Dubai Bank Offers Crypto Trading
SUI Jumps As WLFI Announces Partnership
Solana Questions Trump’s Crypto Reserve
Traders On Edge Ahead Of Crypto Summit
Crypto Recoups Losses As Bitcoin @ $90,000
Dubai Government-Owned Bank Emirates NBD Offers Crypto Trading Through Liv X App
Emirates NBD, the bank owned by the government of Dubai, is starting to offer crypto trading through its digital banking subsidiary Liv.
Liv is allowing customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in its new app Liv X, according to an emailed announcement on Thursday.
Dubai has been establishing itself as a crypto hub over a number of years, offering reasonably clear rules for firms to obtain licensing. This has seen major exchanges such as Binance, Crypto.com and OKX win approvals.
Against this backdrop, the Dubai government’s own bank has made the move to offer crypto trading.
Liv is offering its crypto service using infrastructure operated by Aquanow, a digital asset platform licensed by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA).
Standard Chartered-backed Zodia is providing custody services for Liv’s new offering.
Sui Price Jumps 14% As World Liberty Financial Announces Partnership
Beyond the Sui partnership, WLFI co-founder Zach Witkoff has been vocal about Ethereum’s role in the broader crypto landscape. On X, Witkoff called for Ethereum representation at the upcoming White House crypto summit on March 7.
“@worldlibertyfi has been one of the biggest supporters of Ethereum from day one—we stand with the entire ETH community,” Witkoff posted, asking Ethereum proponents what topics they want to be addressed.
In line with that sentiment, WLFI added more to its holdings in Ethereum and other digital currencies. On-chain data from Lookonchain showed that WLFI transferred $25 million USDC into a newly established multi-signature wallet, indicating intentions to further diversify its crypto portfolio.
The fund’s recent acquisitions include: 4,468 ETH for $10 million, averaging $2,238 per ETH, 110.6 Wrapped Bitcoin for $10 million at a price of $90,420 per BTC, and 3.42 million MOVE tokens for $1.5 million, priced at $0.439 per token.
Solana Co-Founder Questions Trump’s Crypto Reserve Despite SOL Inclusion
Solana co-founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko said he would prefer no US crypto reserve, citing the risks to decentralization if a government was in charge.
On March 6, Yakovenko posted on X, sharing the order of his preferences regarding a US reserve of cryptocurrencies. The Solana co-founder said his No. 1 preference would be having no reserve because putting the government in charge may cause decentralization “to fail.”
Yakovenko said his second preference was for states to run their own crypto reserves. The Solana CEO said this could act as a hedge against the Federal Reserve making a mistake.
On March 2, US President Donald Trump announced a list of digital assets to be included in a crypto strategic reserve. Trump said the Working Group on Digital Assets had been instructed to include XRP, Solana, Cardano, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Bitcoin Traders On Edge Ahead Of Trump’s Make Or Break Crypto Summit
Both traditional and crypto markets have stabilized in the past 48 hours, but key volatility indices remain elevated, calling for caution for bulls who are expecting a steady move higher.
Bitcoin, the crypto market leader, briefly topped $92,700, extending the recovery from lows around $81,500 on Tuesday. MOVE, CRO, ONDO and Render traded 10% to 17% higher as of writing. Broadly speaking, AI, gaming and Layer 2 coins are the best-performing crypto sub-sectors for the past 24 hours.
The positive move could be attributed to rumors that President Donald Trump will unveil a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve during Friday’s White House crypto summit. Meanwhile, hopes that Trump’s tariffs will likely not endure have helped restore the risk sentiment on Wall Street and Germany and China’s fiscal rockets have offered support to Asian and European equities.
Still, we haven’t seen a notable decline in the volatility indices. At press time, Volmex’s BVIV index, which measures the implied or expected 30-day price turbulence, held just five points below Tuesday’s high of 66% but well above the February low of 49.6%. Perhaps traders see Friday’s crypto summit as the make-or-break moment for crypto, as the President, having promised big for months, is now expected to deliver the goods as soon as possible.
Crypto Recoups Earlier Losses From Trade War Sell-Off, Bitcoin Climbs Toward $90,000
Crypto reversed most of its losses Tuesday afternoon, with the price of bitcoin climbing back toward the key $90,000 level.
The flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by more than 1% at $86,927.54, according to Coin Metrics, and off its all-time high by 20%. Ether rose less than 1% to about $2,100 after earlier dropping to a November 2023 low.
Ripple-related XRP and Cardano’s ADA, two of the smaller-cap coins mentioned in Trump’s surprise announcement, rose 1.8% and 4.6%, respectively. Solana’s SOL token was in the red but trading off its lows.
Stocks tied to the price of bitcoin also clawed their way back into the green. Coinbase advanced more than 3%, while the bitcoin proxy stock Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, jumped 10%. Pure-play bitcoin miners were all higher, with Mara Holdings gaining 1.4%. Robinhood rose slightly.
Risk assets including cryptocurrencies suffered steep declines on Monday as traders grappled with concerns that proposed tariffs were on track to take effect. That overshadowed the exuberance around Trump’s so-named U.S. “strategic crypto reserve,” which some traders had hoped would pull bitcoin out of a slump. After reaching its record in January, it posted its worst month since 2022 in February.
“Bitcoin and Ethereum holding steady while stocks slide suggests that crypto traders already priced in macro risks before traditional markets fully reacted,” Ben Kurland, CEO at crypto research platform DYOR.com, told CNBC. “The tariff war, inflation concerns and broader economic uncertainty have been weighing on equities, but crypto had its major sell-off earlier, which likely flushed out excess leverage.”
“That said, if equities continue dropping and risk-off sentiment deepens, crypto isn’t immune,” he added. “We could still see delayed selling pressure as larger investors rebalance portfolios. Right now, bitcoin’s stability could be more about a lack of aggressive sellers rather than a sign of strength.”
Monday’s sell-off triggered a wave of long liquidations, which forces traders to sell their assets at market price to settle their debts. Over the past 24 hours, approximately $251 million in bitcoin and $146 million in ether were liquidated, according to CoinGlass.
