Bitcoin Surges Past $87,000

On March 5th, according to an announcement made by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. government has placed 49 cryptocurrency addresses on its sanctions list. These addresses are under the control of Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad, who is identified as the administrator of the darknet marketplace Nemesis. The sanctioned addresses consist of 44 Bitcoin addresses and 5 Monero addresses. Before its closure, Nemesis had 30,000 active users and was involved in facilitating nearly $30 million worth of drug transactions during its three years of operation. According to OFAC, Parsarad made millions of dollars by charging transaction fees to users and is suspected of laundering money for drug traffickers and cybercriminals. Nemesis facilitated a wide variety of transactions, including drugs, personal identity data, forged documents, ransomware, and cybercrime tools (such as phishing attacks and DDoS tools).

On March 5th, the US Secretary of Commerce announced that Trump might reduce tariffs on the US and Mexico the next day. (FXStreet)

On March 5th, the cryptocurrency trading firm Cumberland DRW announced on the X platform that it has reached a joint application agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to withdraw the lawsuit that the SEC had filed. The agreement was tentatively reached by both parties on February 20th and is currently awaiting approval from the SEC Commission. The SEC filed a lawsuit against Cumberland DRW in October of the previous year, accusing it of operating as an unregistered securities dealer and selling more than $2 billion in unregistered securities.

On March 5th, as per Decrypt, the Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD) of Thailand recently carried out raids on five unlicensed cryptocurrency companies located in Bangkok, Phitsanulok, and Nakhon Sawan. A total of 11 individuals were arrested. This operation focused on illegal cryptocurrency trading activities. The companies involved had an annual transaction volume of up to 1 billion Thai baht (approximately $29.3 million). Police seized 6 computers and relevant evidence on the spot. The arrested individuals included both company executives and ordinary employees. ECD Commander Thatphum Jaruprat stated that the case is still undergoing further investigation, and Thai authorities will continue to combat illegal financial activities to maintain market order.

On March 5th, according to HTX market data, Bitcoin rebounded and exceeded $88,000, seeing a 24-hour increase of 1.17%.

March 5th - According to sources, the US and Ukraine are planning to sign a mining agreement. Trump has informed his advisors that he intends to announce the Ukraine mining deal during today's congressional address. (Gold10)