaction activity on the blockchain every day.
When the value of this metric rises, it means the number of users interacting on the network is going up. Such a trend suggests the cryptocurrency is attracting attention. On the other hand, the indicator going down suggests addresses are turning inactive, potentially because investors have lost interest in the blockchain.
Now, here is the chart shared by Maartunn that shows the trend in the 30-day MA of the Ethereum Active Addresses over the past decade:
Looks like the value of the metric has shot up recently | Source: @JA_Maartun on X
As displayed in the above graph, the 30-day MA of the Ethereum Active Addresses saw a rise alongside the bull rally in the second half of 2025, implying user activity ramped up. Price surges tend to be exciting to investors, so it’s not unusual to see transaction interest go up alongside them.
From the chart, it’s visible that once the bearish market shift occurred in the last quarter of 2025, the Active Addresses also started going down, a sign that investors began to shift their attention away from the network.
In 2026 so far, however, something extraordinary has happened. While Bitcoin saw another leg down during February, what actually accompanied it was a sharp spike in the indicator that took its value to a new ATH.
In the past, cyclical peaks in the Active Addresses has tended to coincide with major bull runs, with bear markets usually witnessing a cooldown in the metric. As such, the latest trend in the Ethereum network has broken the conventional pattern.
In some other news, the Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) started on a green streak earlier, but the last two days has seen the netflow trend flip back to negative, as data from SoSoValue shows.
How the US ETH spot ETF netflow has changed over the last few months | Source: SoSoValue
As is visible in the above graph, the US Ethereum spot ETFs have seen $136.4 million flow out during the past day. The day before, they saw outflows of over $55 million. While these red netflow spikes haven’t retraced all the inflows that occurred during the early six-day streak, they still hint at a change of winds in the market.
ETH Price
At the time of writing, Ethereum is floating around $2,100, unchanged from one week ago.
Looks like the price of the coin has retraced from its highs | Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
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Man Pleads Guilty to Using AI to Generate $8 Million in Fraudulent Streaming Music Royalties
In brief
“Michael Smith used artificial intelligence and automated bots to create the illusion of popularity—and to collect millions in royalties that belonged to real artists,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Today, he has taken responsibility for that conduct.”https://t.co/BG5uBJr5aR
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) March 19, 2026
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Bittensor Subnet Breakthrough, Institutional Confidence, and More – Week In Reiew
This week’s developments highlight crypto’s deepening ties to macro, AI, and traditional finance. Bitcoin slid amid geopolitical tensions, underscoring its sensitivity to global risk. Meanwhile, Bittensor’s decentralized AI milestone drew attention from Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, signaling growing legitimacy for onchain innovation. Institutional momentum remains strong, with most investors planning to increase exposure, while FTX’s multibillion-dollar […]
AI Governance Is Now a Line Item in Valuation Modeling
By Natalia Taft
In financial services M&A, AI has moved from the product roadmap into the valuation model. And when it can’t be audited, due diligence turns into a liability conversation.
Natalia Taft, a compliance and regulatory governance executive with over 25 years of experience, shares what she’s seen happen when it doesn’t.
I have seen deals slow down because the AI inside the target was essentially a black box. Nothing documented. Nobody in the room was really able to say how the model worked if a regulator asked. The price on the term sheet didn’t always change immediately, but other things did: escrows got bigger, risk discounts started appearing in places they hadn’t before. Nobody called it an “AI governance problem” at the time. But that’s exactly what it was.
The real question buyers are asking now isn’t just “Does it work?” It’s “Can we defend it if regulators look at it?” Those are very different questions. A system can work operationally and still be fragile from a governance perspective. In regulated areas like credit, trading, AML, or payments, that kind of fragility quickly turns into valuation pressure and future remediation costs, post-deal regulatory scrutiny, or operational risk the buyer didn’t expect.
What used to be a fairly straightforward technology review now often feels closer to a mini regulatory exam. I have seen diligence teams bring in model risk specialists, data governance experts, even AI ethics advisers alongside the lawyers. They want to know what the model actually optimizes for, how it was trained, how bias is monitored, who owns oversight, and what happens when the model fails. If those questions can’t be answered clearly, confidence in the asset starts to wobble.
And that’s the shift we are seeing now. AI isn’t just a technology discussion anymore. In regulated industries it has become a governance question, and governance questions have a direct impact on valuation.
Before considering model sophistication or technical architecture, ask yourself: what is the system optimizing for. Is it revenue, conversion, fraud reduction, liquidity or maybe speed? If the target can’t articulate that in plain language and show how it aligns with risk appetite and regulatory obligations, that’s a red flag. Performance metrics are secondary because integrity starts with intent. You cannot outsource responsibility to code. And what people often mistake: the engineers knowing what the system does is not the same as the compliance function knowing what it’s been authorized to do.
Strong AI governance signals institutional maturity. That lowers perceived regulatory risk, which directly impacts valuation multiples. Also nobody talks loudly enough about the fact that post-acquisition AI remediation budgets often exceed original AI build budgets. Integration exposes undocumented assumptions, poor data lineage, unclear ownership. Things that worked fine in the seller’s environment stop working the moment someone tries to understand them from the outside. By the time a buyer finds this, the deal is closed so the problem is theirs.
Regulators have been clear about where they stand. SR 11-7 requires lifecycle validation and independent oversight of models used in material decisions. NYSDFS under Part 504 requires the same for transaction monitoring and sanctions filtering. The EU AI Act puts documentation and explainability obligations on high-risk systems with enforcement now active. What this means in practice is that governance gaps that used to be treated as technical debt are now showing up as transaction risk—and buyers know it.
For the CEOs who think this is a post-merger problem
Acquiring an AI-heavy business without evaluating its governance framework is no different than acquiring a bank without reviewing its credit portfolio. Governance built after scale is expensive. If you wait until diligence to formalize AI oversight, buyers will price in the remediation cost, or walk. I’ve seen it happen both ways.
The firms that hold valuation in that room are the ones where someone can pull up the model inventory, say who owns each system, and show you the last time something got flagged and what happened next. Build it before you need to prove it.
Gemini Faces Investor Lawsuit Over Post-IPO Strategy Pivot
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Shareholders filed a class action lawsuit in New York against crypto exchange Gemini, co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and multiple executives, alleging that the exchange misled investors during its 2025 initial public offering (IPO).
Gemini Accused Of Misleading Investors
This week, crypto exchange Gemini and several executives were hit with a class action lawsuit for allegedly misleading investors before and after the exchange’s September 2025 IPO due to its strategy pivot.
Filed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the complaint claims that the IPO documents were “negligently prepared and, as a result, contained untrue statements of material fact or omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading and were not prepared in accordance with the rules and regulations governing their preparation.”
Shareholder files class action lawsuit agaisnt Gemini. Source: courtlistener
Gemini has primarily generated revenues through transactions, deposits, and fees charged to users of its crypto platform, the Plaintiff highlighted, noting that the IPO documents reportedly described the company’s revenue growth strategy as “predominantly focused on expanding [its] exchange platform via increased MTUs [monthly transacting users] (…) increased average daily trading volume, and increasing the number of assets available on [its] platform.”
The documents stated that Gemini would increase monthly transacting users through acquiring new retail and institutional users and expanding internationally.
Additionally, the lawsuit argues that throughout the Class Period, from September 12, 2025, to February 17, 2026, Gemini and its executives made statements that were “materially false” and misleading regarding the company’s business operations and prospects.
The ‘Gemini 2.0’ Strategy Pivot
The complaint emphasized the exchange “gave no indication that the Company was poised for an abrupt corporate pivot to a prediction-market-centric business model” or that it would abandon its international growth strategy just months after the IPO.
According to the lawsuit, “the truth began to emerge” in February 2026, when the crypto exchange co-founders, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, announced a corporate pivot to “Gemini 2.0.”
In a blog post, they described three crucial changes to the exchange’s operations: prediction market would be “more front and center in our experience”; its workforce would be reduced by 25%; and it would exit the UK, European Union (EU), and Australian markets.
The Winklevoss twins acknowledged the challenges Gemini has faced in the international market, arguing that the crypto exchange needed to simplify its structure to stay competitive.
However, the lawsuit alleges that, on this news, Gemini’s Class A common stock price fell 8.72%, to close at $6.70 per share on February 5, 2026. Similarly, it noted that the stock price fell 12.9% on February 17, 2026, on the news of the departure of three senior leaders.
Last month, the firm disclosed in a regulatory filing that Chief Operating Officer (COO) Marshall Beard, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Dan Chen, and Chief Legal Officer (CLO) Tyler Meade were departing the company effective immediately.
In addition, the firm reported operating expenses of $520 million to $530 million, a 40% increase from the previous fiscal year, the lawsuit added. It’s worth noting that Gemini’s stock price briefly dropped to an all-time low of $5.51 on March 20, before bouncing to the $5.75 area. This represents a more than 80% drop from its September all-time high of $40.
“As a result of Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” the lawsuit stated, seeking a jury trial and damages for investors who bought shares during the IPO and the Class Period.
The total crypto market capitalization is at $2.4 trillion in the one-week chart. Source: TOTAL on TradingView
Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.
BTQ Launches Quantum-Resistant Bitcoin Testnet With BIP 360
BTQ Technologies has launched the first working implementation of BIP 360 on its Bitcoin Quantum testnet. The update allows developers to test quantum-resistant bitcoin transactions in a live environment. Bitcoin Quantum Testnet Debuts BIP 360 Implementation BTQ Technologies has introduced Bitcoin Quantum testnet v0.3.0, marking the first live implementation of Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 360. […]