The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has intensified its examination of Ethereum, inadvertently rallying the cryptocurrency community against it.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse confidently stated that the SEC would ultimately lose its battle against Ethereum. In a post on March 22 on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Garlinghouse highlighted that the financial watchdog failed in its classification attempt of his company’s XRP token and is likely to face a similar outcome in its efforts to classify ETH as security. He mentioned that the SEC is engaging in disputes with the industry and is experiencing significant losses in court battles. Additionally, they are currently in conflict with other regulators such as the CFTC, and are trailing behind international counterparts.

Echoing Garlinghouse’s sentiments, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty suggested that the US Congress should halt funding for this “insanity.”

SEC’s Investigation of Ethereum

Recent reports revealed that the SEC, led by Gary Gensler, is investigating entities associated with Ethereum, such as the Ethereum Foundation, in an attempt to classify ETH as a security. This move sparked significant backlash from both the crypto community and US legislators, who expressed concerns about the SEC’s aggressive stance toward the burgeoning industry.

Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, highlighted numerous instances where the SEC and its representatives have referred to Ethereum as a commodity. He pointed to statements from former high-ranking SEC official William Hinman, as well as congressional hearings and testimony from Gensler before his tenure as SEC chair, which indicated that the digital asset was not considered a security. Additionally, Grewal noted instances where SEC lawyers attempted to draw comparisons between ETH and BTC.

Community Sentiments and Ripple’s Support

Notably, Ripple executives’ endorsement of Ethereum comes as unexpected, given the historical friction between the XRP community and ETH. For years, XRP supporters have alleged that Ethereum received preferential treatment from the SEC due to its non-classification as a security by former SEC official Hinman, arguing that this contributed to Ethereum’s widespread adoption and subsequent development.

Moreover, past negative remarks about XRP from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin further fueled animosity between the two projects.

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Frax Finance has taken a step forward in reinstating its protocol fee switch by presenting a new proposal on Thursday.

The proposal outlines the reintroduction of the protocol fee switch, with 50% of the yield directed towards veFXS and the remaining 50% utilized to purchase other Frax assets for pairing in the FXS Liquidity Engine (FLE), according to the proposal put forth by Frax Finance on Thursday. The implementation of FLE aims to bolster Frax’s balance sheet while significantly enhancing liquidity for FXS and paired Frax assets.

Furthermore, the proposal elaborates on a new tokenomics system designed to fully collateralize the decentralized stablecoin FRAX, along with suggesting enhancements to yield structures. Concerning the non-liquid staking reward veFXS, the proposal states, “veFXS stakers will receive total protocol fees upon the passage of this proposal, added to the veFXS yield distributor on the Ethereum mainnet and subsequently to the veFXS yield distributor contract on Fraxtal.”

Frax Finance had initially proposed activating the protocol fee switch on February 26, reversing an earlier decision to suspend rewards, as reported by The Block previously. Sam Kazemian, the protocol’s founder, remarked at the time that Frax felt “it is the right time to turn on the huge switch. It will be a ton of revenue.”

Frax Finance is responsible for developing and overseeing the FRAX USD-pegged decentralized stablecoin, the protocol’s native token FXS, and the veFXS token distributed to users upon staking FXS. As of 5:32 p.m. on March 21, FXS was trading at $7.48, showing a 1.13% increase over the past 24 hours, according to The Block’s FXS price page.

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In a quick turn of events, Bitcoin dipped below the $65,000 mark, despite major stock indices reaching record highs driven by expectations of rate cuts.

The correction in Bitcoin’s price over the past day resulted in significant liquidation of long positions on centralized exchanges.

Despite major stock indices hitting record highs, with the Dow gaining about 0.7% and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite adding roughly 0.3% and 0.2% respectively on Thursday, Bitcoin witnessed a downturn, slipping below the $64,000 mark during Friday’s trading session.

This dip in Bitcoin’s price comes amidst positive macroeconomic sentiment fueled by signals of rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve and a surprise rate cut by the Swiss National Bank.

The surprise reduction in Switzerland’s key interest rate to 1.5%, following a decrease in Swiss inflation to 1.2% in February, marked the first such action by one of the world’s major central banks since the onset of efforts to counter post-pandemic price surges.

As of 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time, Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, witnessed a decline of more than 4% over the previous 24 hours, with its value resting at $63,990. This decrease reflects ongoing market volatility and liquidations.

Market Volatility and Liquidations

The correction in Bitcoin’s price over the past day triggered significant liquidation of long positions on centralized exchanges, with over $54 million in Bitcoin positions being liquidated, the majority of which—over $40 million—were long positions, as per CoinGlass data.

The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, also experienced a 3.4% downturn in the past day, trading at $3,417 at 8:46 a.m. ET. SOL, the native coin of the Solana network, saw a sharper decline of over 8% during the same period, according to The Block’s Prices Page.

The overall cryptocurrency market witnessed over $134 million in liquidated long positions in the last 24 hours, contributing to a total of $192 million in liquidations across various centralized exchanges, according to data.

Declining Bitcoin Exchange Reserves

Bitcoin exchange reserves have reached a multi-week low, indicating a trend of investors withdrawing their coins for long-term holding.

Data from CryptoQuant shows an outflow of over 44,600 bitcoins in the past month, resulting in exchange reserves hitting a multi-week low of just over 2 million bitcoins.

This outflow from exchanges to cold storage has been a consistent trend since the beginning of the year, possibly influenced by the increase in Bitcoin’s price and inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Over the last 24 hours, the GM 30 Index, which tracks the performance of the top 30 cryptocurrencies, has dipped by 3.98% to reach 141.78.

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Tech giant Google has seamlessly integrated Ethereum Name Service (ENS) data into its search results using information sourced from Etherscan. CryptoSlate confirmed this integration through various ENS addresses, including Vitalik.eth, belonging to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum.

The displayed results provide comprehensive details such as the Ethereum balance and the timestamp of the last transaction, all retrieved from the Ethereum block explorer Etherscan. ENS serves as a naming system for the Ethereum blockchain, facilitating human-readable names for diverse resources, including crypto wallets.

The news of this integration was first shared by Brantly Millegan, a former core member of the ENS team, on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

Google’s Embrace of Crypto

This integration underscores Google’s increasing involvement with crypto and blockchain technology. Previously, the tech giant allowed users to directly check Ethereum address balances via its search engine. Furthermore, Google displayed animated pandas in sync to initiate a countdown to the Ethereum Merge event in 2022.

Last year, Google revised its crypto advertising policy to include “Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts,” enabling investors to trade shares in trusts holding digital assets. As a result, Bitcoin ETF products from prominent asset managers like BlackRock now feature in search results for queries such as “Bitcoin ETF.”

ENS Token’s Upward Movement

The news of Google’s feature on social media has helped the ENS token reverse its recent downward trend, experiencing a gain of approximately 6% in the last 24 hours, trading at $21.56 as of press time, according to CryptoSlate’s data.

In recent months, the ENS project has achieved significant milestones, including full decentralization and a pivotal partnership with GoDaddy, a domain registrar.

Jeff Lau, a developer with ENS, highlighted that these developments aim to “humanize web3.” He emphasized ENS’s role as a naming system for crypto addresses, evolving to encompass various functions within the web3 ecosystem, including serving as farcaster IDs, crypto payment addresses, and DAO contract identifiers.

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Bitcoin has experienced a decline of over 10% from its recent all-time high, reflecting a decrease in interest for newly established spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Strategists at JPMorgan Chase and Co. have cautioned that this pullback could continue.

The group of 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs is currently witnessing its largest weekly outflow since its introduction on January 11. Concurrently, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, is on track for one of its most challenging weeks of the year following a 6% downturn. On Friday, the token was down 2.7% to $63,675.

JPMorgan strategists reiterated their view that Bitcoin appears overbought, reiterating a prediction made in February for further declines leading up to April’s eagerly awaited halving event, which will reduce the supply of newly minted Bitcoin from miners.

The continuous interest seen in CME Bitcoin futures, along with the diminishing flows in ETFs, stands as notable bearish signs for Bitcoin’s price, as highlighted by strategists headed by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou in a note issued on Thursday.

The slowdown in net inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs challenges the perception of a continuous one-way net inflow, particularly as the halving event approaches. This trend of profit-taking is expected to persist, especially considering the overbought positioning backdrop, despite the recent correction.

Last month, JPMorgan forecasted a decline in Bitcoin’s price towards $42,000 post-April as the euphoria induced by the halving event subsides.

From Monday through Thursday, a net $836 million was withdrawn from the ETFs, reflecting outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and a decrease in subscriptions for competing offerings from BlackRock Inc. and Fidelity Investments.

While the ETF category has seen net inflows of $11.3 billion to date, marking one of the most successful debuts for an ETF category, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which transitioned into an ETF, has experienced $13.6 billion in outflows.

Despite Bitcoin reaching a record high of almost $73,798 on March 14, retail traders’ enthusiasm may be waning, according to Naeem Aslam, chief investment officer at Zaye Capital Markets. Aslam expressed concerns about the rally’s strength post-all-time high and emphasized the significance of the upcoming halving event in maintaining momentum. However, failure to sustain this momentum could lead to a significant retracement, potentially dropping below $50,000.

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