The crypto market at the beginning of March 2024 showcases both promising trends and challenges, reflecting its dynamic nature. Despite occasional fluctuations, the overall trend in the crypto market continues to be bullish. Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, has been leading the charge, with its price surpassing significant milestones.
Crypto markets continue the bull run
Coinbase’s stock has captured the attention of Citron, an investment research firm established by a notable short-seller on Wall Street. This development comes after the crypto exchange encountered technical challenges amidst the turbulent price fluctuations of Bitcoin earlier this week.
The long Bitcoin/Short Coinbase trade is one of the most compelling in the cryptocurrency market due to the recent $COIN site malfunction, Citron explained on February 29. “This means going LONG bitcoin through an ETF and short the bloated Coinbase exchange.”
Users of the exchange reported zero account balances and errors when purchasing and selling digital assets during Coinbase’s brief disruption on February 28. Coinbase guaranteed the security of all user balances. The resolution of the issue occurred within a few hours.
Coinbase has risen to the position of the fourth-largest publicly traded exchange globally, subsequent to the January approval of multiple spot Bitcoin ETFs by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This week witnessed the highest level of demand for digital assets in over two years, as Bitcoin surpassed $60,000 USD.
SEC overstepped in Kraken lawsuit
Eight state attorneys general from the United States issued a united amicus brief, saying that the Securities and Exchange Commission exceeded its delegated authority in the action against cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.
The brief was filed on February 29 by authorities from Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas, as well as other participants, including industry lobbyists.
According to the filing, state authorities stated that they do not favor either party but rather oppose the SEC’s regulation of crypto assets without an investment contract because Congress has not granted this jurisdiction to the SEC.
The attorneys general argued that the SEC was expanding the definition of an “investment contract” and that states are in a position to prevent the SEC from violating state laws, including consumer protection laws, by attempting to regulate crypto assets as securities.
Elon Musk sues Sam Altman
SpaceX, Tesla, and X owner Elon Musk are suing OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging a breach of their nonprofit agreement.
According to a recent petition in the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco, Musk claims that OpenAI’s work with Microsoft deviates from the company’s founding goals of advancing open-source artificial general intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity.
Musk’s legal case alleges contract breach, fiduciary obligation violation, and unfair business practices. He wants OpenAI to return to its open-source ethos and seeks an injunction to prevent the commercial use of AGI technology.
According to the court complaint, the launch of ChatGPT-4 in March 2023 deviates dramatically from OpenAI’s principles. Despite being touted as a breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI), GPT-4 is a closed model, unlike previous versions. Musk claims that this shift toward proprietary technology benefits Microsoft financially, which contradicts OpenAI’s original charitable objective.
Bitcoin faces a market correction
Bitcoin declined more than 3% from its 24-hour peak on Feb. 29 after investors in Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF withdrew $598.9 million, the fund’s second-largest net outflow on record.
Bitcoin reached a 24-hour high of $63,585 early on February 29 and has subsequently fallen approximately 3.3% to just under $61,500. It comes as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the asset managers’ freshly converted ETF, suffered daily net outflows of $600 million on February 29, according to preliminary Farside Investor statistics.
The near-record outflows come only days after GBTC reported a record-low daily net outflow of $22.4 million on February 26.
“Two steps forward, one step back,” Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a Feb. 29 X post about the day’s outflows.
The new GBTC outflows may reduce the day’s inflows. Full inflow data for the other nine ETFs is not yet available, but Farside’s Feb. 29 data already shows Fidelity’s Bitcoin ETF — one of the top three largest funds by assets — earning only $44.8 million in net inflows, its fourth-lowest day of inflows.
