Legendary investor Steve Eisman is warning the public about the possible emergence of a “cartel” of major banks in the US, which he says could impact the cost of financial services.

The Wall Street veteran notes in a new interview with The Compound that there hasn’t been a wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the banking sector since the 1990s.

“It’s been very much discouraged post Dodd-Frank, so you’ve had very, very little M&A. But I actually think as a country we need [a wave of M&A]. And the reason why I say that is here’s an interesting statistic: in 2007, JPMorgan’s share of deposits in the United States was 7%, today it’s close to 14%. 

Now, there are a couple of reasons for that: number one is the cost of regulation is very, very high, and they can bear that more easily, and number two, which is probably even more important, is the cost of technology has exploded, and you need to be really big so you can pay for it.

So if we do nothing and we keep the current policies and there’s no M&A wave, what’s going to happen is JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and a handful of others will continue to take market share, the other regional banks are going to wither on the vine, and what you’ll have left is a couple of very, very large banks and some community banks.”

Eisman, whose bet against the housing market was famously profiled in parts of Michael Lewis’ book “The Big Short,” says financial institutions like US Bank and Comerica should merge to compete with the giant firms.

“I don’t want to be Canada, where it’s basically a cartel, and so therefore those banks get to charge a lot more to customers.”

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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Widely followed crypto analyst Rekt Capital says that Bitcoin (BTC) is displaying textbook pre-rally behavior as technical indicators and price action flash green.

The pseudonymous analyst tells his 543,000 followers on the social media platform X that BTC is showing bullish divergence with the relative strength index (RSI).

A bullish divergence happens when a momentum-focused indicator like the RSI trends higher while price goes lower or sideways, suggesting a foreshadowing of price reversal.

Rekt Capital points out there were similar divergences in August of 2024, August of 2023 and November of 2022.

“Bitcoin is developing yet another Higher Low on the RSI while forming Lower Lows on the price.

Overall, throughout the cycle, Bitcoin has formed Bullish Divergences like this on a few occasions already.

Each Bull Div preceded reversals to the upside.”

Zooming in, the analyst says that BTC’s downward trend is officially broken once a clean break of the lower high structure, currently at around $82,000, occurs.

“Bitcoin has successfully retested red as support and the Daily RSI Higher Low continues to maintain itself as well.

Growing signs of a maturing Bullish Divergence here, with price just below the key Price Downtrend (blue).

BTC needs to break this Downtrend to enable the Bull Div to play out.”

At time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $84,789, slightly above Rekt Capital’s blue, downward trend line depicted in the chart, suggesting that the reversal may be underway.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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Bitcoin’s price action has been trapped in a tight range between $84,000 and $82,000 in recent days, with bulls struggling to push upwards. The general market sentiment is one of a cautious nature, and hopes of a quick return above $90,000 are starting to fade. However, a new technical analysis suggests that Bitcoin could be on the verge of a significant rally, as price action shows the cryptocurrency is currently conforming to the cup-and-handle pattern.

Cup And Handle Support Could Cause A Major Bitcoin Rally

Recent Bitcoin price movements have drawn attention back to a key technical structure of the handle support of a cup-and-handle pattern, suggesting that a bullish setup may be quietly taking shape. This interesting Bitcoin price activity was relayed in a technical analysis by a crypto analyst on the TradingView platform. 

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The cup-and-handle pattern in question has been forming over multiple years, with the rounded bottom phase stretching from 2021 to mid-2024. This prolonged accumulation period saw Bitcoin gradually recover from the bearish market cycle before breaking above its neckline resistance. The breakout started the handle formation in the latter half of 2024, a consolidation phase that set the stage for BTC’s next leg up. By November 2024, Bitcoin completed this handle phase and went on an impressive rally that ultimately resulted in a new all-time high of $108,786 in January 2025.

However, the recent 24% correction from this all-time high has seen the Bitcoin price returning to the neckine resistance of the cup-and-handle formation. The logical next step is for this neckline resistance to serve as support for the price correction and we could see Bitcoin rebound from here. In terms of a price prediction, Elliott wave analysis and projections put the price target above $130,000, particularly at $139,000.

Elliott Wave Analysis Suggests A Surge Toward $130,000

According to the Elliot Waves technical framework, Bitcoin is currently in a larger fifth impulse wave formation. However, this fifth wave, which is generally bullish, has been punctuated by corrective ABC sub-waves, leading Bitcoin to retest the support of the cup-and-handle formation. Now that the support has been met, Bitcoin is in a position to bounce and continue the formation of its fifth impulse wave. This is expected to bring it to the price target above $130,000.

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The alignment of the cup-and-handle formation with Elliott wave projections strengthens the case for a major breakout in the coming months. However, Bitcoin’s fundamentals reflect uncertainty in the short term. There is currently a lack of bullish momentum needed to rechallenge the $90,000 mark, which would be the first step needed to reach $130,000. Steady institutional outflows from Spot Bitcoin ETFs have further increased selling pressure, limiting Bitcoin’s ability to regain strength in the short term.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $83,500.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview.com

Analyst and trader Ali Martinez is leaning bullish on a large-cap crypto project focusing on payments and cross-border transactions.

Martinez tells his 129,700 followers on the social media platform X that Stellar (XLM) is forming a bullish pattern on the three-day chart.

According to Martinez, the XRP (XRP) rival could go up by nearly 4x from a major resistance level.

“Since November 2024, Stellar appears to be forming a bullish flag. The 600% rally seen in November created the pattern’s flagpole and the consolidation phase we have seen since then is forming the pattern’s flag. Now, a sustained break above the $0.42 resistance could trigger a bull run to $1.60 – representing a 300% price increase.”

Stellar is trading at $0.304 at time of writing.

Turning to Bitcoin (BTC), the crypto analyst and trader says the largest crypto asset by market cap is flashing a bullish reversal signal.

“Bitcoin has historically rebounded when the trader loss margin reaches -12%. Right now, it’s sitting at -15.4%, signaling a potential reversal!”

The loss margin is the percentage of loss relative to the initial capital, investment or trade size.

Martinez further says that about $2.29 billion worth of BTC has been withdrawn from crypto exchanges in just 14 days.

“Over the past two weeks, more than 25,000 Bitcoin have been withdrawn from exchanges!”

The crypto analyst also says that whales have recently signaled bullish sentiment on Bitcoin.

“Whales have bought over 20,000 Bitcoin since it dipped below $88,000 on February 24th, signaling strong buy-side interest at these levels!”

Bitcoin is trading at $91,737 at time of writing.

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Fundstrat’s head of research Tom Lee says that the US stock market is most likely about to benefit from a bullish setup despite its recent correction.

In a new interview with CNBC, Lee says in the face of tariffs and political uncertainty, markets still appear to be climbing a wall of worry, or the tendency for assets to ascend higher despite otherwise negative sentiment.

“What really stands out to us is that the market has alluded extended periods of weakness because investors are bearish at the highs at the time when there’s record cash on the sidelines. So to us, this is a market that is very skeptical of these new highs. That bearishness and the concerns about tariffs means there’s a wall of worry so I think this is actually a very positive setup for stocks.”

Regardless of recent volatility and the perceived riskiness, the seasoned investor says that growth stocks will continue to outperform this year and that the latest market correction will most likely be shallow and shortlived.

“Investors really want to own stocks that actually have structural advantages, and that’s best evidenced by revenue growth, margin expansion, earnings growth and reasonable prices so the reason growth stocks will still outperform is that in a period like this, if we have macro uncertainty, they’re going to be names with some visibility.

It’s not pleasant to own a growth stock today, but we know the lesson of 2025 is that these pullbacks have not been deep and investors have been buying these dips, so I don’t think today is any different. In fact, it’s no different than the DeepSeek panic, or the tariff-day panic, or the CPI (consumer price index) panic so I think this is going to be a buying opportunity.”

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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Real Vision’s chief digital assets analyst Jamie Coutts says that a bottom may be forming in the crypto market after declining for weeks.

Coutts tells his 33,800 followers on the social media platform X that based on a metric tracking the performance of crypto assets over 365 days the market is gearing up for a bullish reversal.

“This month’s crypto flush resulted in the highest 365-day new low (NL) reading since mid-2024. While not a definitive bottom signal, it suggests a bottom is forming. Focus on assets that outperformed over the past year and during this recent pullback. Their strength hints at what’s to come in the next leg of this cyclical bull market.”

He also shares the TOTAL2 chart – the market cap of all crypto assets excluding Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins – which shows a possible reversal forming on the daily timeframe after a downtrend.

TOTAL2 is valued at $1.24 trillion at time of writing.

Next up, Coutts says Bitcoin may be breaking its historic inverse correlation with the US dollar index (DXY), which pits the USD against a basket of other major foreign currencies, as more investors may be treating the flagship crypto asset as a safe-haven asset similar to gold.

“Bitcoin’s inverse correlation with the dollar broken? Since the September low, BTC surged from $70,000 to $110,000 while the DXY climbed from 104 to 110. Is it ETFs (exchange-traded funds), MSTR (MicroStrategy), sovereigns? Hard to say. Maybe Bitcoin is finally being recognized as the safe harbor asset it was destined to be.”

He also says that the adoption of blockchain technology is surging based on the metric of daily active addresses (DAAs) on smart contract platforms (SCPs).

“Liquidity drives on-chain activity – always has. But since 2022, that relationship has weakened. Blockchain adoption is proving more resilient and less tethered to liquidity cycles. Over the past year, active addresses have tripled while markets remain their usual schizophrenic selves, debating where liquidity is headed next. But here’s the thing: the tech is hitting escape velocity. Zoom out. Both liquidity and blockchain usage are in long-term uptrends. The only question that matters – will they be higher in one, three or five years.”

Lastly, he predicts that 2025 will see an explosion of blockchain technology adoption across several sectors.

“In 2025, we will likely see on-chain perps volumes exceeding $4 trillion. What until RWAs (real-world assets) land en masse, stocks, commodities, bonds, and KYC (Know Your Customer) solutions so institutions can participate. Which chains and protocols do you think will benefit most from what is about to happen?”

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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