On Tuesday, institutional investors continued to pour capital into spot Bitcoin ETFs, marking the eighth consecutive day of inflows.
Total net inflows across all US-listed Bitcoin ETFs exceeded $170 million for the day, reinforcing the bullish sentiment that has gripped the market since last week.
Bitcoin ETFs Log 8th Straight Day of Inflows
Yesterday, BTC-backed funds posted another net inflow, totaling $172.78 million. This signaled sustained confidence in the asset class.
Total Bitcoin Spot ETF Net Inflow. Source: SosoValue
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) once again led the pack, recording the highest daily inflow among all issuers. On Tuesday, the fund recorded a daily net inflow of $216.73 million, bringing its total historical net inflow to $42.39 billion.
IBIT has consistently dominated in recent sessions, reflecting BlackRock’s influence in the crypto ETF space and sustained institutional trust in its offerings.
Meanwhile, Bitwise’s spot Bitcoin ETF (BITB) recorded the highest net outflow among all issuers on Tuesday, with $24.39 million exiting the fund. Nevertheless, BITB’s total historical net inflows remain strong at $2.05 billion.
Leverage Cools in the Bitcoin Market
Open interest (OI) in the Bitcoin futures market has seen a modest decline today. This suggests a degree of cooling among leveraged positions, as some traders are closing out positions.
It stands at $61.81 billion at press time, plunging by 3% over the past 24 hours. During that period, BTC’s price noted a 1% uptick.
When an asset’s price rises while open interest falls, traders take profits or de-risk, suggesting caution despite the uptick. This trend points to a lack of conviction in BTC’s rally, with fewer participants willing to take on new leveraged positions.
However, broader market sentiment remains optimistic. BTC’s funding rate is currently at 0.004%, indicating that long positions are still willing to pay to maintain leverage.
The funding rate is a periodic payment between long and short traders in perpetual futures contracts, used to keep the contract price aligned with the spot market. When the funding rate is positive, longs are paying shorts, indicating that more traders are betting on the price going up, a sign of bullish market sentiment.
Moreover, the increase in call option volume suggests that traders are positioning for further upside in the coin’s price.
While derivatives activity shows minor signs of uncertainty, the persistent inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs point to a market still leaning bullish in the near term.
In an exclusive interview with BeInCrypto, former US CFTC Commissioner Timothy Massad explains how President Trump’s crypto ventures and political power have significantly overlapped in his first two months at the White House.
Shortly before assuming office for the second time, US President Donald Trump dove head-first into a flurry of crypto experiments. From endorsing World Liberty Financial (WLFI) to launching his meme coin, Trump is raising serious concerns over conflicts of interest. Tim Massad, the 12th CFTC Chairman, who served under Barack Obama, shares his thoughts.
A Historic President For Many Reasons
Before assuming his first term in office in 2016, President Trump broke with modern precedent by departing from established conflict-of-interest norms. A real estate mogul with a trademark for a last name, Trump would be entering the Oval Office as the leader of a multi-billion dollar empire.
While former presidents like Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush took measures to separate themselves from their businesses by placing their assets in a blind trust, the sitting President took a different approach.
Instead, Trump handed day-to-day management decisions over to his sons but did not divest in his ownership stake.
Though he received much backlash during his first term over conflict of interest concerns, Trump refused to relinquish ownership of the Trump Organization before assuming office for the second time.
Given Trump’s favorable stance toward digital asset policy development, players inside and outside the industry have begun to wonder whether his decisions are based on the sector’s best interests or are designed to benefit his own ventures.
How Deep is Trump’s Involvement in World Liberty Financial?
Though Trump does not have a direct role in WLFI, he appears on the whitepaper’s list of supporting teams as “Chief Crypto Advocate.” His three sons, Eric, Donald Jr., and Barron, are also on the list.
Reports further unveiled that the Trump family holds a 75% stake in the platform’s net revenue and a 60% stake in the holding company. At the same time, Trump and his associates own 22.5 billion of the company’s tokens.
For former CFTC Commissioner Tim Massad, despite Trump’s informal role in WLF’s governance, his stake in the platform’s performance raises serious conflicts of interest.
“I think it’s unprecedented and plainly wrong for a President of the United States to engage in commercial ventures or have his family and associates engage in commercial ventures that can be directly influenced by the policies he adopts as President or the statements he makes about those policies,” Massad told BeInCrypto.
Meanwhile, the tokens themselves are non-transferrable, limiting financial flexibility. Though the project aims to provide token holders access to a range of DeFi-related products and services, it has yet to launch them. In the meantime, token holders will have to wait until the time comes to use their tokens.
“I have yet to see any real business case or utility that’s of value to people who invest. So I think it all just has a character of taking advantage of people,” Massad added.
The industry has also grown weary over how WLF and other Trump-endorsed projects could be used to gain the President’s favor.
Industry Leaders Voice Concerns Over World Liberty Financial’s Legitimacy
Shortly before Trump launched World Liberty Financial, many prominent figures in the crypto sector warned that the project could cause Trump further legal troubles. Meanwhile, Alex Miller, CEO of Web3 platform Hiro, described the project as an “obvious pump scheme.”
Meanwhile, Alex Miller, CEO of Web3 platform Hiro, described the project as an “obvious pump scheme.”
Just fucking shoot me
Anyone who thinks this is good for crypto, that it doesn’t make us look like clowns, that it doesn’t set us back YEARS in credibility….
This is such an obvious pump scheme. Maybe he won’t literally rug but he’s just grifting and it’s pathetic pic.twitter.com/8bTGmUfLvG
Other industry leaders, such as Mark Cuban, Max Keiser, and Anthony Scaramucci, also criticized Trump’s decision to proceed with WLF’s token sales. Trump’s involvement in the project heightened fears that crypto’s fragile public image and controversial reputation would be smeared further.
Massad agreed with this last point, adding that crypto policy development is alive and well today more than ever. The ongoing development of stablecoin regulations, open talks of a national crypto strategic reserve, and a Senate-driven digital asset working group are only some of the current institutional initiatives.
“He, the Trump Organization and his family members should not be engaging in commercial ventures that pose such blatant conflicts of interest, given the fact that crypto regulation and things like a potential Bitcoin reserve are important policy issues today. A US president shouldn’t be engaging in these things at all, in my view,” Massad said.
Since the project’s launch six months ago, several examples validating these concerns have emerged. The most notable one has focused on Tron founder Justin Sun.
The move was highly controversial. Despite Trump’s endorsement, WLFI struggled to meet its $30 million fundraising target during its first public sale. The token’s availability was restricted, excluding general trading and limiting purchases to non-US and accredited US investors.
Sun’s investment turned WLFI’s luck around. Soon after that, he also became one of the project’s advisors. Then, on the day of Trump’s inauguration, Sun invested an additional $45 million in the project, bringing the total sum to $75 million.
This investment brought varying degrees of scrutiny. While some questioned his quick transition from investor to advisor, others pointed to Sun’s past as a potential motive for his contributions.
In March 2023, the SEC filed fraud charges and other securities law violations against Sun and his companies. This regulatory baggage has led some industry leaders to question the wisdom of his association with World Liberty Financial.
Meanwhile, Tron’s price soared following Sun’s latest WLF investment. Tron, which had been experiencing lagging prices up until that point, was able to jumpstart its trading activities.
TRON Price Surge Following Sun’s $45 Million Investment in World Liberty Financial. Source: TradingView.
However, these conflicts of interest are not just limited to Sun’s investment.
Zhao could also benefit from an agreement. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to federal charges for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering measures at Binance.
Following his plea, Zhao resigned as Binance’s CEO. Motive-driven speculations point toward the possibility of a potential presidential pardon.
For Massad, maneuvers like these are natural when a president directly involves himself in crypto ventures.
“I think there is a huge risk of conflicts of interest and corruption by virtue of the President and people associated with him selling crypto assets—whether that’s through World Liberty Financial or the meme coins. It creates the potential for ongoing conflicts, because people who might want to curry favor with the administration could buy the coins,” Massad told BeInCrypto.
All the while, Trump benefits his crypto ventures every time he makes a pro-crypto announcement.
Is Trump Manipulating the Crypto Market?
A week into March, Trump signed an executive order to establish a Crypto Strategic Reserve and a US Digital Asset Stockpile. In his original announcement, Trump said the reserve would include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins like XRP, ADA, and SOL.
The crypto market responded immediately, with all five cryptocurrencies posting strong gains. Yet, Trump’s announcement quickly raised concerns over potential market manipulation.
With Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP in its treasury, WLF’s holdings grew in value as those assets appreciated. This growth could have boosted investor confidence, leading to higher demand for WLF tokens.
The crypto market’s overall surge and attention to Trump-related projects also generated greater investor interest in WLF, contributing to its price appreciation.
Meanwhile, Trump’s meme coin surged following the President’s reserve announcement. While TRUMP’s price stood at $13.55, with a trading volume of almost $1.2 billion on March 2, those numbers surged to $17.46 and $3.6 billion, respectively, following the news a day later.
On March 4, TRUMP’s price and trading volume plummeted below the numbers they registered only two days earlier.
“I think the meme coins have looked like a classic pump-and-dump scheme or money grab. I don’t think the issue should be, why not let people invest in these things if they want to? Of course they should have the right to invest in whatever they want. The issue is the propriety of the President of the United States selling things that capitalize on his being the President,” said Massad.
Even Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin touched on the damaging effects of political meme coins in a social media post published five days after TRUMP’s launch.
“Now is the time to talk about the fact that large-scale political coins cross a further line: they are not just sources of fun, whose harm is at most contained to mistakes made by voluntary participants, they are vehicles for unlimited political bribery, including from foreign nation states,” Buterin said.
There is perhaps an analogy with weed here.
Ten years ago, to many weed represented freedom, and rebellion against sclerotic old order that denied self-sovereignty over our bodies. Then, weed became legalized, and “official”.
On that day, I remember my personal interest in weed…
Given Trump’s active participation in the crypto industry over the past several months, a vital question remains: Why hasn’t Trump been held accountable over these apparent conflicts of interest?
The answer remains short and bitter: He can’t be.
Can Trump Be Held Accountable?
The potential conflicts of interest arising from Donald Trump’s involvement in the cryptocurrency industry have drawn the attention of various political figures, particularly those focused on government ethics and oversight.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren has been the most vocal opponent of Trump’s dealings in the crypto industry.
“I write today to request information about how you, as President Trump’s ‘Crypto Czar,’ have addressed your conflicts of interest, and how you will prevent the President and other private individuals from directly profiting off of the Trump Administration’s efforts to selectively pump the value of certain crypto assets, drop crypto asset-related enforcement actions, and deregulate the crypto asset industry. These actions have the potential to benefit billionaire investors, Trump Administration insiders, and speculators at the expense of middle-class families,” Elizabeth Warren wrote.
However, not much else can be done beyond letters that demand responses and clarifications from the Trump administration.
The Legal Loophole
US Presidents are largely exempted from conflict of interest provisions. This exemption has been based on legal interpretations that argue these laws could impede the President’s ability to fulfill their constitutional duties.
“The problem is, the POTUS is not subject to the conflict-of-interest laws that apply to most other executive branch officeholders. There is the Foreign Emoluments Clause in the Constitution, which prohibits accepting gifts from foreign countries. There’s also a domestic clause that prohibits accepting gifts from the government. But beyond that, he’s not subject to the usual conflict-of-interest standards. So, it’s unfortunate that we don’t have those standards applicable to a president. I think, had any other president done these things, there would be far more outrage,” Massad told BeInCrypto.
Given the legal circumstances, public scrutiny and political pressure are the best ways to hold a president accountable for potential conflicts of interest.
Yet, despite the legal exemptions for sitting presidents, the ethical implications of Trump’s crypto dealings remain undeniable.
As the lines between political power and personal profit continue to blur, the necessity for clear ethical standards, even without legal mandates, becomes increasingly urgent.
Failing to do so might erode public trust in the crypto industry, generating potentially irreversible consequences.
Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) has recently reached a new all-time high (ATH) of $0.046, marking a six-month milestone for the meme coin.
However, even with the record high, the altcoin is facing a challenge from investors who seem to be exiting, albeit gradually. This could lead to a drop in the PENGU price.
Pudgy Penguins Notes Demand
The rising demand for PENGU has been reflected in the derivatives market. Open Interest, which combines both long and short contracts, surged by 54% in just 48 hours, jumping from $426 million to $657 million. This indicates that the majority of market participants are bullish, as the funding rate remains largely positive, suggesting a stronger preference for long contracts.
This increase in Open Interest signals investor optimism despite the broader market’s turbulence. The surge in contract volumes reflects that PENGU’s price rally is based on spot market trades and also on substantial leverage.
For token TA and market updates: Want more token insights like this? Sign up for Editor Harsh Notariya’s Daily Crypto Newsletter here.
Over the past few days, the holder change for PENGU has been a mix of new investors entering the market and some existing holders exiting. This mixed sentiment shows that there is no clear consensus among investors. While some are confident in PENGU’s potential, others remain cautious, unsure of the sustainability of the recent gains.
The lack of a clear investor pattern indicates skepticism is still widespread. Despite this, the entry of new holders suggests that there is still a strong belief in PENGU’s future, driven by the altcoin’s price momentum and broader market conditions. However, the simultaneous exit of investors could create an underlying challenge for sustaining the uptrend.
PENGU’s price is currently trading at $0.044, after marking a new ATH of $0.046 earlier today. The altcoin has risen nearly 20% in the last 24 hours, showing strong short-term gains. This price action has led PENGU to a six-month high, highlighting the recent bullish sentiment surrounding the meme coin.
To continue its upward momentum, PENGU needs to secure solid investor support. If the altcoin can maintain this buying pressure, it is likely to break past its ATH of $0.046 and aim for a new high, potentially reaching $0.052 or higher. The key factor for continued growth will be the market’s confidence.
On the other hand, if the growing uncertainty and investor exits turn into a more significant trend, PENGU’s price could experience a sharp decline. A potential fall below the support level of $0.040 could lead to a drop to $0.029, signaling a complete reversal of the recent bullish trend and invalidating the optimistic outlook.
BNB (@cz_binance) 
