On Friday (March 1), Bitcoin continued to fluctuate at $61,390. With the return of the bull market, the average floating profit of the eight major Bitcoin whales exceeded 134%. The U.S. Congress voted on two major encryption policies and rejected the controversial U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's encryption custody guidelines.
8 Bitcoin whales made more than 134% in floating profits, with the US government and MicroStrategy accounting for the majority
Integrating the holdings and profits of 8 major institutions and countries, the average floating profit has exceeded 1.12 billion US dollars, and the average return rate has reached 134.8%. Among them, the US government, MicroStrategy, Marathon Digital and Coinbase Global have the largest holdings. At the same time, compared with other institutions, Meitu, El Salvador and Tesla have the highest purchase costs.
The U.S. government is one of the largest Bitcoin holders in the world, and has confiscated a huge amount of Bitcoin in various law enforcement operations. According to Arkham Intelligence data, as of February 29, the U.S. government holds more than 200,000 Bitcoins, currently worth more than $12.44 billion.
MicroStrategy is the listed company with the most Bitcoin in the world. According to Saylortracker data, as of February 29, MicroStrategy held a total of 193,000 Bitcoins, currently worth more than $11.893 billion. The average purchase cost of each Bitcoin was about $31,780, with a floating profit of more than $6.135 billion and a return on investment of 100.03%.
Marathon Digital is one of the largest Bitcoin miners in the United States. Its stock price has recently hit a two-year high due to the impact of Bitcoin market. According to Bitcoin Treasuries data, as of February 29, Marathon Digital held a total of 15,741 Bitcoins, with a current value of US$967 million and an average purchase cost of US$13,785. It has made a profit of more than US$777 million, with a return on investment of more than 411.4%.
US Congress Rejects Controversial SEC Crypto Custody Guidance
A majority of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee voted in favor of a resolution to eliminate the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121), a controversial guidance directing financial institutions to hold customers’ cryptocurrency assets on their own balance sheets.
The vote was a bipartisan 31-20 vote. Each member also voted in favor of a bill that would give the U.S. Secret Service more resources to investigate encryption-related illegal activities and cybercrime.
The GAO argued that the guidance should be considered a more formal rule, meaning it should go through a different approval process. The GAO review did not change the effect of the announcement.
Rep. Michael Flood, R-Nevada, one of the sponsors of the resolution, said his problem with the guidance is that it “prevents banks from effectively” keeping custody of digital assets. He said this is a particularly serious problem given the SEC’s recent approval of a bitcoin spot ETF.
It is worth noting that the main custodians of existing Bitcoin ETFs are Coinbase, Gemini, Fidelity and BitGo, all of which are non-bank institutions.
The full U.S. House of Representatives and Senate must vote on the resolution for it to take effect, and if it does take effect, it will prevent the SEC from issuing similar guidance in the future.
Bitcoin Spot ETF Dynamic Update
On Wednesday, net inflows into the Bitcoin spot ETF market rose to a record high of $673.4 million. Net inflows into BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) increased from $520.2 million on February 27 to $612.1 million on February 28.
It is worth noting that IBIT ranked first, while the net inflow of Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) was US$245.2 million, an increase of US$126 million year-on-year on February 27.
Although Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust Fund GBTC saw a net outflow of $216.4 million on February 28, net inflows still hit a record high.
From Monday to Wednesday, the Bitcoin spot ETF market had a total net inflow of $1.7701 billion. As of the week of February 16, the total net inflow reached a weekly high of $2.271 billion. Despite the surge in GBTC net outflows, the upward trend in net inflows paints a positive picture for Bitcoin.
Reacting to the flows, Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart said: “Update, Bitcoin spot ETFs hit new record inflows. BlackRock IBIT alone earned a record $612 million, and the entire collection netted $673 million, breaking the first day record of $655 million.
According to Farside Investors, GBTC saw a net outflow of $599 million on February 29, the second-largest outflow since its launch on January 11.
On Thursday, news broke that two U.S. banks were offering bitcoin spot ETFs to wealth management clients.
According to Bloomberg, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo began offering Bitcoin spot ETFs to their clients. However, Vanguard Group is still on the sidelines. In January, Vanguard Group released a Q&A stating that cryptocurrencies are more of a speculation than an investment.
Bitcoin Technical Analysis
FXEmpire analyst Bob Mason said Bitcoin remains well above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, sending a bullish price signal.
If Bitcoin revisits $62,000, bulls will look to climb to Wednesday’s high of $64,008. A breakout above Wednesday’s high of $64,008 would put the all-time high of $69,276 into play.
However, if there is a break below the $59,176 support, the bears will attack towards the $57,000 support.
The 14-day RSI reading of 79.42 shows that Bitcoin is in overbought territory and selling pressure from Wednesday’s high of $64,008 may intensify.
Ethereum Technical Analysis
Bob said that Ethereum is well above the 50-day and 200-day moving averages, sending a bullish price signal.
If Ether (ETH) breaks out of the $3,412 resistance and Thursday’s high of $3,521, resistance at $3,683 would come into play.
However, if Ether breaks below the $3,300 mark, it will support a drop towards the $3,200 support level.
The 14-period daily RSI at 68.22 suggests that Ether might break above the $3,412 resistance level and then re-enter the overbought zone.
XRP Technical Analysis
Bob mentioned that on the daily chart, Ripple is above the 50-day and 200-day moving averages, confirming the bullish price signal.
Notably, the 50-day SMA is narrowing above the 200-day SMA, which is another bullish sign.
A move back above the $0.60 mark will support a move towards the $0.6354 resistance level.
However, a break below the $0.5835 support will allow the bears to operate near the 200-day and 50-day SMA.
The 14-day RSI reading of 65.24 suggests that Ripple’s XRP could return to the $0.60 mark before entering overbought territory.
