Category: Business

A prominent $XRP holder is calling out what he says is a deliberate and recurring scheme to push the token’s price up before US markets open — then drive it back down once trading begins.

The claim has split the $XRP community between those who see a coordinated attack and those who say the data points to something far more routine.

A Chart, A Pattern, And A Name For It

The community figure at the center of the debate goes by Arthur online. He posted a historical price chart showing $XRP surging toward key resistance levels in the hours before US markets open, then quickly reversing after trading begins.

He counted nine separate instances of this sequence playing out since February, and says the same pattern has continued into March.

Arthur did not stop at simply flagging the moves. He attached a name to what he believes is behind them — calling it a possible “new Jane Street playbook,” a reference to the well-known quantitative trading firm.

🚨 $XRP IS BEING SYSTEMATICALLY MANIPULATED RIGHT NOW

Pumps straight to key resistance → US market opens → dumps 📉
Happens over and over.

Is this the “NEW Jane Street playbook”?

$XRP down 44% from highs despite MASSIVE @Ripple news, ETF exposure, acquisitions, licenses…… pic.twitter.com/z6gqJwh6Eq

— Arthur (@XrpArthur) March 13, 2026

He argued that the sheer number of occurrences, combined with the high volume of leveraged long positions open during each episode, makes coincidence an unlikely explanation.

What adds weight to his frustration, at least from his perspective, is the broader backdrop. Ripple has made headlines recently with billion-dollar acquisitions and continued ETF inflows.

Yet despite that activity, $XRP remains roughly 40% below its recent highs. Every time the price tries to break out, sellers appear and push it back down. Arthur sees that as part of the same problem.

Community Pushes Back On Manipulation Theory

Not everyone in the $XRP community bought the argument. A trader named Robert W entered the conversation and offered a different read.

His position was that price moves of this kind tend to repeat across multiple assets when US market liquidity flows in at the open.

Com’on Arthur. Not everything is manipulation.
The same pattern appears across multiple assets when US liquidity enters the market.
Looks more like normal liquidity shifts and profit-taking than a secret “Jane Street playbook”.

— Robert W. | $XRP Facts & Figures (@RobertXRPFF) March 13, 2026

Profit-taking and liquidity shifts, he said, are the more natural explanation — not a coordinated institutional strategy.

Arthur rejected that outright. He pointed to the precision of the pattern: nine occurrences, each following a period of accumulation with a large build-up of long positions.

Level Of Consistency

That level of consistency, he insisted, does not happen by accident. He called on several well-known voices in the $XRP space — including Vincent Van Code, Crypto Eri, BankXRP, Digital Perspectives, and Chad Steingraber — to take a closer look at the chart themselves.

The debate did not stay contained to price action for long. Another participant raised a broader critique of the crypto market, arguing that it runs largely on speculation.

Featured image from ECS Payments, chart from TradingView

Michael Saylor has fueled speculation in the market about a possible new buy signal by reposting data from his company’s “Saylor Tracker,” which monitors Bitcoin holdings.

Strategy founder Saylor, in a social media post, used the phrase “extend the orange dot,” which investors interpreted as a sign that the company may soon announce a new Bitcoin purchase. In the chart shared by Saylor, the orange dots represent $BTC purchases.

In the past, the company is known to announce Bitcoin purchases shortly after similar announcements.

According to the data, Strategy’s Bitcoin reserves are worth approximately $53 billion. The company’s total holdings are calculated at 738,731 $BTC, with an average purchase cost of $75,863. Based on current market prices, the company’s portfolio shows an unrealized loss of approximately 5.42%, indicating a loss in value of approximately $3.04 billion.

Strategy has recorded a total of 102 Bitcoin purchases to date. The most recent transaction took place last Monday, when the company bought 17,994 $BTC at an average price of $70,946, totaling approximately $1.28 billion. Following this transaction, the company’s total Bitcoin holdings rose to 738,731 $BTC.

*This is not investment advice.

Bitcoin is on track to close its strongest week since September 2025, rising about 8.5% and trading above $71,000.

The move stands out relative to other major assets.

Over the past week, bitcoin has begun to diverge slightly from the broader market. Using BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as a five-day proxy, IBIT is up roughly 3.5% and approached a one-month high on Friday.

In contrast, iShares Expanded Tech Software ETF (IGV), gold and U.S. equities all trended lower as the week progressed. This suggests bitcoin is starting to lose its strong correlation with software and tech, at least in the short term.

The divergence comes as bitcoin started to diverge from its traditional counterparts. Since the start of the conflict in the Middle East, over two weeks ago, bitcoin has gained roughly 13%, outperforming traditional risk assets and safe havens alike. Over the same period, IGV has risen about 3%, while gold has fallen around 6%, and U.S. equities have also posted losses.

On a monthly basis, the asset is up about 7% so far in March, which would mark its first positive month since September. That rebound follows five consecutive negative months in which bitcoin declined as much as 50% from its October all-time high.

The buyers of the largest digital asset appear to be U.S., as institutional demand from the region appears to be gradually returning. US spot bitcoin ETFs have recorded approximately $1.3 billion in net inflows so far in March, putting them on track for their first month of net inflows since October.

However, the divergence doesn’t mean that bitcoin is completely out of the woods yet.

The market sentiment remains extremely cautious. The crypto fear and greed index has stayed in “extreme fear” territory. At the same time, perpetual futures funding rates remain negative. Funding rates are periodic payments exchanged between traders in perpetual futures markets to keep contract prices aligned with the spot market. When funding rates are negative, short sellers pay long positions, indicating that bearish positioning is dominant and traders are willing to pay to maintain short exposure.

While it may not mean bitcoin is all-clear to take off, it does show that investors aren’t pricing it as a purely risk asset anymore.

As CoinDesk analysis showed, the move might just mean bitcoin has potentially become a 24/7 leading indicator of how the overall market might trade in response to a macro event. The Middle East conflict is the perfect example of this, as the price moved before any other asset classes when the war first started. And now, it seems everything else is following its price action, while bitcoin remains steady.

Read more: Bitcoin’s recent crash to $60,000 warned stocks first – now they’re following

Large Bitcoin wallets are increasing their holdings again as the asset’s price holds around $71,000, according to crypto sentiment platform Santiment.

“Their recent shift to accumulation is a bullish signal,” Santiment said in a report on Saturday, referring to wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 Bitcoin ($BTC).

“This is a positive reversal,” Santiment added. Santiment data shows wallets holding 10 to 10,000 Bitcoin ($BTC) now control 68.17% of Bitcoin’s total supply, up from 68.07% seven days earlier.

Santiment eyeing retail investor activity

Santiment said that a potential local bottom in Bitcoin could be forming if whales continue accumulating while retail investors’ share of holdings begins to decline.

“Ideally, we want to see small wallets (retail) drop while this group rises, signaling a transfer of coins from weak hands to strong hands,” Santiment said.

An increase in retail buying suggests over-optimism, since Bitcoin’s price has historically bottomed when everyday investors start losing hope and selling.

At the same time, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index stayed in “Extreme Fear” on Sunday at 16, signaling investors are still cautious.

Bitcoin is trading at $71,350 at the time of publication, up 6.30% over the past seven days.

Just over a week ago, Bitcoin whale activity was vastly different. Santiment reported on Mar. 6 that, in the two days prior, whales had sold 66% of the Bitcoin they bought between Feb. 23 and Mar. 3, just as Bitcoin surged past $70,000 and briefly touched $74,000.

Market bottom still uncertain

However, Santiment said that if retail investors keep buying Bitcoin, it could mean more downside ahead.

“Historically, markets tend to bottom when the ‘crowd’ loses hope. The persistence of retail optimism is currently the biggest argument against a confirmed bottom,” Santiment said.

“Markets rarely reward the majority consensus immediately,” Santiment added.

Bitcoin onchain analyst Willy Woo echoed a similar view, recently saying that Bitcoin is “solidly in the middle of its bear market through a lens of long-range liquidity.”

It comes as US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) logged their first five-day inflow streak of 2026, bringing in roughly $767.32 million this week.

A new research report suggests quantum computing poses a long-term risk to bitcoin but is unlikely to threaten the network anytime soon. Experts say advances will occur gradually, giving developers and investors time to implement post-quantum security upgrades.

New Research Says Quantum Risk to Bitcoin Is Real but Not Immediate

A new research report by Ark Invest and bitcoin-focused financial services company Unchained, examining the intersection of quantum computing and bitcoin security, concluded that while quantum technology could eventually challenge the network’s cryptography, the threat remains far from imminent.

According to the study, current quantum systems operate in what researchers call the “Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum” (NISQ) era, where machines typically run with fewer than 100 logical qubits and limited computational depth. Breaking bitcoin’s elliptic curve cryptography would require at least 2,330 logical qubits and millions to billions of quantum operations, far beyond today’s capabilities.

Instead of a sudden “Q-day” where bitcoin security collapses, researchers argue that quantum progress will likely unfold through a series of gradual technological milestones. These stages range from early scientific applications, such as materials simulation and chemistry, to the eventual ability to attack weak cryptographic systems.

Only in later stages could quantum computers begin to threaten bitcoin’s elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA), which secures private keys and transactions.

Even then, attacks would likely be slow and costly, requiring significant computational resources. The report estimates that electricity costs alone could reach around $100,000 to break a single bitcoin key in early quantum attack scenarios.

Vulnerable Bitcoin Supply

Researchers estimate that roughly 35% of the total Bitcoin supply could theoretically be exposed to future quantum risks. This includes about 1.7 million $BTC stored in older address types believed to be lost and roughly 5.2 million $BTC in reusable addresses that could be migrated to safer formats.

However, the majority of bitcoin remains stored in quantum-resistant address formats, and developers already have potential solutions in motion.

Several initiatives are underway across the crypto ecosystem. Exchanges like Coinbase have established quantum advisory boards, while developers are discussing proposals such as Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 360, which explores new address types designed to withstand quantum attacks.

Preparing Before the Threat Arrives

Security researchers emphasize that the broader internet, including banking systems, government communications, and cloud infrastructure, would face disruption long before bitcoin itself becomes vulnerable.

In parallel, post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standards are already being developed and deployed across the internet infrastructure. If necessary, bitcoin could eventually integrate similar cryptographic upgrades through protocol changes.

For investors and network participants, the takeaway is clear: quantum computing represents a long-term technological challenge rather than an urgent security crisis.

As with most transformative technologies, progress will likely unfold over decades, providing the bitcoin ecosystem ample time to adapt.