Last week, Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon grabbed headlines while spot Bitcoin ETFs witnessed a bearish turn. Meanwhile, Ethereum continues to come under regulatory scrutiny.

Do Kwon released from prison

• A court in Montenegro denied Do Kwon’s appeal against his extradition to South Korea. 

• However, Montenegro’s office of the prosecutor voiced against the development, asserting that Do Kwon’s extradition to South Korea and the subsequent denial of his appeal are illegal. U.S. authorities are also looking to appeal the extradition decision.

• Shortly after the remarks, reports suggested that Do Kwon’s extradition would be halted. This decision comes amid plans to release the Terra founder from prison, as he finishes his sentencing for possession of illegal documents.

• On March 23, crypto.news confirmed that Do Kwon had been released from prison. Nonetheless, authorities have confiscated his passport as a security measure to keep him in the country. 

Investors remain optimistic despite market turbulence 

• The bearishness of the previous week extended to this week, with the market witnessing sustained bearish consolidation. Bitfinex stressed that traditional investors, most of whom got into the market through the spot Bitcoin ETFs, are exercising caution.

• The global cryptocurrency market cap lost $140 billion this week, as Bitcoin championed the drop with a 4% price decline this week. The leading crypto asset ended the week at the $65,000 price level. 

• Despite the bearishness, industry leaders remained optimistic. Binance CEO Richard Teng forecasted Bitcoin to breach the $80,000 threshold. In addition, MicroStrategy revealed on March 19 that it had procured 9,245 more BTC, demonstrating its optimism in the asset.

• Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market witnessed substantial growth in stablecoin supply, with the total stablecoin market crossing the $150 billion mark. This represented an increase in buying power, as market participants prepared to procure more tokens amid the market downturn.

• Interestingly, the meme coin market witnessed new entrants, as investors looked to leverage the ongoing mania. SLERF, a new Solana-based meme token, quickly raised $10 million in pre-sale, but the developer “mistakenly” burned it all. 

Spot Bitcoin ETFs see record outflows

• Crypto.news reported on March 18 that spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $2.9 billion in inflows last week, marking a new record. 

• However, things took a turn for the worse this week as Bitcoin continued to drop. Data from Bloomberg showed that spot Bitcoin ETFs witnessed outflows totaling $742 million from March 18 to 20. 

• The spot Bitcoin ETFs saw another outflow of $93.8 million on March 21, representing the fourth consecutive day of losses. These products recorded $51 million in outflows on March 22, marking the first time they saw consecutive intraday outflows in a week. 

• Significantly, the broader crypto market dropped by 8% as of March 23 on the back of these outflows, with the global crypto market cap losing $220 billion. Moreover, data confirmed that these outflows had surged above $836 million. 

Ethereum faces regulatory scrutiny

• According to a report on March 20, the Ethereum Foundation was reportedly being investigated by a so-called “state authority” but details remain scant. X users assume that the alleged investigation may be related to the pending launch of Ethereum spot ETFs.

• Amid this, the U.S. SEC continued to push back a decision on the spot Ethereum ETFs, postponing the deadline for VanEck’s filing to May 23. The SEC also pushed back a decision on Grayscale’s filing to May 30. 

Global regulatory affairs 

• Meanwhile, this week saw a resurgence of global regulatory affairs and enforcement actions. In South Korea, authorities arrested the issuer of an altcoin on March 19 over allegations of fraud to the tune of $16.1 million.
• On March 20, reports confirmed that British authorities had also arrested Wen Jian, a British citizen, in connection to a $6 billion Chinese scam.