The post Algorand Cuts 25% of Staff the Day After SEC Confirms ALGO Is Not a Security appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

The Algorand Foundation has laid off 25% of its workforce, citing a difficult global macro environment and the broader crypto market downturn. The cuts came just one day after one of the most positive regulatory developments in the project’s history, creating a sharp contrast that the community has not missed.

The Layoffs

The Foundation confirmed the decision on X, describing it as incredibly tough but necessary to align resources with long-term priorities. The statement stressed that the affected employees had been best-in-class contributors and that the Foundation is committed to supporting them through the transition.

The organisation said it believes the restructured team now represents a more sustainable foundation for executing on Algorand’s technology, business, and ecosystem goals going forward.

“We believe that we now have a more sustainable alignment of Algorand Foundation resources with the protocol’s long-term business, technology, and ecosystem priorities. 

“These employees have been best-in-class contributors to this ecosystem and to the Foundation, and this was an incredibly tough decision. We are sincerely grateful to them, and we are, of course, committed to supporting them through this transition,” they said.

The SEC Development That Came First

One day before the layoffs, the SEC and CFTC issued their landmark joint guidance classifying a range of crypto assets as digital commodities rather than securities. ALGO was included in that classification.

Some community members initially questioned whether ALGO’s appearance in a footnote rather than the main body of the guidance diminished its significance. The Algorand Foundation pushed back on that reading directly.

The footnote placement was not a downgrade. The SEC used futures-linked tokens as examples in the main text but made explicitly clear that futures linkage is not the test for commodity status. ALGO was cited specifically to demonstrate that a token can qualify as a digital commodity without any connection to futures markets at all.

What This Means

ALGO is down on the day alongside the broader market but carries a cleaner regulatory status than it did 48 hours ago. The layoffs reflect genuine financial pressure from a difficult market environment. The SEC guidance reflects genuine progress on the regulatory front.

The post Federal Reserve Holds Rates as Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Crash: What the FOMC Decision Means for Crypto appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at 3.5% to 3.75% on Tuesday, delivering exactly what markets expected but offering little of the comfort traders were hoping for. Bitcoin fell 4% to $71,417. Ethereum dropped 6.48%. XRP lost 3.66%. The total crypto market shed $2.44 trillion in value as a cascade of macro, geopolitical, and exchange-specific pressures converged in a single session.

What the Fed Actually Said

The FOMC statement acknowledged that economic activity continues to expand at a solid pace, that job gains have remained low, and that inflation remains somewhat elevated. The committee noted that uncertainty about the economic outlook is elevated and flagged the Middle East conflict as an additional variable with unclear implications for the US economy.

Ten of the eleven voting members supported holding rates unchanged. The lone dissent came from Stephen Miran, who preferred a quarter-point cut at this meeting. That single dissent is worth noting: even within the committee, there is now a visible division about whether rates should come down sooner rather than later.

The committee’s language was careful and non-committal. It would assess incoming data and adjust if risks emerge. It remains strongly committed to returning inflation to 2%. What it did not offer was any clear signal that rate cuts are coming soon, which is what markets had been hoping to hear.

Why Crypto Was Already Falling Before the Decision

The Fed statement arrived into a market that was already under pressure from multiple directions.

Earlier in the session, the US February Producer Price Index came in at 0.7% against an expected 0.3%, recording its largest monthly gain in a year. The hotter-than-expected reading pushed back expectations for rate cuts and reinforced the higher-for-longer interest rate narrative that weighs on risk assets.

Simultaneously, reports of Israeli strikes on South Pars, Iran’s largest natural gas facility supplying 70% of the country’s domestic gas, sent oil prices back above $97 per barrel and injected fresh geopolitical uncertainty into every major market. Gold fell 2%. Silver dropped 2.5%. Crypto followed.

Over $158 million in leveraged long positions were liquidated in just four hours, with the forced selling amplifying what began as a moderate correction into something considerably sharper.

Bitcoin is holding near $71,000, a level analysts have identified as critical for near-term sentiment. Whether that floor holds depends on what Jerome Powell says next.

The post Is XRP a Good Investment 2026: The Ripple Paradox Chart Explained and Fact-Checked appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

A detailed diagram circulating on X has reignited one of the most important debates in crypto: whether owning XRP actually benefits retail investors or simply funds Ripple Labs and its shareholders.

The chart lays out what it calls the Ripple/XRP Paradox and the argument is structured enough to be worth addressing seriously.

The Core Argument Against XRP

The diagram’s central claim is straightforward: when retail investors buy XRP, the proceeds flow to Ripple Labs, which uses that money primarily to benefit its private equity shareholders rather than token holders.

According to the chart, Ripple directs XRP sale proceeds toward stock buybacks for equity shareholders, acquisitions of companies that do not rely on XRP, litigation and operational costs, and funding innovation on other blockchains including Ethereum and Solana.

RLUSD is currently only issued on two Layer-1 networks, namely Ethereum and the XRP Ledger.

Addresses:
On XRPL:
rMxCKbEDwqr76QuheSUMdEGf4B9xJ8m5De
On Ethereum:
0x8292bb45bf1ee4d140127049757c2e0ff06317ed

Total amounts [17/03/2026]:
On XRPL: ~305,445,975 RLUSD
On… pic.twitter.com/NriaWzlVde

— Krippenreiter (@krippenreiter) March 17, 2026

It also challenges the bridge currency narrative directly, arguing that any Layer 1 gas token, and in fact any token, can technically serve as a bridge asset. XRP is not uniquely positioned in that role, it suggests.

On the XRPL’s market position, the chart claims the ledger holds less than 1% of the real world asset market, under 0.01% of stablecoin supply by usage, and is not in the top 40 blockchains by actual activity. It also notes that RLUSD, Ripple’s own stablecoin, is primarily issued on Ethereum and other chains rather than the XRP Ledger itself.

The conclusion is pointed: XRP is described as a bank-themed meme coin that finances corporate acquisitions and shareholder value rather than delivering utility to the people holding it.

Where the Numbers Are Being Challenged

Not everyone accepts the data behind those claims. Analyst Krippenreiter directly disputed two of the chart’s specific figures.

On the RLUSD claim that over 90% is issued on Ethereum and other chains, Krippenreiter said that assertion has already been proven incorrect. On the stablecoin market share figure of under 0.01%, a quick check of DefiLlama tells a different story. 

Total stablecoin market cap across all chains sits at approximately $317 billion. The XRPL’s stablecoin market cap is around $367 million, placing the real figure closer to 0.115%, more than ten times the number cited in the diagram.

The distinction matters. A chart making a provocative argument about XRP’s irrelevance carries less weight if the supporting data points are demonstrably off.

What Is Actually True

The structural argument that Ripple has used XRP sales to fund corporate operations and acquisitions that primarily benefit equity shareholders rather than token holders is not new and has been acknowledged in various forms by Ripple executives themselves. That tension is real and the debate around it is legitimate.

Whether that makes XRP worthless as an investment depends on a separate question: whether Ripple’s institutional infrastructure, growing payment volumes, and regulatory clarity create sufficient demand for the token regardless of how the proceeds are deployed internally.

The post Why Is Crypto Crashing Today? Israel Strikes Iran’s Energy Infrastructure and Markets React Within Hours appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Crypto markets dropped on Tuesday after Israel struck South Pars, Iran’s largest gas facility and the source of roughly 70% of the country’s domestic gas supply. The attack hit at the heart of Iran’s energy infrastructure, threatening national electricity generation and sending shockwaves through every major asset class within hours.

The total crypto market capitalisation fell 3.54% to $2.45 trillion. Bitcoin dropped 4% to $71,417, shedding $38 billion in market value. Ethereum fell 6.48% to $2,193. Solana declined 5.55%. XRP lost 3.66% to $1.45. None of the top ten assets escaped the selloff.

Three Hours That Moved Everything

The speed of the reaction was striking. In the three hours following news of the South Pars strike, gold fell 2%, wiping $680 billion in value despite its traditional safe haven status. Silver dropped 2.5%, erasing another $110 billion. 

Oil moved in the opposite direction, jumping back above $97 per barrel as traders priced in supply disruption risk across a region responsible for a significant share of global energy production.

When gold and crypto fall simultaneously, it signals that traders are reducing risk across the board rather than rotating between asset classes.

Inflation Was Already the Problem

The geopolitical catalyst landed on ground that was already unstable. Earlier on Tuesday, the United States February Producer Price Index recorded its largest monthly gain in a year, exceeding expectations and pushing back market hopes for Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2026. The higher-for-longer interest rate narrative that has weighed on speculative assets throughout this year received fresh ammunition precisely as the Middle East news broke.

Crypto absorbed both pressures simultaneously. A high-inflation environment that delays rate cuts is structurally negative for risk assets. An active escalation in a war involving a major oil-producing nation is negative for everything else. Tuesday delivered both in the same session.

Leverage Made the Drop Sharper

The initial macro selloff quickly became something more aggressive as leveraged positions began unwinding. Over $158 million in long positions were forcibly liquidated within four hours. Bitcoin alone saw $41.93 million in liquidations over the full 24-hour period. Forced selling added mechanical downward pressure on top of the fundamental catalyst, turning what might have been a 2% correction into something considerably more disorderly.

The Fear and Greed Index fell to 35, sitting firmly in fear territory. The average crypto RSI dropped to 43.67, approaching oversold conditions across the broader market.

Every eye in the market is now on the Federal Reserve. The FOMC meeting concludes Tuesday with updated interest rate projections and a press conference from Chair Jerome Powell. A hawkish tone, reinforced by the hot PPI data, could extend the selloff into Wednesday. A neutral stance might allow markets to stabilise around the $2.38 trillion technical support level that analysts have been flagging as the key line to hold.

The post Charles Hoskinson Posted a Smiling GIF, and the Reason Behind It Changes Cardano Forever appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Cardano has taken a major leap as LayerZero officially integrated the network, connecting it to over 160 blockchains. For years, Cardano operated largely in its own ecosystem, but this move opened the doors to major networks like Ethereum, Solana, and Aptos.

The development marks the largest interoperability rollout in Cardano’s history, shifting its position from a standalone chain to a fully connected player in the broader crypto ecosystem.

After announcing the integration last month, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson expressed his excitement by sharing a smiling GIF, signaling that his long-awaited vision is finally coming to life.

https://t.co/W7du8A6Znt pic.twitter.com/wm6Bp6Ozaz

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) March 17, 2026

LayerZero x Cardano: What it Unlocks?

At the core of this expansion is LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard. This allows more than 700 existing tokens to expand directly onto Cardano, while giving developers access to over $90 billion in cross-chain liquidity already active within the LayerZero ecosystem.

For users, this means assets and applications can move across chains more freely. For developers, it opens access to a much larger pool of capital and infrastructure that was previously out of reach.

Cardano’s architecture, built on the eUTXO model, has always stood apart from EVM-based chains. While this brought benefits like predictable fees and parallel transaction processing, it also created compatibility challenges. LayerZero now bridges that gap, allowing Cardano to “speak” with the rest of crypto.

ADA Market Snapshot

At the time of writing, ADA trades around $0.29 with daily volume near $535 million. The token has seen mild short-term movement, with slight gains over the past day despite minor hourly dips.

With a circulating supply of over 36 billion tokens and a capped supply of 45 billion, Cardano remains one of the largest blockchain networks by market presence, now backed by stronger cross-chain access.

• Also Read :
•   SEC CFTC Crypto Commodity List 2026: All 16 Digital Assets Named and What It Means
•   ,

Will Liquidity Follow?

While the infrastructure is now in place, actual growth depends on adoption. Token issuers must choose to deploy on Cardano, developers need to build applications, and users must shift activity toward the network.

Historically, similar integrations across crypto have delivered mixed outcomes. Access alone doesn’t guarantee usage, especially when ecosystems like Ethereum and Solana already dominate decentralized finance activity.

Still, the removal of long-standing barriers gives Cardano a fresh opportunity to compete on a more level playing field.

A New Phase for Cardano

This integration changes the narrative. Cardano is no longer operating in isolation; it is now part of a multi-chain environment where liquidity, assets, and applications can move across networks.

Whether this translates into real growth will depend on execution, but structurally, one of Cardano’s biggest limitations has now been addressed.

FAQs

The post What If You Never Had to Sell Your XRP to Access Its Value? Ripple Prime Just Built That appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

XRP is entering a phase of financial utility that most retail investors have not yet grasped. According to Mike Higgins, CEO of Ripple Prime, institutions are now actively using XRP as collateral to access traditional financial markets, a development that quietly bridges the gap between digital assets and the infrastructure that moves trillions of dollars globally every day.

The Moment That Changes Everything

The practical example Higgins used to explain the shift is worth understanding in full.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, one of the world’s largest derivatives markets, does not currently accept XRP as margin. That has historically meant institutions holding XRP who wanted to trade CME futures had only one option: sell the XRP, convert to dollars, post that as margin, and deal with the tax consequences of crystallising their position.

Ripple Prime has built a different path. An institution can now post XRP as collateral directly with Ripple Prime, receive dollar credit against it, and use that credit to trade futures on the CME, all without selling a single token. The XRP position stays intact. The tax event never happens. And the institution gains access to an entirely new set of return-generating strategies it could not previously access while holding digital assets.

Higgins drew the historical parallel precisely. When orange farmers in the early days of the CME wanted to trade futures without holding dollars, JP Morgan lent them dollars against their oranges. The mechanism is identical. The asset class is different.

Why This Is Bigger Than It Sounds

The collateral conversation extends well beyond a single futures trade. Higgins explained that Ripple Prime now accepts a broad range of collateral types: traditional instruments like US Treasuries, fiat currencies, and gold alongside modern assets including Bitcoin, XRP, and BlackRock money market funds.

One detail stands out sharply. US Treasuries are considered the gold standard of collateral globally, yet they can only be liquidated during specific market hours. XRP, by contrast, can be liquidated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no restrictions. 

That 24/7 availability changes the collateral risk profile in ways that traditional finance is only beginning to calculate, and in some respects it makes digital assets more operationally flexible than instruments that have served as collateral benchmarks for decades.

Depository Receipts and What Comes Next

Higgins also disclosed that Ripple Prime has already issued depository receipts against XRP, a structure that allows institutional investors to gain exposure to the asset through familiar traditional finance instruments. American Depositary Receipts built around digital assets are coming into the space, he said, and Ripple Prime is already positioned in that development.

ADRs are the mechanism through which foreign companies access US capital markets. Applying that same structure to digital assets like XRP means institutional capital that currently cannot touch crypto directly would gain a familiar, regulated pathway to exposure.

Ripple Prime is also connecting to Hyperliquid, one of the fastest-growing decentralised trading venues, bridging what had been a disconnected relationship between large institutions trading on-chain and their prime brokerage infrastructure. 

The post XRP News: RLUSD Just Crossed $1.5 Billion and Six of Brazil’s Biggest Financial Institutions Are Already On Board appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Ripple has announced its most significant expansion in Latin America to date, moving well beyond its original payments focus to position itself as a full-service institutional financial infrastructure provider in Brazil, one of the world’s most active and rapidly evolving digital asset markets.

The announcement, made from São Paulo on Monday, covers five distinct product lines: cross-border payments, digital asset custody, stablecoin infrastructure, prime brokerage, and treasury management. Ripple is also applying for a Virtual Asset Service Provider licence with the Central Bank of Brazil, signalling a long-term regulatory commitment to the market rather than opportunistic participation.

Why Brazil

Brazil is not a speculative bet for Ripple. It is already a functioning market. The company has processed over $100 billion in payments volume globally and holds coverage across more than 60 markets. In Brazil specifically, a roster of established financial institutions has already integrated Ripple infrastructure into live operations.

Ripple is going all-in on Brazil : https://t.co/6nyoBmE0wq

Ripple Payments: $100B+ processed, 60+ markets, live with Banco Genial, Braza Bank, Nomad, Azify & more
Ripple Custody: Recently launched in Brazil with CRX
Ripple Treasury: Decades of corporate treasury…

— Ripple (@Ripple) March 17, 2026

Banco Genial is using Ripple for same-day USD disbursements and is expanding into RLUSD settlement. Braza Bank, one of Brazil’s largest foreign exchange institutions by volume, has issued a Brazilian Real-pegged stablecoin directly on the XRP Ledger. 

Nomad, a fintech serving over three million users, uses Ripple to manage treasury flows between Brazil and the United States. Justoken has already tokenised over $1.7 billion in assets on the XRP Ledger and will use Ripple Custody to expand into natural resource tokenisation across Latin America.

RLUSD Gaining Ground Fast

Ripple’s USD-backed stablecoin RLUSD has surpassed $1.5 billion in market cap and is already listed by Mercado Bitcoin, Foxbit, Ripio, Braza Bank, Banco Genial and Attrus in the Brazilian market. Backed by regulatory oversight from both the New York Department of Financial Services and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, it carries compliance credentials that most stablecoins competing in the enterprise space cannot match.

The expansion coincides with Ripple Prime, its institutional brokerage business built from the acquisition of Hidden Road, which clears over $3 trillion annually across FX, digital assets, derivatives and fixed income. 

Combined with Ripple Treasury, which gives corporate finance teams real-time liquidity management and 24/7 cross-border payment execution, Ripple is no longer pitching itself as a payments company with crypto ambitions.

It is pitching itself as the financial operating system for institutions in a digitising economy. Brazil, with its advanced regulatory framework and large financially active population, is where that pitch is being tested at scale first.

The post Bitcoin Price Prediction March 2026: Three Support Levels That Will Decide BTC’s Next Move appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Bitcoin slipped back below a critical resistance threshold on Monday after failing to sustain gains above $74,450, a price level that has defined the upper boundary of the market’s range since April last year. 

The retreat has renewed bearish sentiment across trading communities, though the pullback is broadly consistent with the choppy, overlapping structure that has characterised Bitcoin’s price action throughout the current correction phase.

The Level That Matters

The $74,450 mark carries particular technical weight. It represents the April 2025 low, a price point that transitioned from support to resistance following Bitcoin’s decline from its January peak. 

The level has now been tested on multiple occasions without a sustained hold above it, a pattern that typically signals either an imminent breakout or a more significant retreat toward lower support zones.

The current pullback of approximately 3.5% from recent highs has been treated by some market participants as evidence of a broader breakdown. Technical analysts tracking the structure view it differently, saying that sharp setbacks and overlapping price action are characteristic of a counter-trend advance rather than a confirmed trending move. The distinction matters because it shapes realistic expectations for how quickly and cleanly Bitcoin can push higher from current levels.

Three Support Levels Now Defining the Range

The immediate support zone sits between $69,378 and $71,840. Holding this range is considered necessary for any direct continuation toward $74,450 and beyond to remain technically viable.

A break below $69,378 would shift focus to an intermediate trend line within the broader range, where a temporary reaction is possible before any further decline develops.

The deeper support region lies between $61,530 and $64,560, representing the most structurally significant floor in the current market. A test of this zone would not invalidate longer-term upside expectations but would substantially reset near-term positioning.

The post Pi Network News: Why Some Community Members Are Calling Pi ‘Dead’ and Predicting a Drop Below $0.1 appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Pi Network is facing one of its most serious credibility challenges since launch. The token is down 9.13% in the past 24 hours to $0.177, extending a weekly decline of 19.5% and sitting 87% below its all-time high. But the price drop is almost secondary to the conversation happening inside the community right now.

“I Declare Pi Has Already Collapsed”

The spark came from a widely followed community voice known as Dr. Pi, who posted a bold and emotionally charged statement on X that has since circulated across the PI ecosystem.

“I declare that Pi has already collapsed,” they wrote. “This is all due to the poor performance of the Pi Core Team, which has triggered extreme dissatisfaction within the community. At their current pace of development, there won’t be any positive news in the next 3 to 6 months. Under continuous large-scale migrations, Pi will drop below $0.10.”

The core frustration centres on a migration inequality that has visibly divided the community. While some Pioneers who completed their first migration are already being processed for a second, a significant portion of the community has not yet had their first migration processed at all. Many have not even cleared KYC.

“Our first migration hasn’t even started, while some pioneers are already on their second migration,” he said. “This has further intensified the community’s resistance sentiment.”

In a follow-up post, Dr. Pi added that if the Launchpad and Pi DEX do not go live on Mainnet soon, confidence will not recover. “Many people have already completely lost confidence and won’t come back,” he wrote.

The KYC Frustration Is Real

The migration grievance is not isolated. Community member Awan confirmed in the replies that despite completing KYC a long time ago and submitting data to the support team, verification remains stuck at the same position with no update.

Others pointed out that KYC completion is not guaranteed for everyone. Mohammed Musa noted that Pioneers who have ever been flagged by their government for fraud or anti-money laundering violations cannot pass Pi’s verification process, adding a compliance layer that is quietly blocking portions of the user base from ever participating in migrations regardless of effort.

What the Data Actually Shows

Amid the community anger, the price data tells a concerning structural story. Pi’s turnover ratio, which measures trading volume against market cap, sits at just 2.43%. In practical terms this means the market is extremely thin. 

If $0.177 fails to hold, the next significant support sits at the yearly low around $0.15. A recovery back above $0.20 is the minimum threshold analysts say would be needed to signal any stabilisation, let alone a trend reversal.

The post Why a $150 Trillion Industry Charging 6% Per Transfer Makes XRP One of the Most Important Assets in Finance appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

A senior executive at one of Asia’s leading financial firms just made one of the clearest institutional cases for XRP heard in recent months, and the numbers he cited are difficult to argue with.

Sagar Shah, Chief Business Officer of EverNorth Asia, sat down for an interview covering the XRP Ledger ecosystem and its potential role in global finance. 

“Structural to Finance”

Shah did not hedge his view on XRP. “I see XRP as being structural to finance,” he said, “and I see a lot of potential, a massive amount of potential for XRP.”

The foundation of that conviction starts with the cross-border payments market, which Shah described as fundamentally broken at its core. “Cross-border payments is a market worth over $150 trillion per year,” he said, “and the existing system is just really poor. They charge 6% just to send maybe a $200 payment across the border.”

To put that in perspective: a 6% fee on a $200 remittance means the sender loses $12 before the recipient sees a cent. Multiply that across trillions of dollars in annual flows and the inefficiency becomes a structural tax on the world’s poorest and most financially underserved populations. XRP, built specifically to solve exactly this problem, is positioned at the centre of that market.

Regulatory Clarity Is Arriving

Shah pointed to a wave of regulatory progress that is quietly removing one of the biggest barriers to institutional XRP adoption. “We’re starting to see a lot more regulatory clarity around XRP and blockchain,” he said, citing the SEC’s landmark decision in the United States, MiCA in Europe, and what he described as advanced and progressive frameworks across Japan and the rest of Asia.

That regulatory backdrop matters enormously for institutional participants who have been watching from the sidelines. Large financial institutions cannot allocate meaningfully to assets that carry unresolved legal risk. As that risk is progressively removed across major jurisdictions, the case for institutional XRP exposure becomes significantly easier to make internally.

Goldman Sachs and $1 Billion in ETF Inflows

The institutional numbers Shah cited are the kind that tend to cut through the noise. Goldman Sachs disclosed holding $150 million in XRP ETFs at the end of 2025. That is not a retail position. That is one of the world’s most influential investment banks putting a nine-figure allocation into XRP-linked products.

Beyond Goldman, Shah said that $1 billion has flowed into XRP ETFs since the second half of 2025 alone. 

“We Are Still Very Early”

Perhaps the most significant thing Shah said was also the simplest. Despite the regulatory progress, the institutional inflows, and the structural demand for cross-border payment solutions, he believes the adoption story is only beginning.

“What’s really impressive is that we’re still very early,” he said. “The adoption of XRP is just getting started.”

The post Pi Network News Today: Second Migration Phase Goes Live, Bringing More Pi to Mainnet appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Pi Network has officially opened its second migration phase, allowing Pioneers who have already moved their first Pi balance to Mainnet to bring additional tokens on-chain. The announcement, which was first made on Pi Day on March 14, is now rolling out gradually across the network and represents one of the most anticipated milestones the community has been waiting for.

What Second Migrations Actually Mean

When Pi Network launched its Open Network in February 2025, Pioneers were able to migrate their first transferable Pi balance to Mainnet for the first time. That was the first migration. What is now live is the second migration, meaning tokens that were not part of the initial transfer, including accumulated mining rewards and referral bonuses, can now make their way on-chain.

Pi Network is excited to announce that second migrations have started and will continue with a gradual rollout, opening the door for Pioneers to bring additional Pi to Mainnet and further participate in the ecosystem! While second migrations roll out, first migrations for… pic.twitter.com/KyqCMqcoyi

— Pi Network (@PiCoreTeam) March 16, 2026

This is an important development for supply dynamics. More Pi entering Mainnet means more tokens available for real ecosystem activity, whether that is payments, DEX trading, or participation in the newly launched Pi Launchpad. It also means Pioneers who have been holding additional balances off-chain now have a path to full participation in the ecosystem.

The rollout is gradual by design. Pi Network has been consistent about phased releases to avoid flooding the market or overwhelming infrastructure, and second migrations follow that same approach.

What You Need to Do to Qualify

The eligibility requirement is straightforward but non-negotiable. Before any migration, first or second, can be processed, Pioneers must set up two-factor authentication on their Pi Wallet through Step 5 of the Mainnet Checklist.

This step may require adding a trusted email address to the account if one has not already been linked. Pi Network has been explicit about why this requirement exists: blockchain transactions are irreversible and immutable. Once Pi moves on-chain, there is no undo button. The 2FA requirement is designed to ensure every Pioneer has an additional layer of security protecting their wallet before that happens.

If you have not completed Mainnet Checklist Step 5, that is the single most important thing to do right now before anything else.

Referral Bonuses Are Also Moving

Second migrations include something that has been on the community’s radar for a long time: referral mining bonuses. These are the rewards that accumulated from Referral Team members who successfully completed KYC verification.

The detail here is that only KYC-verified referrals unlock these bonuses. If members of your Referral Team have not completed KYC, their associated bonuses cannot be migrated. Pi Network is actively encouraging Pioneers to reach out to their networks and remind people to complete verification before the window for this phase closes.

This is not a minor detail. For Pioneers who built large referral networks during the mining years, the difference between a fully KYC-verified team and a partially verified one could represent a meaningful difference in the total Pi eligible for migration.

What Comes After

First migrations for eligible Pioneers continue as normal alongside the second migration rollout. The two processes are running in parallel, not sequentially.

Once the network works through the current queue of Pioneers for both first and second migrations, Pi Network has indicated it will move to ongoing periodic migrations on a schedule to be determined. That shift would represent a more mature, normalised migration process rather than the milestone-driven rollouts the community has experienced so far.

The post Ripple CTO Says XRP Price Dropping to $0.20 After Hitting $4 Is ‘Unlikely But Not Impossible’ appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer just said something that the XRP community is not going to stop talking about. In a candid and unusually honest exchange on X, David Schwartz, acknowledged that a collapse from a possible $4 to as low as $0.20 or $0.25 cannot be ruled out, while simultaneously admitting that nobody at Ripple, including himself, ever believed XRP would become as valuable as it did.

The Question That Started It

A user asked Schwartz directly whether XRP, if it ever reached $4, could subsequently crash to between $0.25 and $0.31. Schwartz did not dismiss the question with the kind of polished corporate response you might expect from a senior executive at one of the most high-profile companies in crypto.

Instead he pointed directly at history. “It went up to $3 and then down to $0.20,” he said, “so you can’t really say that’s not possible. I’d say that’s unlikely, but I’d say that all the things that have actually happened to the price are unlikely too.”

That last sentence is the one worth sitting with. The CTO of Ripple is essentially saying that XRP’s entire price history has been a sequence of events he would have considered improbable at every stage.

“Nobody Believed XRP Would Be Worth This Much”

The more revealing part of the thread came earlier, when Schwartz addressed a pointed criticism that Ripple had created XRP purely as a fundraising mechanism to enrich its founders and executives.

One user argued that Ripple invented XRP simply to sell it repeatedly and accumulate wealth. Schwartz pushed back but in a way that was more honest than defensive.

“I wish we had been able to see the future like that,” he wrote. “We probably would have done a lot of things differently. But nobody, at least as far as I know, believed that Ripple could hold on to so much of the supply and make billions of dollars selling it until much later.”

He went further, extending the point across the entire early crypto industry. “When I first got into the space and Bitcoin was at $2, if you had asked me the chances of it ever hitting $100, I probably would have said 10%.”

The $1.05 Ethereum Sale

The admission that landed hardest was personal. Schwartz revealed that he sold 40,000 Ethereum at $1.05 because he genuinely believed the price rise was over at that point.

At current Ethereum prices, those 40,000 ETH would be worth in the region of $80 million. His point was not to lament the sale but to illustrate how consistently wrong even the most informed people in crypto have been about price trajectories, in both directions.

“If anyone thought XRP was going to be $1.50 in 2025,” he said, “they wouldn’t have sold it for a penny in 2017.”

The post Top 14 Altcoins to Buy Now as South Korean Traders Drive Huge Volume appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

South Korea just lit up. Over the weekend, 14 altcoins saw explosive volume spikes across Upbit and Bithumb, the country’s two largest crypto exchanges. Over 16.2 million South Koreans hold crypto accounts, meaning 32% of the entire population owns digital assets. More people in South Korea own crypto than stocks.

According to Chainalysis, South Korea has received over $722 billion in crypto value, second only to the United States. Crypto holdings represent approximately 4.2% of the country’s entire GDP.

The 14 Altcoins Seeing Explosive Volume Right Now

Here is the full list of tokens that saw major volume spikes across Upbit and Bithumb this weekend, ranked by combined exchange activity:

1. XRP The perennial Korean favourite. Upbit alone recorded $88 million in XRP volume. Combined with Bithumb’s $33 million, total weekend volume hit $121 million. The most active trading pair on Upbit right now is XRP/KRW with $24 million in 24-hour volume. Korean retail has never stopped accumulating XRP and the data consistently reflects that.

2. Official Trump (TRUMP) Surged 52% in 24 hours following the announcement of a second Mar-a-Lago gala exclusively for the top 297 token holders. Korean traders piled in fast, driving $88 million in volume on Upbit alone. Global spot volume hit $1.4 billion. Still 94% below its all-time high of $74.

3. Bitcoin (BTC) No explanation needed. Korean exchanges always carry heavy Bitcoin volume and this weekend was no different, with BTC featuring prominently across both platforms alongside the altcoin surge.

4. Dkargo (DKA) The standout micro-cap of the weekend. A blockchain-powered logistics platform built on Arbitrum’s Layer 3 infrastructure that pulled $82 million in volume, surging over 28% in under 12 hours. Volume hit nine times its 30-day daily average. Worth watching closely.

5. Ethereum (ETH) Korea has always maintained strong Ethereum exposure alongside Bitcoin. ETH featured in the weekend surge with solid volume across both exchanges, consistent with its global momentum after printing its first green weekly candle in eight weeks.

6. NEO One of crypto’s earliest smart contract platforms maintaining a loyal Korean following. NEO consistently appears in Korean volume spikes and this weekend was no exception.

7. Alpha (AQT) A DeFi protocol that has maintained strong Korean retail interest. Its appearance in the top 14 suggests active rotation into DeFi-adjacent tokens this weekend.

8. Anoma A privacy-focused blockchain protocol that entered the Korean top volume list this weekend, suggesting early accumulation interest from Korean traders ahead of broader market attention.

9. Dogecoin (DOGE) Korea has always had a soft spot for Dogecoin and the meme coin consistently features in volume spikes when broader market sentiment turns positive.

10. Aethir (ATH) A lesser-known token outside Korean markets that saw significant volume this weekend, reflecting the tendency of Korean exchanges to surface micro-cap opportunities before they reach global attention.

11. BitTorrent (BTT) The Tron-ecosystem token with a long history on Korean exchanges. Its appearance in this weekend’s volume list is consistent with broader Tron network activity picking up across Asian markets.

12. Contentos (COS) A content-focused blockchain platform that maintains a dedicated Korean following. COS consistently surfaces in Korean volume spikes as retail traders rotate through smaller cap ecosystem tokens.

13. Sahara AI Perhaps the most interesting name on the list. An AI-focused blockchain project that appearing in Korean top volume during a broader market downturn suggests early accumulation interest in the AI-crypto narrative from one of the world’s most crypto-active populations.

The post Is XRP a Scam? Bitcoin Philosopher Says Ripple Is Running a $500 Million Per Quarter Wealth Transfer Scheme appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

A viral clip circulating on crypto Twitter has reignited one of the most divisive arguments in digital assets: is Ripple building the future of finance, or is it running the most sophisticated wealth transfer in crypto history? 

The Accusation That Started It All

The controversy centres on comments made by Bitcoin advocate Robert Breedlove in a YouTube video where Ripple and CEO Brad Garlinghouse were accused of running what he described as a coordinated scheme against retail investors.

His framing was deliberate. He opened by drawing a distinction between two types of wealth: wealth that is made and wealth that is taken. “Did you make it or did you take it?” he asked. “Did you go out and solve problems for customers, made the world a better place and earned a fortune? Or did you go and steal wealth from other people rather than create wealth for consenting customers?”

Accuses @ripple and @bgarlinghouse of theft.
The social media children have gotten way too comfortable with slander and libel with no consequences. pic.twitter.com/dydDBZDLAD

— Digital Asset Investor (@digitalassetbuy) March 14, 2026

He then placed Ripple firmly in the second category, comparing it directly to BlackRock, Blackstone, and Vanguard as part of what he described as giant centralized pools of wealth transferring purchasing power from the poor and the middle class to themselves.

“Ripple is one of these giant scammers,” he said. “They’re literally selling their XRP to ignorant retail investors. They’re mobilising a bot army on social media to pretend like XRP is the next Bitcoin, and people are just getting taken to the cleaners.”

The numbers he cited were specific: “They’ve been selling $500 million of XRP tokens, dumping them on retail investors, $500 million per quarter for about the past ten years.”

He went further, pointing directly at Garlinghouse’s personal wealth. “That guy’s not creating. He’s not solving any problems in the world. He’s solving zero problems. He’s just stealing your money. People went and bought the XRP token believing all the marketing hype and the social media bot army, and they basically gave their wealth to Brad Garlinghouse who goes and buys a $100 million home in Miami.”

Digital Asset Investor, one of the most followed XRP voices on the platform, reposted the clip with a sharp response: “The social media children have gotten way too comfortable with slander and libel with no consequences.”

The Community Fires Back

The reaction across crypto Twitter split immediately. On the sceptical side, one user wrote: “The XRP dream is mostly hopium, fuelled by Ripple itself. For the cross-border narrative, maybe 5% of XRP would actually be needed. The rest looks like supply to sell to retail. The real play seems to be RLUSD, which gives retail nothing. Brad, prove otherwise.”

Another long-term holder expressed frustration that had clearly been building for years: “While I’m not a fan of how XRP has made the Ripple board exponentially wealthy while investors have been strung along for 15% of the human lifespan and counting, the chosen path couldn’t be clearer to those who investigate the space without bias.”

The post Gareth Soloway Reveals Next Bull Price Targets For Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Gareth Soloway, chief market strategist at VerifiedInvesting.com, is doubling down on his short-term bullish thesis for crypto, and the charts he is looking at are telling a story that most of the market is missing. While the S&P 500 slides, Bitcoin is green. That divergence, he says, is the most important signal in the market right now.

Bitcoin: One Level Away From $80,000 to $85,000

Bitcoin is pushing higher and Soloway says the structure is clean. The important level sitting between today’s price and his target zone is $74,000.

“We’ve broken out,” he said. “We had our high pivot, retraced to support, and now we’re testing the next level. Once we break through $74,000, the upside move takes you to $80,000 to $85,000.”

The bullish case is built on a textbook pattern. A green reversal candle formed weeks ago and not a single candle has closed below its low since. That inside bar action, Soloway explains, is a classic setup that precedes breakouts rather than breakdowns.

What makes the setup more convincing is what Bitcoin is doing relative to everything else. Since February 25, the S&P 500 is down 4.45%. Bitcoin over the same period is up 12%. It is also outperforming gold and silver. Soloway calls this relative strength the breadcrumb trail pointing toward further upside.

“I am not a midterm bull on Bitcoin. I am a short-term bull. Short term means days to weeks.” Beyond that window, he expects a broader stock market drawdown to eventually drag Bitcoin below the $60,000 low seen roughly six weeks ago.

Ethereum: Break Above $2,150 Opens Door to $2,600

Ethereum has not broken out yet but Soloway says it is hammering on the door. The key level is $2,150. ETH has pierced it twice already and is pressing against it again.

“If we can get a daily close above $2,150 and then confirm, look out above,” he said. “The target would be $2,600.”

The pattern mirrors Bitcoin’s setup: a reversal base forming, repeated tests of resistance, and the kind of structure that tends to resolve with a sharp move rather than continued grinding.

XRP: Bullish Pattern With $1.80 as the Target

XRP is trading around $1.41 and Soloway sees a clear short-term bullish structure forming. His upside target sits at approximately $1.80, where a confluence of former support turned resistance and converging trend lines creates a significant ceiling.

“This zone and this trend line are joining forces to create major, major resistance,” he said. Getting through it cleanly would be a significant technical achievement for XRP.

The post Pi Day 2026: Smart Contracts,Token Launchpad and 526 Million Rewards; Pi Network’s Biggest Update in 7 Years appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Pi Network just marked its seventh official anniversary with one of the most significant product releases in its history. On Pi Day 2026, the team unveiled a wave of new features that move the project meaningfully closer to the utility-driven ecosystem it has been building toward since 2019. This is not a roadmap update. These are live releases.

Pi Launchpad Goes Live on Testnet

The most anticipated announcement is the launch of Pi Launchpad on Testnet, a token launch platform designed specifically for product-first projects building inside the Pi ecosystem.

What makes this different from typical crypto launchpads is the underlying philosophy. Projects launching through Pi Launchpad must already have a working application before they can issue a token. The token exists to acquire real users and integrate directly into the product’s functionality, not to raise capital. The Pi proceeds from each token launch go into a liquidity pool rather than to the issuing project, creating a healthy liquidity foundation from day one.’

With over 17.7 million KYC-verified Pioneers on Mainnet, Pi offers distribution that most platforms simply cannot match.

Protocol 20 and Smart Contracts

All major Pi nodes have been upgraded to version 20.2, supporting Protocol 20. The full Mainnet upgrade completes within the coming week.

This is a foundational milestone. Protocol 20 introduces the technical infrastructure required for smart contracts on the Pi blockchain, enabling programmable logic that allows developers to build decentralised applications, automate transactions, and power functionality like NFTs, subscriptions, escrow systems, and on-chain marketplace transactions.

Smart contract rollout will be gradual and utility-focused. Subscription contracts, escrow contracts, and NFT-related contracts have been prioritised, several of which are currently undergoing external security audits before deployment.

Second Migrations Now Open

After months of community anticipation, second migrations have officially begun. Pioneers who completed their first migration can now bring additional Pi balances to Mainnet, provided they have set up two-factor authentication on their Pi Wallet through Mainnet Checklist Step 5.

Second migrations will also include referral mining bonuses for Referral Team members who have completed KYC. Pioneers are encouraged to remind their networks to finalise verification before the window closes.

KYC Validator Rewards Finally Distributed

Pi Network is releasing its first round of KYC validator rewards, covering work done by the community’s human verification workforce. The numbers involved are remarkable.

Over 526 million successful human validations were completed by more than 1.09 million validators. The reward pool of 16.57 million PI was supplemented by an additional 10 million PI from the Pi Foundation, bringing the price per validation to 0.0504 PI, which the team notes is 21 times the current base mining rate. Payments will be distributed over the next ten or more days directly to validators’ Mainnet wallets.

Mainnet Payments Now Live in Pi App Studio

Pi App Studio now supports live Mainnet transactions, allowing select apps to move from Testnet to real on-chain activity with actual PI payments integrated directly into the user experience. Four apps have already been invited to transition.

The update also introduces persistent payment integrations, meaning purchases and unlocks made inside apps now carry across multiple sessions rather than expiring when a user closes the app. This is a critical step toward sustainable business models for creators building on Pi.

Pi is currently trading at $0.19 and is down by more than 7%. While the price is down today, the infrastructure is moving forward regardless.

The post Grayscale’s Top Analyst Just Said XRP Is Mispriced: Here’s What Changes That appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

One of Wall Street’s most important voices on digital assets just made a statement about XRP. Zach Pandl, Head of Research at Grayscale Investments, told Paul Barron Network that XRP is positioned for a meaningful repricing event, and the trigger is something the entire crypto industry has been waiting on for years: regulatory clarity.

The Repricing Thesis

Speaking directly on the question of whether XRP would be repriced if the proposed crypto legislation passes, Pandl was unambiguous.

“I do,” he said. “I think we would see a repricing across a range of assets, certainly including XRP.”

His confidence is rooted in what he is already seeing in the market. Grayscale’s GXRP product, the firm’s XRP-focused investment vehicle, has been drawing consistent and growing demand from institutional investors. Pandl described those investors as looking ahead to clarity and asking what it means to unlock further value in these networks.

In other words, sophisticated money is already positioning. The repricing, in his view, has not happened yet because the regulatory framework that would justify it has not arrived yet.

Section 205: The Clause That Changes Everything

The conversation zeroed in on a specific and largely underreported element of the proposed crypto legislation: Section 205, which would require projects to demonstrate their blockchain meets a threshold of decentralisation to qualify as a mature blockchain under the law.

For Ripple, this clause carries direct implications. It would require the company to restructure or potentially burn portions of its XRP holdings to meet the 20% mature blockchain component requirement. Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, has publicly stated he believes the odds of the legislation passing are high, though the window for passage is narrowing.

Pandl acknowledged the uncertainty but suggested the direction of travel is positive. Regulatory clarity on these questions, he argued, would unlock value that is currently suppressed by legal and structural ambiguity.

Ethereum in the Same Conversation

Pandl also weighed in on Ethereum, aligning himself with the view that it remains one of the most important assets in the future financial system. He noted that Grayscale is currently the only asset manager staking Ethereum at scale within its ETF products, describing it as the most efficient way for institutional investors to gain Ethereum exposure across different types of savings and investment accounts.

On the broader question of digital asset treasuries holding Ethereum directly, Pandl was supportive, noting that whether through an ETF, self-custody, or a treasury structure, investors ought to have some Ethereum exposure in their portfolios.

What This Means for XRP Holders

Pandl’s comments carry weight precisely because Grayscale is not a fringe voice. It is one of the largest digital asset managers in the world, managing billions in investor capital and operating regulated products across multiple jurisdictions. When its Head of Research says a repricing is in order for XRP if clarity arrives, that is not community speculation. It is institutional analysis.

The question is no longer whether XRP would benefit from a clear legal framework. The question is how long the framework takes to arrive, and whether the window Garlinghouse described as closing stays open long enough.

The post Pi Network News Exclusive: After Kraken, Expert Reveals Why Binance Listing Changes Everything  appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Pi Network is down 14.31% today, on the one day the community had circled on the calendar for months. The broader crypto market fell just 1.61% in the same window. The gap between those two numbers tells the real story of what is happening to PI right now, and it is not as alarming as it looks.

However, PI surged 55% over the past 30 days. Today’s drop is the natural consequence of that kind of run.

The Utility Case Is Still Being Built

Beyond the price, in an interview with Coinpedia, Dr. Altcoin pointed to a growing ecosystem that most critics overlook entirely.

“Over 46,000 apps have been created by the community using the Pi AI App Studio and are currently awaiting approval,” he told Coinpedia. “More than 300 applications, including gaming and e-commerce platforms, are already live on mainnet and actively used by over 2.1 million users.”

He also flagged the DEX and AMM functionality currently in testnet, describing it as a catalyst that has not yet been priced in. “Once the Pi blockchain protocol upgrade is completed, these features are expected to be deployed to mainnet,” he said, adding that real world asset tokenisation on the Pi Network is also in active development.

On volatility, his assessment was blunt: “At this stage, traders have more influence than users. Over time, as merchant adoption increases and ecosystem apps generate consistent daily transactions, price behaviour should become more stable and less driven by short-term speculation.”

Exchange Listings Remain the Key Unlock

With Kraken having listed PI yesterday and Pi Day arriving today, the community had built significant expectations. Dr. Altcoin acknowledged the community’s frustration but pointed to what matters most long-term.

“Listings alone do not sustain price. Sustainable value comes when exchange access is matched with real ecosystem demand from users and businesses,” he said. “Exposure through tier-1 exchange listings such as Binance, Kraken, or Coinbase would significantly broaden awareness and liquidity, supporting both ecosystem growth and community confidence.”

The community has waited nearly seven years, he noted, and price appreciation must eventually follow if Pi Network is to maintain long-term trust.

One to Watch

Dr. Altcoin also revealed the project he is monitoring most closely outside of PI: InterLink Labs, a mobile mining crypto project launched in March 2025 that has already grown to over 6.3 million users with 3.7 million daily active participants. 

For PI today, the selloff stings. But on a day when the DEX is launching and the Kraken listing is live, the fundamentals have not moved backward. The price has. Those are two different things.

The post Why XRP Could Be More Important Than Anyone Realised: DTCC, Mastercard and DBS Explained appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

XRP is trading at $1.43, up 3.31% today. Bitcoin is at $72,535 and Ethereum sits at $2,131. The market is having a good Friday. But the price action today is almost a distraction from something much bigger that has been quietly building in the background, and almost nobody in retail is paying attention to it.

The Swift Story Was Too Small

One expert said that for years the entire XRP thesis rested on one idea: Ripple replaces Swift, banks adopt XRP, cross-border payments explode and holders get rich. It was a clean narrative. It was also the wrong one.

Not because XRP failed. But because the world moved on to much larger problems. While retail investors were still debating Swift, the global financial system began rebuilding itself from the inside. Corporate treasury operations, institutional settlement infrastructure, and tokenised capital markets emerged as the real battleground. And the demand for instant liquidity networks exploded, not from remittances, but from boardrooms.

CFOs at major corporations are now asking a question that would have sounded absurd five years ago: why are we still moving money like it is 1995? The answer is driving them toward digital asset rails that offer instant settlement, 24/7 liquidity, programmable payments, and global interoperability. Networks like the XRP Ledger.

The Numbers That Change Everything

Here is the number that reframes the entire XRP story.

CLS, the Continuous Linked Settlement system used daily by JP Morgan, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and virtually every major global bank, processes $1.5 quadrillion in foreign exchange settlement annually. That is $1,500 trillion moving through a single system every year.

Ripple Prime, its institutional settlement platform, currently processes roughly $3 trillion annually. CLS handles 500 times more volume. But CLS did not start as a quadrillion-dollar system either. It started as infrastructure solving one problem: settlement risk in foreign exchange markets. Over time, every major bank connected to it.

The question is whether digital assets are about to follow the same path.

Three Institutions That Signal What Is Coming

DBS Bank, one of Asia’s largest and repeatedly named the world’s best bank, has been working with Ripple to build blockchain infrastructure for cross-border settlement. The goal is not just faster payments. It is interconnected financial networks, different ledgers, different assets, different rails, all linked through interoperable infrastructure.

Mastercard just launched its Crypto Partner Program and added Mountain and Treasury to its ecosystem. Mountain and Treasury builds the backend systems companies use to move money: vendor payments, treasury automation, liquidity management. Combined with Mastercard’s three billion cards and 95% global merchant reach, that is a direct bridge between traditional finance and digital asset rails, built into existing global payment infrastructure.

The DTCC, the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, which processes the majority of US stock, bond, and derivative transactions, has announced plans to tokenise its platform in the second half of 2026. That is less than four months away. And a DTCC patent describing cross-ledger liquidity frameworks specifically references XRP and XLM as liquidity tokens. If tokenised asset networks require liquidity bridges between them, that is precisely the role XRP was designed to fill.

The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: Is $100K The Next Big Target? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Bitcoin is pushing higher after clearing a resistance level, but one analyst is pumping the brakes before calling it a confirmed rally. 

The analyst’s core position has not shifted in weeks. Bitcoin is currently in a counter-trend bounce, meaning it is moving against the dominant direction of the market rather than with it. 

Counter-trend moves can look and feel like real bull runs. They can be sharp, convincing, and even reach new all-time highs in extreme cases. But they do not signal the larger correction is over. 

The One Level That Decides Everything

The number every Bitcoin trader needs to know right now is $74,460.

Bitcoin has not broken above it yet. Until it does, the range trade remains intact and the rally remains unconfirmed. A clean break and hold above $74,460 would shift the probability meaningfully toward higher targets. Below it, the sideways grind that has frustrated the market for weeks simply continues.

Three Scenarios on the Table

Path 1: Bitcoin stalls near $74,400, shows weakness, and revisits lower range support before attempting another push higher. The counter-trend move extends and drags on further.

Path 2 (Faster): The bottom was already set on February 24. Bitcoin pushes directly toward $78,500, provided the swing low at $69,360 holds. Losing that level invalidates this path immediately.

Path 3 (Bear case): Range support breaks and Bitcoin drops toward $55,000 to $56,000. The analyst considers this unlikely right now but refuses to dismiss it entirely.

If bulls clear $74,460 decisively, the broader target zone opens up between $86,600 and $94,436, with a new all-time high possible in an extreme scenario.

The Signal Nobody Is Watching

The most telling observation has nothing to do with price. Crypto influencers, community leaders, and prominent traders have quietly stopped talking about Bitcoin. Attention has shifted to gold, silver, and oil. The noise has gone silent.

That kind of mass disengagement historically happens near turning points, not midway through trends. Markets tend to move when the fewest people are watching.

Everything comes back to $74,460. That is the line. Until it breaks, nothing is confirmed.

The post Pi Network Goes Live on Kraken: Everything You Need to Know on March 13 appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

After six years of mobile mining, a bruising 95% crash from its all-time high, and weeks of speculation, Pi Network is officially trading on Kraken today. For a community that has waited longer than almost any other in crypto, the day has arrived.

Kraken wrote, “@PiCoreTeam is a Layer-1 ecosystem of Pi apps and utilities where users mine PI from their phones, with developer tools for building useful Web3 applications and deploying them to tens of millions of Pi users globally.”

Now live: $PI@PiCoreTeam is a Layer-1 ecosystem of Pi apps and utilities where users mine PI from their phones, with developer tools for building useful Web3 applications and deploying them to tens of millions of Pi users globally.

Trade now → https://t.co/sncSsMhRi3 pic.twitter.com/iK0nYe2GcS

— Kraken Listings (@krakenlistings) March 13, 2026

PI is changing hands at around $0.27 at the time of writing, up over 8% in the past 24 hours. The market cap sits at $2.6 billion, with just over 9 billion tokens currently in circulation out of a hard-capped maximum supply of 100 billion. Daily volume is running high and climbing as Kraken’s order books open to US traders for the first time.

Why Kraken Changes Things

Every exchange that listed PI before today operated outside the United States. Kraken is different. It is one of the most trusted regulated crypto platforms in the country, connected to the US banking system, and used by millions of American investors who simply had no compliant way to access PI before now.

That is the real significance of today. It is not just another listing. It is the first time PI becomes genuinely accessible to the world’s largest retail investment market, with the regulatory credibility to back it up.

What to Watch Today

The level to hold is $0.20. A clean break and hold above it opens the path toward $0.25 to $0.35 in the near term. Analysts have flagged $0.50 to $0.75 as possible targets if Pi Day announcements on March 14 deliver meaningful ecosystem news around the DEX and AMM launch.

On the downside, $0.175, the 24-hour low, is the immediate support to watch. A drop back below it would signal that selling pressure from long-term miners is outweighing new Kraken demand.

The post Why is Crypto Market Going Up Today: Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Prices Rally appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Crypto is having one of its best days in weeks. Bitcoin has pushed above $73,000, Ethereum has cleared $2,180, and the total crypto market has added $90 billion in value in the past 15 hours alone. Here is what is actually driving it.

The Numbers First

• Bitcoin: Up 4.80% to $72,867, adding $60 billion to its market cap in 15 hours
• Ethereum: Up 6.11% to $2,170, adding $15.2 billion to its market cap
• XRP: Up 4.66% to $1.43, with $3.3 billion in daily volume
• Solana: Up 6.94% to $91.61
• Dogecoin: Up 5.20% to $0.098
• Total market cap: $2.49 trillion, up 4.82%
• Short liquidations: Nearly $200 million wiped out in 15 hours

The Fear and Greed Index sits at 37, still in fear territory, which tells you this rally is happening while most of the market remains cautious. That is often when the sharpest moves occur.

What Actually Triggered the Move

Three macro data prints dropped today and the market liked what it saw, at least partially.

Inflation cooling. The PCE Price Index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, came in at 2.8% against expectations of 2.9%. Lower than expected inflation reduces pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates elevated, which is historically good for risk assets including crypto.

Jobs market holding up. JOLTS Job Openings came in at 6,946,000 against expectations of 6,700,000. A stronger jobs market signals economic resilience, which reduces fears of a hard recession that would drag crypto down alongside everything else.

GDP slowing but not crashing. US Q4 GDP came in at 0.7% against expectations of 1.4%. Growth is slowing, which adds to the case for the Fed to ease monetary conditions sooner rather than later.

Put those three together and the market read a clear message: inflation is easing, the economy is not collapsing, and rate cuts may be back on the table. That combination is fuel for crypto.

The Short Squeeze Effect

Nearly $200 million in short positions were liquidated as prices moved higher. When traders who bet against the market are forced to close their positions, they have to buy back the assets they shorted, which adds upward pressure on top of the organic buying already happening. This is called a short squeeze and it accelerates moves that are already in motion.

The result was a fast, clean run higher across the entire market rather than a slow grind, which is exactly what short liquidation events look like in practice.

Where Things Stand Now

The Altcoin Season Index sits at 40 out of 100, leaning toward Bitcoin dominance but showing altcoins beginning to participate more actively. The average crypto RSI is at 61.17, approaching overbought territory but not there yet, which shows there is still room to move before the market needs to cool off.

The important level for Bitcoin is holding above $72,000. If it can close the day above that, the path toward $75,000 and beyond opens up.

The post The 37-Year Plan: Is XRP the Global Currency the IMF Never Finished Building? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

In 1988, a magazine published a striking cover: a phoenix rising from a pile of burning national currencies. The accompanying article predicted that by around 2018, the world would be using a single global reserve currency, one that would eliminate exchange rate chaos, simplify cross-border trade, and be overseen by the International Monetary Fund.

Most people saw the image and moved on. A growing number of XRP researchers and analyst Jesse believe it was a blueprint.

The theory starts with a simple observation. The IMF has been trying to solve the same problem since 1969, when it created the Special Drawing Right, a synthetic reserve asset designed to give the global financial system a neutral unit of liquidity that no single country controlled. It never achieved mass adoption. The SDR remained locked inside the banking system, invisible to businesses and ordinary people, too limited to serve as the liquidity layer the world actually needed.

Then Ripple appeared. And the parallels are difficult to ignore.

XRP was built precisely to solve what the SDR could not: instant cross-border settlement, open to any institution or individual, without dependence on correspondent banking or national currency pairs. Where the SDR served only central banks, XRP is accessible to everyone. Where the SDR moved slowly through bureaucratic channels, XRP settles in three seconds.

The IMF’s own internal documents have since described a concept called the XC Platform, a proposed cross-border settlement layer built around central bank digital currencies. XC. Two letters. The same two letters that begin XRP and CBDC.

Coincidence or architecture?

Ripple itself holds around 50 billion XRP in escrow, an arrangement that one of the company’s own executives once described as potentially transferable to an institution acting as a lender of last resort. There is only one institution on earth that holds that title: the IMF.

None of this is confirmed. Ripple has never publicly claimed an IMF connection, and the IMF has made no formal announcement regarding XRP.

But the question gaining traction is not whether this was planned. It is whether the pieces have been assembling in plain sight for nearly four decades, and most people simply were not looking at the whole picture.

The phoenix on that 1988 cover had a year printed on its coin: 2018. XRP began gaining institutional traction in 2018.

The post Top Analyst Reveals What’s Next for Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Prices appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Gareth Soloway, chief market strategist at VerifiedInvesting.com, is staying bullish on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP despite recent volatility, and he says the charts are giving him a clear roadmap for what comes next.

Bitcoin: $80,000 to $85,000 in Sight

Soloway says Bitcoin is forming a classic bullish consolidation pattern. The key signal he is watching is an inside bar formation off a strong green reversal candle. As long as Bitcoin does not post a daily close below that candle’s low, the bullish structure remains fully intact.

Bitcoin recently pushed above a key trend line but failed to confirm the breakout, which Soloway says was not a bearish signal. In his framework, confirmation requires a follow-through close, not just a single push above resistance. Without confirmation, the move simply becomes part of the ongoing pattern.

With Bitcoin trading around $70,000, Soloway is now watching for a confirmed breakout. If it happens, his upside target zone sits at $80,000 to $85,000, roughly $8,500 to $13,500 from current levels.

Ethereum: Break Above $2,150 Opens the Door to $2,700

Ethereum is showing the same pattern structure as Bitcoin, a bullish flag forming inside a green reversal candle range with no daily close below support. Soloway says the level to watch is $2,150. A confirmed break above that triggers a move toward the $2,600 to $2,700 target zone.

XRP: Target Zone of $1.77 to $1.90

XRP is also setting up similarly, with a clean green reversal candle and inside bar action. Soloway’s upside target sits between $1.77 and $1.90, where a downward-sloping trend line and prior resistance converge.

His core message is simple: ignore the noise, follow the charts, and trade probability not emotion.

The post What Is Ethereum Really For? Vitalik Buterin Finally Has a Clear Answer appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Vitalik Buterin walked into a cryptography conference expecting to find use cases for Ethereum. He walked out having questioned whether that was even the right way to think about it.

In a post on X today, the Ethereum co-founder described attending Real World Crypto, a conference focused on cryptography rather than cryptocurrency, as a clarifying experience. The people in the room shared values around privacy, open-source software, and censorship resistance. But they carried none of the assumptions that typically come with being inside the crypto bubble.

So Buterin tried an experiment. He asked himself: if you strip away all loyalty to Ethereum, all community identity, all existing narratives, and simply ask what this technology is genuinely useful for, what answer do you get?

The answer surprised even him.

Not Smart Contracts. Not DeFi. A Bulletin Board.

The most fundamental use case for Ethereum, Buterin now argues, is something cryptographers have needed for decades: a public bulletin board.

The concept is simple but critical. Many secure systems, including online voting protocols, software version control, and certificate revocation, all need somewhere to post data publicly that anyone can read and no one can quietly delete or alter. They do not need complex computation. They do not strictly need money changing hands. What they need, at the most basic level, is reliable data availability with no single point of control.

That is exactly what a blockchain provides. And it is a need that predates crypto entirely.

The timing of this realisation matters. Ethereum recently completed an upgrade called PeerDAS, which increased the network’s data availability capacity by 2.3x, with a roadmap to scale it another 10 to 100 times higher. The infrastructure Buterin is describing is actively being built, at a time when fees on the network are at historic lows.

Payments Second, Smart Contracts Third

Buterin did not abandon the rest of Ethereum’s value stack. He reordered it.

Payments come second in his framework, and again the framing is practical rather than financial. If you are running a permissionless service, whether it is an API, a messaging app, or a data protocol, you face a spam problem the moment you make it free. ETH-denominated micropayments, particularly through zero-knowledge payment channels, solve this without requiring users to hand over a phone number or submit to identity verification. Payment as infrastructure, not payment as a product.

Smart contracts come third. And here Buterin made his most provocative admission: technically, for almost every application that does not directly involve ETH itself, smart contracts are just a convenience. You could build the same things using the chain purely as a bulletin board, handling computation off-chain through cryptographic proofs. But standardisation is hard, and the smart contract model solves the interoperability problem elegantly enough that it remains the right practical choice.

Global Shared Memory

Buterin’s final framing is the one likely to travel furthest. Stripped of all the financial complexity and ecosystem politics, Ethereum is, in his words, global shared memory.

A place where anything can be written, everything can be read, and nothing can be unilaterally erased. Not by a company. Not by a government. Not by Buterin himself.

Most of the internet does not work that way. It runs on servers owned by someone who can change their mind. Ethereum is the rare exception, and Buterin is now arguing that the world’s developers and builders have not fully grasped how useful that exception actually is.

The bulletin board has been there the whole time. The question is whether enough people will start using it for what it was always capable of.

The post Pi Network Kraken Listing Date Confirmed: Price History, Targets and What to Expect appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

It’s official. Kraken posted on X just this morning: “Trading starts March 13.” The Pi Network community erupted. After years of mobile mining, a delayed mainnet launch, and a bruising 93% drop from its all-time high, PI is about to land on one of the most reputable regulated exchanges in the United States, right on the eve of Pi Day 2026.

The announcement sent PI up nearly 2% within minutes, and the token has already staged a 33% rally over the past week as speculation reached fever pitch. But the question everyone is asking: what happens next? To answer that, we need to look at where PI has been.

The Full Price History: From $0 to $2.99 and Back

Pi Network spent six years in what it called an “enclosed mainnet.” Tokens mined, but not tradeable. When the Open Network finally launched on February 20, 2025, it was one of crypto’s most anticipated debuts, backed by over 60 million app users and 19 million KYC-verified “Pioneers.”

Feb 20, 2025 — Open Network Launch + OKX Listing PI opens at $1.47 on OKX, peaks at $2.10 the same day, then closes at ~$1.01. The floor price set by the Pi Core Team was $2.00, a symbolic psychological anchor that briefly held before selling pressure broke through.

Late Feb 2025 — All-Time High: $2.99 As Bitget and other exchanges followed OKX with listings, hype peaked. PI reached $2.99, briefly valuing the network at over $25 billion fully diluted. Then the sell pressure from years of accumulated miners finally cashing out began in earnest.

Mid–Late 2025 — The Long Unwind Heavy token unlocks, over 203 million PI in a single month, combined with limited real-world utility and no Binance or Coinbase listing drove PI steadily lower. By late 2025, price had collapsed more than 90% from its peak.

March 2026 — The Recovery Begins Protocol upgrades (v19.9 completed March 8), the Pi DEX launch on March 12 via v20.2, and intensifying Kraken listing rumours ignited a 33% weekly rally, pushing PI back toward $0.23 and breaking above its 50-day SMA for the first time in months.

What Happened When OKX Listed PI

The OKX listing is the closest historical comparison we have for what might happen on Kraken tomorrow, and it’s a cautionary tale wrapped in initial euphoria.

On launch day, PI initially surged roughly 10% above its $2 reference price within the first hours of trading. Within 24 hours, it had reversed violently, dropping 21% as early miners rushed to sell. Some had been sitting on coins for years at near-zero cost basis. The pattern was textbook: listing day hype, followed by a wave of supply from long-term holders seeking liquidity for the first time.

Why the Kraken Listing Is Different This Time

Kraken isn’t just another exchange. It carries specific significance for PI that OKX, Bitget, and MEXC did not, for two reasons.

1. It’s the First Regulated US Venue for PI Spot Trading Kraken operates under US financial regulation and recently gained access to the Federal Reserve’s payment infrastructure, giving it a level of institutional credibility that offshore exchanges simply don’t have. For US-based investors who have been locked out of PI trading, this is the first accessible, compliant on-ramp.

2. It’s a Signal to Binance and Coinbase Historically, Binance watches major Western exchange listings closely. A successful Kraken debut for PI, with strong volume and no immediate collapse, could be the nudge that finally moves Binance off the sidelines. A Binance listing remains the single most important potential catalyst left for PI in 2026.

Crypto analyst Dr. Altcoin has publicly said PI could reach $0.50–$0.75 by Pi Day (March 14) driven by the v20.2 protocol completion and Kraken. That means a roughly 2–3x move from current levels in under 48 hours, aggressive but not impossible given PI’s history of violent short-term swings.

The post Why Goldman Sachs Owning the XRP ETF Is Not the Bullish Signal Most People Think It Is appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Goldman Sachs appearing on the holder list of the newly launched XRP and Solana ETFs sent a ripple of excitement through crypto markets last week. A Wall Street giant owning a spot XRP ETF felt, to many, like a coronation. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart has a more sobering read of the situation — and it is worth hearing.

The Headline That Got Everyone Talking

When regulatory filings revealed Goldman Sachs had taken positions in spot ETFs tracking XRP and Solana, alongside its already known holdings in Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, the reaction was immediate. For a community that has spent years waiting for traditional finance to take crypto seriously, seeing one of Wall Street’s most prestigious names on an XRP ETF holder list felt like validation at the highest level.

The story spread fast. The interpretation was almost universally bullish. Goldman is in. Institutions have arrived. XRP is legitimate.

Seyffart’s view is more complicated.

What Goldman’s Position Actually Means

“I wouldn’t ascribe too much to seeing a name like that at the top of the holders list,” Seyffart said when asked about the filings. Goldman sits at the top of the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF holder lists too, he noted, and nobody reads those positions as a long-term directional bet on crypto.

The more likely explanation, according to Seyffart, is that the bulk of Goldman’s ETF exposure originates from its trading desk rather than from a conviction investment. Basis trading, market making, and facilitating client orders from high-net-worth individuals are all plausible explanations for the position. None of them represent Goldman making a strategic decision to back XRP as an asset.

Millennium Management, the second largest holder of the XRP ETF, sits in a similar category. Large financial institutions appear at the top of these lists not necessarily because they believe in the underlying asset, but because trading these instruments is simply part of what they do.

Where the Genuine Conviction Actually Lives

Seyffart drew a distinction when looking at the Solana ETFs, where a handful of dedicated crypto hedge funds lead the holder rankings. Those positions, he suggested, are far more likely to represent genuine long-term conviction. Several of those funds probably helped seed the ETFs in the first place by contributing their own Solana holdings, which means their appearance on the list does not even represent net new buying of the asset.

The same logic applies across the board. When an institution converts existing XRP or Solana exposure into an ETF wrapper, it is not adding to demand for the underlying token. It is simply changing the vehicle through which it holds an existing position. On a net basis, the market impact can be close to zero.

The Uncomfortable Truth

The crypto market has a habit of reading institutional ETF filings as endorsements. Goldman’s name on an XRP ETF holder list is genuinely important, and there may well be some client money in there that is straightforwardly long the asset. But the more mundane reality, according to one of the most respected ETF analysts in the business, is that Wall Street’s presence in these products says far less about institutional conviction in XRP than the headlines suggest.

The post Millions Are Tracking XRP’s Price Daily: Ripple CTO Says They Are Looking at the Wrong Thing appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

The conversation around XRP is once again shifting toward its underlying technology rather than just price action. Breaking the notion, David Schwartz, also known as JoelKatz, the CTO of Ripple, said that the future of XRP may be widely misunderstood. 

Speaking at XRP Australia 2026, Schwartz addressed what he believes is the biggest misconception about XRP heading into the next crypto cycle: many people still think the asset’s value comes only from the XRP Ledger itself.

Misconception #1: XRP Is Only the XRP Ledger

Schwartz explained that focusing only on the ledger misses the bigger picture of how XRP actually functions in the broader financial ecosystem. According to him, most XRP activity takes place outside the blockchain.

“Don’t forget XRP is not just the XRP Ledger. The vast majority of XRP activity takes place off the ledger,” he said.

He pointed out that trading on exchanges, liquidity provision, ETF exposure, and speculation are currently the biggest drivers of XRP’s value. While these factors may not sound technologically groundbreaking, Schwartz emphasized that they still represent real economic activity for users and investors.

To explain the misunderstanding, he compared XRP to traditional currency. “If you think of XRP as just the XRP Ledger, that’s like thinking about the dollar as just paper dollars,” he said, noting that the system surrounding the asset is far larger than the technology itself.

Misconception #2: No Real World Utility

While off-chain activity dominates today, Schwartz believes the next phase for XRP will increasingly involve on-chain financial tools built directly on the XRP Ledger.

He expects the ecosystem to expand into areas such as decentralized exchanges, liquidity infrastructure, tokenized equity markets, and lending solutions.

“You’re going to see liquidity, DEX, and tools that solve real financial problems,” Schwartz said, adding that bringing more activity onto the blockchain could make the system far more transformative.

• Also Read :
•   XRP Jumps 253 Spots on the Chart That Smart Money Watches 
•   ,

Misconception #3: XRP Is Only Focused on Institutions

Another misconception, according to Schwartz, is that XRP’s goal is limited to institutional adoption. He argued that institutions are only the starting point.

“Institutional adoption is not the end goal… It’s going to pave the way for mass retail adoption,” he stated.

Schwartz compared the process to the early days of the internet, where enterprise and government use came first before the technology expanded to everyday consumers.

In the long run, he says XRP’s mission is far broader, helping reshape the entire global financial system, not just institutional finance.