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• Federal Reserve minutes show officials debating both possible rate cuts and possible rate hikes, with inflation and the Iran war pulling policy in opposite directions.
• Bitcoin is hovering near $71,000 and analysts are divided between a rebound if risk appetite improves and a further pullback if macro pressures return.

The last meeting minutes the Federal Reserve did not give the markets a clear signal. Some officials said rate cuts could be needed later this year if growth weakens. Others argued that upward adjustments could be necessary if inflation remains above target, particularly if higher energy costs continue to impact the economy.

The Fed left interest rates unchanged in March at 3.50% to 3.75%, while its forecasts still pointed to a median policy rate of 3.4% by year-end, broadly implying a rate cut this year rather than a rapid easing cycle.

Interest rates, oil and the return of macroeconomics

This is significant for Bitcoin because the token trades more like a macro-sensitive asset than a pure safe-haven asset. It rose with general relief following the two-week truce between the US and Iran, but the truce already appears fragile and oil prices remain well above pre-war levels. Traders now estimate the chances of a Fed cut by year-end to be only about one in four, after briefly betting more aggressively on easing.

The $75,000 question

For the next four weeks, the short-term uptrend is clear. If the truce holds, oil prices remain contained, and weaker inflation data restores confidence in future Fed cuts, Bitcoin could rise further from the current $71,000 level.

This case is also supported by renewed institutional demand, as Bitcoin ETFs raised about $471 million on April 6, the largest daily inflow since late February. Longer-term bulls like Bernstein have argued that Bitcoin may have already found a bottom as institutional ownership reshapes the market.

• Kraken is one of the oldest crypto exchanges in the world. The core business consists of spot trading, futures, staking services and the custody of digital assets.
• Today, Kraken also operates the US bank Kraken Financial and offers services such as over-the-counter trading and professional custody to institutions.

Kraken lays with his Transparency report 2025 again present numbers that represent the Influence of regulation to make the crypto industry visible. The report shows: The number of government requests for customer data is increasing. Kraken interprets this as a commitment to responsible growth.

There were a total of 7,957 official requests for information to Kraken in 2025 – an increase of 16.5% compared to the previous year. The requests came from 74 countries and affected more than 13,000 accounts.

The more digital assets grow into the regulated financial sector, the greater the interest will become Supervisory and investigative authorities on the data of the crypto exchanges. Kraken emphasizes that the increase is not caused by customer misconduct in general, but also by fraud victims, testimony in court cases and normal tax audits.

USA leads ahead of Great Britain and Germany

As in previous years, most inquiries come from the USA. US authorities accounted for 27 percent of requests in 2025, led by the FBI with 677 individual requests. Great Britain follows, with a good eleven percent, and Germany with around six percent of inquiries. The geographical distribution shows that western jurisdictions continue to lead the way, while other regions are growing but not yet reaching the same volume. Kraken uses this data to underline its position as a globally operating but clearly compliant provider.

More data requests – more data protection

The decline in the transmission of requested data is remarkable: Kraken only released data in 51.3 percent of cases – in 2024 it was 57 percent. The company does not give any specific reasons, but refers to strict internal testing processes.

Requests would be assessed for legal basis, jurisdiction and appropriateness of scope. Requests that are too broad or unclear would be answered in a restricted manner or rejected. With this, Kraken wants to fulfill both its obligation to cooperate with the authorities and the equally binding one Data protection progeny.

Growth within a regulated framework

The report is a signal. Kraken presents itself as an actor that wants to continue to grow in an increasingly regulated environment.

More products, more markets and the growing Importance of crypto in payments inevitably lead to more contact with authorities. Kraken uses transparency to build trust – both with customers and with authorities.

The message: We do not see regulation as a restriction, but as a framework in which professional market participants can exist in the long term.

• Binance and Bitvavo have joined VeChain with new validators and are staking 600 million VET each.
• At the same time, the validator data shows a strong concentration at the top, as Bitvavo and Binance together account for almost 40% of the currently staked VET volume.

VeChain has seen an influx of notable validators. According to Paul Noordam, Managing Partner and CTO of VeChain Stats, one validator from Binance and four from Bitvavo have joined. Both crypto exchanges are participating with a maximum stake of 600 million VET.

Noordam sees the step as an important sign. It is also relevant for stakers because it has a direct impact on VTHO generation and thus on the revenue side of the network. Noordam wrote on Thursday via X:

“Over the past two weeks, we have seen an increase in VTHO generation of around 9%. Since VTHO output scales with the total amount of VET staked, all node holders benefit. We are already seeing an increase in staking APY, especially for X-Nodes.”

Some notable validator additions on VeChain recently

A validator from Binance and four from Bitvavo, each staking the maximum 600M $VEThave joined

A few things this impacts:

– In the past 2 weeks we’ve noted a ~9% increase in VTHO generation. Since VTHO output scales… pic.twitter.com/nAxGDHcWCX

— Paul (@Paul_VCS) March 19, 2026

In a second point, he emphasizes that exchanges that operate validators themselves are signaling that they VET-Strike consider it “safe and attractive”. The current ones Pay from VeChainStats give weight to this classification.

VeChain validator data

The validator page currently shows 101 active validators, no queue and 101 of 101 online. The staking page simultaneously shows 7.65 billion VET staked, equivalent to 8.9%, an estimated VTHO issuance of 2,325 VTHO per block, and an estimated yield range of 2.0% to 9.8%.

A look at the current validator data shows a concentration in the upper range. In the overview of active validators, the Bitvavo instances and the Binance validator dominate, each staking exactly 600 million VET and thus making up the top of the ranking.

These nodes have almost identical stake weights and have already signed several hundred blocks, the Binance validator has around 365 blocks with around 924,000 VTHO in rewards, while individual Bitvavo validators have similar values ​​between around 876,000 and 886,000 VTHO.

There is a clear break behind this: the next largest player, Betterswap, is already significantly lower with around 241 million VET, followed by Keyrock, Tesseract and other validators in the range between around 130 and 200 million VET. The data shows how strongly a small circle of large operators is currently positioning itself at the top of the VeChain validator set.

Of the 7.65 billion VET currently staked, Bitvavo and Binance This makes up almost 40% of the currently displayed staking volume. But this doesn’t have to be a disadvantage. If large exchanges operate validators themselves, they can offer return products for users who do not want to manage their own wallet.

• SEC filings suggest Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen and related players could gain significant influence over XRP treasury firm Evernorth and its voting rights.
• Protos sees this as a potential conflict of interest from which parties close to Larsen could benefit financially.

A report from Protos has uncovered a dubious XRP transaction involving Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen that will be processed via a planned Nasdaq listing by Evernorth. The core issue is the question of how much influence Larsen, Ripple, RippleWorks and associated vehicles can have on the future listed XRP treasury company and what conflicts of interest this creates for future shareholders.

How Ripple founder Larsen could gain influence

Die revelation based on a 1,158-page SEC Form (S-4) dated March 18. According to Protos, it is disclosed that RippleWorks Inc., a tax-exempt non-profit organization co-founded by Larsen, contributed $500,000 in cash and 211,319,096 XRP to the Arrington XRP Capital Fund. As a result, RippleWorks holds the majority of the limited partner shares of this fund, which contractually owns the contributed XRP in full Evernorth-need to invest in stocks.

Formally, control lies with the fund’s general partner, an LLC whose sole managing member is Michael Arrington. However, according to the report, Arrington is contractually obliged to involve RippleWorks when making decisions about Evernorth shares and to vote the shares according to their instructions. The wording in the filing is clear:

“The economic interests of the sponsor are different from the economic interests of the holders of the public shares. This structure could create potential conflicts of interest between Mr. Larsen’s duties to Ripple, his influence over RippleWorks’ investment in the Arrington XRP Capital Fund, and the interests of Evernorth Holdings Inc. and its shareholders.”

According to Protos, the Larsen Lam Children’s Remainder Trust is also contributing an additional 50 million XRP to the deal and will receive 1,832,454 Evernorth shares in return. At the same time, Ripple itself contributes another 126,791,458 XRP to the same company. Cash and XRP from Larsen’s non-profit, from Ripple and from a trust associated with his family flow into the same Nasdaq transaction.

The SEC documents also attempt to weaken the influence. Larsen has “no direct control over RippleWorks’ voting or investment decisions regarding the Arrington XRP Capital Fund.” Furthermore it says:

“His dual roles and connections could create situations in which his interests as an executive of Ripple differ from or conflict with the interests of Armada Acquisition and the holders of Armada Acquisition’s Class A common stock.”

There is also the financial incentive. If XRP rises before the transaction closes, RippleWorks and Ripple will receive additional Evernorth shares through a closing adjustment mechanism, according to the report. If XRP falls, a contractually agreed share allocation still remains.

Also explosive is Protos’ revelation that RippleWorks had $1.4 billion in assets in fiscal 2024, according to IRS filings, with 89% of 2024 revenue coming from sales of XRP, while CEO Doug Galen earned $845,945 in 2024.