Crypto Newsletter March '25
Bitcoin chart, Trump memecoin, Venice AI and Denver Crypto Meetings
This newsletter covers current headlines within the crypto space, my opinion on them and projects & people I find interesting. Also included is information about important crypto community events both locally & globally. Opinions shared within the newsletter are my own and do not constitute investment advice.
Howdy crypto-heads! It’s been awhile but we’re still here.
Here’s what I’ll be covering in this edition of the newsletter:
Bitcoin VolatilityN. Korea Money LaunderingMemecoins go Presidential
Venice Token Follow-Up and $VEIL
March Monthly Member Meeting
Every day crypto scammers are getting more and more sophisticated, making personal cybersecurity and crypto self-custody more important than ever. Properly done, the right tools and strategies allow you to sleep easy and make sure your crypto is always right where you left it!
If you are anxious about losing control of your cryptocurrency or just want to learn best practices for keeping your crypto safe, please ask me about setting up a secure HomeBase® to serve as your solid foundation when exploring the cryptosphere.
Those looking to start investing in cryptocurrency should sign-up for the Crypto Investor’s Class via email matt@denvercryptogroup.com
1. N. Korea Money Laundering
I was looking at the Bitcoin chart earlier and got distracted when I remembered N. Korea has entirely pivoted their cybercrime operations to target crypto hacking. They’ve gotten about $1.5B out of crypto so far and are directly using it to fund their nuclear weapons program. Also, with barely any friction to laundering massive amounts of money from hacking crypto projects I’m a little worried Kim and the gang are only going to ramp things up from here.
For those of you are unfamiliar with Taylor Monohan, she recently went on popular crypto podcast Unchained and sounded the alarm on N. Korea’s Lazarus group. Particularly the amount of money and ease with which it’s laundered creates an incredible liability for the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The good news is this problem should be solvable without introducing KYC or permissioned systems, however, the responsibility to put resources into resolving this falls directly on the teams building DeFi projects and so far only a handful have taken this issue seriously.
If things don’t change I see this issue becoming a dominant narrative and giving an easy excuse for large regulatory powers to involve themselves and censor the cryptocurrency industry. If you have the chance, encourage projects and founders you support to take this seriously! In the long run it will help all of us, of this I’m sure.
Bitcoin Markets
As the markets tumble from economic uncertainty caused in large part by the trade war, it seems Bitcoin has some good support around $73k USD and if we bust under that not much to stop the fall until we reach $57k. Fortunately I’ve got some cash sitting on the sidelines and I intend to purchase at these levels (assuming we get there). Without a very bad global market implosion I don’t think it’s too likely we get under $50k but if the world starts to burn…who knows how low we can go.
On the upside the big number to watch is obviously $100k. There will be tremendous resistance to break out over that by more than a few percentage points, however, I do think if Bitcoin re-validates the narrative of being a ‘safe haven’ asset in tumultuous times it could decouple from the stock market if things keep going down. At this point I expect a mega-rally as worried investors flood into BTC to preserve their wealth, but only if things get really, really bad. Like greater than recession bad, which I do think is entirely possible. If we do pop out over $100k then watch for ~$120k-ish as the next floor to exit on as the elevator goes up.
It’s pretty volatile and a lot of the time doing nothing is better than tentatively entering a position you aren’t very confident in. Stay safe out there!
2. Memecoins go Presidential
From a high of over $77 USDT down to nearly $9, the official $TRUMP crypto coin has had a wild ride in only 6 short weeks. Hovering around $10, the only thing I know for sure is that some professional token snipers made multiple millions of dollars by having the coin ready to sell as the market opened.
$MELANIA was even worse as the number of retail investors aping in couldn’t outpace the massive pile of coins insiders had ready to sell. Now, the token price sits well under $1 USDT after steadily falling from nearly $12, a price only seen on release day five weeks ago.
So why am I bashing these blatant money grabs? Primarily due to the number of questions I’ve been receiving about them and how no one I know has made any money, my dear friends. I’m staying far, far away from memecoins as the model is ‘dump on retail’, and dump they have (just look at those charts!).
Please realize that it is widely known and accepted that the creators of these memecoins and their friends literally set up in advance of the public market opening and just smash the sell button as the normies ape into these coins. There is no way for you to win a rigged game, and this game is incredibly rigged.
3. Venice.ai Releases New Token and $VEIL offers ‘trusted’ privacy
Back in 2024 I spoke about a new project from Shapeshift founder Erik Voorhees called Venice AI and how I had bought some of the $MOR token as it unlocked the Pro version of Venice. This used to allow you access to all of the latest open source AI models like Deepseek, Fluently, Llama and others but recently this has changed.
I believe that the Morpheus project (mor.org) is no longer associated with Venice, or at least their token no longer provides any benefit for Venice users.
The new system rolled out recently by the Venice team however has introduced the projects own token, $VVV that entitles you to use the API for free access to the AI models hosted by Venice. The downside here is you have to send an API call that requires some technical know-how, but the result is that anyone who owns the $VVV token is able to privately use the platform for access to image, text and code generation AI models with custom prompts and zero censorship.
$VEIL Privacy Pools on Base L2
While I haven’t had time to deep dive into the Veil project yet, after recently learning about it I must say that it has piqued my interest. Living on Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network Base, $VEIL offers users the ability to deposit cryptocurrency into a pool and then withdraw a different crypto to a different wallet at a future time of your choosing.
This is similar in style to a ‘coin mixer’ or other privacy enhancing protocol, but what makes this different is the use of Zero Knowledge proving that should, in theory, prevent the developers from having law enforcement arrest them as was the case with Tornado Cash and other projects.
If you want to learn more about this project please attend our next Member Meeting on March 18th as I’ll be doing a more in-depth review of $VEIL and follow-up on $VVV.
4. March 18th Member Meeting
Please RSVP HERE using the DCG’s Website to attend this months member meeting:
Thursday, March 18th from 6:45 PM to 8:30 PM MDT
In-Person - Eloise May Library, 1471 S Parker Rd, Denver, CO 80231
Remote - Zoom starts at 7pm, https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82519472099?pwd=FOGdGjbBIsxLA8sH0KNUmg05R7OYv6.1
Agenda
As always, come talk shop with other crypto investors and learn the fundamental strategy followed by many successful DCG members. We’ll also be discussing the Veil and Venice AI projects.
That’s it for this edition, stay happy and healthy and I’ll catch you soon!
Much Love,
~Matt