U.S. CFTC Acting Chairman: Enforcement Division Restructured, Refocused on Combating Fraud

March 5th — Per the Financial Times, Elon Musk admitted his tweet in the multibillion-dollar lawsuit over his $44 billion Twitter acquisition “might not have been my most wise behavior” as he defends himself in court against market manipulation charges. Testifying before a San Francisco jury Wednesday, Musk said the tweet was not intended to manipulate Twitter’s stock price and was posted during acquisition negotiations. A group of Twitter investors alleges they suffered losses after Musk threatened to withdraw from the deal to gain leverage—even though he knew he was legally obligated to complete the $44 billion purchase. Context: After signing a binding acquisition agreement in April 2022 and waiving due diligence rights, Musk quickly questioned the platform’s bot account count. On May 13, 2022, he tweeted trading would “temporarily pause” unless Twitter could prove “spam/fake accounts are indeed less than 5% of the user base.” Twitter’s stock opened down 9% the next day.

March 5, per Fortune magazine: The biggest player in crypto venture capital is back on the fundraising trail. Andreessen Horowitz’s blockchain investment arm a16z Crypto is currently raising its fifth fund, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told Fortune on condition of anonymity—they were not authorized to discuss the confidential business matters publicly. One source noted the firm is targeting roughly $2 billion in the raise, with plans to wrap up fundraising by the first half of 2026. Led by veteran investor and entrepreneur Chris Dixon, a16z Crypto launched its first $300 million fund in 2018. The year prior, a blockchain boom pushed Bitcoin’s price to $20,000. Each subsequent fund has grown larger than the last, peaking in 2022 with a $4.5 billion “mega fund” that remains active in investing. While the latest fund’s size is less than half of its predecessor, a source said a16z Crypto plans to shorten its fundraising cycle to better seize opportunities from

On March 5th, the world’s largest gold ETF—the SPDR Gold Trust—saw its holdings drop by 18 metric tons from the prior day, marking the biggest single-day outflow since April 2013. Current holdings stand at 1,081.038 metric tons. (Source: Oriental Fortune Network)

On March 5, the U.S. Senate held its first vote on the Iran War Powers Resolution. The measure failed to pass; it aimed to prevent former President Trump from conducting strikes against Iran without congressional authorization. All votes have been counted. (IG)

On March 5, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) took to social media, saying: “In this fast-changing world, prices fluctuate, missiles can be intercepted mid-air, cloud services may go down, and borders could be redrawn. Only blockchain—specifically the blockchain powering a leading cryptocurrency—remains immutable.”

March 5 — Per HTX market data, Bitcoin (BTC) staged a short-term early-morning bounce, breaking above $74k. It now trades at $72,642, with a 24-hour gain of 6.39%.