Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have remained in a strong downtrend this year, shedding over $1 trillion in value. Bitcoin (BTC) has crashed from the year-to-date high of $109,300 to $82,000, while popular altcoins like Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and Cardano…

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When bitcoin slipped beneath the $80,000 mark last Thursday, a cluster of 13 
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worth $27.4 million&#8211;into motion. A Set of 13 Decade-Old Bitcoin Vaults Unlock 
These days, bitcoin&#8217;s price swings have been wildly erratic, yet that hasn&#8217;t 
stopped dormant stashes from rousing after years […]

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As of March 12, the U.S. government controls 195,234 Bitcoin, valued at more 
than $16 billion, according to a new Nansen report. The government&#8217;s crypto 
portfolio also includes $4.6 million worth of Ethereum (ETH), stablecoins such 
as USDC, and yield-bearing…

U.S. government holds $16B in Bitcoin, eyes 1m BTC under new bill

XRP&#8217;s fully diluted valuation (FDV) has surpassed Ether (ETH), according to 
March 14 data from CoinGecko.
The FDV flip signifies a reversal of fortune for both layer-1 (L1) blockchain 
networks behind the tokens, as XRP Ledger&#8217;s decentralized finance (DeFi) 
ecosystem gains traction and Ethereum grapples with competition from rival 
L1s, such as Solana.
As of March 14, XRP&#8217;s FDV stood at nearly $235 billion, more than $1 billion 
higher than Ether&#8217;s, according to CoinGecko. Ether&#8217;s market capitalization 
still leads at $233 billion versus XRP&#8217;s $136 billion, the data shows.
FDV measures the cumulative value of all existing tokens, whereas market 
capitalization only counts tokens already in circulation.
XRP&#8217;s developer, Ripple Labs, holds a multibillion-dollar allocation of its 
chain&#8217;s native token.
_Cryptocurrencies by FDV. Source:__CoinGecko_
 _**Related:**__**XRP Ledger unveils institutional DeFi roadmap**_
## Changing fortunes
XRP&#8217;s price has risen by more than 300%, to around $2.3 per token, since 
President Donald Trump prevailed in the US elections on Nov. 5.
Trump said he wants America to become the &#8220;world&#8217;s crypto capital&#8221; and has 
appointed industry-friendly leadership to key regulators.
The thawing US regulatory environment is especially beneficial for XRP, which 
prioritizes enterprise users and unveiled an institutional DeFi roadmap in 
February.
As of January, XRP&#8217;s native decentralized exchange (DEX) has handled more than 
$1 billion in swap transactions since launching in 2024.
The XRP token saw further support when Trump said he planned to include XRP in 
a proposed US Digital Asset Stockpile alongside other cryptocurrencies, such 
as Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA).
The stockpile will only comprise assets acquired by law enforcement and other 
legal proceedings and will not buy crypto.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly &#8220;in the process of 
wrapping up&#8221; an enforcement action against Ripple that has beleaguered the XRP 
developer since 2020.
The regulator has already dropped actions against crypto firms such as 
Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap.
Meanwhile, Ether&#8217;s spot price has struggled since March 2024, when the 
network&#8217;s Dencun upgrade cut transaction fees by approximately 95%.
As of March, trading volume on Solana, which prioritizes fast transaction 
execution and was central to 2024&#8217;s memecoin frenzy, rivals that of Ethereum 
and all of its layer-2 scaling chains combined.
_**Magazine:**__**&#8217; Hong Kong&#8217;s FTX&#8217; victims win lawsuit, bankers bash 
stablecoins: Asia Express**_

XRP flips Ether’s FDV amid change in market dynamics

After 15 years of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 
Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) is ready for commercialization in the Web3 
industry, according to Muriel Medard, an MIT professor and founder of 
blockchain infrastructure developer Optimum.
Optimum emerged from stealth on Feb. 28 as a decentralized memory 
infrastructure that can be utilized by any blockchain seeking to bring 
scalability to Web3. It utilizes the RLNC technology that was first formulated 
by Professor Medard.
RLNC is a breakthrough in coding that is already used in the 5G, satellite 
telecommunications and Internet of Things (IoT) industries.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Professor Medard said RLNC is equivalent 
to &#8220;breaking a puzzle into small pieces, mixing those pieces together into 
equations, and sending them to your friends.&#8221;
&#8220;Even if a few pieces get lost, your friends can still put the whole puzzle 
together from the pieces they receive. Rather than look for specific pieces, 
you look for just enough pieces,&#8221; she said.
RLNC technology can help blockchains overcome &#8220;critical bottlenecks in 
scalability&#8221; by &#8220;encoding data into mathematical equations, enabling faster 
transmission, reduced bandwidth usage, lower barriers to entry for flexnodes 
and more reliable delivery,&#8221; said Medard.
Medard co-founded Optimum with Nancy Lynch, an adviser and co-inventor of the 
Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus, after &#8220;several years of witnessing the 
rise and maturation of Web3,&#8221; she said.
&gt; &#8220;[The] vision is to bring the efficiency of traditional computer memory 
&gt; (RAM) to decentralized networks, laying the foundation for a breakthrough in 
&gt; Web3 infrastructure.&#8221;
_**Related:**__**The future of Ethereum scaling lies in hardware, not 
software**_
## &#8220;Scale or Fail&#8221;
RLNC&#8217;s potential use case in Web3 has attracted notable backers, several of 
whom invested in Optimum as angel investors. They include Polygon co-founder 
Sandeep Nailwal, Wormhole co-founder Robinson Burkey, Polychain chief 
technology officer Abhijeet Mahagaonkar, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen and Arthur 
Cheong, the founder and CEO of DeFiance Capital.
Professor Medard told Cointelegraph that scalability breakthroughs in Web3 are 
needed, especially as blockchain adoption continues to grow for the &#8220;purposes 
of payments, financial instruments and even diversification of national 
government strategies.&#8221;
&#8220;We believe this trend will continue, and as usage and demand increase, 
blockchains will need to scale or they will fail,&#8221; she said.
Scalability remains one of the industry&#8217;s biggest bottlenecks, having plagued 
the development of both Bitcoin and Ethereum at various points over their 
history. Competing networks have vowed to fix scalability issues stemming from 
mass consumer adoption, though their track record has been far from perfect.
Against this backdrop, the crypto payments landscape has evolved significantly 
in recent years, shifting from tokens to stablecoins that are much faster and 
cheaper.
_Stablecoins have emerged as one of blockchain &#8216;s most popular use cases, 
especially for payments and cross-border remittances. Source: __DefiLlama_
An August report by wealth manager Bernstein said Solana is a leading network 
for stablecoin adoption, but even it struggles to scale with growing payment 
and remittance demand.
Although Solana has piloted stablecoin payments with Visa and Shopify, it&#8217;s 
unclear whether the blockchain can facilitate mainstream adoption without a 
massive boost in capacity, Bernstein said.
_**Magazine:**__**How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025**_

‘Scale or fail’: RLNC technology can boost Web3 adoption — MIT Professor

In a significant regulatory development for the crypto industry, the United 
States House of Representatives voted to nullify a bill that threatened the 
privacy-preserving properties of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
In the wider crypto space, one of the Solana network&#8217;s most significant 
governance proposals was rejected; it sought to implement a mechanism to 
reduce Solana&#8217;s inflation rate by about 80%.
## US House follows Senate in passing resolution to kill IRS DeFi broker rule
The US House of Representatives voted to nullify a rule requiring 
decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to report to the Internal Revenue 
Service.
On March 11, the House of Representatives voted 292 for and 132 against a 
motion to repeal the so-called IRS DeFi broker rule that aimed to expand 
existing IRS reporting requirements to crypto.
All 132 votes to keep the rule were Democrats. However, 76 Democrats joined 
with the Republicans to repeal it.
This followed the Senate&#8217;s March 4 vote on the motion, which saw it pass 70 to 
27.
The rule would have forced DeFi platforms, such as decentralized exchanges, to 
disclose gross proceeds from crypto sales, including information regarding 
taxpayers involved in the transactions.
After the vote, Republican Representative Mike Carey, who submitted the repeal 
motion, said, &#8220;The DeFi broker rule invades the privacy of tens of millions of 
Americans, hinders the development of an important new industry in the United 
States and would overwhelm the IRS.&#8221;
_Congressman Mike Carey speaking after the vote. Source:__Mike Carey_
**Continue reading**
## Solana proposal to cut inflation rate by up to 80% fails
A proposal to dramatically change Solana&#8217;s inflation system was rejected by 
stakeholders but is being hailed as a victory for the network&#8217;s governance 
process.
&#8220;Even though our proposal was technically defeated by the vote, this was a 
major victory for the Solana ecosystem and its governance process,&#8221; commented 
Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain on March 14.
Around 74% of the staked supply voted on proposal SIMD-228 across 910 
validators, but just 43.6% voted in favor of it, with 27.4% voting against it 
and 3.3% abstaining, according to Dune Analytics. It needed 66.67% approval 
from participating votes to pass and only received 61.4%.
Jain added that this was the biggest crypto governance vote ever, by the 
number of participants and the participating market cap, of any ecosystem, 
chain or network.
&#8220;This was a meaningful scaling stress test &#8212; a social, rather than technical, 
stress test &#8212; and the network passed despite a wide stratification of 
diverging opinions and interests.&#8221;
**Continue reading**
## Bitcoin $70,000 retracement part of &#8220;macro correction&#8221; in bull market &#8212; 
Analysts
Bitcoin&#8217;s potential retracement to $70,000 may be an organic part of the 
current bull market, despite crypto investor fears of an early arrival of a 
bear market cycle.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell more than 14% during the past week to close at around 
$80,708 after investors were disappointed with the lack of direct federal 
Bitcoin investments in President Donald Trump&#8217;s March 7 executive order. It 
outlined a plan to create a Bitcoin reserve using cryptocurrency forfeited in 
government criminal cases.
Despite the drop in investor sentiment, cryptocurrencies and global markets 
remain in a &#8220;macro correction&#8221; as part of the bull market, according to 
Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at the Nansen crypto intelligence 
platform.
_BTC/USD, 1-month chart. Source: Cointelegraph_
Most cryptocurrencies have broken key support levels, making it hard to 
estimate the next key price levels, the analyst told Cointelegraph, adding:
&gt; &#8220;This is a macro correction (US tech will be down by 3% in the future, as 
&gt; discussed), so we have to monitor BTC. Next level will be $71,000 &#8211; $72,000, 
&gt; top of the pre-election trading range.&#8221;
The analyst added: &#8220;We are still in a correction within a bull market: Stocks 
and crypto have realized and are pricing; a period of tariff uncertainty and 
fiscal cuts, no Fed put. Recession fears are popping up.&#8221;
**Continue reading**
## Calls for stricter rules on political memecoins after $4 billion Libra 
collapse
Industry voices warned that politically endorsed cryptocurrencies must adopt 
stronger investor protections and liquidity safeguards to prevent another 
significant market collapse.
Investor sentiment remains shaken after the Libra (LIBRA) token, which was 
endorsed by Argentine President Javier Milei, suffered a $4 billion market cap 
wipeout due to insider cash-outs.
According to blockchain analytics firm DWF Labs, at least eight insider 
wallets withdrew $107 million in liquidity, triggering the massive collapse.
_Source: Kobeissi Letter_
To avoid a similar meltdown, tokens with presidential endorsements will need 
more robust safety and economic mechanisms, such as liquidity locking or 
making the tokens in the liquidity pool non-sellable for a predetermined 
period, DWF Labs wrote in a report shared with Cointelegraph.
The report stated that tokens from high-profile leaders also need launch 
restrictions to limit participation from crypto-sniping bots and large holders 
or whales.
&#8220;Limiting bot and whale activity is essential in limiting the impact of 
individuals acting on insider information to corner a large percentage of the 
token supply,&#8221; according to Andrei Grachev, managing partner at DWF Labs.
**Continue reading**
## Hyperliquid ups margin requirements after $4 million liquidation loss
Hyperliquid, a blockchain network specializing in trading, increased margin 
requirements for traders after its liquidity pool lost millions of dollars 
during a massive Ether (ETH) liquidation, the network said.
On March 12, a trader intentionally liquidated a roughly $200 million Ether 
long position, causing Hyperliquid&#8217;s liquidity pool, HLP, to lose $4 million, 
unwinding the trade.
Starting March 15, Hyperliquid will require traders to maintain a collateral 
margin of at least 20% on certain open positions to &#8220;reduce the systemic 
impact of large positions with hypothetical market impact upon closing,&#8221; 
Hyperliquid said in a March 13 X post.
The incident highlights the growing pains confronting Hyperliquid, which has 
emerged as Web3&#8217;s most popular platform for leveraged perpetual trading.
_Hyperliquid has adjusted margin requirements for traders. 
Source:__Hyperliquid_
Hyperliquid said the $4 million loss was not from an exploit but rather a 
predictable consequence of the mechanics of its trading platform under extreme 
conditions.
**Continue reading**
## DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 
100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the 
red.
Of the top 100, the Hedera (HBAR) token fell over 24%, marking the biggest 
weekly decrease, followed by JasmyCoin (JASMY) down over 21% over the past 
week.
_Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlama_
Thanks for reading our summary of this week&#8217;s most impactful DeFi 
developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education 
regarding this dynamically advancing space.