US President Donald J. Trump made good on one of his pro-crypto promises and signed an executive order that will make it mandatory for the country to at least maintain its BTC stash. Yet, bitcoin prices are yet to feel the actual impact.

But before going into details on that order signed on Thursday, let’s go back to the developments that unfolded during the weekend. After a calm few days following BTC’s latest rollercoaster, the asset had remained at around $85,000 before, on Sunday evening, Trump posted on his social media that there are indeed plans to establish a US-based crypto reserve that will hold some altcoins and bitcoin.

Prices exploded within minutes. BTC skyrocketed from its aforementioned level by ten grand and tapped a multi-day peak of $95,000. However, that turned out to be a fakeout as some analysts warned and the cryptocurrency dumped by $13,000 in the next 36 hours to under $82,000 on Tuesday.

Its correction didn’t continue in the following days. Just the opposite, bitcoin started to recover some ground and knocked on the $90,000 door on a couple of occasions but to no avail.

The first rejection came on Thursday, but the second big one on Friday morning pushed BTC south hard to $85,000 once again. Interestingly, this one came just minutes after Trump signed the executive order to halt the sales of bitcoin from the US government, which owns close to 190,000 BTC (valued at over $17 billion).

This classic sell-the-news event sent bitcoin south, but the asset jumped to $91,000 just a few hours ago. However, another rejection arrived at this point, and BTC now struggles beneath $90,000. The day is far from over, though, given the upcoming crypto summit to be held at the White House. Consequently, more volatility is expected.

The weekly landscape is quite positive for BTC and many altcoins, but that’s mostly because the entire market plummeted last Friday once again. On a monthly scale, the situation is different, with most assets deep in the red.

Market Data

Market Cap: $3T | 24H Vol: $150B | BTC Dominance: 58.3%

BTC: $88,090 (+7.4%) | ETH: $2,194 (+1.1%) | XRP: $2.49 (+18.4%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Ethereum Sentiment Hits Yearly Lows: Is This the Ultimate Contrarian Play? The second-largest cryptocurrency continues to underperform and was close to breaking below $2,000 earlier this week. Naturally, the sentiment toward ETH has gone south hard, but could this actually be a blessing in disguise?

Declining Dollar Index Could be a Tailwind For Crypto: Analysts. The greenback has lost a big portion of its value compared to other currencies. Moreover, analysts claim that Trump plans to devalue it further. Interestingly, a weak dollar could mean higher prices for bitcoin and altcoins, and here’s why.

Bukele Defies IMF, Reaffirms Bitcoin Commitment Despite Loan Restrictions. El Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele got a loan deal from the IMF several months ago, and parts of that agreement mandated that the country reduce its Bitcoin involvement. However, Bukele refused to stop the BTC investments and outlined a bullish perspective earlier this week.

XRP, SOL, and ADA Inclusion in US Crypto Reserve Pushes Traders on Edge. As mentioned above, Trump named several altcoins that could potentially be included in the US strategic crypto reserve. Expectedly, their prices soared by double-digits immediately after the Sunday post, which led to a large number of liquidated traders on both sides, given the fact that these alts retraced hard just a day later.

Why Arthur Hayes Is Bullish on Bitcoin Under Trump’s Economic Strategy. The BitMEX co-founder has been a vocal critic of the Bitcoin reserve in the States. He believes it will ultimately serve the purpose of whoever is in charge, disregarding the entire crypto market. In a more recent post, though, Hayes stated that the Trump administration’s actions will be bullish for BTC.

Bybit Hacker Reportedly Launders Entire $1.4B Loot in Just 10 Days. The Bybit hacker, largely believed to be the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group, needed less than two weeks to launder the entire stolen amount, which was worth around $1.4 billion at the time of the incident.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis.

[PRESS RELEASE – Jülich, Germany, March 7th, 2025]

Mystiko has announced its transition to Expand, marking a strategic advancement in artificial intelligence security. Expand introduces a Trustless Authentication Layer for AI Agents, designed to enhance secure data access while maintaining privacy. This innovation leverages Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK-Proofs) to enable secure, verifiable data access, paving the way for a new era of privacy-preserving AI applications.

As AI Agents increasingly interact with high-value data, traditional authentication mechanisms—such as OAuth and API keys—pose risks, including data leaks, phishing, and unauthorized access. Expand mitigates these vulnerabilities by equipping zk Agents with a verification system that authenticates sensitive information without revealing raw data. This enables AI to securely access a broader range of high-value data sources, fostering trust and accelerating adoption across diverse industries.

Key Benefits of Expand:

• Trustless Authentication: Eliminates AI’s reliance on centralized authorities, reducing the risk of data misuse and privacy breaches.
• Enhanced Security: Minimizes data exposure by using ZK-Proofs to verify information without revealing raw data.
• Increased Efficiency and Scalability: Verifies proofs rather than processing entire datasets, boosting computational efficiency and ensuring scalability.
• Expanded Use Cases: Enables secure data access for AI Agents in sensitive sectors like healthcare, finance, legal, and more.

Revolutionizing Industries with Secure AI

Expand’s Trustless Authentication Layer empowers zk Agents to handle a wide range of sensitive data, including medical histories, financial records, legal documents, and personal identities. By providing verifiable data access without compromising privacy, Expand opens up new possibilities for AI applications in:

• Healthcare: Personalized treatment plans based on verifiable health data without revealing detailed medical records.
• Financial Services: Tailored investment advice and credit assessments using ZK-Proofs of financial status.
• Legal & Compliance: Secure contract reviews and risk assessments without exposing full contract terms.
• Public Safety: Enhanced threat prediction and optimized police deployment without revealing specific identities.

“As AI Agents push the boundaries of their applications, ensuring secure and private data access remains a critical bottleneck for intelligence and large-scale adoption,” said Thomas Mueller, Mystiko’s CEO. “Expand’s Trustless Authentication Layer addresses this challenge by enabling zk Agents to verify sensitive data without exposing it, fostering trust and unlocking the full potential of AI across various industries.”

The Future of AI Trust and Privacy

Expand is not just an upgrade; it’s a paradigm shift. By establishing zk Agents as the core layer for trustless authentication and verification, Expand is driving the mass adoption of AI Agents in the Web3 era. This innovation enables AI to move beyond public data, integrating high-value, trustworthy data sources while ensuring user privacy and security.

About Expand

Expand is the Trustless Authentication Layer for AI Agents, leveraging Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK-Proofs) to enable secure, verifiable data access without exposing sensitive information. This approach eliminates reliance on centralized authentication, ensuring privacy and security for AI-driven applications in finance and healthcare.

For more information:

Solana Foundation Executive Director Lily Liu has raised concerns over SIMD-228, a proposal to adjust the emissions of the network’s native SOL token based on staking participation, calling it “too half-baked.”

However, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko holds a different view, standing by the plan despite their disagreement.

Liu Criticizes SIMD-228

In a lengthy thread on X, Liu argued that the proposal could negatively impact SOL at a crucial stage of its development. She stressed that the blockchain and its assets are deeply interconnected, and changes to its economics must consider the broader implications.

According to her, for a major economic policy, network engineers rather than asset managers have dominated discussions, leading to an imbalanced perspective. She further defended Solana’s fixed-rate yields, which SIMD-228 is looking to change, arguing that it provides predictability, a key factor for institutional investors.

“Fixed rates are not “dumb and arbitrary”; they’re predictable,” Liu wrote. “In capital markets, predictability is valuable,” she added, citing the success of Solana’s staked exchange-traded products (ETPs) in Europe as proof of the importance of stability.

Dynamic pricing, a feature of the new proposal, might optimize network security, but in Liu’s opinion, this could come at the cost of destabilizing the value of SOL. She warned that changing the asset’s characteristics could reduce buy-and-hold pressure, undermining its growth.

The executive also highlighted Solana’s trajectory, fueled by its staking ecosystem. “Big Beautiful Yield is also an ecosystem growth budget,” she noted, stating it had enabled unique crypto-native products like Payfi.

Additionally, she shared her concern that given that SIMD-228 originated from venture capital proposals, its adoption could ignite worries about Solana being controlled by a select few after it only recently shook off criticisms of centralization.

Yakovenko’s Response

However, not everyone agrees with Liu’s position. Yakovenko expressed support for her but differed with her stance on the proposal:

“Lily is awesome and has my full support and confidence even though I disagree with her on this issue.”

“Steel sharpens steel,” the Solana co-founder added, affirming the importance of healthy debate.

Meanwhile, Chris Burniske, a partner at VC firm Placeholder, has argued that SIMD-228 is a necessary step toward a more mature economic model for Solana.

“I’m in favor of SIMD-228. In the long run, real yield comes from what the demand-side leaks to the supply-side, and inflation is just a bootstrapping mechanism to get to that place,” he stated.

At the time of writing, SOL is down just over 3% in the last 24 hours. The token is one of the major digital assets name-dropped to be part of a U.S. strategic digital asset stockpile. An announcement on Thursday by White House crypto advisor David Sacks that President Donald Trump had signed an executive order creating the stockpile caused the market to tank, losing at least $200 million.