Coin Market

Crypto campaign donations are democracy at work — former Kraken exec

Published

4 days ago

March 20, 2025

Former chief legal officer of the Kraken exchange, Marco Santori, praised the political campaign donations made by crypto industry firms during the 2024 election as “democracy at work.”

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright, the former Kraken executive argued that crypto voters tilted the election in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

The executive also said that the election donations from crypto firms, many of which are now having regulatory lawsuits dropped, do not represent conflicts of interest. Santori told Cointelegraph:

“Detractors only call it a conflict of interest when it is a cause they do not believe in, otherwise, it’s just democracy at work. It is people advocating for their own benefits — people like you and me. That is what is happening, and that is what happened in the last election.”

“Look at what happened in November. Who can deny that crypto was responsible For 4-5% of the vote,” Santori added. “It was a huge swing in an American election in every state across demographics,” the executive continued.

2024 US electoral map. Source: 270 To Win

In September 2024, Dr. Tonya M. Evans, a tenured law professor at Pennsylvania State University, told Cointelegraph that the 2024 US elections would be decided by razor-thin margins and that crypto voters had the voting power to swing the elections.

Crypto industry spends big on 2024 US elections

The crypto industry was responsible for nearly half of all corporate political campaign contributions during the 2024 United States election cycle.

According to data from Public Citizen, a nonprofit watchdog group, digital asset firms poured over $119 million to support pro-crypto candidates and policies in the 2024 US elections.

The crypto industry’s share of corporate campaign contributions during the 2024 election cycle. Source: Public Citizen

This included money spent on the Presidential and Congressional elections, such as the re-election campaign of Rep. Bryan Steil, on which crypto political action committee Fairshake spent $760,000 in a last-minute media ad supporting the lawmaker.

According to former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, the crypto industry built a professional lobbying operation during the most recent election cycle — something that was absent during 2016 and 2020.

The lobbying of the crypto industry is credited as the catalyst that allowed the GOP to secure both chambers of Congress, the popular vote, and the 2024 US presidential election.

Magazine: Harris’ unrealized gains tax could ‘tank markets’: Nansen’s Alex Svanevik, X Hall of Flame

Coin Market

Bhutan government moves $63M BTC to three wallets

Published

9 minutes ago

March 24, 2025

The Bhutan government moved $63 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) on March 24 to three wallets, according to Onchain Lens, which analyzed data from Arkham Intelligence.

One of the wallets now holds 600 BTC worth approximately $53 million at time of writing.

Bhutan has leveraged its abundant hydroelectric power to mine Bitcoin since 2019. In September 2024, Arkham indicated that it had found the first wallet tied to the Bhutan government’s investment arm, Druk Holdings. After the March 24 transfers, the wallet holds $889.9 million invested in Bitcoin.

Source: Onchain Lens

The statistics indicate that Bhutan’s cryptocurrency holdings represent 30.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP), which, according to the latest data from the World Bank, reached $2.9 billion in 2023.

Although Bitcoin is the primary holding of the Bhutan government, the nation does not seem to be pursuing a solely Bitcoin-based strategic reserve. Other stacks in the Druk Holdings wallet are $334,580 of Ether (ETH) and smaller amounts of LinqAI (LNQ), Phil (PHIL), and Apu Apustaja (APU), among other coins.

Crypto holdings of the Bhutan government as of March 24, 2025. Source: Arkham Intelligence

In October 2024, Bhutan moved $66 million of its BTC holdings to Binance. Over the past two months, the government has been moving small portions of Bitcoin and Ether out of its main wallet to other addresses.

Governments adopt cryptocurrency reserves

Bhutan’s national government isn’t the only government body adopting cryptocurrency in the country — the practice has filtered down to the city level as well. In January 2025, Bhutan’s Gelephu Special Administrative Region announced plans to recognize a variety of digital assets as part of its strategic reserve.

Governments that have adopted a Bitcoin strategic reserve have seen their holdings multiply during this 2024-present bull run. El Salvador saw the value of its Bitcoin holdings surge to $100 million in November 2024, and the United States government now holds over $17 billion in Bitcoin.

While national governments garner the most attention, some state governments are thinking of creating Bitcoin reserves as well. In the US, Texas has passed its Bitcoin reserve bill, although it still must be signed into law by the state’s governor.

Bitcoin reserve bills in some states like Arizona are inching closer to becoming law, though a few states have already rejected their Bitcoin bills for a variety of reasons.

Magazine: Chinese Tether laundromat, Bhutan enjoys recent Bitcoin boost: Asia Express

Coin Market

Will Bitcoin price hit $130K in 90 days? Yes, says one analyst

Published

9 minutes ago

March 24, 2025

Bitcoin (BTC) delivered its best weekly performance in over two months, climbing 4.24% to an intra-day high at $88,804. BTC also reclaimed a bullish stance on the charts, closing above the daily chart’s 200-day exponential moving average (EMA).

Bitcoin 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

With a weekly close above $84,600, the likelihood of BTC testing $90,000 increases. However, BTC price must overcome the descending resistance level to make a sustainable move at the range highs.

Bitcoin correction is a “healthy pause”

Bitcoin researcher Axel Adler Jr. explained that based on onchain metrics, the current price cycle reflects a healthy consolidation rather than the beginning of a bear market. Adler Jr. noted that BTC has not yet entered “overheated” territory in this cycle, as indicated by BTC’s Investor Price Model.

This metric flashed a sell signal twice during 2021, and the model incorporates the realized cap, thermo cap, investor price, and Bitcoin supply.

Using Bitcoin’s cumulative value days destroyed (CVDD), Adler argued that the market remains in a “growth stage.”

Bitcoin cumulative value days. Source: adlercryptoinsights / Substack

The CVDD metric monitors selling activity among long-term holders. The current bull cycle (2024-2025) triggered a sell signal just once, back in March 2024. In a Substack article, Adler said,

“Considering the current market dynamics, we might see seasoned investors taking profits once Bitcoin breaches key peak levels ($123K), potentially exerting downward pressure on the price.”

From the above analysis, Adler Jr. predicted that Bitcoin could climb to $130,000 within 90 days.

Bitcoin open interest jumps $1.5 billion in 24 hours

According to Velo data, Bitcoin’s open interest (OI), representing the total value of outstanding futures contracts, jumped by over $1.5 billion in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the funding rate, which reflects the cost of holding leveraged positions, stayed near neutral. This suggests that neither bullish (long) nor bearish (short) traders were dominantly in control.

Bitcoin price and aggregated open interest. Source: Velo.chart

Bitcoin experienced a surge in upward momentum late on Sunday, March 23rd. Weekend price rallies like this often occur with lower trading volume, as larger market participants tend to step back until the start of the week. In such a scenario, leveraged trades amplifying the action could heavily influence the price movement.

In an X post, anonymous crypto analyst IT Tech PL also pointed out the OI level rise after BTC exceeded $87,500. However, the analyst added,

“But here’s the catch: High OI + Rapid Price Increase = Risk of Liquidation Cascades!”

Bitcoin 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

From a technical perspective, Bitcoin registered a new high at $88,750 over the previous week’s top. However, as the chart exhibited, the price tested the upper Bollinger Band alongside the descending resistance. Additionally, BTC is also oscillating within an ascending channel.

Based on the above confluence, BTC could witness a short-term correction to test the demand zone around $86,000-$87,000 before breaking through the $90,000 threshold.

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.

Coin Market

DeFi lender Nostra pauses borrowing after price feed error

Published

9 minutes ago

March 24, 2025

Nostra, a lending protocol on Starknet, has paused borrowing for two liquid staking tokens after identifying a “critical issue” with its price feeds, the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol said.

On March 24, errors in Nostra’s price feed inflated the reported prices of xSTRK and sSTRK — two liquid staking derivatives of Starknet’s native STRK token — to approximately three times the tokens’ actual value, Nostra said in a post on the X platform.

According to Nostra, “[s]uch an inflated price feed could have caused unnecessary liquidations of otherwise safe positions, resulting in users with healthy positions getting liquidated.”

In response, the DeFi protocol has disabled any further borrowing against xSTRK and sSTRK collateral deposits, Nostra said.

Nostra has also recommended that users with existing xSTRK and sSTRK deposits withdraw the collateral immediately.

“Since we don’t have a secondary (fallback) oracle to support these assets, as none are available, we are unable to fully prevent similar events from occurring in the future,” Nostra added.

“Our priority has always been and continues to be to keep existing user funds safe and with no fallback oracle, the risks outweigh the benefits,” it said.

Nostra’s collateral token options. Source: Nostra

Starknet DeFi protocol

Starknet is a layer-2 scaling chain of Ethereum secured using zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. It launched its mainnet in late 2021, according to Messari.

It has a total value locked (TVL) of approximately $575 million, according to data from L2Beat.

Lending protocol Nostra is among the larger DeFi projects operating on the chain. It has a TVL of approximately $55 million, according to its website.

On Nostra, users post collateral in one token to borrow in another token. The DeFi protocol’s most popular collateral tokens are Ether, STRK, and stablecoins USDC (USDC) and Tether (USDT).

Starknet designed STRK to be staked in exchange for a portion of the network’s fee revenues, according to its documentation.

xSTRK and sSTRK are liquid staking tokens issued by independent DeFi protocols Endur and Nimbura, respectively.

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