BTC holds the line

On a morning when markets were assessing fallout from a Bitcoin flash crash, Filecoin (FIL) flew 30% over 24 hours as of Wednesday morning at 8:45 a.m. (EST).

Yesterday, FIL floated to $155, then flitted toward $150, but at last check was flirting with $163.

Also yesterday, Shanghai-based The9 Limited, an online game developer which has pivoted into crypto mining, signed a $2 million FIL mining machine purchase/hosting agreement. FIL’s recent positive price trend (up about 500% in the past three months) was a factor, according to The9, which is not to be confused with Chinese girl group THE9.

Reports from China also show that Xinyuan Technology has invested $89 million into the FIL mining ecosystem (Bitcoin.com).

Earlier today, in a liquidation event deemed to have been a flash crash, Bitcoin, no stranger to sharp, sudden declines, did just that, plunging from over $59,000 to roughly $57,000 in the time it takes to put on a pot of coffee and run the shower.

In the ensuing half hour, across Europe, traders were decimated. Some $600 million worth of both long and short leveraged positions were liquidated in minutes, CryptoPotato said.

In just about 25 minutes, BTC went from challenging $60K to crashing by $3K. One Huobi exchange whale was said to have snap-dumped $14 million.

As the sun rose on the Eastern Seaboard, a long first quarter coming to a close, BTC had a kettle on the boil, back in the neighborhood just south of $58,000.

Stellar Lumens (XLM) seems comfortable being at least 35 cents, but is going above 40 even on the table? Sure looks like it (AMBCrypto).

In the midst of a bears-call-the-shots slump that traces back to February, XLM did just now pop 1.5% in one hour, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. (EST), to $0.394258. We kept an eye on it between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Sideways. Stay tuned.

PayPal has launched a new service to allow U.S. customers to pay with crypto. The program, dubbed "Checkout With Crypto," converts crypto to fiat, connecting with millions of online businesses.

All in on crypto, meanwhile, are droves of institutional investors, and who are coming in “enormous” numbers, Eric Peters, the CEO of One River Asset Management, said recently.

One River, a $2.5 billion-in-assets firm founded by British hedge fund billionaire Alan Howard, reportedly is in the midst of doubling crypto investments to $1 billion; and it has just announced a new high-profile advisor: Former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton.

Since leaving public service, Clayton's fingers have been busy finding pies in which to insert themselves.

Last month, when buyout titan Apollo Global Management announced plans to expand its board – and promote greater independence – we closed our eyes and made a guess ... and, sure enough, filling the role, there was Clayton.