After a tough month – its worst in three years – the cryptocurrency market is starting to show some signs of life. We saw Bitcoin (BTC) prices tumble down to $78,000 just last week, which led to a massive $400 billion being wiped out from the overall crypto market.

This price drop sent chills through the market, pushing the Crypto Fear & Greed Index all the way down to 10. That’s a level of fear we haven’t seen since the bear market days of 2022! However, there’s a bit of a silver lining – it’s since bounced back a little to 20, though we’re still firmly in “extreme fear” territory.

Good news is, Bitcoin seems to be finding its footing. Its price has climbed over 3% in the past 24 hours, now trading above $84,400. The broader CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) is also in the green, rising 1.5% to 2,700 during the same period. It’s worth noting though, that SOL’s slight dip of nearly 3% is having a bit of a dampening effect on the overall index performance, even though most other components are showing gains today.

What seems to have given the crypto market a bit of a jolt? Well, the White House announced that President Trump is planning to host a crypto summit on March 7th. According to a press release, this isn’t just any meeting – it’s expected to bring together “prominent founders, CEOs, and investors” from the crypto industry, along with members of the President’s Working Group on Digital Assets.

This summit is being seen as yet another signal of the Trump administration’s friendly stance towards crypto. It follows on the heels of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently dropping lawsuits against major players like Coinbase and Consensys (the developers behind MetaMask). They’ve also reportedly paused investigations into Robinhood, Gemini, Uniswap Labs, and OpenSea.

And there’s more positive news! BlackRock, you know, the world’s largest asset manager, has decided to dip their toes further into Bitcoin. They’ve added a 1% to 2% allocation of their iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) into one of their model portfolios. Now, these model portfolios are essentially blueprints – they suggest investment strategies and how to rebalance portfolios, which are then used by advisors and platforms. This is a pretty big deal because it’s the first time BlackRock has included IBIT in any of their models. This could really pave the way for a fresh surge in demand for bitcoin ETFs!

Just to give you an idea of the scale, BlackRock’s model portfolios are managing around $150 billion in assets as of December 31, 2024.