Coin Market

Bitcoin sees 30% retracement as selling pressure increases — Bitfinex

Published

2 months ago

March 17, 2025

Bitcoin (BTC) has undergone its second-largest correction of this bull run, according to analysts at crypto exchange Bitfinex. The correction, from the coin’s all-time high of $109,590 set on Jan. 20 to a low of $77,041 during the week of March 9-15, represents a 30% retracement triggered by selling pressure from short-term holders.

In its report, Bitfinex defines short-term holders as those who have bought within the last seven to 30 days. According to the exchange, they have suffered net unrealized losses and are often more subject to capitulation.

Bitfinex notes that ongoing outflows from Bitcoin ETFs, which totaled around $920 million during the week of March 9-15, suggest that institutional buyers have not yet returned with enough strength to combat selling pressure.

Bitcoin capital flow by short-term holders. Source: Glassnode/Bitfinex

Trading at around $84,357, Bitcoin has rebounded 9.5% from its low. According to Bitfinex, a key factor moving forward will be whether institutional demand picks up at these lower levels, potentially leading to supply absorption and price stabilization.

“While institutional flows and the macro situation is pivotal for market direction in the mid-term, statistically, a 30 percent drawdown has often marked the low before continuation higher,” Bitfinex analysts told Cointelegraph. “If Bitcoin stabilizes around this level, history suggests a strong recovery could follow.”

Bitcoin ETPs see $5.4B in outflows over five weeks

Weekly outflows from crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) have reached a streak of five weeks, totaling $6.4 billion as of March 14. According to data from CoinShares, Bitcoin ETPs have borne the brunt of outflows, with $5.4 billion in losses.

The current macroeconomic climate may be weighing on the markets, according to Bitfinex. US consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in two years, and there are expectations of higher inflation along with economic uncertainty. On March 4, a Federal Reserve’s model predicted that the US economy would shrink by 2.8% in the first quarter of 2025.

Meanwhile, talks of trade wars continue to dominate the news, putting Bitcoin’s status as a safe-haven asset in doubt, keeping miners on their toes, and perhaps putting the bull market in peril — despite the White House’s recent announcement of a US Bitcoin strategic reserve and digital asset stockpile.

Magazine: X Hall of Flame, Benjamin Cowen: Bitcoin dominance will fall in 2025

Coin Market

Bitwise throws NEAR ETF in race for SEC approval with S-1 filing

Published

2 hours ago

May 6, 2025

Digital asset manager Bitwise has filed to list a spot Near exchange-traded fund with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, adding to a growing list of altcoins currently vying to win regulatory approval.

The Bitwise Near (NEAR) ETF will track the price movements of the NEAR token, minus expenses, through a traditional brokerage, Bitwise’s May 6 registration statement shows.

Bitwise named Coinbase Custody as the proposed custodian of the Bitwise NEAR ETF. The management fee, ticker and stock exchange it seeks to list on weren’t named yet.

Source: Cointelegraph

Bitwise must also file a 19b-4 filing with the SEC to kickstart the regulator’s approval process for the fund. The crypto native asset manager indicated it would make such a filing when it registered a trust linked to the NEAR ETF in Delaware on April 28.

NEAR joins a pile of spot crypto ETFs on the SEC’s desk

The SEC now has at least a dozen spot crypto ETFs to review in 2025, including applications for Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Hedera (HBAR), Polkadot (DOT), Chainlink (LINK), Avalanche (AVAX), Aptos (APT) and Sui (SUI).

Bitwise already has applications out for a spot DOGE, SOL, and XRP ETFs, and also has an approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETF, which are listed on the NYSE Arca and have attracted a combined $2.35 billion in net inflows since launching last year.

NEAR — the token powering the layer-1 Near blockchain — is the 44th largest cryptocurrency by market cap at $2.73 billion, CoinGecko data shows.

The Near blockchain was once touted as an Ethereum killer and is considered by its proponents as a solution to the “blockchain trilemma” — the challenge of achieving all three critical aspects of blockchain performance: security, scalability and decentralization.

Through Nightshade sharding, Near can process up to 100,000 transactions per second and is secured by 265 active validators, Nearblocks.io data shows.

Source: Justin Bons

The Near ecosystem shifted from decentralized finance to AI infrastructure in 2024, unveiling plans to build the world’s largest open-source large language model.

Magazine: 12 minutes of nail-biting tension when Ethereum’s Pectra fork goes live

Coin Market

US regulator moves to drop appeal against Kalshi

Published

3 hours ago

May 6, 2025

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is seeking permission from the court to drop an appeal against prediction market Kalshi. The move could allow the platform to offer political event contracts to users without contest.

In a May 5 filing in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, lawyers for the CFTC filed an unopposed motion for voluntary dismissal, suggesting an agreement with Kalshi. The motion, subject to approval by the court, could end the CFTC’s appeal against a federal court ruling that the financial regulator could not bar Kalshi from listing political event contracts, i.e., bets on elections.

Motion to dismiss appeal filed by the CFTC on May 5. Source: Courtlistener

Kalshi stipulated in a joint filing that the company would “bear its own costs, court fees and attorney fees incurred” if the court granted the CFTC’s motion to dismiss. The platform said that “election markets are here to stay” in a May 6 X post following the filing.

The betting platform initially filed a lawsuit against the CFTC in 2023 in response to the regulator ordering Kalshi to stop offering political event contracts. The company won in the lower court, prompting the appeal by the CFTC in September 2024.

Motion to drop the appeal after the change in administration?

The case was handled mainly before the US election and the appointment of acting CFTC chair Caroline Pham under President Donald Trump. CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger, nominated by former President Joe Biden, reportedly echoed Kalshi’s sentiment in February, claiming that election prediction markets were “here to stay.”

Launched in 2021, Kalshi became popular among many crypto users in part due to bets related to the 2024 US election. Though the CFTC argued in its appeal that betting on the elections could result in “spectacular manipulation” of markets and harm to the public interest, the regulator under Pham and Trump appeared to have reversed its position with the motion to dismiss.

Magazine: Pokémon on Sui rumors, Polymarket bets on Filipino Pope: Asia Express

Coin Market

FT report suggests advance knowledge of Melania Trump memecoin launch

Published

4 hours ago

May 6, 2025

A group of crypto traders reportedly purchased millions of dollars worth of Melania Trump’s memecoins minutes before she announced the launch on social media.

According to a May 6 Financial Times report, the crypto traders earned roughly $100 million from buying $2.6 million worth of MELANIA tokens before the public launch on Jan. 19. Shortly after Trump announced the memecoin launch on social media, the price surged from roughly $2.00 to $12.95 — a 550% increase. The traders reportedly sold their holdings within 12 hours.

“In total, the 24 accounts bought up 16.7mn of the 200mn total $MELANIA tokens scheduled for sale during the launch period,” the Financial Times reported. “[…] the run of sales that started pre-launch continued. About $900,000 worth of tokens bought by an additional 22 accounts in the 42 seconds after the launch.”

Price of MELANIA token from Jan. 19 to Jan. 28. Source: CoinMarketCap

The memecoin started trading roughly two days after then-president-elect Donald Trump announced the launch of his own TRUMP coin. Both tokens have come under scrutiny from lawmakers, alleging conflicts of interest and corruption due to the potential for bribery and foreign influence.

Memecoin dinner prompts call for impeachment

Much of the scrutiny and criticism from US lawmakers over the memecoins seems to be directed at the president rather than the first lady. After Trump announced some of the top TRUMP tokenholders would be offeried the chance to get access to him at a private dinner and tour, one senator called for his impeachment.

Both the prices of the MELANIA and TRUMP tokens have dropped significantly since shortly after their launch in January, with the First Lady’s memecoin falling to $0.31 at the time of publication. The TRUMP token price briefly surged after the memecoin dinner announcement in April, but had dropped to $10.90 as of May 6.

Two companies connected to the president control roughly 80% of the TRUMP supply, though many of the tokens were locked and will be released over the next three years. Critics have suggested that the project’s insiders could still rug-pull investors.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions