Invest ideasNews
27 Mar 2026, 13:00
Crypto Gets A Seat At Trump’s Science Table — Is This The Regulatory Pivot Bulls Wanted?
President Donald Trump appointed the first members of his new Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), including notable crypto representatives. Crypto Gets A Seat At The Table Where It Happens The White House is finally giving crypto its due place in debates over AI and what comes next in tech. Analyst TylerD brought to attention that The White House announced on Wednesday the 13 initial members of the PCAST, with room to grow up to 24. The Morning Minute (3.26) Powered by @yeet Top News:-Crypto majors fall as oil spikes 7%; BTC -3% at $69,400-Fannie Mae to allow crypto collateral for mortgages-Whop partners with Aave and Plasma for new Whop Treasury product-Circle stock rebounds as analysts call… pic.twitter.com/OuCvsgDP3P — TylerD (@Tyler_Did_It) March 26, 2026 The lineup, a convergence point for AI, big tech and crypto, includes marquee tech leaders such as Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Sergey Brin (Google), Larry Ellison (Oracle) and Lisa Su (AMD). The council will be co-chaired by AI and crypto czar David Sacks and David Sacks, former U.S. Chief Technology Officer (US CTO). Who Are These Representatives? The crypto names forming the council are not minor ones. We are talking about Fred Ehrsam, the co-founder of Coinbase, one of the largest US centralized exchanges; and Marc Andreessen, who co-founded the VC firm a16z. Ehrsam left a role as a foreign‑exchange trader at Goldman Sachs in 2012 to launch Coinbase with Brian Armstrong, after the two connected through the Bitcoin subreddit. He served as Coinbase’s first president from 2012 to 2017, helping grow it into the major position it has today, and then stayed on as a board member while becoming a prominent early‑stage investor in the space. Andreessen has been a prominent bull since his 2014 essay “Why Bitcoin Matters” , and today positions Ethereum and Web3 as core to the next phase of the internet . Through a16z, he has pushed large bets on blockchain, Web3, and AI, and has publicly tied his support for Trump partly to what he sees as a hostile regulatory and banking environment for tech and digital assets under previous policymakers. Ehrsam and Andreessen, architects of US crypto venture capital and market infrastructure, are now embedded in a body that advises on competitiveness, innovation, and financial plumbing. This is major specially if we compared to previous cycles, where crypto was mostly on the receiving end of enforcement and guidance rather than sitting inside the advisory structure. This signals digital assets moving deeper into mainstream policy discussions, not farther away. Market implications The PCAST could eventually translate into more predictable rule‑making, clearer treatment of exchanges and stablecoins, and potentially a friendlier stance toward US‑domiciled crypto infrastructure. In the near term, this is not a “number go up tomorrow” catalyst, but it does strengthens the case for viewing regulatory risk as shifting from pure headwind to a possible moat for compliant players over the next cycle. Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview
27 Mar 2026, 13:00
Eightco Holdings: Worldcoin, OpenAI, And POH Assets Are Overshadowed By Dilution
Summary Eightco Holdings is evolving into a digital treasury vehicle centered on Worldcoin, Ethereum, OpenAI, Beast Industries, and POH. The company’s INFINITY platform and Orb-linked strategy target a growing demand for human verification, anti-bot protection, and AI-resistant authentication. Overall, I think ORBS’s portfolio looks interesting, especially with its OpenAI stake. But these are mostly speculative, volatile, and non-operating holdings. Unfortunately, the main issue is ORBS's substantial historical dilution and potential future issuance to fund further investments. Thus, I remain neutral for now. Eightco Holdings Inc. ( ORBS ) is a company that works as a digital treasury firm holding mainly Worldcoin ( WDC-USD ), Ether ( ETH-USD ), cash, and other stablecoins. At the same time, ORBS is developing an ecosystem built around digital identity using the Orb technology. The company has invested in OpenAI, which seems to be the intelligence layer of the ecosystem. Similarly, they supported the internet personality MrBeast to reach internet consumers. Recently, ORBS secured $125 million in new funding commitments from Bitmine, ARK Invest, and Payward. Yet, overall, I feel ORBS’s disruptive appeal is offset by its long track record of stock dilution, which is why I ultimately lean neutral on this name. Blockchain And World Identity Eightco Holdings Inc. is a digital-asset treasury company based on Worldcoin, a token in the World ecosystem. This includes World Chain, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain. Eightco was founded back in 2021 and changed its ticker from OCTO to ORBS in September 2025. The company is currently headquartered in Easton, Pennsylvania. Interestingly, I noticed they have several investments that could pay off nicely in the long term, so I thought it was worthwhile looking into this stock. Source: Corporate Presentation. November 2025. First of all, it’s worth mentioning that their recent ticker change was intended to make a connection between the Orb technology and the company's Worldcoin treasury strategy. Orb is a device built by Tools for Humanity, a technology company that is part of the World ecosystem. Orb is the hardware used by Worldcoin to verify that someone is a real human. To do so, Orb scans a person's biometrics, checks that the person is human and has not been verified before, and then enables the creation of a reusable credential called World ID. This ID is stored on the user’s phone and can later be used to sign in to apps or services. As such, the underlying idea here is to generate a “ proof of human ” with a corresponding unique account. This is conceptually important because AI and bots are making it harder for platforms to distinguish real people from automated or fake actors online. And this system is designed around privacy-preserving cryptography, including a method called zero-knowledge proofs, which allows a user to prove they are verified without exposing personal information each time they use the credential itself. Also, this system doesn’t store personal identity data on a blockchain. Source: Corporate Presentation. November 2025. Then, by October 2025, the company made an investment in Mythical Games’ Series D alongside ARK Invest and World Foundation. Mythical Games is a Web3 gaming company with titles including NFL Rivals, Pudgy Party, and FIFA Rivals. Its marketplace hosts more than 9.6 million wallets with more than $400 million in annual NFT sales volume. This volume suggests that Mythical had a meaningful scale that makes this a real-world use case and an interesting proof of the effectiveness of the Orb system. ORBS’ Ecosystem And Strategy In that sense, ORBS’s broader goals target the proof-of-human ((POH)) TAM, which is projected to reach $61 billion by 2029. For instance, Mythical plans to integrate ORBS technology in games to distinguish real users from bots or duplicated accounts through an easy process. ORBS claimed that its technology makes gaming infrastructure more secure, more trustworthy, and harder to manipulate. ORBS’ investment is part of the company’s plan to allocate up to 1% of its treasury assets into companies that could help build a World identity ecosystem. Source: Corporate Presentation. November 2025. Moreover, ORBS’ authentication platform is called INFINITY . This platform is designed to provide AI-resistant authentication for industries and financial services. INFINITY also enables single-sign-on ((SSO) that verifies that the user is indeed human, which prevents deepfakes, Sybil attacks, and other AI-generated threats. Plus, some noteworthy players like Kraken ( KRAKEN ) and Coinbase ( COIN ) joined the INFINITY pilot program to test it in access, identity trust, and anti-fraud protection. Likewise, ORBS announced investments from Bitmine, ARK, and Payward, the parent company of the Kraken platform. They committed $125 million in total, led by $75 million from Bitmine, $25 million from ARK Invest, and $25 million from Payward. Meanwhile, ORBS has made investments in OpenAI with $90 million and in Beast Industries with $25 million. And all of these investments ultimately connect three digital capabilities across identity, intelligence, and distribution. For example, identity investments help verify that the user is real through POH apps and Worldcoin. Intelligence assets include their OpenAI investment, which has LLM models that give powerful AI features. Lastly, distribution initiatives comprise partnerships like the one they did with MrBeast , which is one of the biggest creator ecosystems and provides a massive consumer reach. Source: Corporate Presentation. November 2025. But, on top of that, ORBS holds 277,222,975 Worldcoin tokens. Likewise, they have 11,068 ETH and $76 million in cash and stablecoins. And their OpenAI investment is about 30% of its total treasury position. As a whole, ORBS’s capital allocation is an interesting mix of blockchain infrastructure for authentication, artificial intelligence as the intelligence layer, and next-generation consumer platforms as the adoption layer. When you put it together, it shows they’re indeed positioning themselves as an ecosystem of sorts for proof of human platforms and devices. Valuation And Risk Analysis Now, from a valuation perspective, ORBS currently trades at a $253.2 million market cap. Its latest 10-Q report shows its balance sheet holds $23.7 million in cash against $10.4 million in financial debt (lines of credit) aside from other regular operating liabilities. Obviously, their main assets are under “Digital assets, at fair value” valued at $286.7 million, which includes the investments I previously discussed. In any event, ORBS’s financials seemed relatively healthy at the time, and their book value reached $338.8 million. This indicated a cheap P/B of 0.7, which is much lower than its sector’s median P/B of 2.3. Source: ORBS’s Q3 2025 10-Q report. Nevertheless, that snapshot predates their March 2026 portfolio updates . We now know they increased their Worldcoin tokens to 277.2 million, and Ethereum tokens to 11.1 thousand. Based on their current token prices, I estimate those holdings are worth around $81.3 million and $22.7 million , respectively. Additionally, ORBS disclosed that cash + stablecoins increased to $76 million, which is tricky to read because the press release doesn’t break down precisely the value allocated in cash and stablecoins separately. But note that, as of Q3 2025, ORBS basically held only $1 worth of stablecoins. Aside from those assets, their other two main stakes are $90 million in OpenAI and $25 million in MrBeast’s Beast Industries. Source: Seeking Alpha Charts. Therefore, adding up those figures, I estimate ORBS’ main asset holdings at approximately $295.0 million at the time of this writing. And considering they have a negligible amount of debt, that would suggest the stock is relatively cheap at a $253.2 million market cap. However, the stock price has been a disappointment, since the stock is down 97% from its 2025 highs. At the time, ORBS became part of the US crypto industry boom that anticipated a much more favorable regulatory environment under President Trump. ORBS announced it would adopt the crypto treasury strategy with Worldcoin, which involves acquiring large amounts of a token's float, akin to Strategy’s ( MSTR ) accumulating Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) over time. However, since then, the hype seems to have died down, and ORBS now trades at much more reasonable valuation multiples again. Personally, I think ORBS most attractive asset is their stake in OpenAI, which remains a private company for now. So, ORBS is a great way to get exposure to probably the most well-known AI pureplay company today, which is the main reason why I would lean bullish on ORBS. After that, I do like their stake in MrBeast’s Beast Industries in principle, mostly because he has become a relatively durable worldwide brand . But, as for ORBS’ holdings of Worldcoin, I’m less optimistic. It makes strategic sense because it was a blockchain project co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman . Yet, Worldcoin has a max supply of 10 billion tokens, of which so far only 3.1 billion are in circulation, which suggests its price could very well continue trending lower due to further dilution. Source: Coingecko. Unfortunately, Worldcoin’s supply isn’t the only thing being diluted in this story. ORBS’s shares outstanding have also rapidly increased since 2025. You see, in March 2025, ORBS had only about 3.1 million shares outstanding. But by November 2025, the shares outstanding grew to 197.8 million , and as of March 2026, there are now 333.8 million shares outstanding. That means in just 1 year, ORBS' share count increased by almost 107.7x, which is a massive amount of dilution. But, if that wasn't enough, remember ORBS’s December 2025 shareholder meeting proposed increasing the authorized shares to 10 billion . Consequently, at this point, I think prudent investors can’t ignore such a dilutive track record or the potential for further dilution with ORBS despite its promising holdings. Besides, the company itself isn't cash flow positive either. I calculate that during Q3 2025, they burned through $1.6 million. Note that I got that figure by simply adding its quarterly cash flows from operations and CAPEX. Thus, I imagine that any major future investments may very well require further stock dilution. Conclusion: Not Worth The Risk Overall, ORBS has a promising portfolio of assets across different sectors like AI, blockchain, and POH. However, ORBS has historically resorted to massive amounts of stock dilution to fund these investments. Plus, ORBS’s holdings themselves are highly volatile and speculative. Thus, I can’t assign a bullish rating on the stock based on these substantial risks. On the other hand, I reckon that ORBS' stake in OpenAI alone could become extremely valuable in the long run. Similarly, ORBS’s bets on POH and blockchain assets may turn out to be big winners eventually. That’s why I don’t think ORBS is a good short necessarily either. Hence, I feel a “Hold” makes sense for now, but I could reconsider this stance if management fixes its highly dilutive equity issuance policy going forward.
27 Mar 2026, 12:37
Bhutan’s Massive Bitcoin Outflows Raise Questions About Treasury Tactics
Bhutan moved large amounts of Bitcoin through state investment channels within 48 hours. The transactions appear strategically planned and may link to national development efforts. Continue Reading: Bhutan’s Massive Bitcoin Outflows Raise Questions About Treasury Tactics The post Bhutan’s Massive Bitcoin Outflows Raise Questions About Treasury Tactics appeared first on COINTURK NEWS .
27 Mar 2026, 12:16
Bitcoin Dips Under $67K as Geopolitical Uncertainty, Treasury Yields Spook Traders
Bitcoin dropped to a two-week low under $67,000 amid geopolitical uncertainty, rising Treasury yields, and heavy leveraged positioning.
27 Mar 2026, 12:00
Garlinghouse Reveals Why Ripple Really Pivoted To Its Own Stablecoin
Ripple’s decision to launch RLUSD was not a sudden expansion beyond XRP so much as a move to internalize a business it was already helping power at scale. Speaking at FII Priority Miami 2026 , Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company’s role in stablecoin flows had grown large enough that building its own product became the logical next step. Why Ripple Entered the Stablecoin Market Garlinghouse said the turning point came well before RLUSD’s launch 13 months ago. “Two years ago, we were minting 20% of all USDC,” he said, tying that activity directly to Ripple’s payments business. With more than $100 billion in payment flows already processed, Ripple concluded that if it was already a major engine behind stablecoin usage, it made sense to bring that function in-house. He also linked the decision to a moment of stress in the stablecoin market. Garlinghouse pointed to USDC’s temporary depeg during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse as a reminder that institutional users care about balance-sheet strength as much as blockchain rails. “Circle came out and said, hey, we’ll stand in the gap. We’ll guarantee the peg. And it didn’t move because at that point, Circle didn’t have a balance sheet,” he said. “Ripple has on our balance sheet, you know, 60, 70 billion dollars of crypto. We have about four billion dollars of US dollars. And so I think we’re in a position to really have a very compliant, very institutional focused stablecoin.” According to Garlinghouse, stablecoins are increasingly adopted not because companies want exposure to crypto branding, but because they want a better way to solve treasury, settlement and cross-border transfer problems. That broader shift, he argued, is already reshaping how the sector is perceived. Garlinghouse compared the current state of crypto to the internet industry in the late 1990s, when companies led with the technology rather than the use case. “We don’t talk about anything as an internet company now because it’s just prevalent in the background,” he said. “And I think that’s where some of the blockchain and crypto based solutions are heading”. Companies, he added, “just want to solve a payments problem. They want to solve a custody problem.” On market structure, Garlinghouse expects the stablecoin field to get more crowded before it gets smaller. He said the biggest banks are already evaluating whether they should issue their own stablecoins, but questioned whether the market benefits from too many dollar-backed instruments that ultimately serve the same economic function. “We don’t need, you know, 50 US dollar stablecoins. Like, why? Like, they’re all, it’s still, at the end of the day, a U.S. dollar,” he said. That does not mean he sees no room for differentiation. Instead, he argued that trust, licensing and reserve transparency will become the real competitive variables as the market matures. Ripple, he said, has deliberately taken a compliance-first route, pursuing not just a New York Department of Financial Services license but also an OCC license. He added that the sector as a whole needs more regulatory verification and disclosure, pointing even to Tether’s renewed push for an audit as evidence that transparency is becoming harder to avoid. Garlinghouse was similarly upbeat on the US policy backdrop. He described passage of the Genius Act as a major unlock for demand and said corporate executives are now actively asking whether stablecoins should be part of their operations. While he said follow-on legislation around asset classification has been slower, he argued the tone in Washington has already shifted sharply, citing recent coordination between the SEC and CFTC and predicting further progress by the end of May. “So I think we already have made huge progress in this administration to provide some of that structure and Clarity [Act] . I think clarity will still pass. I was in Washington two days ago, and I think we’ll still get something. I’ll predict by the end of May we’ll get something across,” Garlinghouse said. At press time, XRP traded at $1.36.
27 Mar 2026, 11:11
Federal judge blocks Trump admin from Anthropic ban, free speech violation
A U.S. judge just told the Trump administration to back off Anthropic, ruling on Thursday that the Pentagon had no legal ground to label the AI company a supply chain threat and block its tech across federal agencies. Judge Rita F. Lin in California told the government to stop enforcing the directive against Anthropic and demanded that they file a report by April 6 explaining how they are following her order. Judge says government punished Anthropic over speech and blocks enforcement “Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation. Nothing in the governing statute supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government,” the Judge wrote. This whole fight started when the Pentagon tagged Anthropic as a supply chain risk , a label that has usually been used for foreign enemies, just because the company said no to using it for mass surveillance as well as war crimes. The decision also banned agencies from using Claude, which is Anthropic’s main model, and the company challenged that in court through this lawsuit. Anthropic said the government skipped basic legal process and acted out of disagreement, not security risk. Rita Lin made her position clear before the ruling. At a hearing in San Francisco on Tuesday, she said the government set a very low bar for calling a company a threat. She said asking tough questions should not lead to punishment. In the written decision, Rita said the actions did not line up with real national security concerns. She said if the Pentagon had issues with command control, it could just stop using Claude instead of labeling the company a threat. She also said the steps taken looked like punishment aimed at Anthropic. Court records showed the Defense Department, which called itself the Department of War, based its decision on how Anthropic spoke in the press. Rita said that kind of reasoning breaks free speech protections and called it illegal retaliation. Anthropic pushes ahead with IPO plans while legal battle with Pentagon continues Meanwhile, the US government has already said it may appeal the decision, while at the same time, Anthropic is working on a possible stock market listing. The company is looking at an IPO that could happen as soon as October. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley are being looked at for major roles in the deal. The listing could raise more than $60 billion. The company has already reached a massive valuation. Anthropic was valued at $380 billion after a $30 billion funding round that closed in February. That round was led in part by MGX. Big tech is tied in as well. Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia all have partnerships with Anthropic. These firms have invested money and provided chips and infrastructure in deals worth tens of billions. The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them .
