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.

The acting chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly voted against the agency suing Elon Musk over the billionaire’s alleged securities violations concerning the disclosure of Twitter stocks. 

Citing anonymous sources, Reuters reported on March 24 that the SEC’s five commissioners conducted a vote on whether to sue Musk or not before the agency filed its lawsuit against the billionaire. 

Four commissioners voted in favor, while the lone dissent came from Mark Uyeda, who was appointed acting chair by US President Donald Trump on Jan. 20. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce voted along with three other commissioners to sue Musk. 

Uyeda and Peirce are known for their dissenting opinions on the SEC’s enforcement actions against the crypto industry during former SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s time in office.

SEC lawsuit against Elon Musk

In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion and rebranded the social media platform to X. After the acquisition, the SEC began investigating whether Musk violated any securities laws as he acquired the platform. 

XRP and Solana led all altcoin-based exchange-traded product (ETP) inflows during the week ending March 21, with $6.71 million and $6.44 million respectively, according to digital asset investment firm CoinShares.

Other altcoin inflows were comparatively modest, with Polygon (MATIC) logging $400,000 and Chainlink (LINK) adding $200,000.

Sentiment toward altcoins remained mixed overall, as Ether (ETH) alone saw significant outflows totaling $86 million. Other notable outflows included Sui (SUI), with $1.3 million, Polkadot (DOT), with $1.3 million and Tron (TRX) with $950,000.

Despite Ether’s substantial outflows dragging down the altcoin sector, digital assets collectively reversed a five-week streak of net outflows, registering inflows of $644 million. Bitcoin (BTC) led this recovery with inflows amounting to $724 million, snapping its own five-week negative streak.

Ethereum outflows pull down altcoins ETP performance, but Bitcoin carries digital assets. Source: CoinShares

Securities dealer Ocree Capital has launched a regulated real estate platform in Canada, giving investors access to tokenized shares of commercial property on the Polymesh blockchain.

The new Ocree platform debuted on March 24 with a $51.9 million commercial real estate listing in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The featured property is a Class “A” multi-residential development with 156 units. 

Ocree said $4 million of equity is being offered to investors via fractional shares.

“Investors are not providing debt; they are participating in the equity of the asset,” Ocree CEO Ted Davis told Cointelegraph. “The investors purchase an interest in a limited partnership that invests in the underlying property.”

15 Berwick Court in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the first commercial property listing on Ocree’s platform. Source: Google Maps

Bitcoin may reach a new all-time high of $110,000 before any significant retracement, according to some market analysts who cite easing inflation and increasing global liquidity as key factors supporting a price rally.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been rising for two consecutive weeks, achieving a bullish weekly close just above $86,000 on March 23, TradingView data shows.

Combined with fading inflation-related concerns, this may set the stage for Bitcoin’s rally to a $110,000 all-time high, according to Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX and chief investment officer of Maelstrom.

BTC/USD, 1-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Hayes wrote in a March 24 X post:

Update: March 24, 2025, 1:11 pm UTC: This article has been updated to include the settlement date of Strategy’s $711 million offering.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy has acquired over $500 million worth of Bitcoin as institutional interest and exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows make a comeback.

Strategy acquired 6,911 Bitcoin (BTC) for over $584 million between March 17 and March 23 at an average price of $84,529 per coin, according to a March 24 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Strategy’s SEC filing, March 24. Source: US SEC

Following the latest acquisition, the company now holds more than 500,000 Bitcoin, with a total of 506,137 Bitcoin acquired at an aggregate purchase price of roughly $33.7 billion and an average purchase price of approximately $66,608 per Bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) trading platform dYdX announced its first-ever token buyback program on March 24, aiming to reinvest in its ecosystem to enhance security and governance.

According to the announcement, 25% of the protocol’s net fees will be dedicated to monthly buybacks of its native dYdX (DYDX) token on the open market.

Following the announcement, DYDX surged over 10% and was trading at about $0.731 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko. The token has gained more than 21% over the past two weeks.

DYDX spikes on buyback news. Source: CoinGecko

Related: dYdX explores sale of derivatives trading arm

Stablecoin payment platform Infini filed a Hong Kong lawsuit against a developer and several unidentified individuals suspected of involvement in a hack that drained nearly $50 million in crypto assets.

On March 24, the Infini team sent an onchain message to the attacker, citing developer Chen Shanxuan and three unidentified persons with access to wallets involved in the exploit as defendants in the lawsuit. 

Infini said that the 49.5 million USDC (USDC) traced from the plaintiff’s funds are subject to an ongoing legal dispute and are contentious in nature. “Any subsequent holders of the said crypto assets (if any) once held in those wallets that they cannot claim the status of bona fide purchases without notice of the dispute,” Infini stated. 

The Hong Kong court sent an injunction order through an onchain message, a method to send legal notices to anonymous crypto wallets containing stolen funds. It also included a writ of summons that required the defendants to attend the return date hearing. 

Infini offered a 20% bounty to hacker

Following the $50 million hack on Feb. 24, Infini offered a 20% bounty to the hackers responsible for the attack. 

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US snapped a five-week net outflow streak in the trading week ending March 21.

Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs clocked a net inflow of $744.4 million — the biggest tally in eight weeks — extending their daily inflow streak to six consecutive days, according to data from SoSoValue.

US-based spot Bitcoin ETF net flows get back on track. Source: SoSoValue

Five funds contributed to the inflows, with the bulk coming from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which recorded $537.5 million. Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) followed with $136.5 million.

The renewed inflows come after a bearish period for both the crypto market and the broader global economy, marked by growing concerns over escalating trade tensions and rising recession concerns.

Learn-to-earn platform Dohrnii Labs filed a police report in the United Arab Emirates accusing local crypto exchange Blynex of liquidating its tokens without authorization and failing to deliver a promised loan. 

According to a statement shared with Cointelegraph, Dohrnii Labs deposited 12,649.99 Dohrnii (DHN) tokens — valued at more than $500,000 — with Blynex. On March 23, the company said it used 8,650 of those tokens as collateral for a 30-day loan in exchange for 80,000 of Tether’s USDt (USDT).

Dohrnii claims the exchange never delivered the USDT. Furthermore, the team said Blynex liquidated its entire 8,650 DHN position on Uniswap, receiving 149,151 USDT and causing a drop in the token’s market value. 

Attempts to withdraw the remaining 4,000 DHN tokens were unsuccessful, the company said.

Source: Dohrnii Labs

Dubai-based crypto market maker and investor DWF Labs launched a $250 million Liquid Fund to accelerate the growth of mid- and large-cap blockchain projects and drive real-world adoption of Web3 technologies.

DWF Labs is set to sign two investment deals worth $25 million and $10 million as part of the fund.

The initiative aims to grow the crypto landscape by offering strategic investments ranging from $10 million to $50 million for projects that have the potential to drive real-world adoption, according to a March 24 announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Source: DWF Labs

The fund will focus on blockchain projects with significant “usability and discoverability,” according to Andrei Grachev, managing partner of DWF Labs.

Bitcoin heads into the end of Q1 near two-week highs as trader sentiment diverges from improving technicals.

Bitcoin (BTC) market participants are positioned for a fresh BTC price dip, which could even form new multimonth lows.

PCE week coincides with the last full trading week of March, and risk assets are showing a hint of optimism.

When it comes to BTC price strength, RSI is increasingly demanding bullish continuation.

Bitcoin’s short-term holders are under pressure amid serious unrealized losses.

Key takeawaysTo generate crypto market insights via ChatGPT, collect accurate historical and real-time data on prices, trading volumes and market capitalization.Organize data into clear formats, such as tables with consistent date formats and labeled columns, to help ChatGPT identify patterns and trends.Use precise and focused prompts to guide ChatGPT in generating actionable insights, enhancing the relevance and clarity of its responses.Cross-check ChatGPT’s outputs with up-to-date information from reputable sources before making trading decisions to account for potential inaccuracies.

Predicting crypto market trends can feel like navigating a storm — unpredictable and fast-changing. Prices can spike or crash unexpectedly due to investor sentiment, regulatory changes or sudden events such as exchange hacks. For traders, staying ahead means finding reliable ways to analyze these movements and make informed decisions.

This is where ChatGPT can help. 

By analyzing historical data and recognizing patterns, ChatGPT offers insights that can support better decision-making. But for AI tools to deliver meaningful results, especially when using ChatGPT for crypto investments, it’s essential to follow the right process. Combining well-structured data, clear prompts and effective risk management can improve the accuracy and usefulness of its insights.

This article explores practical ways of how to use ChatGPT for crypto market analysis — from collecting and organizing data to crafting effective prompts that help the model generate actionable insights.

How to harness ChatGPT for crypto market analysis

While predicting crypto trends will always have its challenges, using data-driven insights with ChatGPT can make market behavior easier to understand. With the right strategy, ChatGPT becomes a powerful tool to identify patterns, highlight emerging trends, and support smarter trading decisions.

An idea to tokenize or track US gold reserves to make their movements transparent on a blockchain won’t work in the same trustless way as Bitcoin does, but doing so could help the cryptocurrency, says a research analyst.

Greg Cipolaro, global head of research at New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), said in a March 21 note that Trump administration officials, including Elon Musk, have floated using a blockchain to track US gold and government spending — an idea supported by crypto executives.

“Here’s the thing about blockchains. They’re not very smart,” Cipolaro said. “They’re limited in the information they convey. For example, Bitcoin has no idea what the price of Bitcoin is or even the current time.”

He said the tokenization or tracking of gold reserves on a blockchain could help with audits and transparency but would still “rely on trust and coordination with central entities” compared to Bitcoin, which “was designed to explicitly remove centralized entities.”

Cipolaro added that tokenization and blockchain-tracking ideas aren’t competitive with the crypto market and might help to increase awareness of it, which “could ultimately benefit Bitcoin.”

The US Treasury Department says there is no need for a final court judgment in a lawsuit over its sanctioning of Tornado Cash after dropping the crypto mixer from the sanctions list.

In August 2022, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash after alleging the protocol helped launder crypto stolen by North Korean hacking crew the Lazarus Group, leading to a number of Tornado Cash users filing a lawsuit against the regulator. 

After a court ruling in favor of Tornado Cash, the US Treasury dropped the mixer from its sanctions list on March 21, along with several dozen Tornado-affiliated smart contract addresses from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, and has now argued “this matter is now moot.”

Because Tornado Cash has been dropped from the sanctions list, the US Treasury Department argues there is no need for a final court judgment in the lawsuit. Source: Paul Grewal

“Because this court, like all federal courts, has a continuing obligation to satisfy itself that it possesses Article III jurisdiction over the case, briefing on mootness is warranted,” the US Treasury said. 

Opinion by: Brendon Sedo, Core DAO initial contributor

Bitcoin is outgrowing the “digital gold” narrative. The primary driver of this shift is the rise of Bitcoin DeFi (BTCfi), which looks beyond the mere store-of-value use cases. 

In 2024, Bitcoin (BTC) became a natively yield-generating asset and the centerpiece of Ethereum-style decentralized finance ecosystems. 2025 is when that kindling can grow its flame on innovative Bitcoin sidechains. 

Most past attempts to tap Bitcoin’s value as a productive asset required significant changes to its base layer. That’s a big reason they failed. The Bitcoin layer 1 is not designed for much change, leaving most Bitcoiners to merely hodl and not do much else. The result is that Bitcoin remained underutilized as a network and an asset.

Bitcoin sidechains have emerged as the perfect solution to all these problems, scaling Bitcoin’s utility without altering or being limited by the base layer. Naturally, these protocols will be the most potent catalyst for BTCfi’s growth, especially with BTC surpassing $100,000, constituting over 60% of the total crypto market share, and entering a new regulatory landscape with the first “pro-crypto” US government regime.