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Cryptocurrency

Maddow Slams Trump and Calls Bitcoin ‘Scam’ – She Got These 5 Facts Wrong

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The Rhodes Scholar and liberal media commentator said in a segment that aired Thursday, March 6, that cryptocurrency is a scam. She also slammed the White House for “playing this game.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier that day establishing a national digital asset reserve.

White House crypto czar David Sacks said, “The US will not sell any Bitcoin deposited into the Reserve. It will be kept as a store of value. The Reserve is like a digital Fort Knox for the cryptocurrency, often called ‘digital gold.’”

“It’s worth looking at this crypto thing a little bit,” Maddow said on her show. “Only because it is a deeply, deeply old-fashioned simple scam. At this point, which points right to the White House.”

Here’s what Maddow said about Bitcoin and what she got wrong.

1. Unlike Beanies, Bitcoin’s Price Goes Up

“Helpfully, the broad strokes of crypto trading are not complicated,” Maddow said. “It’s like when there was the Beanie Baby craze in the late 1990s.”

“It was a Beanie Baby trading bubble,” she explained. “Other than some emotional value if you had one as a child, Beanie Babies did not have much inherent value.”

“But it was worth buying up a bunch of them because there was speculation on the premise that as collectibles, maybe one day your Beanie Babies collection could be worth a lot of money.”

There is, however, a key difference between Bitcoin and Beanie Babies. While Beanie Babies debuted in 1993 at the World Toy Fair in New York City, this toy fad reached its height six years later in 1999.

Following the dot com crash in 2000, the auction price frenzy for Babies never recovered to those levels again.

To get a realistic idea of the aftermarket value of stuffed toys, one need only study a local thrift store in their city. But unlike Beanie Babies, Bitcoin’s price has been going up ever since it launched on Jan. 3, 2009.

That’s 16 years of growth in daily exchange rate for the dollar that dwarves comparable ROIs from the highest- flying tech stocks in the stock market’s entire history.

During its periodic bear markets, which have so far occurred on a fairly predictable 4-year cycle, critics have repeatedly called Bitcoin a fad and declared it dead.

But every time the skeptics have turned out wrong when the price sets new all-time high records within four years. When it comes to historical records, there is no sensible comparison between Beanie Babies and Bitcoin.

While the toy collectibles peaked in 1999 and never recovered, Bitcoin created 84,000 new crypto millionaires in 2024, according to a report on CNBC.

2. Beanie Babies Markets Are Not Liquid or Transparent

“Cryptocurrencies operate on the same idea,” Maddow went on in her segment to say.

“They have no inherent value at all. The only value they have is that if you have some reason to believe that somebody else might want to buy them from you in the future.”

“What that means in very practical terms is that convincing other people that your crypto is popular and in demand— that is key to actually making money.”

But it’s not true that cryptocurrencies operate on the same idea as toy and fashion manias or that assets like Bitcoin have no inherent value.

Beanie Babies are not a financial product and do not bear qualities that would make them suitable for use as one. It is not as easy as sending an email to exchange a truckload of toy plushies, but it is very nearly that easy to exchange Bitcoin.

It’s also unfeasible to keep track of how many Beanie Babies are in the market and post up-to-the-minute daily trading data about each one.

It is not only feasible with Bitcoin and other cryptos like the ones going in the national reserve— computer developers engineered them that way.

That’s part of the value they provide that makes it possible to use these digital commodities as financial products and investment vehicles: liquidity and transparency.

3. Beanie Babies Are Not Durable and Fungible Like Crypto

Meanwhile, Beanie Babies are not durable and fungible like cryptocurrencies. Who wants someone else’s stuffed toy that they’ve been blowing their nose on and rubbing Cheeto grease into?

These inventories have market values that are highly sensitive to wear and tear, and the products are very vulnerable to deteriorating into a condition with a resale value marked well below retail.

Even when maintained in mint condition, after-market values for toy collectibles are more like the market for used automobiles. After being driven off the lot, they immediately and sharply depreciate.

The inventors of crypto assets BTC, on the other hand, paid careful attention to designing their economics or “tokenomics” to optimize them for resale value over time and for the foreseeable future.

Cryptocurrencies like the two mentioned above have supply limits that introduce scarcity economics. They are also not subject to deteriorating physical condition.

In fact, any unit of Bitcoin is always equal to any other equivalent unit in market value. This is called fungibility, and it is a system requirement for an asset to function as a currency.

4. Beanie Babies Are Not Scarce Like Bitcoin

“The idea of hyping cryptocurrency is that people should buy in soon, right?” Maddow continued on her show.

“Get in on the ground floor while it’s cheap because it’s about to go way up in value because there’s so much interest in it. If you get in on the ground floor now, then you’ll make a bundle. It’s the whole hype. It’s the whole scam.”

While it is true that participants in crypto markets may engage in inauthentic, hyped-up marketing tactics, that doesn’t make the underlying assets a scam.

Nor does it mean there aren’t more intelligent reasons why financial geniuses like BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Shark Tank panelist Kevin O’Leary, or Strategy’s Michael Saylor believe investing in Bitcoin and the blockchain is not only not a scam— but the next phase of developing the Internet and human civilization.

5. Bitcoin Commands Real Demand, Not Just Hype

After making all these mistakes in her broadcast, Maddow finally undid her own case completely with her closing thoughts on this segment.

“Imagine Trump had just announced that the US government was going to buy up tons of Beanie Babies,” the MSNBC host said. “We are going to establish a federal government reserve of billions of Beanie Babies.”

“What do you think would happen to the value of Beanie Babies? Turns out there’s a huge guaranteed buyer for these things. They’re buying billions of them.”

The answer to her question is: Their value would probably go up like most analysts expect of Bitcoin. Since there’s a huge guaranteed buyer and that buyer is the US government.

Not bad for a scam.

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Cryptocurrency

Binance Updates, Cardano Whale Sell-Off, and More: Bits Recap for March 18

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TL;DR

  • Binance added XUSD, introduced BMT/USDT and MUBARAK/USDT perpetual contracts, and announced the removal of several margin trading pairs.

  • Large investors offloaded over $70M in ADA, increasing selling pressure, though a spot ADA ETF approval could reverse the trend.

  • Shiba Inu’s former lead developer remains inactive on X, but insiders are reassured that they are focused on the new ambassadorial role.

Binance’s Latest Listings/Delistings

Despite remaining silent on potential support for Pi Network’s native token, Binance has recently conducted numerous other amendments to its platform. Earlier this week, it revealed that it will list the stablecoin StraitsX USD (XUSD) on March 19. 

Shortly after the disclosure, the asset, which is pegged 1:1 to the American dollar, experienced a major rally to almost $1.80 before returning to its target. 

The world’s largest crypto exchange also introduced BMT/USDT and MUBARAK/USDT perpetual contracts with up to 25x leverage. The prices of both assets have soared by double digits due to the inclusion. 

Contrary to the new additions on the platform, Binance said it will remove some existing margin trading pairs on March 25. ALPHA/BTC, CTXC/BTC, DODO/BTC, IDEX/USDC, LISTA/FDUSD, NKN/BTC, and SAGA/BTC will be excluded from the cross margin section, whereas ALPHA/BTC, CTXC/BTC, DODO/BTC, FLM/BTC, IDEX/USDC, LISTA/FDUSD, and NKN/BTC will be scrapped from the isolated margin category.

The majority of the affected assets have witnessed minor losses, and their prices have remained relatively stable after the announcement. It is worth mentioning that a major pullback is usually observed when Binance terminates all services with a certain cryptocurrency. Such was the case in October last year when UNFI, OOKI, and other tokens crashed by double digits after the company withdrew its support.

ADA Whales on a Selling Spree

Cardano’s native token has lost some steam lately, and some important developments suggest that the correction might intensify in the short term.

According to the X user Ali Martinez, whales offloaded over 100 million ADA tokens last week. Similar continuous efforts increase the circulating supply of the asset, which could be a precursor of a further decline (if demand doesn’t catch up the pace). Additionally, large sell-offs coming from whales may scare other smaller investors and make them cash out, too.

On the other hand, a new resurgence of the cryptocurrency market or the potential approval of a spot ADA exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US might significantly push the price in the opposite direction.

How’s SHIB Doing?

Lastly, we will touch upon the second-biggest meme coin, Shiba Inu (SHIB), whose former lead developer, using the pseudonym Shytoshi Kusama, has been surprisingly inactive on X lately. 

LUCIE (Shibarium’s marketing strategist) assured the community that this is not a cause for concern, reminding that Kusama has become an ambassador of the project and “is doing exactly what he announced he would.”

Many X users commenting on the post appreciated the information, with some predicting that the former leader may announce “groundbreaking” partnerships for Shiba Inu once they break their silence. 

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Cryptocurrency

Ripple (XRP) Price Predictions for This Week

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XRP continues to hold above $2 which is a sign of strength.

Key Support levels: $2, $1.6

Key Resistance levels: $3, $3.4

1. Buyers Remains Firm

Even if the overall market was quite turbulent in the past few days, XRP managed to hold steady above the $2 support level. Most recently, buyers took the price to almost $2.5 before a shallow pullback. This shows that demand for XRP remains high.

XRPUSDT_2025-03-18_15-00-22
Chart by TradingView

2. Key Resistance at $3

To truly turn the chart bullish, XRP has to break the resistance at $3. This recent bounce on the $2 support is encouraging, but bulls will have to keep the pressure and move the price above $2.5 if they hope to test the key resistance.

XRPUSDT_2025-03-18_15-01-07
Chart by TradingView

3. Daily MACD Shows Promise

The daily MACD moving averages are making higher lows and the histogram is positive. This shows that the bullish momentum is building up. These are early signals that buyers may be waiting to return in force. If so, the price has a good shot to approach $3.

XRPUSDT_2025-03-18_15-00-48
Chart by TradingView
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Is Dogecoin Poised for a Breakout? These Indicators Say Yes (Santiment)

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Dogecoin (DOGE), the world’s largest meme coin by market capitalization, is likely to rally when crypto market sentiment improves and the prices of digital assets stabilize, according to signals picked up by the on-chain analysis platform Santiment.

Santiment said Dogecoin’s utility and rising smart money signal a potential turning point and a bullish outlook for the asset.

Metrics Suggest Bullish Signals for DOGE

The market analytics platform urged investors to monitor the rising number of wallets holding at least 1 million DOGE. Since the start of February, these entities have grown by 1.24% (an additional 62 wallets).

Also, Dogecoin’s active addresses are at a four-month high. With over 150,000 active DOGE addresses per day, this metric is at a level not seen since mid-November 2024.

In addition to Santiment’s analysis, other market experts have identified signals that suggest DOGE is poised for a major reversal in the short term. A week ago, whales aggressively accumulated the meme coin, loading up 1.4 billion tokens in 24 hours on one occasion.

Historically, increased whale activity has caused a supply crunch that triggered a rally in prices. So, if whales continue accumulating DOGE, the meme coin may be on its way to a significant pump.

Moreover, the potential approval of a spot Dogecoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States could attract more capital into the ecosystem and push the asset’s value upward.

Dogecoin’s Price Outlook

While Dogecoin’s metrics are flashing positive signals, the cryptocurrency is down significantly due to the market-wide correction. After rallying to $0.41 on January 18, DOGE has tumbled by more than 63% to $0.15 in two months.

Data from CoinMarketCap shows DOGE is down 38% monthly. Although the asset has increased 5% in the last seven days, it is still down 2.5% daily. At the time of writing, DOGE was changing hands at $0.16, and its market cap was also down 2.5% daily.

Despite Dogecoin’s plunging value, some analysts are predicting that the asset could hit $1.1 in the next two months because it is showing a pattern similar to one seen in the 2017 bull run.

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