Opinion by: Alex Nguyen, CEO at VibrantX

The Move programming language’s origin is not super cypherpunk. Facebook (now Meta) created Move after the Libra/Diem team compared major smart contract languages (Bitcoin Script, Ethereum Virtual Machine bytecode languages) and decided their formidable in-house tech talent could make a new language built on years of private and public sector research.

The original team, including founders Mo Shaikh, Avery Ching, and their engineering team, left Facebook to continue as a fully independent, open-source project headed up by Aptos Labs and supported by the Aptos Foundation.

Importantly, Meta’s failed Libra experiment left us with a programming language specifically designed for crypto finance. Move on Aptos is now open-source, and the Aptos Foundation is a commercially driven organization that welcomes builders from all backgrounds.

Move is now the best programming language for verifying the absence of bugs and checking for modifications and leaks, which is how most blockchains get hacked.

This verification relies on two key features of Move on Aptos: (1) “backward compatibility” and (2) the concept of an “auditor at runtime.”

Backward compatibility means future-proofing

Move on Aptos is fast and cheap, creating a competitive user experience, especially for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Aptos aims for a high transaction throughput, with theoretical capabilities reaching up to 160,000 transactions per second (TPS) through its parallel execution engine, Block-STM.

Aptos’ sub-second finality means transactions are confirmed quickly, enhancing the user experience in time-sensitive applications.

To be fair, other chains also have these qualities. Move on Aptos is, however, designed to be “backward-compatible.” 

Future upgrades won’t disrupt existing projects. This helps developers feel more confident building long-term solutions without worrying about things breaking because of a Move upgrade. 

Move smart contracts are designed to be upgradeable without affecting the user experience, which is essential for mainstream adoption. This enables teams to implement bug fixes and new features with zero disruption. 

Recent: Crypto startups can’t just rely on solid tech to win VC funding: OKX

Smart contract flexibility through Move on Aptos’ specific security features results in better and faster product shipping. Being more flexible, Move on Aptos can quickly adapt to support new ecosystems.

“Bytecode” verification prevents leaks

Solidity contract hacks have been prevalent over the years. When building Web3 technology for markets worth billions or even trillions of dollars, it’s crucial to have a security system that will protect projects from resource leaks, invalid memory access and other unauthorized modifications. 

As it was initially developed for Meta’s Diem project, Move is designed for safety, resource management and performance, making it attractive for developers looking for a secure yet robust language for smart contracts.

When deploying code using Move, the code will be verified across several crucial coding conditions like proper resource management, type correctness and reference safety. No matter what happens to the code, it will be verified first to prevent any faulty or malicious smart contracts from running. 

This is the power of Move’s built-in bytecode verification.

Real-time verification of the absence of bugs

Renowned computer science pioneer Edsger Dijkstra noted, “Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence!” 

Move’s formal verification capabilities let developers actually prove that there are no bugs in specific code according to preset specifications. 

MoveVM is less battle-tested than Ethereum’s virtual machine, but as Rushi Manche, founder of Movement Labs, has explained, Move requires much less code auditing. The MoveVM runtime can act as an “auditor at runtime.”

The verifier inside the MoveVM ensures that the transaction code is not harmful and that it cannot create, duplicate or destroy resources not allowed by the signer(s) of the transaction. In other words, MoveVM is an “auditor at runtime” rather than a human smart contract auditor. 

Today, Move on Aptos is more than just a smart contract language. Move on Aptos is the longest-standing, most recognized and widely used version of Move, boasting one of the fastest-growing developer communities and a rapidly growing ecosystem of infrastructure, tooling and projects.

Quickly verifying code before deployment created the conditions for the Move on Aptos ecosystem. From a flawed Web2 beginning, Move is now primed to grow DeFi.

Opinion by: Alex Nguyen, CEO at VibrantX.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Ether’s (ETH) price has been consolidating within a roughly $130 range over the last seven days as $2,000 remains strong overhead resistance.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Bitstamp shows that ETH price oscillates within a tight range between $1,810 and $1,960.

ETH/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Ether price remains pinned below $2,000 for several reasons, including declining Ethereum’s weak network activity and decreasing TVL, negative spot Ethereum ETF flows, and weak technicals.

Negative spot Ethereum ETF outflows

The underperformance in Ether’s price can be attributed to investors’ risk-off behavior, which is visible across the spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ETH outflows from these investment products have persisted for more than two weeks.

US-based spot Ether ETFs have recorded a streak of outflows for the last seven days, totaling $265.4 million, as per data from SoSoValue.

Ether ETF flow chart. Source: SoSoValue

At the same time, other Ethereum investment products saw outflows totaling $176 million. This brings month-to-date outflows out of Ether ETPs to $265 million, in what CoinShares’s head of research, James Butterfill, described as the “worst on record.”

He noted:

“This also marks the 17th straight day of outflows, the longest negative streak since our records began in 2015.”

Weak onchain activity hurts ETH price

To understand the key drivers behind Ether’s weakness, it is essential to analyze Ethereum’s onchain metrics.

The Ethereum network maintained its leadership based on the 7-day decentralized exchange (DEX) volume. However, the metric has been declining over the last few weeks, dropping by approximately 30% in the last seven days to reach $16.8 billion on March 17. 

Ethereum: 7-day DEX volumes, USD. Source: DefiLlama

Key weaknesses for Ethereum included an 85% drop in activity on Maverick Protocol and a 45% decline in Dodo’s volumes.

Similarly, Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) decreased 9.3% month-to-date, down 47% from its January high of $77 billion to $46.37 billion on March 11.

Ethereum: total value locked. Source: DefiLlama

Lido was among the weakest performers in Ethereum deposits, with TVL dropping 30% over 30 days. Other notable declines included EigenLayer (-30%), Ether.fi (-29%), and Maker (-28%).

Ether’s bear flag target is at $1,530

Meanwhile, Ether’s technicals show a potential bear flag on the four-hour chart, which hints at more downside in the coming days or weeks.

Related: ETH may bottom at $1.6K, SEC delays multiple crypto ETFs, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 9 – 15

A bear flag is a downward continuation pattern characterized by a small, upward-sloping channel formed by parallel lines against the prevailing downtrend. It gets resolved when the price decisively breaks below its lower trendline and falls by as much as the prevailing downtrend’s height.

ETH bulls are counting on support from the flag’s lower boundary at $1,880. A daily candlestick close below this level would signal a bearish breakout from the chart formation, projecting a decline to $1,530. Such a move would represent a 20% descent from the current price.

ETH/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The relative strength index is positioned in the negative region at 48, suggesting that the market conditions still favor the downside.

The bulls will attempt a daily candlestick close above the flag’s middle boundary at $1,930 (embraced by the 50 SMA) to defend the support at $1,880. They must push the price above the flag’s upper limit of $1,970 to invalidate the bear flag chart pattern.

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.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public corporate Bitcoin holder, has announced its smallest Bitcoin purchase on record.

Strategy on March 17 officially announced its latest 130 Bitcoin (BTC) acquisition, bought for around $10.7 million in cash, or at an average price of roughly $82,981 per BTC.

The latest Bitcoin purchase was made using proceeds from the “STRK ATM,” a new Strategy’s program looking to raise up to $21 billion in fresh capital to acquire more BTC.

Strategy’s new 130 BTC buy is the smallest one ever recorded since the company announced its first purchase of 21,454 BTC for $250 million in August 2020.

Strategy is 774 BTC away from holding 500,000 BTC

With the new purchase, Strategy and its subsidiaries now hold 499,226 BTC, acquired at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $33.1 billion and an average purchase price of around $66,360 per BTC, inclusive of fees and expenses.

After buying 130 BTC, Strategy is yet to buy 774 BTC to reach holdings of 500,000 BTC.

Source: Michael Saylor

According to the Strategy website, the company’s Bitcoin yield now stands at 6.9%, significantly lower than its 15% target for 2025. 

Smallest buy on record

Despite the Bitcoin price falling to multimonth lows below $80,000 last week, Strategy’s latest buy is significantly smaller than its most recent buys and is the smallest ever announced BTC purchase by the firm.

Prior to the latest purchase, the smallest BTC purchase by Strategy was a 169 Bitcoin purchase in August 2024, according to official records by Strategy.

Strategy’s Bitcoin acquisitions in 2025. Source: Strategy

So far in 2025, Strategy has acquired 51,656 BTC in seven announced acquisitions.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.