Good Morning,

Here's a quick preview of today’s content: Positive macroeconomic numbers from February could spark a market uptrend, Garantex co-founder was arrested, the stablecoin market cap could soon enter the trillions, Hyperliquid gets liquidated with 7-figure loss, venture capital investments in crypto have not been pretty since 2022, SEC could be finishing it’s case against Ripple, and so much more below.

Friday is just around the corner; and so is a bull run. Let’s dive in.

Market Snapshot

As of 3/12/2025. Data per CoinMarketCap.

  • Macro: The Consumer Price Index showed prices increased 2.8% year over year which is still above the Fed’s 2% target but a decline from the 3% annual increase recorded in January

    • Economists had projected CPI to come in at 2.9% for the 12 months ended February

  • XRP's funding rates and cumulative volume delta indicate a lingering bias for shorts despite the price bounce.

  • DOGE is heading into the ominous-sounding death cross, which has a mixed record of predicting trends in the BTC and ETH markets.

  • Traders continue to rotate money out of altcoins and into Bitcoin (CD)

Headline Roundup
The major headlines driving crypto markets

  • Indian authorities arrest Garantex co-founder Aleksej Besciokov under extradition laws (BL)

  • SEC case against Ripple is reportedly ‘wrapping up’ see all details here

  • Cboe BZX files to list and trade Franklin Templeton Solana SOL ETF shares with the SEC (TB)

  • SEC could face private lawsuits now that the tide has changed, here’s why

  • Stablecoin sector hits all-time high with a market capitalization of $234.8B (TD)

  • Hyperliquid faces $4M loss after $200M ether long trade liquidation (CD)

  • DeFi platform Hyperliquid surpasses $1T in total trading volume (TM)

  • Institutional tokenization firm Securitize partners with RedStone as primary data provider (TB)

  • Ark Invest sells 526,991 Block Inc. shares worth $29.1M to rebalance fund allocations (TB)

  • Jupiter Exchange surpasses Hyperliquid in 24-hour revenue (TD)

  • Youtuber Ian Balina claims SEC will cease court pursuit over Sparkster token promotion in 2018 (CT)

  • Axie Infinity teases a new Web3 game as sentiment turns positive (CT)

  • Hemi Labs launches mainnet with $440M in TVL (CD)

  • Rumble purchases 188 Bitcoin worth $17.1M as part of its Bitcoin treasury strategy (BM)

  • Bitdeer Technologies increased its bitcoin holdings by 75% over two months to 1,039 BTC as of February (CD)

  • BNY boosts business with Circle, as banks warm to crypto (TI)

Launches

  • Venice completes community airdrop, burns $100 million in unclaimed VVV tokens (TB)

  • Coinbase adds SYRUP and ATH tokens to its listing roadmap (TM)

Venture Capital

  • Binance receives $2B investment from MGX for a minority stake (BL)

  • Crypto payments network Mesh raised $82M in Series B funding led by Paradigm

  •  (TB)

  • Real-time risk pricing startup Vest secures $5M investment from Jane Street, Amber Group, and others (CS)

  • Captain Tsubasa announces $5M raise from Keisuke Honda’s X&KSK fund (X)

  • GnosisDAO invests $4.8M more in Gnosis VPN for a 2-year market launch (TB)

  • Obol oversubscribes $3M token sale on CoinList with $4.2M tokens purchased (CL)

  • Nomadz secures a grant from Solana Foundation Ukraine Grants Program (X)

  • BlockTower's venture unit spins out as Strobe Ventures with $235M AUM and plans to raise $100M (TB)

Regulation

  • SEC’s Acting Chairman calls crypto regulation push ‘a major mistake’ (TS)

  • The Bank of Russia proposes controlled experiment for a select group of investors to trade cryptocurrencies (CD)

  • Gemini expands trading for institutional clients in Europe with US dollar payment support (CT)

  • Crypto exchange OKX now obtains European MiCA and MiFID II licenses (CT)

Cybersecurity

  • Blockaid partners with Sui Foundation to boost Sui ecosystem security (CT)

  • Compromised Google Chrome extension SwitchyOmega has put 500k users’ private keys at risk (CN)

  • OKX exchange denies Bloomberg reports of European regulator investigation about Bybit related funds (CS)

Extra Reads

Chart of the Day

Crypto/Web3/Blockchain cumulative monthly VC funding currently sits below $2B, which is 33% of 2021 & 2022 averages

Upcoming Events

Meme Dump

Pls send us crypto memes to be featured in the newsletter 🤝

🐦 Follow Us: Visit our X account for constant updates on all things web3, DeFi, and crypto.

💵 Litquidity Ventures: Accredited investors & qualified purchasers within the Litquidity community can gain access to alternative investments such as venture, late-stage growth, and private equity through Litquidity Ventures. Interested? Fill out this form.

☎️ Book a call with Lit: Want to pick Litquidity’s brain on business advice, insights, or just chat to say what’s up? Buy his time here.

📧 Launch your own newsletter: Have great content ideas and looking to launch your own publication? We highly recommend Beehiiv to get started.