Insights: Taylor Swift showed common sense in asking the sort of critical questions of FTX that any business negotiation should include, CoinDesk columnist David Morris suggests.

Prices

CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) 1,208 +9.6 ▲ 0.8% Bitcoin (BTC) $27,779 +230.4 ▲ 0.8% Ethereum (ETH) $1,875 +18.9 ▲ 1.0% S&P 500 4,133.52 +3.7 ▲ 0.1% Gold $1,994 +14.4 ▲ 0.7% Nikkei 225 28,564.37 −93.2 ▼ 0.3% BTC/ETH prices per CoinDesk Indices, as of 7 a.m. ET (11 a.m. UTC)

Crypto markets complete round-trip after big rally. What comes next?

The big story in crypto markets last week was that ether turned lower, erasing all price gains notched during the weeks-long mini-rally that followed the seamless implementation on April 12 of the Ethereum blockchain's highly anticipated Shanghai upgrade. Bitcoin reversed course as well, losing its foothold above $30,000 and changing hands at about $27,800 around press time.

According to Joe DiPasquale, CEO of BitBull Capital, technical signals found in bitcoin's price chart still look encouraging.

"A healthy retest of the support zone between $25K to $27K is a positive sign for a continued move up," DiPasquale told CoinDesk in an email. "As long as bitcoin manages to stay above $22K, in the worst case, we can expect more upward action."

Insights

What Taylor Swift Can Teach You About Investing

Angry victims of the FTX swindle are looking for restitution from the celebrity spokespeople who pitched the failed exchange, in a lawsuit that names Larry David, Tom Brady and Shaquille O’Neill, among others. One name not on that list is Taylor Swift, who was offered a reported $100 million sponsorship deal with the offshore crypto exchange – but dodged embarrassment and potential legal fallout by exercising some basic skepticism.

Swift reportedly asked FTX representatives, “Can you tell me that these [listed assets] are not unregistered securities?” in the course of negotiations, which ultimately failed. That’s according to Adam Moskowitz, the plaintiffs' lawyer in the FTX endorsements suit, speaking to The Block’s Frank Chaparro. Moskowitz describes learning about the incident in the discovery phase of the suit, and I haven’t seen confirmation from Taylor Swift’s camp.

This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk's daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here.

But even if it’s a bit of a just-so story, there’s a wealth of wisdom in this little parable. It wouldn’t be the first time Swift showed herself to be a brilliant and sharp-elbowed businesswoman on top of her musical talent – for instance, having muscled her way free of an onerous publishing deal.

The lesson of her FTX adventure, though, is a bit more abstract than it seems. Swift’s question about unregistered securities was remarkably prescient, given that we’re now seeing aggressive regulatory crackdowns on crypto exchanges. She has, it seems, been paying attention. But selling unregistered securities wasn't what brought FTX down – old-fashioned fraud was the culprit. Swift did not, it seems, ask FTX representatives, “Is your management team secretly sending user assets to an affiliated hedge fund?”

How, then, might her securities law question, largely unrelated to the risk that ultimately manifested, have led Swift to shy away from going into business with FTX? I’m speculating here, but one likely scenario is that she or her people weren’t satisfied with the way FTX handled this and other questions. For instance, maybe FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried or his representatives were confused or uncoordinated or defensive – all useful signs of an organization that may have deeper problems. (Or maybe the Swift camp didn’t appreciate FTX’s boy wonder playing “League of Legends” during their meeting.)

Read the full story here:

Important events.

8:30 p.m. HKT/SGT(12:30 UTC): Chicago Fed National Activity Index (Mar)

CoinDesk TV

In case you missed it, here is the most recent episode of "First Mover" on CoinDesk TV:

Rep. Davidson on Future of U.S. Crypto Regulation; Bitcoin Slips for Third Straight Day

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) joins "First Mover" to discuss the future of U.S. crypto regulation and explained why he wants to restructure the Securities and Exchange Commission and is calling for the removal of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. This comes as bitcoin is falling for the third straight day and touched a 24-hour low of $27,844.46. PV01 CEO Max Boonen and Crypto is Macro Now economist Noelle Acheson also joined the conversation. Acheson is a former head of research at CoinDesk and Genesis Trading, which is owned by Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk's parent company.

Headlines

Judge Rules Bored Ape Yacht Club Ripoff NFTs Violated Yuga Copyright: Use of BAYC trademarks by Ripps’ RR/BAYC was intended to confuse consumers, a U.S. judge in California has ruled.

Ether Erases All Gains From Shanghai Rally as Bitcoin, Other Crypto Prices Also Fall: The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has dropped to its lowest point since April 9, CoinDesk data shows.

Gemini to Open a Crypto Derivatives Platform Outside the U.S.: Gemini Foundation's first product will be a perpetual bitcoin contract, the company said late Friday.

Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade Spurs Institutional Investment Into Staking: The largest staking platforms for institutional investors recorded three times more new deposits than last month, early data shows.

Asia Pacific Bitcoin Ether Altcoins First Mover Asia

James Rubin

James Rubin was CoinDesk's Co-Managing Editor, Markets team based on the West Coast. He has written and edited for the Milken Institute, TheStreet.com and the Economist Intelligence Unit, among other organizations. He is also the co-author of the Urban Cyclist's Survival Guide. He owns a small amount of bitcoin.

Bradley Keoun

Bradley Keoun is CoinDesk's managing editor of tech & protocols, where he oversees a team of reporters covering blockchain technology, and previously ran the global crypto markets team. A two-time Loeb Awards finalist, he previously was chief global finance and economic correspondent for TheStreet and before that worked as an editor and reporter for Bloomberg News in New York and Mexico City, reporting on Wall Street, emerging markets and the energy industry. He started out as a police-beat reporter for the Gainesville Sun in Florida and later worked as a general-assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he double-majored in electrical engineering and classical studies as an undergraduate at Duke University and later obtained a master's in journalism from the University of Florida. He is currently based in Austin, Texas, and in his spare time plays guitar, sings in a choir and hikes in the Texas Hill Country. He owns less than $1,000 each of several cryptocurrencies.

David Z. Morris

David Z. Morris was CoinDesk's Chief Insights Columnist. He has written about crypto since 2013 for outlets including Fortune, Slate, and Aeon. He is the author of "Bitcoin is Magic," an introduction to Bitcoin's social dynamics. He is a former academic sociologist of technology with a PhD in Media Studies from the University of Iowa. He holds Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and small amounts of other crypto assets.