The liquidity hub aims to offer a pool of liquidity to businesses in addition to Ripple’s popular cross-border payments service called on-demand liquidity.

Fintech firm Ripple has launched its liquidity solution for businesses to bridge the gap between crypto and fiat. Ripple liquidity hub was launched on April 13 after a successful pilot last year.

The service operates as a stand-alone solution in addition to Ripple’s popular cross-border payments service called on-demand liquidity (ODL). This makes it a global liquidity network offering its partners access to payout rails worldwide.

The liquidity hub has been developed from an enterprise point of view to offer digital assets from various market makers, including crypto exchanges and over-the-counter trading desks. When an enterprise partner requires liquidity, it can source it from these large pools of deep liquidity, including United States dollars, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Eth classic and others

Interestingly, the product launch finds no mention of XRP the crypto token issued by Ripple. XRP has been central to most liquidity products and services the fintech firm offers, especially cross-border liquidity services. However, XRP was mentioned among digital assets in the company’s pilot phase.

The omission of XRP from its liquidity pairs could be attributed to the company’s ongoing court battle in the U.S. with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ripple claimed its liquidity solution would considerably reduce the cost of operations on high-volume transactions. This is done by optimizing cryptocurrency pricing and liquidity across asset pairs.

The liquidity hub eliminates the need to pre-finance capital positions to source liquidity or conduct transactions. The liquidity service reduces complicated multiplatform administration requirements by enabling organizations to access digital assets in a single place. The services also lock in optimum pricing for digital assets to protect companies from market instability and price swings.

Ripple has made a name for itself in the fintech world for offering various liquidity solutions and cross-border remittance services. Its popular ODL solution has onboarded several banks worldwide to provide cheap remittance services with the help of cryptocurrencies.

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Bitrue executives promised to fully compensate all the identified users affected by the hot wallet hack that accounted for 5% of all funds on the exchange.

Bitrue cryptocurrency exchange has suffered a hot wallet exploit, allowing attackers to withdraw various crypto assets worth nearly $23 million.

Announcing the news on April 14, Bitrue said that it had to temporarily suspend all withdrawals due to a “brief exploit” of its hot wallet. The firm expects to reopen withdrawals on April 18, 2023, after conducting additional security checks.

Bitrue stressed that it was able to address the matter quickly, which allowed the platform to prevent the further draining of funds. “We take this matter seriously and are currently investigating the situation,” Bitrue stated, adding that the affected hot wallet only accounted for less than 5% of the exchange’s overall funds. The firm wrote:

“The rest of our wallets continue to remain secure and have not been compromised. We are conducting a thorough security review and will update you as we make progress.”

Bitrue executives promised to fully compensate all the identified users affected by the incident. According to the announcement, the affected currencies on the exploited hot wallet included Ether 

As previously reported, hackers have been increasingly opting for decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks over the past few years, slightly moving away from traditional centralized exchanges. In the first three months of 2022, crypto exchange hacks accounted for just 3% of all crypto stolen, while 97% was taken from DeFi protocols, according to data from Chainalysis.

More regulation will be coming to stop these types of Hacks. For us investors always ensure you are responsible and do not share any information regarding your wallets or holdings. Its the wild west out there

The bills state that the trustee must hold a sufficient amount of gold in reserve for all units of digital currency that have been issued and are still in circulation.

Two Texas lawmakers have introduced identical bills for creating a state-based digital currency backed by gold, a move that comes despite objections from several United States lawmakers against introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Senator Bryan Hughes introduced Senate Bill 2334 on March 10, with Representative Mark Dorazio introducing House Bill 4903 on the same day, stating that a fractional equivalent amount of physical gold would back the proposed digital currency.

“Each unit of the digital currency issued represents a particular fraction of a troy ounce of gold held in trust,” the bills stated.

The bill explains that once a person purchases a certain amount of digital currency, the comptroller would use that money received to buy an equivalent amount of gold.

The purchaser would then receive digital currency equal to the amount of gold that the comptroller purchases with the money received from the purchaser.

The value of a unit of digital currency must be equal to the value of the appropriate fraction of a troy ounce of gold at the time of the transaction.

“The trustee shall maintain enough gold to provide for the redemption in gold of all units of the digital currency that have been issued and are not yet redeemed for money or gold,” the bill stated.

It was added that a fee might be established “at any rate necessary” to cover the costs of administering this chapter.

Although neither of the bills has been passed or presented for a vote, both state that this act will take “effect September 1, 2023.”

Several United States lawmakers have recently argued against the U.S. introducing a CBDC.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stated in a March 20 press conference that CBDCs would grant “more power” to the government, adding that it provides the government “with a direct view of all consumer activities.”

Meanwhile, on March 21, Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill to block the Fed from launching a “direct-to-consumer” CBDC, stating that it’s “more important than ever” to ensure U.S. policy on digital currencies protects “financial privacy, maintains the dollar’s dominance and cultivates innovation.”

The first point to note before we go any further is only users who have traded on the decentralized exchange in the last four days are apparently affected.

A bug on a smart contract on the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol SushiSwap led to over $3 million in losses in the early hours of April 9, according to several security reports on Twitter. 

Blockchain security companies Certik Alert and Peckshield posted about an unusual activity related to the approval function in Sushi's Router Processor 2 contract — a smart contract that aggregates trade liquidity from multiple sources and identifies the most favorable price for swapping coins. Within a few hours, the bug led to losses of $3.3 million.

Hours after the incident, Grey took to Twitter to announce that a "large portion of affected funds'' had been recovered through a whitehat security process. "We've confirmed recovery of more than 300ETH from CoffeeBabe of Sifu's stolen funds. We're in contact with Lido's team regarding 700 more ETH."

The Sushi's community has had an intense weekend. On April 8, Grey and his counsel provided comments on the recent subpoena from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"The SEC’s investigation is a non-public, fact-finding inquiry trying to determine whether there have been any violations of the federal securities laws. To the best of our knowledge, the SEC has not (as of this writing) made any conclusions that anyone affiliated with Sushi has violated United States federal securities laws," he stated.

Grey claims to be cooperating with the investigation. A legal defense fund in response to the subpoena was proposed on Sushi's governance forum on March 21.

The value of a layer 1, or L1, network comes from people conducting peer-to-peer transactions with that blockchain. The native token of any given blockchain – BTC in the case of Bitcoin – acts as an incentive mechanism to get people to ensure that the data stored on the blockchain is secure and accurate.

The value is especially relevant in areas of the world where central bankers have caused local currencies to hyperinflate. One of the mistakes being made by U.S. lawmakers and regulators is looking at cryptocurrencies from a U.S.-centric perspective only.

It appears regulators don’t care about the functionality or reliability of blockchains, especially as some of the loudest opponents of crypto are in favour of central bank digital currencies – a type of digital currency issued by a central bank. The animosity feels more related to the decentralized nature of crypto – the ability to take fiat currency and exchange it for another asset of value, without the need for a central body (central banks, regulators, politicians, conventional banks, etc.).

Here are some of the larger layer 1 protocols and their recent performance

The performance runs the gamut from impressive to anything but, which is how it probably should be. On a technical level, BTC is correlated most to ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, with its lowest correlation being to crypto exchange Binance’s BNB token.

What I find intriguing about layer 1s is the nuance that exists between them. As one L1 comes into existence, another attempts to improve upon it on the basis of speed, scalability, etc. For instance, I am admittedly anchored to Bitcoin. Its foundation as a peer-to-peer network gives it a first-mover advantage and the largest market share.

The ability to develop smart contracts on top of the Ethereum blockchain, where predetermined conditions are met and executed via code, is another facet that I find value in.

In many ways, crypto forces someone focused on assets and prices to level up on technology, while the tech-focused person is incentivized to get up to speed on market dynamics. The discipline of tech and the discipline of assets are pulled together, much in the way that code links tasks within a smart contract.

Bitcoin stays stuck in an ever-decreasing trading range, but market participants are already eyeing a potentially explosive resolution for BTC price. Bitcoin reduced its narrow trading range even further into April 8 as risk assets waited for fresh catalysts. 

Data from  TradingView showed BTC/USD hovering near $28,000 on Bitstamp.

The pair continued sideways behaviour into the weekend after the Wall Street trading week offered few surprises.

Despite calls for $25,000 and $30,000 to enter as near-term targets, increasing order book liquidity either side of spot price appeared to offer the market increasingly little room for manoeuvre.

This liquidity remained in force on the day, with monitoring resource Material Indicators capturing the phenomenon on the Binance order book.

“If you think ANY price target for BTC, ETH, DOGE or any other altcoin is imminent, you are mistaken,” it wrote, adopting a cautionary tone in accompanying comments.

“The ONLY guarantee in crypto is that these are among the riskiest of risk assets and NOTHING IS GUARANTEED.”

A specific warning focused on the BTC price bet recently made by former Coinbase executive Balaji Srinivasan, who at the time called for a sky-high $1 million per Bitcoin within the next three months.

Material Indicators added that liquidity reflects sentiment, having previously emphasized that such liquidity moves are apt to “dampen” price volatility.

While it may cause downside pressure in the short run, the Shanghai upgrade will be extremely bullish for Ether's price in the mid-to-long term, according to Vivek Raman.

While it may have some short-term negative impact on the price of Ether the upcoming Shanghai upgrade will be extremely bullish for Ethereum's native token, as it will attract more capital to staking and increase the network's security, according to Ethereum researcher Vivek Raman. 

The Shanghai upgrade, scheduled for April 12, will allow network validators to withdraw funds that have been locked to secure the network since December 2020. The upgrade will complete the network’s transition to a proof-of-stake system, which started last October with the Merge.

Around 18 million ETH will be available for withdrawal following Shanghai. According to Raman, that may lead to some selling pressure on ETH's price in the short term.

However, in the long run, the ability to unstake Ether will “de-risk the ETH investment in a tremendous way,” he pointed out. In particular, institutional investors that couldn’t get involved earlier in staking will feel more comfortable once ETH can be unstaked. More capital entering ETH staking will improve the Ethereum network in the long run.

“The more native proof-of-stake asset that's staked, the higher the cost to attack the chain,” Raman pointed out.

JasmyCoin receives a low risk rating from InvestorsObserver analysis. The proprietary scoring system analyzes how much money was required to move the price over the past 24 hours. The metric looks at recent changes in volume and market cap to evaluate how much a token can be manipulated by limited trading. The score ranges from 0 to 100, with low scores representing high risk and high values equating to low risk.

Trading Analysis

JASMY's current risk score means it is a relatively low risk investment. Investors primarily concerned with risk assessment will find this score most useful in order to avoid (or potentially seek out) risky investments. JasmyCoin is 4.39% lower as of the last 24 hours of trading, resulting in its current price of $0.005465734. The price movement has coincided with volume being below its average level and the token's market capitalization risen. The market capitalization for the token now sits at $260,004,967.27 while $75,203,594.31 worth of the crypto has been exchanged over the past 24 hours. The price movement relative to the changes in volume and market cap recently, gives JASMY a low risk assessment.

Summary

JASMY's price movement over the past day of trading leads to a low risk ranking as its recent price movement relative to trading volume gives traders reason to be confident on the token's manipulability as of now

The stock exchange operator announced its intentions last September as it looked to respond to the demand from institutional crypto investors

Nasdaq (NDAQ) is aiming to debut its crypto custody services by the end of the second quarter

The stock market exchange operator's senior vice president and head of digital assets, Ira Auerbach, said the firm is working on getting the necessary infrastructure and regulatory approval in place. Nasdaq applied to the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for a limited-purpose trust company charter which would oversee its custody service.

Nasdaq announced its intentions in September as it looked to respond to the demand from institutional crypto investors.

Traditional finance companies such as Nasdaq are looking to fill the gap left by more crypto-centric firms that have shut their doors in recent months, with exchange FTX and banks Silvergate and Signature the most prominent.

Should appetite for crypto among the likes of Nasdaq remain strong, it may prove a positive signal for mainstream cryptocurrency adoption.

Popular YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips has been hacked this morning, with the channel’s 15.3 million subscribers seeing videos for crypto scams instead of tech hardware reviews. It’s the latest breach in a series of high-profile YouTube accounts being hacked, with scammers regularly gaining access to prominent accounts to rename them and livestream crypto scam videos.

The main Linus Tech Tips channel was breached earlier this morning, with several live videos broadcast before the hacker started making old private videos public. The account was eventually suspended, presumably as YouTube employees work to restore it. Other Linus Media Group YouTube channels, including Techquickie and TechLinked, have also been breached and given new names focused on Tesla.

It’s not immediately clear how the channels have been breached, but owner Linus Sebastian tweeted that he was aware of the situation. Later, in a statement posted to Floatplane (a streaming service spun out of Linus Media Group), he said that the company is working on it with Google, and is “getting to the bottom of the attack vector with the (hopeful) goal of hardening their security around YouTube accounts and preventing this sort of thing from happening to anyone in the future.” He also promised to discuss additional details on the company’s podcast, though warned they might not come this week as it’s “still a developing situation.”

This is just the latest in a series of breaches that have occurred over the past year, generally designed to promote livestreams that push viewers to amateur-looking crypto sites through links or QR codes. The British army’s YouTube channel was hacked to promote crypto scams last year, just months before tens of thousands of “viewers” watched a fake Apple crypto scam on YouTube. Popular Vevo channels on YouTube for artists like Lil Nas X, Drake, Taylor Swift, and more were also affected by a breach last year that saw videos uploaded from an “unauthorized source.”

Bitcoin market volatility dries up as sideways trading cools bullish BTC price predictions in the near term.

Bitcoin drifted lower on March 25 as eerily calm conditions saw liquidations evaporate.

Data from  TradingView followed BTC/USD as it focused on $27,500 at the time of writing.

After losing $28,000 the day prior, weekend trading offered little by way of its usual volatility as traders hoped for a break before resumption of TradFi markets.

“Looking like a slow chop around the CME close price so far,” Daan Crypto Trades wrote in part of Twitter commentary.

“Not expecting too much to happen with BTC during the weekend after last week's volatility.”

Daan Crypto Trades referred to the closing price of CME Group Bitcoin futures markets, a level which could become significant in the event that volatility up or down appears before the start of the new week.

This would have the effect of producing a “gap” in futures market open and close prices, creating a potential target for spot BTC.

The fed rate rises really tested a lot of resolve in the markets with huge swings during in Jerome Powell`s speech followed by an aggressive down turn. So what does this week look like, Well the bullish momentum is still with us to push some price action up.

If retail comes this weekend to buy like the last few weekends could set us up for a strong start for the week

A nonfungible token from the CryptoPunks collection worth 77 Ether  was sent to a burn address to be permanently destroyed. However, the collector intended to borrow some money against it to buy another NFT.

NFT collector Brandon Riley added CryptoPunk #685 to his collection on March 13 by paying 77 ETH, hoping to hold it for the long term.

As a seasoned investor, Riley knew the importance of procuring new NFTs right before crypto markets took off into a new bull market. As a result, he decided to borrow some money against CryptoPunk #685 by using a popular technique known as wrapping.

“I was told to follow the directions exactly, so I did,” explained Riley, but in the process, he ended up losing 77 ETH, which was worth $135,372.16. He explained:

“I was not wrapping this punk to sell it on Blur. It was to be my “forever punk.” The number is exact reverse of my ape. I was only wrapping it because I needed to borrow some liquidity from it.”

While members of Crypto Twitter believed that the NFT collector must have had “deep pockets,” Riley contradicted the rumors by revealing that he had purchased CryptoPunk #685 through borrowed money.

“I just shouldn’t have attempted this on my own, I guess,” was Riley’s takeaway from the experience. On the other hand, Crypto Twitter also blamed confusing user interfaces and complex instructions for the investor’s loss. As a result, the community unanimously agreed on the need to revamp the front-end processes for crypto ecosystems.

Remember the old saying

"MEASURE TWICE CUT ONCE"

With #Crypto its almost impossible to click the back button and undo anything you have done.

Rumours are flying around that Amazon will be launching a bespoke NFT collection for its users and community . E mails have surfaced to confirm this news.

Amazon has not yet commented publicly on the reports.

Crypto news site Blockworks first touted the idea in January, citing anonymous sources. According to the report, the new "digital assets enterprise" would focus on "blockchain-based gaming and related NFT applications." Crypto site The Big Whale then followed up with a report earlier this month giving the feature a launch date of April 24. The story, which also cited anonymous sources, said that the NFT platform will be available on the site through a tab that says "Amazon Digital Marketplace."

In January, Amazon's cloud-computing platform Amazon Web Services announced that it will work with Ava Labs to expand its enterprise blockchain offerings, though there was no mention of plans for NFTs or a digital collectibles marketplace.

According to the email sent to De, a digital token was deposited into a gallery hosted on the official Amazon website. However, it appears that the link provided in the email does not yet work.

The email also mentions resale opportunities, noting that the NFT would not be eligible for resale "until it's unlocked." The email also said De would need to "register as a reseller" before listing the NFT. But the link provided to the resale page also appeared to be broken.

De was not able to access the digital tokens. It's unclear how NFTs are connected to this subscription renewal, though both the email and the transaction confirmation were received around the same time.

Interpol says a man arrested in Montenegro is Kwon Do-hyeong, also known as Do Kwon, the disgraced founder of a collapsed crypto company who is wanted in South Korea and the United States on fraud and other charges.

Kwon, a South Korean national, founded the blockchain platform behind the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister coin Luna. Both coins lost their value in a matter of days in May 2022, wiping about $40 billion from the crypto market and setting off panic across the speculative sector.

Kwon’s identity was confirmed through a fingerprint match, Interpol’s national central bureau in Seoul told CNN on Friday.

A day earlier, Montenegrin Internal Affairs Minister Filip Adžić wrote on social media that a man believed to be Kwon was arrested in the capital Podgorica.

“He was arrested at the airport with counterfeit documentation and is wanted by several countries, including the USA, South Korea, and Singapore,” Adžić said in a Facebook post.

Kwon was based in Singapore while running the blockchain platform Terraform Labs. Seoul prosecutors told CNN in December that the crypto entrepreneur was believed to be in Serbia, where he was in hiding after leaving Singapore via Dubai.

As of March 22, the Fed's balance sheet surged by nearly $94.5 billion — a $297 billion increase from the last week when the banking crisis started.

New QE hopes boost Bitcoin price

Overall, the U.S. central bank's liabilities increased by $393 billion in the last two weeks to $8.734 trillion. That is closer to the all-time high of $8.95 trillion a year ago when the Fed started its quantitative tightening program and reduced its assets by $600 billion.

But the Fed did not use new dollar reserves to purchase long-term treasuries. Instead, the central bank dropped its U.S. Treasury holdings by $3.5 billion to $7.937 trillion, suggesting that quantitative tightening is still in place to curb inflation.

On the other hand, Fed's balance sheet grew because it dispatched short-term loans to the ailing banking sector.

Notably, as of March 22, the Fed slashed the usage of its "discount window," which helps commercial banks manage short-term liquidity needs, by $42 billion. Instead, it allocated the same $42 billion to its brand new Bank Term Funding Program.

The Fed's tightening policy and lending facilities to regional and offshore banks risk drying up cash liquidity. This may boost the dollar's valuation versus other top foreign currencies, which, in turn, could push Bitcoin's price lower in the short term.

Interestingly, the U.S. dollar index has gained 1.5% since the Fed's balance sheet update.

Has the banking crisis peaked?

The ongoing credit crisis may not have peaked despite Fed's $393 billion emergency lending to banks, however, if one considers Janet Yellen's blurred outlook on depositors' insurance.

On March 21, the U.S. Treasury Secretary confirmed protecting uninsured depositors over $250,000 "if smaller institutions suffer deposit runs" such as those witnessed in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. 

But Yellen did a U-turn the next day in her statements to the Senate that she had not considered “blanket insurance or guarantees of deposits.” The bank stocks tanked in response to her statement, resulting in another U-turn.

The emergency preparation will allow the takeover to proceed without the usual “six-week consultation period” with shareholders, according to people familiar with the situation.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and Switzerland’s financial regulator reportedly believe that the acquisition of investment bank Credit Suisse by UBS — Switzerland’s largest bank — is the “only option” to prevent a “collapse in confidence” in Credit Suisse.

According to a March 18 Financial Times report citing three people familiar with the situation, Switzerland is preparing to use “emergency measures” to accelerate the takeover by UBS of Credit Suisse to finalize the acquisition before “markets open on Monday.“

The report notes that the emergency measures would allow the deal to proceed without a shareholder vote, bypassing the usual Swiss regulations that require a “six-week” consultation period for shareholders “to consult on the acquisition.”

The SNB and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) are working to “reach regulatory agreement” by Saturday night, having reportedly told international counterparts that “they regard a deal” with UBS as the “only option” to prevent a “collapse in confidence” in Credit Suisse.

It was noted that UBS intends to proceed with Credit Suisse’s plans to downsize its investment bank, with two of the people “briefed on the situation” stating that the “combined entity will make up no more than a third of the merged group.”

UBS reportedly has “$1.1tn [trillion]” total assets on its balance sheet, while Credit Suisse has “$575bn [billion]” — a successful merger between the two Swiss banks would reportedly create one of “the biggest global systemically important financial institutions in Europe.”

This comes after American investment company BlackRock stated in a March 18 tweet that it “has no interest” in acquiring Credit Suisse.

Now what could this mean for #BTC. Well massive amounts of money been put in to the banking system to allow people access to their funds, What do they do once they can get their money. No longer is #Crypto as risky as people may have thought before all this banking issue

We could see a massive influx of money in to crypto and I will be covering on here and my Youtube channel

The bitcoin price has topped $27,000 per bitcoin, up over 30% since this time last week, hitting a level it hasn't seen since June last year. The bitcoin boom has also sent the Ethereum price and other major cryptocurrencies sharply higher.

Now, after JPMorgan analysts said the Fed's new bank backstop program could inject up to $2 trillion into the financial system, technology investor and former CoinbaseCOIN +10.6% chief tech officer Balaji Srinivasan has warned the latest banking crisis could spark hyperinflation in the U.S.—and advised people to "buy bitcoin now and get your coins off exchanges."

If there was a massive run on #bitcoin we would see huge price surges and massive trading opportunities. Now the question is always going to be is this likely.

We have seen what a small amount of movement towards bitcoin adoption can do however it takes time. This time is not weeks but months even years,

Bitcoin to $1mil in a few weeks is a dream in my opinion right now and not reality, But its always good to be BULLISH right

What`s your thoughts ?

A “halving” is a periodic event where Bitcoin’s mining rewards (that is, the block rewards that miners receive for solving blocks) are cut in half. This takes place every 210,000 blocks or approximately every four years.

As the block rewards are basically the amount of new BTC supply being created, being halved means that the asset becomes more scarce. This is why the halving is a feature of the BTC blockchain; by controlling scarcity like this, the inflation of the coin can be checked.

So far, Bitcoin has observed three halving events: first in November 2012, second in July 2016, and third in May 2020. The next such event is estimated to take place sometime in 2024. In the beginning, the reward for mining a block was 50 BTC, but today, after all these halvings, miners are receiving just 6.25 BTC per block.

Since halvings are periodic, they are a popular way of mapping BTC cycles by using them as the start and end points. An analyst on Twitter has done the same and has compared the different cycles so far against each other using the number of blocks since the cycle starts as the common denominator between them.

The tops of both these cycles appear to have formed after a similar number of blocks had been created in the cycles. The halving 1 cycle saw this happen earlier, but not by too much nonetheless. The bear market bottoms of all three cycles also had closely timed occurrences, with the halving 2 and 3 cycles again sharing a tighter timing.

Although the timing isn’t as striking as the bottoms, the latest cycle building up a rally out of the bear lows also looks similar to what happened in the second cycle, where the April 2019 rally took place.

Something that also seems to have held up throughout these cycles is the relationship between the price of Bitcoin and its realized price. The realized price is a metric derived from the realized cap, which is the capitalization model for the cryptocurrency that aims to provide a “fair value” for it.

In short, what the realized price signifies is the average acquisition price or cost basis in the market. This means that when the price dips under this level, the average holder enters into the loss territory.

During bull markets, this level has acted as support in all the cycles, while this behaviour has flipped in bearish periods, where the level has provided resistance to the asset instead.

Its going to be a wild ride and one i intend to cover and ensure we are all educated and best place to make the right decisions.

Analyst and trader Nicholas Merten has reservations about Bitcoin (BTC) despite the flagship crypto asset’s massive rally over the past week.

Merten tells his 511,000 YouTube subscribers that although the Bitcoin-to-Nasdaq stock index correlation looks bullish, the macro environment is unfavourable.

“I definitely have to say that this chart right here, the Bitcoin-to-Nasdaq, ratio is what has gotten me most excited. Seeing that we’ve been able to get above the 200-week and 200-day moving averages is definitely a really positive sign.

But as we saw here back on the last trading day, we faded a lot of those gains. I have to see that it can hold up here because, according to history, when we get up in this range [above $25,000], it doesn’t last here very long.

And we are in a macro environment that for a more risk-on asset like Bitcoin, where its onramps are being talked about in question when it comes to regulators shutting them down… we have the banking infrastructure around these assets crippling as we speak. Where is that liquidity going to come from?

I’m not saying retail volume and speculators and just general investors long-term hodlers can’t drive it up. But we haven’t even seen the typical correction of a typical crypto bear market.”

According to Merten, BTC is likely to be crushed by macroeconomic factors in the weeks ahead.

“I just don’t see how Bitcoin is going to do very well in this environment. And until we start seeing a more continued deviation of Bitcoin away from the Nasdaq where it’s continuing to lead, I can’t be too confident just yet.”

Bitcoin is trading at $26,665 at time of writing, up by about 35% since March 10th.