Day: March 14, 2025

Hyperliquid’s mystery 50x ETH whale is now betting on LINK

admin

The cryptocurrency trader whose ultra-leveraged Ether (ETH) trade tested Hyperliquid’s limits on March 12 has entered another multimillion-dollar position, this time in Chainlink (LINK), onchain data shows.  On March 14, the anonymous whale, referred to on X as “ETH 50x Big Guy,” took out long positions in LINK worth approximately $31 million with 10 times leverage, according to Lookonchain, a Web3 analytics service.  He placed the bets on Hyplerliquid and GMX, two popular perpetuals exchanges, Lookonchain said in a March 14 X post. Additionally, the whale accumulated roughly $12 million…

VanEck files for AVAX ETF

admin

Global investment manager VanEck has filed for an Avalanche (AVAX) exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to offer investors direct exposure to the smart contract platform.  A snippet of the application was shared on social media on March 14 by Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, who has been closely monitoring the crypto ETF industry. Source: James Seyffart The proposed VanEck Avalanche ETF intends to “reflect the performance of the price of “AVAX,” the native token of the Avalanche network, less the expenses of the Trust’s operations,”…

New MassJacker malware targets piracy users, steals crypto

admin

A previously unknown type of cryptojacking malware called MassJacker is targeting piracy users and hijacking crypto transactions by replacing stored addresses, according to a March 10 report from CyberArk. The cryptojacking malware originates from the website pesktop[dot]com, where users seeking to download pirated software may unknowingly infect their devices with the MassJacker malware. After the malware is installed, the infection swaps out crypto addresses stored on the clipboard application for addresses controlled by the attacker. According to CyberArk, there are 778,531 unique wallets linked to the theft. However, only 423…

Bitcoin apparent demand reaches lowest point in 2025 — CryptoQuant

admin

Apparent demand for Bitcoin (BTC) has hit the lowest level in 2025, dropping down into negative territory, as traders and investors take a cautious approach to risk-on assets due to macroeconomic uncertainty. According to CryptoQuant’s Bitcoin Apparent Demand metric, demand for Bitcoin has dropped down to a negative 142 on March 13. Bitcoin’s apparent demand has been positive since September 2024, peaking around December 2024 before beginning the slow descent back down. However, demand levels stayed positive until the beginning of March 2025 and have continued to decline since that…

UK authorizes charges against NCA officer for alleged Bitcoin theft

admin

The agency responsible for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales announced that a National Crime Agency (NCA) officer was due to be charged with the alleged theft of Bitcoin worth roughly $75,000 in 2017. In a March 14 notice, the Crown Prosecution Service said it had authorized the Merseyside Police to charge NCA officer Paul Chowles with 15 offenses related to the alleged Bitcoin (BTC) theft “during an investigation into online organized crime.” Authorities said Chowles could face one count of theft, 11 charges for concealing, disguising, or converting…

Bitcoin Is A Strategic Asset, Not XRP

admin

A new proposal submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) newly-established Crypto Task Force by a Maximilian Staudinger makes the case for XRP as a “strategic financial asset” for the United States (using some very questionable math and logic). I’m here to tell you that XRP is not a strategic asset and that the logic in this proposal is dubious at best. In the proposal, Staudinger states that $5 trillion is locked up in U.S. Nostro accounts (accounts that banks use for cross-border payments). And he claims that…

Is Trump intentionally crashing the market?

admin

The odds of a recession are rising, markets are crashing and President Donald Trump is forging ahead with tariffs. This volatile playbook is eerily similar to Trump’s first term, which started with a bang before giving way to one of the biggest bull markets in recent history. However, this time, Trump seems to have dropped the stock market as one of his favorite barometers of success, opting instead to focus on the long-term health of the US economy.  Trump has promised to usher in America’s next “Golden Age,” but before…

XRP flips Ether’s FDV amid change in market dynamics

admin

XRP’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) has surpassed Ether (ETH), according to March 14 data from CoinGecko.  The FDV flip signifies a reversal of fortune for both layer-1 (L1) blockchain networks behind the tokens, as XRP Ledger’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem gains traction and Ethereum grapples with competition from rival L1s, such as Solana. As of March 14, XRP’s FDV stood at nearly $235 billion, more than $1 billion higher than Ether’s, according to CoinGecko. Ether’s market capitalization still leads at $233 billion versus XRP’s $136 billion, the data shows.  FDV…

RLNC technology can boost Web3 adoption — MIT Professor

admin

After 15 years of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) is ready for commercialization in the Web3 industry, according to Muriel Médard, an MIT professor and founder of blockchain infrastructure developer Optimum. Optimum emerged from stealth on Feb. 28 as a decentralized memory infrastructure that can be utilized by any blockchain seeking to bring scalability to Web3. It utilizes the RLNC technology that was first formulated by Professor Médard.  RLNC is a breakthrough in coding that is already used in the 5G, satellite…

US House kills IRS DeFi broker rule, Solana won’t cut 80% inflation rate: Finance Redefined

admin

In a significant regulatory development for the crypto industry, the United States House of Representatives voted to nullify a bill that threatened the privacy-preserving properties of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. In the wider crypto space, one of the Solana network’s most significant governance proposals was rejected; it sought to implement a mechanism to reduce Solana’s inflation rate by about 80%. US House follows Senate in passing resolution to kill IRS DeFi broker rule The US House of Representatives voted to nullify a rule requiring decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to report…