Month: March 2026

Crypto surges on Iran de-escalation hopes, but conflicting reports add uncertainty

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Geopolitics gave crypto traders whiplash on Monday. Bitcoin surged nearly 6% in a matter of hours on hopes that US-Iran tensions were cooling, only for the foundational claim behind that rally to get publicly disputed by Iran itself. The result is a market trading near session highs on a narrative that may or may not be real. Which, if we’re being honest, is kind of crypto’s whole thing. The rally, the claim, and the denial Here’s the sequence. President Trump posted that the US and Iran had held “very good…

Strategy Buys 1,031 Bitcoin Using MSTR Stock Sales

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest public holder of Bitcoin (BTC), bought another 1,031 Bitcoin last week in a much smaller purchase than its previous two weekly buys, funding the acquisition with sales of Class A common stock. Strategy acquired 1,031 Bitcoin for $76.6 million last week, according to an 8-K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The purchases were made at an average price of $74,326 per coin, below the company’s overall average acquisition price of $75,694. Bitcoin averaged around $70,871 for the week of…

Senators to Introduce Bill to Ban Sports Betting on Prediction Markets

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US Senators Adam Schiff and John Curtis are expected to introduce a bipartisan bill on Monday that would bar sports betting and “casino-style” contracts from prediction markets regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to a Monday Wall Street Journal report. “Too many young people in Utah are getting exposed to addictive sports betting and casino-style gaming contracts that belong under state control, not under federal regulators,” Senator Curtis, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, told the WSJ. If introduced as reported, the measure would add to a widening…

Katana acquires IDEX to launch new perpetuals platform as DeFi derivatives gain momentum

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Katana, a decentralized finance blockchain developed under the guidance of Polygon Labs and GSR Markets, has acquired IDEX and introduced Katana Perps, a unified onchain perpetual futures and spot trading platform, according to a statement shared by the team on Monday. The deal is the first major strategic action under newly installed chief executive Matthew Fisher, who aims to consolidate more of Katana’s trading infrastructure and revenue under one stack. “As always-on markets become the default venue for real-time price discovery and the regulatory environment opens a path for onchain…

Spain Arrests Suspect in 2025 Ledger Co-Founder Kidnapping

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Spanish authorities have arrested a suspect in the 2025 kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland, marking a cross-border breakthrough in one of Europe’s most high-profile crypto-linked abduction cases. Spain’s Civil Guard said the suspect was detained in Benalmádena, in the southern province of Málaga, under a European arrest warrant issued by France. The man is accused of involvement in the abduction and torture of Balland, in which attackers demanded a ransom of 10 million euros (around $11.5 million). Balland was abducted from his home in central France on Jan. 21,…

Crypto ETP Inflows Slow to $230 Million After Fed Meeting

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Crypto investment products maintained their inflow streak last week but momentum slowed amid ongoing Middle East tensions and a “hawkish pause” interpretation of the US Fed’s meeting. Crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) recorded $230 million in inflows last week, with $405 million in outflows following the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in the US, CoinShares reported Monday. The inflows extended the streak to four consecutive weeks, but the latest total was sharply lower than the previous week’s $1.06 billion. CoinShares head of research James Butterfill largely attributed the slowdown to…

Bitcoin Rebounds $4K in 60 Minutes as Trump Pauses Planned Iran Strikes

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Bitcoin moved back above $71,000 after US President Donald Trump postponed Iran strike for five days, sending oil price crashing below $100. Bitcoin (BTC) broke back toward $71,000 during Monday’s European trading session as US President Donald Trump said attacks on Iran’s power infrastructure would be postponed.  Key takeaways: Bitcoin bounces 5% to $71,000 after President Trump said US attacks on Iran’s infrastructure would be postponed. $270 million in short positions were liquidated in an hour. Focus now shifts to $72,000–$75,000 liquidity zones to see if BTC price will rise…

Core Scientific secures $500M financing from JPMorgan to enhance data center expansion

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Core Scientific, a Nasdaq-listed company that operates data centers for Bitcoin mining and AI workloads, announced it has secured a total of $1 billion in strategic financing, including $500 million from JPMorgan. In a Monday statement, Core Scientific CEO Adam Sullivan said with the backing of Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, the firm is well equipped to execute its go-to-market plans and expand its data center infrastructure. “With $1 billion of total financing capacity now available, we are well positioned to execute on our development and go-to-market strategy, deploying capital to…

How a ‘Wrong Number’ Message Turned Into a $3.4M Crypto Scam

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Key takeaways This $3.4 million scam shows how modern crypto fraud increasingly relies on social engineering rather than technical exploits. Scammers used a gradual grooming process, engaging victims in friendly conversations over time to build emotional trust before introducing any financial discussion. It closely resembled the pig-butchering model. The investment pitch combined Ether’s growth potential with the perceived stability of gold. This created a compelling but fraudulent narrative that convinced victims they were gaining access to an exclusive, low-risk opportunity. Victims were told to buy Ether themselves on legitimate platforms…

Siren Token Rises 340% as Analysts Flag Concentrated Holdings

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Arkham data shows a wallet cluster holding 644 million SIREN, about 88% of the 728 million circulating supply, raising manipulation concerns. Crypto token Siren surged 340% in the last week, amid claims that a large portion of the circulating supply may be concentrated among a small group of wallets.  Siren markets itself as the “first AI analyst agent deployed on BNB Chain.” At the time of writing, CoinGecko data shows SIREN trading at $2.81, up over 340% from $0.63 on March 16. In the past month, the token exploded by…