Elon Musk’s X Restricts Crypto From Paid Features, Shiba Inu (SHIB) Averages Historic 24% Price Rise in March, ‘I Love Cardano’: Hoskinson Teases More for ADA — Morning Crypto Report

TL;DR

• X (Twitter) policy shift: New rules effectively restrict paid partnerships for cryptocurrency and financial products as the platform already deprioritizes crypto in the algorithm to combat spam and low-quality “engagement farming.”
• Shiba Inu (SHIB) outlook: As March begins — historically one of SHIB’s top three performing months — investors are watching to see if it can repeat its 145% surge from March 2024.
• Cardano milestone: Charles Hoskinson celebrated the launch of USDCx (a version of Circle’s stablecoin) on Cardano, promising “even more” upgrades incoming.
• Markets are bracing for volatility with nonfarm payrolls and unemployment data due Friday. A surprise in jobs numbers could swing Bitcoin by 3% to 7%.

X further distracts from crypto with new restrictions

As became known today, X, the social network — formerly Twitter — owned by Elon Musk, has updated its paid partnership policy. Minor changes specifically affect cryptocurrencies and finance, as both topics are now effectively restricted.

According to the new X rules, content related to financial products, services or opportunities, including credit, investment services or cryptocurrency, can no longer be offered through paid partnerships.

Moreover, all paid partnership posts must contain clear disclosures such as advertisement or promoted content and comply with local laws. Tweet deletions, shadow bans, read-only mode and permanent suspension are listed as potential sanctions for violations.

The update follows comments made several weeks earlier by X’s Head of Product Nikita Bier, who confirmed that crypto content is deprioritized by the platform’s algorithm as it opposes mechanisms that provoke spam and user harassment. Overall, crypto content on X, amid a generally negative market backdrop, does not appear to be considered attractive or valuable by the platform’s management.

Can Shiba Inu (SHIB) repeat March 2024 success?

Another notable development at the week’s close is that March has begun. February is over, and the crypto market is entering spring, which historically has been a relatively favorable period. From this perspective, attention turns to Shiba Inu (SHIB).

In March 2024, the token posted a 145.2% monthly increase. During that month, SHIB rose even more intramonth before correcting by the end of the period. Will the once-popular meme token repeat such performance? The question remains open.

Historically, as per CryptoRank, the average monthly return for Shiba Inu stands at 24.6%, while the median return is slightly negative at almost -2%. March ranks among the three most favorable months for SHIB, second only to October, with an average return of 167.5%, and May, with a figure of 65.6%.

Cardano creator speaks out on Cardano, USDCx and X

Finally, this Sunday brought comments from Charles Hoskinson, the crypto entrepreneur known for his role in the creation of Ethereum and Cardano, some of the largest ecosystems on the crypto market. The central topic of his remarks was the launch of USDCx on Cardano, a version of Circle’s USDC, a Tier-1 stablecoin with a market capitalization exceeding $77 billion.

Cardano had lacked a stablecoin of such scale, and now it has one. As Hoskinson stated, USDCx was an awesome accomplishment, and he is glad to get to feel it completely.

Still, he looks to March with expectations of more major announcements and urges users to leave X to not invite mental harm and destruction “of your soul.” This is notable in light of the platform’s current stance toward crypto accounts.

Hoskinson added that he loves Cardano and will fight every day for the progress of the ecosystem. In his words, some events like the ADA voucher caused permanent damage, but there is much unfinished work, emphasizing the need for everyone connected to Cardano and the ADA ecosystem to find a path to get it done together.

Key events for crypto in the week ahead

Looking ahead to the first week of March, several macroeconomic events are relevant for the crypto market.

• Monday (March 2): February PMI data (industrial activity).
• Wednesday (March 4): Federal Reserve Beige Book (monetary policy outlook).
• Thursday (March 5): Initial jobless claims and Q4 productivity data.
• Friday (March 6): Nonfarm payrolls (NFP), unemployment rate and average hourly earnings.
• March 7-9: Potential market pause/cooldown ahead of the next FOMC meeting.

From a trading perspective, March 5 PMI and the NFP week overall may bring maximum volatility. The consensus for payrolls stands at 130,000, but any surprise could trigger a 3% to 7% move in Bitcoin. Between March 7 and 9, there may be a pause ahead of the next FOMC developments, though residual reactions to the data remain possible.