Losses to crypto scams, exploits, and hacks dropped to just $28.8 million in March, far from February’s spike to $1.5 billion in losses after the Bybit hack.

Code vulnerabilities accounted for the most losses, at over $14 million, while wallet compromises were used to steal over $8 million, blockchain security firm CertiK said in an April 1 post to X.

The most significant loss for the month was the $13 million March 25 smart contract exploit of the decentralized lending protocol Abracadabra.money.

After accounting for returned funds, a total of $28.8 million was stolen through exploits, hacks and scams in March. Source: CertiK

In a separate March 27 report, the blockchain security firm said, “The attacker was able to borrow funds, liquidate themselves, then borrow funds again without repaying them.”

“This was due to the liquidation process not overwriting records in RouterOrder that counted as collateral, allowing the exploiter to falsely borrow additional funds after liquidation,” CertiK said.

The protocols team has offered a 20% bounty, double the standard 10%, in exchange for the return of the funds, according to CertiK. So far, no public updates have been given on whether any funds have been returned.

The second highest monthly loss was restaking protocol Zoth after its deployer wallet was compromised and the attacker withdrew over $8.4 million in crypto assets. 

March crypto losses reduced after hacker returned some funds 

Some of the stolen funds in March were returned. In total, CertiK says over $33 million was stolen for the month, but decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch successfully recovered most of the $5 million stolen in a March 5 exploit after negotiating a bug bounty agreement with the attacker.

The total figures, however, exclude an unknown Coinbase user who crypto sleuth ZachXBT claims lost 400 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $34 million. At the same time, ZachXBT said over $46 million could have been lost in March to phishing scams spoofing crypto exchanges.

Related: DeFi protocol SIR.trading loses entire $355K TVL in ‘worst news’ possible

Australian federal police said on March 21 that they had to alert 130 people of a message scam aimed at crypto users that spoofed the same “sender ID” as legitimate crypto exchanges. 

X users also reported on March 14 of messages spoofing crypto exchanges trying to trick users into setting up a new wallet using pre-generated recovery phrases controlled by the fraudsters.

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A recent Fidelity Digital Assets report questioned whether Bitcoin price had already seen its cyclical “blow off top” or if BTC (BTC) is on the cusp of another “acceleration phase.” 

According to Fidelity analyst Zack Wainwright, Bitcoin’s acceleration phases are characterized by “high volatility and high profit,” similar to the price action seen when BTC pushed above $20,000 in December 2020.  

While Bitcoin’s year-to-date return reflects an 11.44% loss, and the asset is down nearly 25% from its all-time high, Wainwright says the recent post-acceleration phase performance is in line with BTC’s average drawdowns when compared to previous market cycles. 

Bitcoin historical downside after acceleration phases. Source: Fidelity Digital Assets Research

Wainwright suggests that Bitcoin is still in an acceleration phase but is moving closer to the completion of the cycle, as March 3 represented day 232 of the period. Previous peaks lasted slightly longer before a corrective period set in. 

“The acceleration phase of 2010 – 2011, 2015, and 2017 reached their tops on day 244, 261, 280, respectively, suggesting a slightly more drawn-out phase each cycle.”

Related: MARA Holdings plans huge $2B stock offering to buy more Bitcoin

Is another parabolic rally on the cards for Bitcoin? 

Bitcoin price has languished below $100,000 since Feb. 21, and a good deal of the momentum and positive sentiment that comprised the “Trump trade” has dissipated and been replaced by tariff-war-induced volatility and the markets’ fear that the US could be heading into a recession.

Despite these overhanging factors and the negative impact they’ve had on day-to-day Bitcoin prices, large entities continue to add to their BTC stockpiles. 

On March 31, Strategy CEO Michael Saylor announced that the company had acquired 22,048 BTC ($1.92 billion) at an average price of $86,969 per Bitcoin. On the same day, Bitcoin miner MARA revealed plans to sell up to $2 billion in stock to acquire more BTC “from time to time.” 

Following in the footsteps of larger-cap companies, Japanese firm Metaplanet issued 2 billion yen ($13.3 million) in bonds on March 31 to buy more Bitcoin, and the largest news of March came from GameStop announcing a $1.3 billion convertible notes offering, a portion of which could be used to purchase Bitcoin. 

The recent buying and statements of intent to buy from a variety of international and US-based publicly listed companies show a price-agnostic approach to accumulating BTC as a reserve asset, and it highlights the positive future price exceptions held among institutional investors. 

While it is difficult to determine the impact of institutional investor Bitcoin purchases on BTC price, Wainwright said that a metric to keep an eye on is the number of days during a rolling 60-day period when the cryptocurrency hits a new all-time high. Wainwright posted the following chart and said, 

“Bitcoin has typically experienced two major surges within previous Acceleration Phases, with the first instance of this cycle’s following the election. If a new all-time high is on the horizon, it will have a starting base near $110,000.” 

Bitcoin’s number of all-time high days (rolling 60 days). Source: Fidelity Digital Assets Research

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.

Vanuatu has passed laws to regulate digital assets and provide a licensing regime for crypto companies wanting to operate in the Pacific island nation, which a government regulatory consultant has called “very stringent.” 

The local parliament passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act on March 26, giving crypto licensing authority to the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) along with powers to enforce the Financial Action Task Force’s Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorism Financing and Travel Rule standards with crypto firms.

The VFSC has sweeping investigation and enforcement powers under the laws, with penalties stipulating fines of up to 250 million vatu ($2 million) and up to 30 years in prison.

“God help any scammer that goes into Vanuatu because you’ll go to jail,” Loretta Joseph, who consulted with the regulator on the laws, told Cointelegraph. “The laws are very stringent.”

“The thing is, we don’t want another FTX debacle,” she added, referring to the once Bahamas-based crypto exchange that collapsed in 2022 due to massive fraud committed by its co-founders, Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, along with other executives.

“Vanuatu is a small jurisdiction. Small jurisdictions are preyed on by the players that are looking for no regulation or light touch regulation,” Joseph said. “This is certainly not that.”

“I’m so proud of them to be the first country in the Pacific to actually take a position and do this,” she added. 

New Vanuatu law regulates slate of crypto companies

The law establishes a licensing and reporting framework for exchanges, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces, crypto custody providers and initial coin offerings.

The law notably allows for banks to be licensed to provide crypto exchange and custody services. Source: Parliament of the Republic of Vanuatu

The VFSC said that the legislation doesn’t affect stablecoins, tokenized securities, and central bank digital currencies even though they “may in practice share some similarities with virtual assets.”

The legislation also allows for the VFSC’s commissioner to create a sandbox to allow approved companies to offer a variety of crypto services for a year, which can be renewed.

Related: Australia outlines crypto regulation plan, promises action on debanking

Joseph said Vanuatu “needed a standalone piece of legislation” that covered Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terror Financing requirements, as the country didn’t have existing laws suited to virtual assets.

The regulator said in a March 29 statement that it had developed the legislative framework after years of “assessing the risks associated with virtual assets,” and the laws would open “numerous opportunities for Vanuatu” and improve financial inclusion by allowing regulated services for crypto cross-border payments.

VFSC Commissioner Branan Karae had said in June that the bill was expected to pass that September, but Joseph said the legislation was “not something that was done lightly.” It had been in development since 2020 and was delayed due to changes in government, natural disasters and COVID-19 pandemic-related disruptions.

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