Massachusetts’ securities regulator has reportedly launched a probe over Robinhood’s prediction markets offering that has allowed users to bet on the outcomes for a slew of events, including basketball tournaments. 

Reuters reported on March 24 that Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin said his office subpoenaed Robinhood last week to get information on its marketing materials and the number of Massachusetts-based users that traded sports events contracts on college basketball tournaments.

Galvin said he was concerned the trading platform was “linking a gambling event on a popular sports event that’s especially popular to young people to a brokerage account.”

“This is just another gimmick from a company that’s very good at gimmicks to lure investors away from sound investing,” he added.

Robinhood launched a prediction markets hub on March 17 that would be initially available through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated prediction platform Kalshi and would feature event contracts on college basketball tournaments and the May federal funds rate. 

Circle said it will officially launch its stablecoin in Japan on March 26 after one of its local partners received regulatory approval to list the US dollar stablecoin three weeks ago.

USDC (USDC) will first be listed on the “SBI VC Trade” crypto exchange under a joint venture between its parent firm — Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings — and Circle’s Japanese entity Circle Japan KK, Circle said in a March 24 statement.

The news comes three weeks after SBI VC Trade secured an industry-first regulatory approval on March 4 to list USDC under the Japan Financial Services Agency’s stablecoin regulatory framework.

Circle is also looking to list USDC on Binance Japan, bitbank and bitFlyer in the near future.

Japan’s bitbank and bitFlyer are two of the country’s largest crypto exchanges, having processed more than $25 million each over the last day with over 1.85 million visits to their websites in the last month.

Trump Media has signed a non-binding agreement with Crypto.com to launch a series of exchange-traded funds in the US.

Trump Technology Group Corp (TMTG) — the operator of the social media platform Truth Social and fintech brand Truth.Fi — is also part of the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, according to a March 24 statement from Trump Media.

The parties plan to launch the ETFs later this year through Crypto.com’s broker-dealer, Foris Capital US LLC. The ETFs will consist of digital assets and securities with a “Made in America” focus.

Crypto.com will provide the infrastructure and custody services to supply the cryptocurrencies for the ETFs, which may include a basket of tokens, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP) and Cronos (CRO).

The parties involved expect the ETFs to be widely available internationally, including in the US, Europe and Asia across existing brokerage platforms.

”Once launched, these ETFs will be available on the Crypto.com App for our more than 140 million users around the world,” Crypto.com co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek said.

The ETFs are anticipated to launch alongside a slate of Truth.Fi Separately Managed Accounts (SMA), which TMTG also plans to invest in with its cash reserves.

Source: Kris Marszalek

Related: Who’s running in Trump’s race to make US a ‘Bitcoin superpower?'

The potential ETF launch would mark yet another crypto-related endeavor involving US President Donald Trump.

However, Democratic lawmakers say that conflicts of interest have already arisen between Trump’s presidential duties and the Trump Organization’s ownership of the crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, in addition to the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin that launched three days before he was inaugurated.

House Representative Gerald Connolly recently referred to the TRUMP token as a “money grab” that has allowed Trump-linked entities to cash in on over $100 million worth of trading fees. 

Democrat Maxine Waters also criticized Trump’s memecoin on Jan. 20, referring to it as a rug pull that represented the “worst of crypto.”

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

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a financial zone with over $635 billion in assets under management, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Chainlink in a move to connect the world of traditional finance with blockchain data.

The agreement will allow ADGM to use Chainlink’s suite of tools, such as data feeds and interoperability technology, ADGM said in a March 24 announcement. The partnership also aims to encourage further discussion around blockchain, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies in the region.

ADGM, which opened in 2015, is in the United Arab Emirates’ financial free zone. It operates under its own civil and commercial legal system, based on English Common Law. Designed to bolster Abu Dhabi’s status as a financial hub, ADGM plays a central role in attracting global firms and expanding the city’s financial services sector.

By the end of 2024, ADGM hosted 134 asset and fund managers overseeing 166 funds. The total number of financial institutions operating within its jurisdiction rose to 275, with 79 new firms, including prominent names such as BlackRock, PGIM, and Morgan Stanley.

Related: What is Chainlink, and how does it work?

The Donald Trump-backed crypto venture World Liberty Financial launched a US dollar-pegged stablecoin with a total supply of more than $3.5 million.

According to data from Etherscan and BscScan, the project launched the World Liberty Financial USD (USD1) token in early March. Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao noted the project’s smart contract was deployed on the BNB Chain and Ethereum, while World Liberty said the stablecoin was “not currently tradeable.”

The USD1 stablecoin launch comes as US lawmakers consider passing the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS, Act. The bill moved out of the Senate Banking Committee on March 13 and is expected to be taken up for a full floor vote soon.

Bo Hines, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, said he expected the GENIUS bill on Trump’s desk by June.

Former Binance CEO acknowledging the USD1 launch. Source: Changpeng Zhao

Solana's native token, SOL (SOL), gained 8.5% on March 24, reclaiming the $142 mark for the first time in two weeks. This rally mirrored the gains seen across the broader cryptocurrency market as traders began to expect reduced risks of an economic downturn. The growing risk appetite can also be seen among memecoins, several of which rallied by 12% or more since March 23.

Outside of the broad market rally, SOL has its own merits, including a rise in network activity and the direct involvement of US President Donald Trump with the memecoin market. Additionally, growing interest from top traders on exchanges and the increasing likelihood of a spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval suggest further potential for SOL’s price growth.

SOL/USD (green) vs. crypto market cap (orange). Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph

Despite the recent rally, SOL has underperformed the broader crypto market by 23.7% over the past two months. This weakness is linked to a 93% decline in Solana network fees during that period. The decline likely began with traders’ disappointment in the memecoin sector but gradually affected the entire decentralized application (DApps) market.

SOL still trades 52% below its all-time high

Traders now question whether the selling was an overreaction, as SOL is currently trading 52% below its all-time high of $295. This comes despite Solana remaining the second-largest blockchain in terms of total value locked (TVL) and ranking third in onchain volumes. For comparison, BNB is trading 20% below its all-time high, and XRP is 28% below its peak.

BNB Chain (BNB) has launched a $100 million program designed to bootstrap liquidity for its native projects on centralized exchanges (CEXs).

The network is allocating $100 million in incentives, primarily in the form of its native BNB tokens, to projects that successfully list on any of 11 major CEXs specified by BNB Chain, according to a March 24 announcement.

The program aims to “further enhance BNB Chain’s ecosystem liquidity and foster project growth by incentivizing exchanges to list native BNB Chain tokens,” the chain said in the statement. 

BNB Chain previously launched two smaller liquidity incentive programs, allocating two tranches of $4.4 million in February and March to incentivize CEX listings for memecoins and other ecosystem projects. 

Rewards vary based on the prominence of the exchange listing. Source: BNB Chain

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is considering a major capital raise ahead of a potential initial public offering (IPO) early next year, Bloomberg reported on March 24. 

Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg said Kraken is exploring a debt package worth anywhere between $200 million and $1 billion. The exchange is reportedly in preliminary talks with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase about facilitating the transaction.

The funds would be used to support Kraken’s growth and not for operational expenses, Bloomberg cited the source as saying. 

Bloomberg has been reporting about Kraken’s IPO ambitions for the better part of a year. Talks of going public have intensified following the election of US President Donald Trump, with Bloomberg reporting that Kraken’s IPO could come in the first quarter of 2026.

A Kraken representative declined to comment on the potential debt package when contacted by Cointelegraph.

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. 

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. 

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.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose 4.25% last week to close above $86,000, and the bulls extended the recovery above $88,700 on March 24. 10x Research founder Markus Thielen said in a March 23 report that Bitcoin’s reversal indicators had turned positive, suggesting a “renewed uptrend.”

Buyers seem to be returning to the markets. According to SoSoValue data, US Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) witnessed net inflows of $744.4 million last week after recording five consecutive weeks of outflows. However, Ether ETFs could not replicate a similar performance as they witnessed a fourth successive week of net outflows.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Analysts are divided about the near-term price action for Bitcoin. Select analysts believe Bitcoin could run into significant resistance near $90,000, starting a pullback toward $80,000. In contrast, BitMEX co-founder and chief investment officer of Maelstrom, Arthur Hayes, said in a post on X that Bitcoin will rally to $110,000 before it drops to $76,500.

Could Bitcoin bulls maintain the momentum and push the price above $90,000? Will the altcoins follow Bitcoin higher? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.

Former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) member Paul Atkins is scheduled to appear before lawmakers in the Senate Banking Committee on March 27 as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to get the president’s picks into high-level government positions.

Since US President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, the SEC, under the leadership of acting chair Mark Uyeda, has dropped several investigations and enforcement actions against major crypto firms, many of which had been in court for months or years. Many analysts see the SEC’s recent actions as the administration acting on its campaign promises to the crypto industry, of which some figures donated directly to the then-presidential candidate or his inauguration fund after the Nov. 5 election.

The commission’s actions — which include declaring that memecoins aren’t securities —  also stand in stark contrast to its position under former chair Gary Gensler, leading many to speculate that the SEC under Trump will lead to a booming US crypto industry essentially free of regulatory scrutiny.

Atkins, whom Trump picked in December 2024 and officially nominated after taking office, received support from industry players at Coinbase and Ripple, both of which had ongoing enforcement actions brought by the SEC. The cases have since been dropped.

Given the SEC’s seeming about-face on crypto enforcement and Trump’s potential conflicts of interest with the industry — with ties to the crypto firm World Liberty Financial and the launch of his own memecoin — some lawmakers are likely to question Atkins’ views on digital assets at the confirmation hearing.

Bitcoin (BTC) price surged by 3% on March 24, distancing from its $76,900 low on March 11 despite failing to sustain the $88,000 level. Now, traders are wondering what factors could drive Bitcoin's daily close above $92,000, which last occurred on March 3. Adding to cryptocurrency investors’ frustration, gold is trading just 1% below its record high of $3,057, while Bitcoin price trades 19% away from its all-time high.

S&P 500 futures (left) vs. Bitcoin/USD (right). Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph

Some analysts attribute Bitcoin's recent price gains to the US-listed company Strategy increasing its BTC reserves, while others highlight macroeconomic factors, such as easing inflation expectations and a softer stance from US President Donald Trump on tariffs. Despite this constructive backdrop, traders question what is preventing Bitcoin from maintaining its bullish momentum.

Bitcoin’s upside is limited as investors fear an economic recession

Economists expect signs of a slowdown in the "core" Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, which is projected to rise by 2.7% in February, according to Yahoo News. This data, the US Federal Reserve's preferred inflation metric, is set to be released on March 26.

Implied expectations for the Sept. 17 FOMC. Source: CME FedWatch tool / Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) neared $90,000 at the March 24 Wall Street open as analysis warned of “conflicting signs and signals.”

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

BTC price daily gains near 3% in risk-asset relief

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $88,772 on Bitstamp — its highest levels since March 7.

Bitcoin followed stocks by opening the week higher after almost a month of sell-side pressure. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite index were up 1.6% and 2%, respectively, at the time of writing.

Commenting, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter explained the upside as a positive reaction to news that the US government was easing the severity of new trade tariffs set to become effective on April 2.

Barbados-based insurer Tabit has raised $40 million in Bitcoin for its insurance facility, in a move the company said would bolster its balance sheet and allow the insurance sector to capitalize on digital assets.

Tabit’s Bitcoin (BTC) regulatory capital will be used to back traditional insurance policies, which are all denominated in US dollars, the company disclosed in a March 24 announcement. 

Tabit claims to be the first property and casualty insurer to hold its entire regulatory reserve in BTC. The company was founded by former executives of Bittrex, a Liechtenstein-based cryptocurrency exchange that was shuttered in 2023.

“This solution offers a regulated dollar return, which we’re excited to earn on an alternative asset class such as Bitcoin,” said William Shihara, Tabit’s co-founder. 

Tabit co-founder and CEO Stephen Stonberg said Bitcoin allows the insurance sector to “Access a largely new and untapped source of insurance capital: digital assets.” 

XRP (XRP) has dropped nearly 30% since hitting a seven-year high of $3.39 in January.

Still, bullish news—like Ripple’s potential resolution in the SEC lawsuit and a new license in Dubai—has fueled a rebound. As of March 24, XRP was trading for as high as $2.47, up 38% from its year-to-date low of $1.79.

XRP/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

How high can the XRP price go from here? Let’s examine.

XRP parallel channel projects $2.77 target

XRP is climbing within a rising parallel channel, showing signs of strength as it pushes toward a crucial resistance level.

Ether is trading at around half its all-time high price, but the Ethereum network is still valued higher than some of the world’s most prominent companies.

Ether (ETH) traded at roughly $2,088 at the time of writing amid continued exchange-traded fund (ETF) outflows, down over 57% from its all-time high of nearly $4,900 set in mid-November 2021, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Despite this decline, Ethereum maintains a market capitalization of nearly $252 billion, surpassing global corporations such as Toyota ($250 billion) and the total market value of the precious metal platinum ($245 billion).

Other notable companies currently worth less than the Ethereum network include IBM, McDonald’s, General Electric, Shell and Disney. If Ethereum were a company, it would be the fiftieth largest in the world, just behind Nestlé, with its market capitalization of nearly $256 billion.

Alex Obchakevich, founder of Obchakevich Research, told Cointelegraph that speculative interest significantly contributes to Ethereum’s valuation, as well as its “freedom from the financial framework of traditional finance.” He added:

Opinion by: Hatu Sheikh, founder of Coin Terminal

Crypto began its journey with Bitcoin (BTC) — the epitome of decentralization — promising open access and equitable distribution of financial resources. It evolved into starkly different territories, where lucrative market opportunities are often inaccessible for retail investors.

Wealthy individuals, high-net-worth family offices, company insiders and venture capitalists secure early access to prime crypto deals. Retailers are left in the lurch as their late entry leads to higher market risks and limited profitability.

The table is turning, mainly with the rise of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and a decisive repudiation of venture capital-backed tokens. Crypto is no longer a niche asset class for institutional investors — retail users are now actively shaping the future of finance.

Crypto has a retail-institutional divide

Retail investors have long stayed away from the crypto market. Analyzing the Bitcoin wallet activities of retail tokenholders demonstrates this.

According to Glassnode, Bitcoin retail spend volumes of user wallets holding less than 0.1 BTC have dropped by 48% since November 2024. A crypto commentator has corroborated the data, showing retail interest reached a three-year low.

Institutional investors like Metaplanet, Strategy and Intesa Sanpaolo have recently increased their Bitcoin holdings, taking advantage of BTC’s price drop. Simultaneously, large Bitcoin holders or crypto whales have accumulated over 39,620 BTC worth $3.79 billion in a single day.

Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, said, “There is an absolutely massive disconnect between retail and professional sentiment in crypto right now.” The data suggests that retail sentiment is bearish while professional investors remain bullish, almost like two parallel worlds.

The expanding adoption of BTC reserves by corporations and institutional demand for Bitcoin futures has led to shrinking retail investors. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) controls 85% of the monthly futures market, while crypto exchanges control retail-led perpetual contracts.

CME’s open interest in monthly BTC futures offers hedge funds and investment banks exposure to BTC and liquidity access. It also indicates, however, a diminishing influence of retail investors’ participation in Bitcoin’s price discovery.

The market structurally restricts retail investors’ access to capital reserves, denying them early-stage opportunities in financial markets. The psychological “unit bias” adds to the problem as retailers cannot own a complete unit of assets like Bitcoin.

Recent: Crypto shows how powerful tokenizing private stocks would be

As governments contemplate the formation of strategic Bitcoin reserves, they risk being locked in central bank cold wallets. For optimal utilization, it’s essential to keep Bitcoin accessible to retail investors through open reserves.

Despite such constricted market opportunities, the crypto industry offers innovative products like asset tokenization and memecoins to democratize access for retail investors.

Retail investors are reclaiming crypto

Sometimes, the best way to achieve financial inclusion is to remove complexities and make investing fun and relatable. Memecoins have done that successfully, leveraging speculation as a utility to make a statement against low-float-high-fully diluted valuation coins backed by VCs. That’s the reason retail investors are buying memecoins in such large numbers.

Although memecoins are subject to severe market volatily, they continue to dominate retail speculation. Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, thinks the altcoin season is yet to come because memecoins have topped investor mindshare and capital allocation. 

The memecoin phenomenon shows the power of ordinary people to monetize virality and harness mimetic desire through collective community-led wealth generation. But more importantly, it shows retail investors’ rejection of VC-led token pumps that deny fair entry to high-value token launches.

Memecoins also give tokenholders a sense of belonging to facilitate bonding over shared values and culture. Thus, when US President Donald Trump launched his memecoin, 42% of investors were first-time buyers, signaling memecoins’ potential to onboard retailers.

Beyond speculative memecoin trading, retail investors adopt tokenized real-world assets to hedge against uncertain market conditions. The RWA tokenization market has recently surpassed $17 billion, enhancing retail investor accessibility and market opportunities through improved liquidity and fractional ownership.

Retailers and small investors can now participate in tokenized capital markets, previously reserved for institutions and wealthy individuals. Thus, tokenization is a democratic and inclusive market strategy to help new investors access the financial system without facing liquidity challenges.

Mastercard recently published a white paper explaining how RWA tokenization offers significant socio-economic benefits to people from emerging economies, such as Latin America. In developing economies, tokenization resolves the trust deficit by enabling transparent ownership tracking for seamless asset transfers.

Asset tokenization helps retail investors participate in DeFi markets by improving capital efficiency. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report shows tokenization benefits buyers and sellers in the opaque $1.5-trillion private credit market through fractionalized lending and borrowing.

Amid turbulent market conditions, institutional investors with abundant capital reserves have the luxury of continuing to accumulate Bitcoin and other altcoins. However, retail investors with a fixed capital supply must find asset classes with the lowest entry barriers.

With the crypto industry providing diversified investment options and innovative products, retailers now have the freedom to invest in their preferred assets. It’s finally time for retail investors to come onchain.

Opinion by: Hatu Sheikh, founder of Coin Terminal.

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.

The rise of AI-driven crypto agents is following a familiar trajectory that mirrors the initial boom, bust and resurgence of ICO-era projects. Just as early blockchain ventures thrived on hype before maturing into sustainable ecosystems, the current wave of AI agent projects is undergoing rapid market shifts. 

A new report by HTX Ventures and HTX Research says that investors are growing cautious as competition in the sector intensifies, liquidity disperses and many projects struggle to define clear use cases. Still, as the sector moves beyond its speculative phase, AI-driven crypto agents are expected to evolve sustainable business models underpinned by genuine utility.

To dive deeper into the evolution of crypto agents and the future of AI-driven blockchain innovation, download the full report by HTX here.

From meme hype to reality: The evolution of crypto agents

The initial wave of crypto agent projects in 2024 was driven by indiscriminate enthusiasm for AI projects. Following the impact of a $50,000 Bitcoin donation from Marc Andreessen in October 2024 and the success of token launchpads earlier in the year, many AI agent projects entered the space in Q1 of 2024 and rapidly diluted liquidity by Q1 of 2025. As with any emerging sector, early-stage hype did not always translate into long-term viability, and a cooling-off period in the crypto AI agent sector followed.

The market segment is now entering a more mature phase, and the focus is shifting from speculative excitement to revenue generation and product performance. The winners in this evolving landscape will be those that can generate stable revenue, cover the costs of running AI models and provide tangible value to users and investors alike.