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Bitcoin is “transitioning out of its most stressed phase”

Many are hoping that the bill working its way through the Senate will mark “the beginning of the end of crypto’s regulatory limbo.”

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

The lower-than-expected CPI print and optimism around the amended Digital Asset Market Clarity Act seem to be buoying bitcoin this morning. Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs started the week with modest inflows ($116.7 million), according to SoSoValue.

Timothy Misir, head of research at Blockhead Research Network, said that on-chain metrics suggest bitcoin is transitioning “out of its most stressed phase.”

“Price now sits above the Active Investors Mean ($87.7K) but remains well below the Short-Term Holder cost basis at $98.9K. This configuration implies reduced forced selling pressure, but also highlights the scale of overhead supply that must be absorbed for a sustained breakout,” Misir said.

One potential headwind for bitcoin is the trajectory of the probe of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, a situation Farzam Ehsani, CEO of VALR, called “paradoxical.”

While weakening confidence in dollar policy traditionally increases interest in decentralized assets as a hedge against political and currency risk, abrupt political maneuvers within the government are increasing instability, triggering short-term outflows from risky assets and high-volatility markets, Ehsani said.

He said investors should exercise “extreme caution” in the coming weeks, as the crypto market could react sharply to the conflict’s outcome.

“If the Fed holds firm, the market could return to its fundamental scenario. If the White House is able to push through a rate cut and launches stimulus measures, bitcoin and gold could surge higher,” Ehsani said.

Finally, “this week may mark the beginning of the end of crypto’s regulatory limbo,” Benchmark analysts wrote in a note, as the Senate committee will vote on Thursday on the amended Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.

“We believe a successful committee process culminating in floor consideration would represent a material de-risking event for crypto markets,” the analysts wrote. “That regulatory clarity is the key prerequisite for institutional adoption of both crypto tokens and crypto-related equities. In our view, such clarity would unlock a level of liquidity that only institutions could provide, and liquidity is the foundation upon which sustainable crypto valuations are built.”

Some are pessimistic that the bill will move forward. Nic Puckrin, cofounder of Coin Bureau, said he is “not holding his breath” for the bill to pass this month.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see further delays as committee members grapple with the implications of the proposed amendments. And any delays will weigh heavily on a digital asset market that has struggled with momentum for months,” Puckrin said.

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Crypto market snaps back as sentiment lifts, with altcoins from ethereum to XRP soaring

The market capitalization of the crypto industry has jumped around $83.2 billion in the last 24 hours, with privacy-focused token Zcash and worldcoin, the native cryptocurrency of the network backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, leading market gains, jumping over 22%.

But the last 24 hours have been good across the board:

Investors have been eager to see some positive signs around the Iranian conflict ending, coupled with hopeful outlooks around the CLARITY act, both breathing some life into assets, Kairos Research cofounder Ian Unsworth told Sherwood News.

Simon Shockey, a crypto strategist at crypto wallet infrastructure firm Privy, said the upswing stems from several things converging. He pointed to how alt markets broadly were very oversold following the bug found in Zcash that shook confidence.

Friday, Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox said Anthropic didn’t find any more serious bugs with the Zcash protocol after Shielded Labs requested the AI firm run a security audit of the network with Mythos.

Shockey added that the pool of willing sellers has dwindled. Even if structurally, AI is a much more compelling and asymmetric bet in the eyes of allocators, many of these crypto assets have simply run out of marginal sellers despite some shorter-term narrative-driven pumps. The only people left to sell at this point are the teams themselves and VCs.

Net-net: oversold conditions plus exhausted seller bases plus a macro backdrop thats stabilized equals a snapback, especially in names that have real usage or community conviction behind them,” Shockey told Sherwood.

$389M

US Attorney David Metcalf announced Thursday the arrests of Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev, alleged senior members of AudiA6, a cryptocurrency money-laundering service believed to be responsible for laundering over $389 million.

The arrests coincided with a coordinated international takedown of AudiA6 and its infrastructure, involving the search of three properties, the seizure of servers and domains connected to the organization, as well as freezing cryptocurrency assets, according to a Department of Justice press release.

Tkachuk and Ledenev were “charged by criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and one count of sting money laundering,” the DOJ said. If convicted, they face a maximum possible sentence of 20 years of incarceration.

Per the criminal complaint, AudiA6 offered services to conceal the origin of cryptocurrency linked to criminal activity, charging fees of up to 5% of the amount laundered.

The two defendants are in custody of Republic of Georgia authorities, and the US Attorney’s Office aims to seek their extradition to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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