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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

Pi Network (PI) Sees 10% Daily Drop, Bitcoin (BTC) Volatile at $84K (Market Watch)

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The relatively calm weekend was disrupted yesterday with substantial volatility around the $84,000 mark after some large short positions opened on Hyperliquid.

Most altcoins are on a slight retracement today, while BNB has jumped by over 6%. PI, on the other hand, has dumped by almost 10%.

BTC Volatile at $84K

The previous business week went in a highly fluctuating manner, and it all started on Monday with a price slump from $86,000 to $80,000. After a brief recovery to $84,000, BTC headed straight south again on Tuesday and plunged to a four-month low of under $77,000.

Following this $9,000 decline in less than two days, BTC finally reacted positively and quickly reclaimed the $80,000 line. It kept climbing in the following days, especially after the positive US CPI data for February, and jumped above $85,000 on Wednesday.

However, that was another short-lived rally, and the momentum couldn’t be maintained. A drop to $80,000 followed, but BTC managed to defend that level and jumped to $84,000 over the weekend. Most of it was spent there, aside from a brief spike to $85,000 and a subsequent plunge to $82,000 after a trader opened a $366 million short on Hyperliquid.

As of now, BTC stands just under $84,000, with a market cap of $1.655 trillion on CG. Its dominance over the alts is at 58.6%.

BTCUSD. Source: TradingView
BTCUSD. Source: TradingView

BNB Up, PI Down

The biggest gainer from the larger-cap alts today is Binance Coin, which has jumped by over 5%. As a result, the asset now trades well above $630. In contrast, most other alts from this cohort are in the red.

ETH, XRP, ADA, and TRX are down by up to 1%, while SOL has plunged by over 3.5%. PI is the biggest loser, on the other hand, dumping by 10% to under $1.35.

More volatility comes from OKB and MNT, which have pumped by 5-6%, while TRUMP is down by 3%.

The total crypto market cap has declined by over $20 billion since yesterday and is well below $2.830 trillion on CG.

Cryptocurrency Market Overview. Source: Coin360
Cryptocurrency Market Overview. Source: QuantifyCrypto
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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.

Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.

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Cryptocurrency

Stablecoin Market Cap Expands Amid Broader Downturn – What Does This Mean?

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Despite the bearish sentiment in the crypto industry, the market capitalization of stablecoins has been on the rise. This growth amid the overall uncertainty drove the combined market cap of these crypto assets above $219 billion last week, placing them $10 billion away from Ethereum’s market cap at the time.

However, at the time of writing, data from CoinMarketCap shows the stablecoin market cap sitting around $233 billion, surpassing Ethereum’s current capitalization by at least $3 billion.

Stablecoin Supply Is Growing

Usually, there are two primary reasons stablecoins begin to see an increase in their supply and, thus, market cap: a rise in buying power or risk aversion.

Market analysts have always maintained that cryptocurrencies need to witness a rise in stablecoin liquidity for bitcoin (BTC) to experience a sustained rally. As with most bull markets, altcoins shoot up when BTC sustains an upward trajectory. With an increase in liquidity, users’ buying power surges, with investors positioning themselves to acquire more assets at lower prices after market sentiment improves.

The second reason, risk aversion, entails investors’ flight to safety. Since the market has been dumping for eight weeks, participants may convert their assets into stablecoins to preserve capital. This indicates that they are exercising caution and being even more careful in their investment approach.

On-chain intelligence platform IntoTheBlock believes the latter is the case currently. The firm stated that the growth in the combined stablecoin market cap is a strong indicator of rising caution in the market.

Could This Cycle Be Halfway in?

Furthermore, the growth in stablecoin supply raises concerns about the market hitting its peak for this bull run because such surges have historically aligned with cycle highs. However, IntoTheBlock insists that this cycle is still halfway in.

“In April 2022, supply hit $187B—just as the bear market started. Now it’s at $219B and still rising, suggesting we’re likely still mid-cycle,” the intelligence firm stated.

Moreover, historical data also shows that the market has peaked 12-18 months post-halving. Since the last halving was in April 2024, IntoTheBlock believes the bull cycle will likely end mid to late 2025, even though institutional flows and regulatory changes have reshaped this cycle.

Meanwhile, recent stablecoin activity examined by market analytics platform CryptoQuant reveals that investors, especially whales, are accumulating BTC, regardless of the continued correction in prices.

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Cryptocurrency

Ethereum Price Analysis: Does ETH Have the Strength to Rise Above $2K?

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Ethereum’s price is yet to show any willingness to recover, as the market has been moving sideways over the past week.

However, the current level can initiate a rebound if the price holds above it.

Technical Analysis

By Edris Derakhshi (TradingRage)

The Daily Chart

ETH’s daily chart remains bearish, with the price struggling to hold above the $1,900 support area after a prolonged downtrend. A breakdown of this level could reinforce further downside, potentially targeting the $1,600 support zone if selling pressure persists. The 200-day moving average remains well above, located around the $2,900 mark, signaling a strong bearish bias.

Meanwhile, the RSI is in the oversold territory, which suggests a short-term bounce could occur. A decisive break above $2,000 with strong volume could shift momentum toward $2,200, but failure to do so would likely confirm continued weakness in the short term.

The 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart shows a breakout from the descending wedge pattern, indicating a potential trend reversal. However, price action remains trapped around the $1,900 resistance zone, with multiple rejections signaling a lack of strong bullish momentum.

The RSI is recovering but still below overbought conditions, suggesting room for further upside if ETH can close above this key resistance area. A confirmed breakout above $2,000 could trigger a rally toward $2,100-$2,200, while failure to hold above $1,900 may lead to a retest of the $1,800 support level. Volume confirmation will be crucial in determining whether this breakout sustains or results in another rejection.

Onchain Analysis

By Edris Derakhshi (TradingRage)

Exchange Reserve

The Ethereum exchange reserve chart shows a continuous decline in the amount of ETH held on exchanges, currently near multi-year lows at around 18.8 million. This suggests a long-term trend of accumulation, as fewer tokens are available for immediate selling. Typically, declining exchange reserves indicate that investors are moving ETH to self-custody or staking, reducing potential selling pressure.

Despite the price drop to $1,900, the lack of a significant spike in exchange reserves implies that panic selling might not be fully materialized, which supports the idea that long-term holders somehow remain confident. From a technical perspective, ETH is at a critical resistance zone near $1,900-$2,000, and if buyers step in, the supply squeeze could lead to a strong recovery.

However, if the asset fails to reclaim key levels and sentiment worsens, some ETH could flow back to exchanges, increasing selling pressure. Watching reserve trends alongside price action will be crucial in determining whether the current downtrend is nearing exhaustion or if further downside remains likely.

 

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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.

Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.

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