Paul Atkins, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recently addressed the Senate Banking Committee on March 27, calling for a clear and supportive framework for the cryptocurrency market.
He said, “Since 2017, as I have led industry efforts to develop best practices for the digital asset industry, I have seen how ambiguous and non-existent regulations for digital assets create uncertainty in the market and inhibit innovation.”
Atkins said that a top priority of his chairmanship will be to work with his fellow commissioners and Congress to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent, and principled approach.
He criticized outdated rules that block innovation and said vague policies have undermined investor confidence. Atkins vowed to create a framework that encourages growth, technology, and investor protection, aligning with Trump’s vision for global leadership in digital assets.
“It is time for the SEC to return to its core mission that Congress set out for it: investor protection; fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and capital formation,” he added.
Atkins, a former SEC commissioner and current CEO of Patomak Global Partners, opened up about the need for regulatory clarity in the rapidly growing digital asset space.
“I am eager to get to work for American markets and investors. Should I be confirmed, my goal will be to ensure that the United States is the best and most secure place in the world to do business and for Americans to invest their hard-earned dollars to save and provide for their future,” he explained.
Bitcoin’s price has steadily risen, climbing approximately 4% over the past seven days. This trend reflects improving market sentiment and growing optimism among investors.
As momentum builds, key on-chain indicators signal the possibility of a sustained rally in the coming trading sessions.
Bitcoin Miners Hold Tight
Bitcoin miners have resumed accumulation, with the coin’s miner reserve reaching a weekly high of 1.8 million BTC.
Want more token insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Crypto Newsletter here.
The Bitcoin miner reserve tracks the number of coins held in miners’ wallets. It represents the coin reserves miners have yet to sell. When it declines, miners are moving coins out of their wallets, usually to sell, confirming growing bearish sentiment against BTC.
Converesly, when it climbs, miners are holding onto more of their mined coins, which usually reflects confidence in future price appreciation and a bullish outlook.
Furthermore, the decline in BTC’s Miner-to-Exchange Flow highlights the accumulation trend among miners on the network over the past seven days.
According to CryptoQuant, this metric, which measures the total amount of coins sent from miner wallets to exchanges, has plunged by 10% during that period.
Bitcoin Miner to Exchange Flow. Source: CryptoQuant
When BTC’s Miner-to-Exchange Flow falls, miners hold back from selling and keep their coins off exchanges. This reduced selling pressure signals growing confidence in BTC’s price and can help strengthen its rally.
Moreover, last week, weekly inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs turned positive, reversing the negative outflows recorded in the previous week. Per SosoValue, between August 4 and 8, capital inflow into these funds totaled $247 million.
Total Bitcoin Spot ETF Net Inflow. Source: SosoValue
This shift signals renewed institutional buying interest and a change in market bias toward BTC. Institutional investors remain confident that the coin will extend its gains and are increasing their direct exposure through ETFs.
Can BTC Push Past $118,851 to $120,000?
This combination of renewed institutional demand and miner confidence strengthens the case for BTC’s near-term return to above $120,000. However, for this to happen, the king coin must first break above the resistance at $118,851.
Welcome to the US Crypto News Morning Briefing—your essential rundown of the most important developments in crypto for the day ahead.
Grab a coffee as we dissect Bitcoin’s place in mainstream finance. The narrative of the pioneer crypto decoupling from traditional equity markets gains significant attention, but is it ready for the next step?
Crypto News of the Day: Bitcoin Still a Diversifier, Not a Reliable Hedge, RedStone Exec Says
BeInCrypto’s recent US Crypto News series in April explored whether the digital gold narrative was breaking down as Gold ascended to new highs while Bitcoin lagged.
The report came after extensive advocacy for Bitcoin as digital gold, with many presenting it as a safe-haven asset against negative market price movements.
“Primary use case for Bitcoin seems to be a store of value, aka ‘digital gold’ in a decentralized finance (DeFi) world,” the US Treasury stated recently.
However, recent findings beg the question: Is that time finally here? BeInCrypto contacted RedStone to ask: Is Bitcoin a hedge for traditional markets?
The response was insightful, with key takeaways from Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and COO of the leading cross-chain data oracle provider RedStone. According to Kazmierczak, data support Bitcoin’s role as a portfolio diversifier.
Kazmierczak cited analysis of Bitcoin and S&P 500 data from the past 12 months of open American market days. They analyzed on weekly and monthly timeframes.
Bitcoin correlation on a 7-day timeframe. Source: RedStone
For the 7-day correlation, which provides a more short-term outlook, they noted F periods when BTC exhibited a strong negative correlation with the American stock markets.
“These are the periods when many called for BTC’s decoupling from the broader markets,” he explained.
However, the 7-day aggregation is a short-term metric, making it susceptible to influence from market noise. The 30-day chart provides a clearer representation.
Bitcoin correlation with S&P on a 30-day timeframe. Source: RedStone
This timeframe reveals several shifts between modest positive, near-zero, and slightly negative correlations throughout the 12 months.
Bitcoin May Not Be Ready to Replace Traditional Hedges
He explained that Bitcoin exhibited variable correlation with the S&P 500 (SPX) over the past year.
This variance, he said, does not support positioning Bitcoin as a replacement for traditional hedges like gold or bonds.
“With correlations ranging from -0.2 to 0.4, Bitcoin demonstrates a variable relationship with equities rather than providing the consistent negative correlation truly needed for effective portfolio protection,” Kazmierczak told BeInCrypto in the interview.
He observed that institutional players still fundamentally classify Bitcoin as a risk-on asset. According to Kazmierczak, this range indicates that Bitcoin operates with periodic independence from traditional equity markets.
He believes the correlation is generally modest enough to provide portfolio diversification benefits. However, the variance nullifies Bitcoin from functioning as a reliable counter-movement hedge.
“This relationship puts Bitcoin in a diversifier category rather than a haven asset…Bitcoin can add diversity to a portfolio but won’t reliably protect against stock market crashes since it doesn’t consistently move in the opposite direction,” he added.
Nevertheless, the RedStone executive articulated that if Bitcoin truly transitions to being treated as a safe-haven, risk-off asset, it would mark the most profound asset narrative transformation in modern financial history.
“I believe that’s possible. But not in such a short timespan as crypto believers would like it to be,” Kazmierczak concluded.
Chart of the Day
Bitcoin vs S&P 500 performance: Source: TradingView
The chart suggests Bitcoin’s performance has often diverged from traditional equity markets, especially in 2024-2025.
However, this does not definitively indicate a permanent decoupling or consistent negative correlation with equities.
While Bitcoin outperformed at times, it still shows periods of correlation with the S&P 500, indicating its role in portfolio protection remains uncertain and context-dependent.
Citi Group’s April 2025 report “Digital Dollars” noted that the stablecoin market could grow to be a $1.6 trillion sector. If Ripple’s RLUSD captures even a meagre 10% of the $1.6 trillion stablecoin market, how will it impact XRP price?
Despite Ripple being a new entrant to the stablecoin sector, RLUSD market capitalization has grown to a staggering $300 million since its launch in December 2024. XRP token is a bridge currency that helps transfer value from RLUSD to another currency like the US dollar, Yen, Euro, etc. Hence, if RLUSD manages to capture 10% of $1.6 trillion, aka, $160 billion, it could most definitely have a positive impact on XRP price.
Ripple price today trades around $2.16, dropping 5.2% in the past 24 hours.
XRP Price Reaction if Ripple’s RLUSD Captures 10% of $1.6 Trillion Stablecoin Market?
Citigroup, a top American bank, published a report on how the stablecoin market could grow to be a $1.6 trillion sector by 2030. This estimate is a 556% surge from the current level of $244 billion. The current stablecoin market is dominated by the likes of Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), which are likely to maintain their dominance. However, newer stablecoins like Ripple USD (RLUSD) could gain ground after Trump’s endorsement of USA cryptocurrencies. Although RLUSD was launched in December, it has already hit $300 million in market cap.
Unlike USDT, USDC and other stablecoins, the connection between XRP & RLUSD is something interesting. XRP is used as a bridge currency when a user wants to send RLUSD across borders, which will include conversion of RLUSD to XRP and XRP to the required currency, like EUR, GBP, YEN, and so on.
To be precise, if RLUSD market cap hits $160 billion, a 53,000% increase from the current level of $300 million, its daily volume would also spike from $50 million to roughly $26 billion. Let’s assume three scenarios to determine the price impact on XRP.
If 10% of the daily RLUSD volume is bridged via XRP: The token’s volume would triple to $4.5 billion from an average of $1.5 billion. The impact of this could push XRP price up between 50% to 200%, i.e., XRP price could hit $3.24 to $6.48.
If 25% of RLUSD volume is bridged via XRP: The token’s volume would hit $8 billion per day and XRP price could shoot up to a range of $6.48 to $10.80.
If 50% of RLUSD volume is bridged via XRP: XRP’s daily volume could reach a staggering $15 billion. In such a case, the FOMO and frenzy could cause XRP price to hit $10.80 to $21.60.
To conclude, if Ripple’s RLUSD captures 10% of the $1.6 trillion stablecoin market, it could push the XRP price to reach $6 to $12. The token could reach the $12 to $20 range in a highly bullish case.
Such an increase would impact the Ripple price in various ways. First, it would help Ripple to achieve its goal of taking market share from the SWIFT network. Second, it would also boost the network activity and fees of the XRP Ledger network. Further, the RLUSD growth would help to boost the XRP price and the burn rate, and boost its deflationary goals since part of the fees are incinerated
The long-term XRP price forecast is bullish, with some analysts predicting that it will rise as high as $15. The growth of its ecosystem, especially RLUSD, will help to supercharge this growth.
The weekly chart paints a long-term bullish outlook for Ripple. It formed a cup-and-handle-like chart pattern with the upper side at $1.9822. It has retested the upper side of this pattern, pointing to a continuation ahead.
XRP has remained above the 50-week moving average, which has provided crucial support in the past few months. Therefore, although it’s too early to predict, there is a likelihood that the coin will continue to soar in the near term. Further gains will be confirmed if the coin rises above its year-to-date high of $3.40. Such a move will boost the XRP price forecast to $5.
XRP Price Chart
A drop below the key support at $1.6075 will invalidate the bullish view of Ripple price. This invalidation point is the lowest level this week and also along the 50-week moving average. A drop below that level will point to more downside, potentially to $1.
