Trump orders Bitcoin reserve, El Salvador defies IMF, ETFs struggle | Weekly Recap

Today’s edition of the weekly recap: President Trump’s executive order for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve fails to generate substantial interest as ETF outflows continue. Plus, regulators drop investigations involving Kraken, Yuga Labs and Cumberland.

Trump signs executive order

• President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin (BTC) Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile.
• The reserve will use Bitcoin obtained through federal criminal and civil asset forfeiture proceedings, with White House crypto czar David Sacks explaining on March 7 it “will not cost taxpayers a dime.”
• The order came just ahead of a White House crypto summit. Various cryptocurrency bigwigs were in attendance.

Solana’s Anatoly Yakovenko is not on board

• Solana (SOL) co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko is skeptical regarding the U.S. crypto strategic reserve concept. He stated his preference for “no reserve” and warned that government involvement could affect decentralization.

Kraken, Yuga Labs and Cumberland

• This week also saw yet three more examples of cryptocurrency companies benefitting from looser regulations.
• The Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to withdraw its lawsuit against crypto exchange Kraken. The San Francisco-based company is now reportedly considering an initial public offering (IPO).
• A three-year investigation into NFT company Yuga Labs also ended, with the declaration that “NFTs are not securities.”
• Cumberland DRW, the crypto trading arm of Chicago-based DRW, also secured the dismissal of SEC charges that had alleged the company acted as an unregistered securities dealer.

El Salvador ignores IMF restrictions

• President Nayib Bukele mentioned El Salvador plans to continue acquiring Bitcoin regardless of International Monetary Fund demands included in their $3.5 billion loan agreement.
• The IMF had claimed to have imposed a prohibition on “voluntary accumulation of bitcoin by the public sector” as part of the financing package.

Bitwise files for Aptos ETF

• The crypto asset manager submitted an S-1 registration to the SEC on Wednesday for a spot Aptos (APT) exchange-traded fund, advancing beyond its initial Delaware registration filing from the previous week.

Mt. Gox transfers over 11,800 Bitcoin

• The bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange moved approximately 11,834 BTC (worth about $1.07 billion) from its “1PuQB” wallet to an unmarked address according to Arkham Intelligence data.
• This transaction marks Mt. Gox’s first major Bitcoin movement since late January, potentially related to ongoing creditor repayment processes.

Tether freezes $28 million USDT

• The stablecoin issuer blocked $28 million worth of USDT held on Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the European Union for alleged ties to the Russian government and criminal organizations.
• Following the freeze, Garantex announced a temporary suspension of all services via its Telegram channel, directly impacting the exchange’s operations.

Ethereum developers postpone Pectra upgrade

• After encountering issues during two test implementations, Ethereum’s development team decided Thursday to delay the Pectra upgrade pending additional testing.
• The upgrade, considered Ethereum’s (ETH) most important since 2024, was designed to improve the network’s speed and usability.

Texas advances state Bitcoin investment legislation

• The Texas state senate passed SB 21, a bill that would authorize the state to invest public funds in digital assets, specifically Bitcoin, joining several states pursuing similar initiatives.

Canary advances Sui ETF registration process

• Delaware’s official registration portal shows “Canary Sui ETF” was registered on March 6. This is a usual sign of preparation for an SEC S-1 registration filing.
• The registration follows Canary’s recent SEC S-1 submission for an AXL ETF, with the company also pursuing ETFs tracking Hedera (HBAR), Litecoin (LTC), XRP (XRP), and Solana.

Gemini confidentially files for IPO

• Cryptocurrency exchange and custodian Gemini has submitted a confidential initial public offering filing, working with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
• The firm, founded by billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, has not made a final decision on the listing.
• Meanwhile, Flowdesk raised $52 million in a Series B round led by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager.

Volatility Shares files for three XRP ETF products

• The ETF asset manager has submitted applications for a spot XRP ETF, a 2x leveraged XRP ETF, and an inverse -1x XRP ETF.
• The products would offer direct price tracking, amplified daily price movements, and inverse performance respectively.

XRP theft linked to password manager breach

• The January 2024 theft of 283 million XRP from Chris Larsen’s personal accounts has been connected to a LastPass password manager breach from 2022, according to a complaint revealed by investigator ZachXBT.

FIFA and Formula 1

• Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) President Gianni Infantino suggested the organization may develop its own cryptocurrency token.
• Formula One Group teams have received sponsorships from some of the biggest companies in the crypto industry, including Gate.io, Binance and ApeCoin.