THE LATEST CRYPTO NEWS

As we approach the end of 2026’s first quarter, a crypto market watcher has shared a bearish outlook for XRP, warning that the altcoin’s correction may not be over yet, and it risks a deeper pullback in the next few months. Related Reading: Bitcoin ‘Absolute Bottom’ Next? Analyst Says BTC’s Final Shakeout Is Near XRP Risks 60% Correction In Second Quarter On Tuesday, XRP continued to move sideways, hovering between $1.30 and $1.35 for the fifth consecutive day. The cryptocurrency has been trading between two crucial levels, $1.21 and $1.55, for nearly two months. Markey observer More Crypto Online highlighted that since the early February correction, there hasn’t been any major price action, as the altcoin has been unable to break out of its local range. However, he noted that XRP has held the lower boundary of this key range, despite market volatility, adding that it is a crucial support zone and decision area for the cryptocurrency. According to the analysis, the next significant move will define the structure and “determine whether a more bullish scenario remains valid or a deeper correction unfolds.” He explained that XRP’s current structure suggests a more bearish scenario is likely short- to mid-term, with a “more complex ABC structure” potentially unfolding unless the market “really starts an impulse rally.” In this scenario, the cryptocurrency may bounce into a crucial resistance area, between $1.76 and $2.86, for its B wave in the coming weeks before the price continues to retrace to lower levels for Wave C. This key resistance area requires close attention, the analyst asserted, as there is a possibility of a bounce into it if the February lows hold. He concluded that “If it’s a corrective move up, which currently would be the expectation, (…) in Q2 we may see a bit of a bounce, (…) and then maybe in late Q2 or early Q3, we could see that C wave down.” Per the chart, this correction could situate XRP’s bottom between the $0.98 and $0.48 levels, which would represent a 30% to 60% pullback from the current levels. Early Q2 Relief Rally Coming? Meanwhile, Chard Nerd shared a similar outlook, affirming that XRP may rally to $1.80-$2.00 in the coming months. The analyst has explained that the altcoin could see a relief rally between April and May, which could mark a very critical inflection point, based on its previous performances. Notably, after peaking in previous cycles, the altcoin has fallen to retest the 200-week Exponential Moving Average (EMA), before seeing a relief rally toward the 20 and 50 EMAs. This has been followed by a rejection and a drop to its bear market lows. Related Reading: Crypto CEO Sounds Warning: If Bitcoin Price Falls Below This Level, The Bear Market Will Worsen The market observer shared that he had expected the relief rally to occur sooner, but noted that the cryptocurrency has been consolidating around its 200 EMA for weeks. This could signal that the retest of this indicator may last longer than in the previous cycle and that the 20 and 50 EMA retests could unfold later. “XRP is hovering around the 200-week EMA. There have been major relief rallies we’ve seen in the past, which means we could get that, but it likely will be followed by another low later in the year (…) between that $0.90 to $0.70 region. (…) This is where we’re trying to get to before continued expansion,” he concluded. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Investors are currently sifting through a decade of market data to see if a massive spike in energy costs will sink Bitcoin and the crypto market. Related Reading: Bitcoin ETFs Pull In $56B As CEO Pitches Crypto Over Gold While many people focus on the immediate price of oil, the real damage to Bitcoin in the past often came from internal industry blowouts rather than what was happening at the gas pump. The 2014 crash happened alongside the Mt. Gox exchange failure. In 2022, the Terra-Luna collapse wiped out billions. These events, rather than just expensive fuel, played the biggest role in deepening previous bear markets. The Weight Of Geopolitics On Digital Assets Reports indicate that West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil jumped above the $104 mark on Monday. This is the highest price seen in nearly four years. US President Donald Trump recently expressed a desire for the US to maintain indefinite control over the oil industry in Iran. Such statements and global tensions usually push oil higher. When energy becomes this expensive, it often acts as a drag on the entire economy. It takes money out of the pockets of everyday people who might otherwise buy digital assets. Data shows that Bitcoin miners also feel the sting because their operations require significant amounts of power. In the past 12 years, there have only been three times when oil hit this specific $104 level. Because these events are so rare, some analysts believe it is hard to say for sure that one causes the other. The first instance occurred in June 2014 when ISIS moved into northern Iraq. Bitcoin was trading around $600 at the time but lost 21% of its value over the next 10 weeks. It stayed down for a long time. It actually took more than two years for the price to climb back to where it started before that specific oil spike. Searching For Patterns In A Volatile Market The most recent example happened in May 2022. This followed a proposal by the European Commission to phase out Russian oil imports. Bitcoin did not just dip; it fell 25% in only seven days. That specific crash started a bear market that lasted for 19 months. Even though oil prices eventually dropped back below $100 for several years, the damage to the crypto world was already done. Based on reports, the current return to triple-digit oil prices has many traders on edge. They are watching to see if history will repeat itself or if the market has become strong enough to handle the pressure. Related Reading: 8.25M XRP Exit Long-Term Holders As Whales Buy $1.20–$3 A Fear Of Broad Economic Pullbacks Not every spike leads to a permanent disaster. In March 2022, Bitcoin dropped 15% after the Russia-Ukraine war began and oil soared. However, that loss was erased in less than a month. Even though oil stayed high, Bitcoin managed to recover its footing quickly. This shows that the relationship between the two is not always a straight line. Sometimes the market reacts to the news of war more than the actual cost of the commodity. Featured image from Trade Brains, chart from TradingView

The US Labor Department published a proposed regulation on Monday intended to give 401(k) participants access to alternative investments, including crypto assets such as Bitcoin (BTC).  The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) framed the rule as “historic,” saying it lays out a clear, process-driven framework that plan fiduciaries can follow when evaluating non-traditional assets for defined contribution plans. Safe‑Harbor Rules For 401(k) Considering Crypto At the heart of the proposal are safe-harbor procedures designed to guide plan managers through the selection of designated investment alternatives.  Under the rule, fiduciaries would be required to evaluate potential alternatives, addressing factors such as expected performance, fees, liquidity, valuation methods, appropriate performance benchmarks, and the complexity of the crypto assets.  The department emphasized that the rule is intentionally neutral with respect to asset classes: it does not endorse any particular type of investment but instead sets out a prudent process for review and selection. Related Reading: XRP Price Alert: Expert Predicts $0.80 On Bitcoin’s Potential Retreat To $60,000 The move follows President Trump’s executive order, “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors,” and represents an attempt to translate that directive into practical regulatory guidance, according to the statement on the matter.  Labor Department officials say the proposed rule returns the agency to a long-standing approach that focuses on fiduciary process rather than picking winners and losers among asset types.  “The department’s days of picking winners and losers are over. Our rule clearly spells out that managers must evaluate any and all potential product offerings by following a prudent process,” said Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling. Treasury And SEC Back Labor Proposal The EBSA noted that the Biden administration’s 2022 compliance guidance — which effectively discouraged fiduciaries from offering crypto options — diverged from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA) requirements, contributing to the limited uptake of alternatives in retirement plans.  The new proposal aims to remove that regulatory uncertainty by providing concrete, process-based protections for fiduciaries who choose to consider crypto investments. Officials from other agencies welcomed the initiative as part of a broader push to expand retirement investment options.  Related Reading: XRP Nears Key Turning Point As Descending Wedge Tightens Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent praised the Labor Department’s rulemaking as “another step in ushering in President Trump’s Golden Age,” saying the proposal seeks to broaden access to additional retirement options for “millions of Americans” while protecting retirement assets.  Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins also expressed support, noting that enabling Americans to participate in innovation and economic growth through diversified, long-term investments is important for retirement planning and that the SEC helped formulate the proposal. If finalized, the rule would provide plan fiduciaries with a structured path to consider crypto and other alternative assets without immediately exposing them to the compliance risks that had discouraged inclusion in recent years.  At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $66,580, having failed to capitalize on moves slightly above $68,000 earlier on Monday.  Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

The week opens with crypto markets focused on the macro backdrop: while several protocol-level events are scheduled, developments around the Iran conflict and Fed signaling are likely to remain the dominant drivers. Reuters reported Sunday that the Pentagon is preparing for possible weeks of ground operations in Iran, though Trump has not approved those plans, and by Monday AP reported he was floating the idea of seizing Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal even as diplomacy was still being discussed. Brent settled last Friday at $112.57, up 4.2% on the day. BREAKING: President Trump says the US is in “serious discussions with a new and more reasonable regime to end our military operations in Iran.” Trump also says that if a deal is not made, the US will “blow up and completely obliterate all of their electric generating plants, oil… pic.twitter.com/UAsFbQuWWF — The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) March 30, 2026 Powell is due to speak later Monday, March 30, at Harvard, where markets will look for any signal on how the Fed is assessing the current oil-driven shock. With the Iran conflict pushing energy prices higher, policymakers are facing a familiar trade-off between inflation risks and slowing growth. Related Reading: Crypto Prices Under Pressure As Bond Market Stress Overtakes Oil Shock As in recent weeks, macro developments are likely to remain the dominant driver for crypto. Any escalation in Iran or a shift in Powell’s forward guidance could quickly feed through into broader risk markets, including crypto assets. Crypto Events To Watch This Week In crypto land, the AAVE gets the spotlight this week. The project is set to activate Aave V4 on Ethereum mainnet. Aave V4 is already beyond the rumor stage and through the ARFC process, with the forum proposal laying out a “security-first” rollout, conservative risk parameters, and a narrower initial hub-and-spoke setup. For ETH, the calendar matters less as a one-day catalyst than as a sentiment and narrative checkpoint. EthCC[9] begins March 30 in Cannes and bills itself as the largest and longest-running annual European Ethereum event, running through April 2. The adjacent EthCC Week schedule also includes “The Agora” on March 31, an institutional forum focused on market infrastructure, operational efficiency, and capital deployment. JUP’s watchpoint is product expansion. Jupiter’s Offerbook is already in private beta, with registration open, and the pitch is unusually direct: “Onchain finance needs onchain credit. Time-based P2P loans, without price-based liquidations.” The product lets borrowers and lenders create fixed-term orders with customizable collateral, APR, loan size, and duration. Related Reading: Crypto Analysts Warn: Traders Misreading The Clarity Act Could Miss The Real Opportunity SUSHI is lining up a derivatives push. The official Sushi account has set April 2 for perps, while Sushi’s own site already shows a dedicated perps page telling users “Perps on Sushi Coming Soon” and collecting waitlist signups. That matters because perps remain one of the deepest and stickiest revenue arenas in crypto, and Sushi has been framing derivatives as a strategic priority since Sushi Labs outlined its roadmap. FTX is also back on the radar because cash is about to move. FTX Recovery Trust said it will begin its fourth distribution on March 31, totaling about $2.2 billion for eligible creditors in the convenience and non-convenience classes who completed the required steps, with funds expected via BitGo, Kraken, or Payoneer within one to three business days. The market question is straightforward: how much of that recovered capital, if any, makes its way back into crypto trading once claims are paid. Based, a Hyperliquid-powered DEX, will launch its token on March 30. The project confirmed its March 30 TGE on X, and KuCoin has already scheduled BASED/USDT trading for 10:00 UTC on Monday, with withdrawals opening a day later. KuCoin describes Based as a non-custodial DeFi “SuperApp” spanning crypto, equities, commodities, and spending rails. At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.32 trillion. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

The majority of crypto customers still don’t understand how crypto is taxed, mistakenly believing simple transfers trigger tax events. Related Reading: Hyperliquid’s Tokyo Edge Exposed — Secret Time Gap Is Tilting The Market Well intended crypto-tax confusion Although most crypto investors intend to comply with tax law, major confusion reigns amongst traders about cost basis, taxable events and evolving IRS regulations, Coinbase’s new 2026 Crypto Tax Readiness Report shows. The survey was conducted between September and October 2025, with a population of 3.000 U.S. crypto users. Related Reading: Hyperliquid’s Tokyo Edge Exposed — Secret Time Gap Is Tilting The Market Regulators are ramping up enforcement and data collection while retail users remain confused about what is actually a taxable event and how to track it across wallets, CEXs and DeFi. The legislation evolves way too fast for users to keep track, with 61% of the surveyed users reporting they were unaware of specific tax rules slayed for 2025 tax year reporting. Under current U.S. rules, most crypto is treated as property, which means selling, trading, swapping into another coin, or even paying fees can trigger capital gains or losses that must be reported. However, only 49% of crypto users correctly understand that a tax event is triggered anytime crypto is sold, with 22% of them falling under the misconception that a simple transfer to other accounts is taxable. The graphic shows users knowledge regarding taxable crypto taxations. Source: Coinbase’s 2026 Crypto Tax Readiness Report. “The story this data tells is one of uncertainty”, Lawrence Zlatkin, Vice President of Tax at Coinbase said, “Users are struggling to navigate the complexities of crypto taxation”. Brokers like Coinbase will now send standardized forms (1099‑DA) reporting proceeds, but they cannot see every DeFi or DEX leg in a strategy, leaving many users with forms that show large gross figures and no context unless they use specialized tax software. On average, users juggle 2.5 platforms or wallets, and 83% rely on self‑custody, which creates a cost‑basis reconciliation headache that most still haven’t figured out. The graphic shows users relationship with cost-basis. Source: Coinbase’s 2026 Crypto Tax Readiness Report. What This Means For Traders If regulators double down on enforcement while the average user remains lost, the result could be overpayment, under‑reporting risk, or simply less on‑chain activity as people retreat to “safe” buy‑and‑hold behavior, all of which reshape liquidity and volatility. Related Reading: 8.25M XRP Exit Long-Term Holders As Whales Buy $1.20–$3 Tax ignorance can be extremely costly. Those who keep ignoring the new reporting regime risk surprise bills, audits, or being forced to unwind positions at bad prices later. Savvy traders should avoid this by starting to treat tax drag as part of strategy design, using tools like CoinTracker to model after‑tax returns instead of just PnL on‑screen. At the moment of writing, BTC trades for the highs $67k. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Hyperliquid traders located in Tokyo have a speed advantage over their counterparts in Europe and the U.S, new data shows. A Timely Matter For Hyperliquid Traders Even the fastest growing derivatives DEX in the world needs its servers to be geographically located somewhere: in Hyperliquid’s case, it’s Amazon’s data centers in Tokyo. Latency probes and validator data from Glassnode show Hyperliquid’s 24 validators are clustered in AWS Tokyo. Spread across several availability zones inside Amazon Web Services’ ap‑northeast‑1 (Tokyo) region, the system’s API traffic is fronted by AWS CloudFront, but the validators themselves are all concentrated in a single Japanese cloud region. Glassnode data showing Hyperliquid's API location in Tokyo. Source: Glassnode. Therefore, it’s not hard to understand why Tokyo‑based traders have a roughly 200 milliseconds advantage versus Europe and North America when hitting the matching engine. The raw network latency from Tokyo is only of 2–3 milliseconds. For an exchange processing more than $4 billion in daily perpetuals volume, that time gap compounds into real execution and P&L differences. Related Reading: Ethereum Could Hit $40,000 And Beat Bitcoin, Standard Chartered Says Median order‑to‑fill times are around 884 milliseconds from Tokyo versus roughly 1,079 milliseconds from Ashburn, Virginia. Most of the delay is server‑side processing, but in a time‑priority order book (the first orders to arrive get filled first at the best prices), geography still decides who gets to the front of the queue, tighter spreads, and better fill probability. Hyperliquid's latency in Ashburn, Virginia. Source: Glassnode. The traders closest to the servers can grab the best bids and asks before farther located traders can even reach the exchange. Over many trades, that tiny time edge can turn into better average prices and more profit for the fast traders, and worse prices for everyone else. The Tokyo Dilemma It is worth noting that Hyperliquid is not the only exchange concentrating its fundamental infrastructure in AWS Tokyo: this is also the case for major CEX’s such as Binance and KuCoin. BitMEX migrated its data infrastructure from AWS Dublin to Tokyo in August 2025. As a result, the exchange saw liquidity (depth, tighter spreads, order‑book size) jump by roughly 180–400 percent only one month after the move. AWS Tokyo is a long‑running, well‑invested region with multiple availability zones, high bandwidth and lots of enterprise support, so exchanges locating its servers on it benefit of scaling quickly without running their own data centers. A huge share of crypto volume now runs through Asia trading hours, and putting matching engines in Tokyo means many of their most active users get very low latency. This strategy, however, concentrates technical risk. When AWS Tokyo hiccups, as it has happened in the past, multiple “independent” exchanges feel it at once. Related Reading: The Last Time Bitcoin Sentiment Was This Bad Was 2022, But There Was A Silver Lining For traders, a cross‑venue arbitrage strategy seems to be a sensible decision. With Hyperliquid’s engine sitting in AWS Tokyo while many centralized exchanges also anchor core infra in the same region, spreads between Hyperliquid and major CEXs can open and close faster during Asia trading hours, rewarding desks that monitor and hedge across both stacks in real time. HYPE, Hyperliquid's native token, trades for $38. Source: HYPEUSDT on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, HYPEUSDT chart from Tradingview

New wallet creation in the Shiba Inu ecosystem has held steady at between 5,000 and 12,000 per month, pushing total holders past 1.50 million — a sign that retail interest has not dried up despite a rough stretch for the token’s price. Related Reading: UK Slaps Sanctions On $20B Crypto Black Market Tied To Southeast Asia Scam Rings Tokens Flow Back To Exchanges That growth figure, released by the Shibarium team, comes at an awkward time. On-chain data from CryptoQuant shows that nearly 40 billion SHIB tokens moved into exchanges over a 24-hour window ending March 26, with outflows failing to keep pace. The result was a positive netflow — a condition that typically signals more selling firepower sitting on trading platforms. Exchange reserves climbed from 81.20 trillion to 81.29 trillion tokens during the same period, confirming the trend. When holders move tokens off private wallets and onto exchanges, it does not always mean a sell-off is coming. But it does mean those tokens are now within easy reach of anyone looking to exit their position quickly. With market conditions still choppy, that availability matters. SHIB dropped 4% over that same 24-hour stretch. The decline was not isolated — broader crypto markets also fell during this period. Still, the token’s technical picture added its own weight to the slide. Price Hits A Wall At Triangle Resistance According to analysts, SHIB attempted to push through the upper boundary of a descending triangle pattern and was turned away. Descending triangles are generally considered bearish formations. Each failed attempt to break through the top of the pattern tends to reinforce selling momentum, and this rejection was no different. The price pulled back after failing to clear that level, adding to what had already been a difficult day for the token. The combination of a technical rejection and rising exchange inflows gave traders little reason for confidence in the short term. Related Reading: Ethereum Supply Tightens As Staking And Outflows Hit Record Highs Ecosystem Activity Tells A Different Story The Shibarium team’s wallet data points to an ecosystem that is still drawing in new users. Between 5,000 and 12,000 new wallets were created monthly — a pace that has been consistent enough to push the holder count beyond the 1.50 million mark. More wallets generally mean more participants, and more participants tend to support demand over time. Whether that longer-term demand is enough to absorb the near-term selling pressure is a question the market will answer on its own. For now, both forces are visible in the data — one pulling the price down, the other quietly building underneath it. Featured image from A-Z Animals, chart from TradingView

Investor sentiment in the crypto market sits at its lowest point in months — and the biggest Bitcoin holders are treating it like a buying window. Retail Sellers, Whale Buyers While everyday investors have been stepping back, wallets holding between 10 and 10,000 Bitcoin added roughly 61,568 coins over the past 30 days, according to data from market analytics firm Santiment. Related Reading: Over $6B: XAUT Futures Volume Rewrites Records On Binance That 0.45% increase in holdings came even as geopolitical tensions flared and broader financial markets turned choppy. At the same time, the smallest wallets — those holding under 0.01 BTC — also added coins, picking up around 213 Bitcoin, a 0.42% rise. The two groups moved in the same direction, but for different reasons, analysts say. ???????? Despite dipping to $68.1K today, Bitcoin’s key stakeholders are accumulating. Whales and sharks with 10-10K $BTC have accumulated 61,568 BTC (+0.45%) in the past month, which is a promising sign of an eventual breakout from this range. ???? Besides the current macroeconomic… pic.twitter.com/YDbRYNYH85 — Santiment (@santimentfeed) March 26, 2026 Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, said that large holders are quietly stacking during flat-price periods, not reacting to daily headlines. Small wallet holders, he said, are driven by something else entirely — fear of missing out when prices tick upward. “Small wallets are chasing the momentum,” John said, adding that if retail buying overheats, a brief sell-off before the next accumulation wave is possible. A Pattern Analysts Have Seen Before Santiment analysts pointed to a longer historical pattern: when large wallets accumulate while smaller holders are selling, it has often preceded the start of a sustained price rise. The firm called the current behavior a “promising sign” that a breakout from the months-long trading range could be ahead — and that the direction of that breakout is more likely to be up than down. Bitcoin exchange outflows have also been steady throughout March, data shows. Coins leaving exchanges typically signal holders are moving assets into cold storage, a sign they plan to hold rather than sell in the short term. Not every major holder has been buying, though. On March 19, two Bitcoin whales moved tens of millions of dollars worth of coins onto exchanges — a move that often precedes a sale. That day, Bitcoin prices dropped as attacks on Gulf oil and gas infrastructure pushed energy prices higher and rattled markets tied to the Iran conflict. Related Reading: Iran Rejects Peace Talk Claims, Leaving Bitcoin Stuck At $70K Extreme Fear Grips The Market The Crypto Fear & Greed Index recorded a score of 10 on Thursday and 13 on Friday. Both readings fall firmly in “extreme fear” territory. The entire month of February and the week prior both averaged the same. A score of zero represents maximum fear; 100 represents peak greed. That kind of prolonged fear reading is unusual. It reflects a market where uncertainty has settled in — not as a spike, but as a sustained mood. Middle East tensions have been a key driver. US and Israeli strikes against Iran in February triggered a wave of retaliations across the region, and the conflict has continued to weigh on global markets since. Featured image from EG Healthcare, chart from TradingView

Crypto prices came under pressure again on Friday as Treasury yields, not crude, became the macro variable traders could not ignore. Bitcoin slipped back below $69,000 after a short-lived relief rally earlier this week, while ether also traded lower, as hopes for a near-term easing in the Iran conflict faded and the US 10-year yield stayed near 4.42%. That is the core argument The Kobeissi Letter pushed in a widely shared thread via X: the market’s center of gravity has shifted from the oil spike itself to the rates shock that follows it. “The bond market is, by far, the biggest problem for the US right now, much bigger than the energy price situation,” Adam Kobeissi wrote. In the longer note, the firm sharpened the point further: “For weeks, markets have been fixated on oil, war headlines, and geopolitical escalation. But beneath the surface, a much larger force has been building, and it’s now beginning to take control. The bond market is now dictating the path of equities, commodities, and ultimately, policy itself.” Related Reading: Fidelity Sees Key Crypto Catalysts Emerging For Q2 2026 The market action this week fits that thesis. On Thursday, President Donald Trump said he would pause attacks on Iran’s energy plants for 10 days, until April 6, saying talks were “going very well.” Yields initially eased on the headline, but the move did not hold. By the end of the session, the 10-year Treasury yield had climbed to 4.415%, the highest since July, while mortgage rates had already risen to their highest since October and Fed Governor Lisa Cook said the war had shifted the balance of risks toward inflation. Futures markets had moved to price virtually no chance of a Fed cut in 2026. And the data shows the stress. The MOVE Index, a gauge of Treasury volatility, is at 115.02, up 17.86% on the day. Kobeissi also showed a FedWatch distribution that, in Kobeissi’s reading, now points to a base case of rates staying broadly unchanged through September 2027, a dramatic reversal from late 2025, when markets were still debating how many cuts the Fed would deliver in 2026. This is truly historic: In just 27 days of the Iran War, the discussion has now become about Fed rate HIKES. Just weeks ago, investors were debating how many rate cuts the Fed would implement in 2026. Now? There’s a 48% chance of an interest rate HIKE by January 2027. And,… https://t.co/ccQ91LLH3g pic.twitter.com/ve2drzl4Rb — The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) March 26, 2026 The firm tied that repricing to a labor market it says has deteriorated even before the latest inflation shock, citing deep downward revisions to payroll data over the last three years and a February unemployment duration of 25.7 weeks. For crypto, the message is straightforward: this is still trading as a liquidity-sensitive macro asset class. When Trump first said on March 23 that the US would postpone strikes and pursue talks, bitcoin rallied more than 5% to as high as $71,794 in New York, with altcoins also moving higher. That relief move has since unwound. By Friday, bitcoin was trading at $68,639 and ether at $2,061.81, both down on the day as the market rotated back to yields, policy risk and tighter financial conditions. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes framed the crypto angle more directly in his usual shorthand. “Almost there … If Trump invades Iran what is Buffalo Bill Bessent going to do to calm the UST market?” he wrote, referring to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Almost there … If Trump invades Iran what is Buffalo Bill Bessent going to do to calm the UST market? pic.twitter.com/7H2qakadgT — Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) March 26, 2026 The point is not simply that war could rattle markets, but that a deeper selloff in Treasuries could force some form of response from Washington. In Hayes’ macro framework, crypto does not meaningfully recover just because geopolitical tensions ease; it recovers when bond-market stress becomes severe enough to bring liquidity back into the system, whether through Bessent, the Fed, or both. Related Reading: Crypto Analysts Warn: Traders Misreading The Clarity Act Could Miss The Real Opportunity Kobeissi’s framework is similar. The firm argues that as yields move toward the 4.50% to 4.70% range on the 10-year, the odds of some form of policy response rise sharply because the White House has already shown it is sensitive to bond-market stress. That leaves crypto watching the same dashboard as every macro desk: Treasury yields, rate expectations and the credibility of any de-escalation headline. If bond volatility cools, crypto assets could respond the way they did earlier this week, snapping higher on even a modest improvement in war headlines. But if yields continue grinding upward, the market may keep treating bitcoin and the rest of crypto less as geopolitical hedges than as another expression of the global rates trade. At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $ Total crypto market cap chart, 1-week chart | Source: TOTAL on TradingView.com ds   Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

The crypto market is consolidating. Bitcoin and Ethereum have traded within the same range for more than 50 days. And in the third week of March, the derivatives market made its first significant statement about what comes next. Related Reading: Unknown Wallet Buys $107 Million In Ethereum – Purchase Pattern Points To Bitmine A CryptoQuant analysis tracking perpetual futures activity has identified a meaningful acceleration in open interest: on March 16, combined Bitcoin and Ethereum OI climbed to approximately $30 billion — the highest reading since late January, and a level that was not reached gradually but in a single week of concentrated positioning. Bitcoin OI reached $23 billion. Ethereum approached $16 billion. Both moved in the same direction, at the same time, during the same price rally. That synchronicity matters. When open interest builds across two major assets simultaneously during a relief rally, it does not reflect organic spot demand — it reflects traders opening leveraged positions in anticipation of a directional move. The capital is not buying Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is betting on them. Fifty days of consolidation have a way of building pressure. The $30 billion in open interest now sitting in perpetual futures is the market’s way of declaring that the range will not last forever — and that when it breaks, the move will be amplified. When Crypto Leverage Moves, It Goes to Binance First. The CryptoQuant report is precise about where the $30 billion in open interest is actually sitting. Binance absorbed the largest share of the inflow by a significant margin: BTC open interest on the exchange rose by $829 million, while ETH open interest climbed by approximately $1.6 billion — a combined $2.4 billion in new leveraged exposure flowing into a single venue during a single week. Bybit and Gate.io recorded meaningful gains as well, but the heatmap data leaves no ambiguity about the hierarchy. That concentration is not coincidental. It is structural. During periods of strong price momentum, capital does not distribute evenly across the derivatives landscape — it gravitates toward the deepest, most liquid venues where large positions can be opened and closed without slippage. Binance is that venue. It has been for every significant derivatives expansion in recent memory, and the March rally was no exception. What the concentration reveals is as important as the size. When $2.4 billion in new open interest flows into a single exchange in one week, the resulting positions are tightly clustered. Clustered positions create clustered liquidation levels. And clustered liquidation levels mean that when the market moves against those positions, it does not move gradually. The leverage is on Binance. The range is still intact. Those two facts belong in the same sentence. Related Reading: $2.3 Billion Ethereum Has Left OKX And Binance This Quarter: The Sell-Side Supply Is Thinning The Entire Market Has Given Back a Year of Gains The total crypto market cap stands at $2.31 trillion, down 0.21% on the week — a marginal move on a candle that opened at $2.32 trillion, reached $2.44 trillion, and has since retreated. That weekly high rejection at $2.44 trillion is the operative fact. The market attempted to reclaim lost ground and was turned back. The macro context is what makes the current level sobering. Total market cap peaked near $4.1 trillion in late 2025 — the highest level in crypto’s history — and has retraced approximately 44% from that peak, erasing the entirety of the 2025 bull run and returning to levels last traded in early 2024. This is not a correction within a bull market. It is a full cycle rollover. Related Reading: The Bitcoin Coinbase Discount Is Back: History Says That Is Worth Watching The weekly moving average configuration confirms the structural damage. Price has broken decisively below the 50-week MA, which has now turned lower from the $3.5 trillion region. The 100-week MA, the green line ascending through approximately $2.9 trillion, provided no meaningful support — price sliced through it and has not reclaimed it since. The 200-week MA continues its long-term ascent near $2.1 trillion and represents the last major structural support visible on this timeframe. The current level of $2.31 trillion is trading in the gap between the 200-week MA below and the 100-week MA above. That gap is the battleground. Reclaiming $2.9 trillion is the minimum requirement for any credible structural recovery argument. Until then, the chart describes a market in retreat, not consolidation. Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis puts the number at close to $20 billion — the estimated volume of dirty money that flowed through Xinbi, a Chinese-language crypto marketplace, between 2021 and 2025. Now the UK government wants to shut it down. Related Reading: Ethereum Supply Tightens As Staking And Outflows Hit Record Highs Scam Hubs At The Center Of It All Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office announced Thursday that it has imposed sweeping sanctions on Xinbi, a platform accused of providing crypto-based services, scam tools, and other criminal resources to bad actors across Southeast Asia. The move freezes any UK-linked assets tied to the platform and bans British banks, crypto firms, and citizens from doing any business with it — financial or otherwise. Xinbi is not just a payment processor for criminals. Reports indicate the platform sits at the center of a web of interconnected illicit operations, many of them tied to scam compounds scattered across Southeast Asia — operations that have drawn global attention for their use of trafficked workers to run large-scale fraud schemes targeting victims worldwide. Those who exploit vulnerable people, abuse human rights and defraud innocent victims will face serious consequences. Today we have: ❌ Targeted largest known scam compound in Cambodia. ❌ Sanctioned an illicit crypto marketplace. ❌ Frozen more London properties. pic.twitter.com/0PFp0h8Uyt — Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) March 26, 2026 Two individuals were also sanctioned in the action. Thet Li is accused of running the international financial network of the Prince Group, a Cambodia-based company tied to large-scale crypto fraud. Hu Xiaowei is alleged to have worked within that same financial network and to have links to #8 Park, a scam compound connected to the Prince Group. Cutting Off The Money Pipeline Chainalysis, which provided blockchain data supporting the sanctions, described the move as targeting the scam ecosystem’s on- and off-ramps — the critical pathways that allow criminal operators to move money in and out of the legitimate financial system. According to the firm, Xinbi acted as a commercial hub, offering payment processing and marketing services to fraud operators who needed reliable infrastructure to run their schemes. The FCDO said the sanctions are designed to isolate Xinbi from the broader crypto system, disrupting its ability to send and receive transactions. In practice, that means cutting the platform off from the exchanges, wallets, and financial services it depends on to function. Related Reading: Bitrue Says XRP Should Already Be At $10, Traders Are Betting It Gets There A Line Between Legal And Illegal Crypto What stood out in the UK government’s statement was its language. Officials drew a clear line between legitimate crypto activity and criminal misuse of the technology — a distinction regulators have not always been quick to make publicly. That framing matters to the industry. For years, critics have pointed to crypto’s role in fraud and money laundering as evidence the entire sector needs to be reined in. The Financial Action Task Force estimates that between two and 5% of global GDP passes through traditional financial networks as laundered funds each year. Data from Chainalysis puts illicit crypto transactions at below 1% of total activity on-chain — a figure the industry frequently cites in its defense. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView

As Dogecoin (DOGE) retests a key multi-year support, some analysts predict a bearish outlook for the largest memecoin by market capitalization, warning that its bottom may not be in yet. Related Reading: Bitwise CIO Projects Circle To Hit $75B Valuation By 2030 Despite Selloff, Clarity Act Concerns Dogecoin Targets Lower Levels On Thursday, Dogecoin erased most of its early-week bounce and retested the $0.090 area once again. Market observer Rekt Capital highlighted DOGE’s recent performance, warning that its price correction may not be over yet. As he explained, the leading memecoin lost its multi-year macro uptrend back in November, when it closed the month below its ascending support that had held since early 2023. Therefore, Dogecoin officially confirmed its macro downtrend, which started developing after its cycle peak of $0.484 during the late 2024 bull run. The analyst noted that historically, the cryptocurrency has not retested the macro downtrend line until the price is ready to break it and post-breakout retest it. Based on this, he warned that the memecoin is “unlikely to test this Macro Downtrend anytime soon.” At the moment, DOGE is sitting at its range low, which is also a key reaction zone that previously acted as resistance before turning into support in 2024. According to Rekt Capital, previous bear market performance suggests that Dogecoin will likely lose the current area as support over time, but noted that the price could see a rebound as part of a range-bound cluster in the meantime. If history is any indicator, then price would likely fall well short of the Macro Downtrend and instead reject from the Range High resistance (red region). Perhaps even upside wicking beyond it, but still falling substantially short of the downtrend itself. The analyst concluded that a short-term relief rally remains possible as long as the current level holds, but cautioned that it may be lost in the coming months before bottoming at significantly lower levels. The Case For DOGE’s Price Despite the bearish forecast, other market watchers have shared a more optimistic outlook for the memecoin. Analyst Trader Tardigrade recently signaled that Dogecoin may have reached its bottom already and could be preparing for its next bull run. Per the chart, the cryptocurrency is retesting a historical support for the third time. This trendline has held for roughly a decade, and its retests have previously preceded major price rallies. The first touch in 2017 led to an explosive rally toward its 2018 $0.017 all-time high (ATH), while the second retest in 2021 was followed by a massive surge toward its current ATH of $0.731. Now, Dogecoin is testing this area again and could begin recovering in the short- to mid-term before a massive price expansion to new highs in the mid- to long-term, if it follows its past performances. Similarly, the analyst has also argued that DOGE’s macro structure remains intact, regardless of short-term price action. Last week, he affirmed that the memecoin’s performance during each of its ATH rallies “tells the same story—because Doge makes its own rules.” Related Reading: Cardano Price At Multi-Year Support That Previously Led To 200% Rally – ADA Recovery Ahead? He highlighted that the cryptocurrency currently resembles its past ATH performances, nearing the end of the falling wedge pattern that has preceded significant price expansion to new highs during previous rallies. As a result, he considers Dogecoin to be at a “prime accumulation window” before it potentially goes to the moon. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Crypto exchange Bitrue made a bold claim Tuesday: XRP is trading at a fraction of where it belongs. With the coin sitting around $1.42, Bitrue put the fair value at $10 — more than seven times its current price and a market cap that would top $610 billion. Related Reading: Bernstein Sets $150,000 Bitcoin Target As ETF Inflows Surpass $1.6B In March Derivatives Data Tells A Different Story Than The Price Chart The numbers in the futures market are raising eyebrows. XRP’s open interest climbed to $2.60 billion, a 7% jump in a single day, according to data from CoinGlass. That kind of move during a price dip signals something specific: traders are opening new positions, and those positions are leaning long. Although the price of $XRP is falling, there is no increase in short positions. On the contrary, long positions are increasing slightly. There is no downside pressure in the $XRP futures market. In addition, an increase in OI indicates a desire to buy long positions at low… pic.twitter.com/F8wnhWKUsO — CW (@CW8900) March 24, 2026  Analysts flagged the pattern. Short positions have not been piling up the way they typically do when a market turns bearish. Instead, traders appear to be buying into the weakness, a sign that many expect a price recovery rather than a continued slide. XRP dropped nearly 4% over the past week. But the futures market is not behaving like one bracing for more pain. #XRP should be $10 https://t.co/YxP3OSiom0 — Bitrue (@BitrueOfficial) March 25, 2026 What The Charts Say About Possible Downside Not every analyst is calling a bottom. A separate technical analysis flagged XRP as potentially still inside a corrective pattern — what Elliott Wave traders call a Wave 2/5 retracement. Under that reading, the price could briefly push toward $1.51 before pulling back more sharply. Key downside levels being watched include $1.12, where a double-bottom formation could take shape, and $0.87, which many traders regard as a strong long-term accumulation zone. Reports indicate some see the current price action as a late-stage shakeout — a test of conviction before a larger move upward. That tension is sitting at the center of XRP’s current moment. The short-term and long-term pictures are not telling the same story. XRP: Long-Term Targets Remain In Play Despite Recent Weakness Longer-term forecasts for XRP have not shifted. Price targets of $5 and higher — including the $10 figure Bitrue cited — continue to circulate among analysts and community members. Those targets are tied to broader narratives: growing institutional interest, Ripple’s resolved legal standoff with the SEC, and expanding adoption of blockchain-based payment infrastructure. Related Reading: Iran Rejects Peace Talk Claims, Leaving Bitcoin Stuck At $70K Missouri recently moved to designate XRP as an official reserve asset — a step that adds a layer of institutional credibility the coin did not carry a few years ago. Reports note that skeptics remain. XRP has a history of slow upward movement punctuated by sharp pullbacks, and even believers in a $10 target acknowledge that significant volatility could accompany any rise toward that level. For now, XRP sits in a narrow range, down on the week but holding its footing. The derivatives market suggests traders are not walking away. They are waiting. Featured image from Gemini, chart from TradingView

Circle stock, CRCL, experienced a significant decline over the past day following news of a proposed ban on stablecoin yield. Despite this selloff, Bitwise’s CIO maintains that the market reaction was excessive and projects that the company’s valuation will likely double by 2030. Related Reading: Cardano Price At Multi-Year Support That Previously Led To 200% Rally – ADA Recovery Ahead? Circle Selloff Was ‘Overblown’ – Bitwise CIO On Tuesday, Circle Internet Financial, the issuer behind the USDC stablecoin, saw its stock crash 22% to $98 following reports about lawmakers’ decision on the stablecoin yield dispute. CRCL’s selloff was driven by news that a revised draft of the Senate Banking Committee’s crypto market structure bill, known as the CLARITY Act, would prohibit platforms from offering yield, directly or indirectly, for holding a stablecoin, or in a manner that resembles a bank deposit. Despite the selloff, some market experts have made the case for Circle, highlighting it as a good opportunity and “the most obvious choice” to invest in the stablecoins sector. In his weekly memo, Bitwise’s CIO, Matt Hougan, called the market’s reaction “overblown.” He asserted that the latest draft of the CLARITY Act doesn’t alter the base case forecast for Circle. Interest income has not been a primary driver of stablecoin growth to date; the vast majority of stablecoins today are held in ways that don’t pay interest. Stablecoins have exploded in popularity because they let people move money anywhere in the world efficiently and reliably—for trade settlement, as collateral in lending, as an alternative to unstable national currencies, and more. Hougan also emphasized that stablecoins offer convenience, which is “the killer app for money,” pointing out that the average savings account and average checking account yield 0.60% and 0.07%, respectively. “People aren’t parking their money there for the yield,” he noted, adding that as the global financial system increasingly transitions to blockchain-based rails, stablecoins are expected to assume a more significant role in this shift, irrespective of whether they offer interest. The Case For Circle’s $75B Valuation Diving deeper into his outlook for Circle, Hougan shared key projections for the broader stablecoin sector’s market capitalization and the company’s potential market share in the coming years. Citing Citigroup’s report, he asserted that the “base case” for stablecoin‘s assets under management (AUM)  projects it will reach $1.9 trillion by 2030, while a “bull case” estimates it at $4 trillion. Bitwise’s CIO also highlighted that Circle’s USDC, the second-largest dollar-pegged token, holds 25% of the overall stablecoin market share, only behind Tether’s USDT, but has a much larger share of the regulated stablecoin market, with an estimated 80%+ share. If you think much of the growth of stablecoin AUM will come from those markets (as banks, fintechs, and major enterprises opt for onshore, regulated stablecoins), you might expect Circle’s market share to increase well beyond its current 25% share. Lastly, he addressed what Circle could potentially earn on deposits in four years. As he explained, the company earns roughly 4% interest on $80 billion of its AUM backing USDC, but shares around 60% with distribution partners like Coinbase, netting a 1.6% take rate. Related Reading: Ethereum Tops $2,100 As BitMine Ramps Up ETH Bet With $137M Purchase While its sustainability hinges on interest rates and competition from rival stablecoins, Hougan projected that the take rate will be cut in half by 2030, to 0.8%. Using these “conservative assumptions” on the broader stablecoins market cap, the company’s market share, and margin, Bitwise’s CIO concluded that Circle could hit “$75 billion by 2030—even with the recent CLARITY Act concerns.” Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Circle shares slumped on Tuesday (nearly 20%) after U.S. lawmakers advanced the Clarity Act. This decline has been linked to the Clarity Act draft language that suggests it would curb interest paid on crypto stablecoin holdings. Related Reading: 3 Big Hyperliquid News You Might Have Missed This Week A Key Crypto-Basics Misunderstanding The reason of the sudden drop? The market is misunderstanding the legislation, analyst Gautam Chhugani and his three Bernstein colleagues said in an investor note shared with DL News. “The market is conflating who earns yield with who distributes yield”, they said. It is no secret that the market is moved by the heightened emotional responses of investors, reacting to real world events such as a geopolitical crisis or a change in the legislation that could affect their positions. However, investors would do well going back to the fundamentals and revisiting the basic mechanics at play before getting swept up in Clarity‑Act panic. A stablecoin issuer and a stablecoin distributer are not the same thing: a stablecoin issuer is the entity that creates the token and manages the reserves behind it, while a stablecoin distributor is the platform or intermediary that gets that token into users’ hands and often hosts their balances. Circle is the company that issues the USDC, not the one that distributes it: that’s what platforms such as Coinbase do. Today's chart shows Circle shares slightly recovered after briefly dropping under $100 on Tuesday. Source: TradingView The Clarity Act’s language specifies supervision on how crypto tokens are circulated and distributed, not on the entities that create or issue them. This means lawmakers are focusing on the activities around moving stablecoins to end users, such as platforms offering them, intermediaries marketing yield, and programs that pay interest on balances, rather than directly imposing new rules on the companies that mint the tokens and manage reserves. Related Reading: Bitcoin Holds $70K – Is The High‑Beta Era Over? Stablecoins: A Central Pillar It is worth noting that investor’s anxiety over the U.S. stablecoin policy and how regulators might treat centralized issuers post-election is justified. The stablecoin sector has become a central pillar of crypto liquidity: in 2025, dollar‑pegged tokens settled over 30 trillion dollars on‑chain, and USDC alone processed roughly 18 trillion dollars in transactions —close to half of all stablecoin volume despite representing under a third of total supply. Circle’s own and third‑party estimates say USDC’s share of total stablecoin transaction volume was around 45–50% in late 2025, even though its circulation was under one‑third of total stablecoin supply. If Bernstein’s view holds, Circle-related assets might see a rebound as regulatory clarity improves. BTC's price is on the highs $71k on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSDC on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSDC chart from Tradingview

Hyperliquid just launched options trading on its PURR common stock on the Nasdaq Options Market. Related Reading: 3 Big Hyperliquid News You Might Have Missed This Week Yet Another Milestone For Hyperliquid Across the bloc, one question resonates amongst traders, users and onlookers of the crypto space alike: how far can Hyperliquid actually go? The once-underdog now-leading perp DEX reaches for the stars as NewsBTC’s most recent piece recapping Hyperliquid latest achievements already needs updating. Hyperliquid’s treasury firm Hyperliquid Strategies Inc. (HSI) announced on Tuesday that it has rolled out options trading on its PURR common shares on the Nasdaq Options Market. PURR live on Nasdaq today. The main goals of the launch, as stated by the company’s press release, are to enhance liquidity and price discovery for PURR, give both institutional and retail investors new tools to hedge, express directional views, and run more sophisticated equity‑options strategies around this proxy for the Hyperliquid ecosystem. David Schamis, CEO of Hyperliquid Strategies Inc, frames this new venture as a “major milestone for the Company”. He believes there wasn’t a better timeline to launch options trading on PURR: from its record-breaking oil perps to fiat on-ramp adoption, HIP-3 markets hitting new all-time highs and even surpassing some major CEX’s derivatives volume, Hyperliquid sits in the spotlight of the crypto market recently. “As Hyperliquid continues to dominate headlines with record-breaking oil perpetuals and surging Real-World Asset (RWA) adoption, we believe this is a great time to launch options trading on PURR. PURR options allow our investors to better manage risk and participate in the rapid growth of Hyperliquid’s high-performance ecosystem” HSI’s business model centers on a digital asset treasury platform that builds exposure to HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token, through staking, yield strategies, and active participation in the ecosystem, all with the goal of maximizing shareholder value. Hyperliquid is straight-up DOMINATING the perpetuals game Its 24-hour open interest just smashed nearly $7B, that’s almost 4x Aster’s. Hyperliquid isn’t just leading… it’s leaving everyone else in the dust https://t.co/wkej3l47Yt pic.twitter.com/SZbqDhkdvo — Hyperliquid Daily (@HYPERDailyTK) March 25, 2026 What PURR Option Traders Should Look For PURR effectively gives traditional market participants listed‑equity exposure to HYPE and the Hyperliquid ecosystem without touching on‑chain infrastructure directly, which is why options on PURR are being pitched as “capital‑efficient exposure” to HYPE. Moreso, equity options can amplify flows around a crypto‑linked treasury stock through more hedging demand from HSI shareholders, potential volatility sellers and buyers that care more about HYPE fundamentals than about PURR as a standalone name, and the possibility of options‑driven feedback loops in the underlying. Related Reading: Breaking News: Circle (CRCL) Crashes Below $100 After Senate Revises Crypto Bill To Ban Stablecoin Rewards Bitcoin Holds $70K – Is The High‑Beta Era Over? For traders, the key dials to watch now are options volume and open interest in PURR as a tell on institutional positioning, implied volatility as a snapshot of how confident the market really is in Hyperliquid’s growth story, and any spike in correlation between PURR, HYPE, and on‑chain activity on the Hyperliquid DEX, which can flag when equity, token, and protocol flows are all starting to move in the same direction HYPE's price is on a growing trend, trading for $41 on the daily chart. Source: HYPEUSDT on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, HYPEUSDT chart from Tradingview

As Cardano (ADA) retests a key multi-year level that previously led to significant price increases, some analysts point to on-chain and derivative signals suggesting a potential price recovery for the altcoin. Related Reading: Ethereum Tops $2,100 As BitMine Ramps Up ETH Bet With $137M Purchase Cardano Retests Key Macro Support On Tuesday, Cardano dropped 3% to retest a crucial macro support level. The altcoin has been trading between $0.25-$0.30 since the early February market crash, failing to break out of the range’s upper boundary over the past two months. ADA’s price has retraced to the lower levels of its one-month accumulation zone, hovering between $0.25-$0.27 during recent market volatility. Market observer Ali Martinez pointed out that the cryptocurrency has been retesting a key multi-year level amid this performance. According to the post, Cardano is retesting the $0.25 area, a major support zone since 2022, in the weekly timeframe. This level marked the bottom of the previous bear market and served as a key area at the start of the latest bull run. As Martinez noted, the last two times ADA traded around and held this level, back in 2023, it bounced 85% and 200%. The first bounce led to a retest of the $0.46 area, while the second drove the price toward the $0.80 level between October 2023 and March 2024. The analyst also highlighted that ADA recently printed a buy signal, signaling a potential recovery soon. “The TD Sequential indicator has flashed a ‘black 9’ on the weekly chart, suggesting the recent downtrend has exhausted,” he wrote, adding that this setup typically anticipates one to four weeks of expansion. As a result, ADA could target $0.32-$0.37 by late April if it holds above its current price levels. “We’ve survived the 6-month grind; now we watch for a potential price recovery,” Martinez asserted. ADA Flashes Bottom Signals Adding to the momentum, analytics firm Santiment has underscored multiple on-chain and derivative signals that could indicate a reversal is nearby for Cardano. According to the post, Cardano’s average active wallets have experienced a 43% negative return on their investments over the past year, suggesting a price rebound is more likely than usual. Despite the 71% price decline since September, this extremely negative MVRV value generally indicates that ADA is in an “opportunity” or “buy” zone, Santiment affirmed, further explaining that when average returns are significantly negative, it signals an impending turnaround: On a zero-sum game, when average returns are severely negative, this is an indication of a looming turnaround with coins always averaging 0% on MVRV’s (average trading returns) across any timeframe. So when other traders are in severe pain, key stakeholders and professional traders are intrigued by this due to the lowered risk of buying or adding on to their positions. In addition, the firm stated that Cardano’s funding rate on Binance is experiencing the largest imbalance toward shorts since June 2023, suggesting traders are heavily inclined toward further downside. Related Reading: Bitcoin Holds $70K – Is The High‑Beta Era Over? “Traders are clearly expecting that the #12 market cap will continue to decline in value,” the firm pointed out, noting that “this historically is another bottom signal, as funding rates are always prone to liquidate and send prices in the direction that traders are expecting the least.” Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin’s halving clock is ticking toward what analysts call a critical threshold — and the crypto market has bigger problems on its hands right now. Related Reading: XRP Ledger Signals Growth With $1M Unlock And Activity Surge Conflicting Signals From Washington And Tehran Reports indicate that US President Donald Trump described recent contact with Iranian officials as productive, suggesting both sides had found common ground on winding down hostilities. He even floated the idea of Iran sharing control over the Strait of Hormuz and working alongside whoever leads the country after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Markets moved fast on those words. Bitcoin climbed from roughly $68,850 to $71,250 — a gain of about 3.50% — while Ethereum rose 2.50% to $2,125. Oil, which had been trading above $100 a barrel, dropped to $89.40. Iran’s Foreign Ministry Pushes Back Spokesperson Esmail Baqaei said his government has not held any talks that could be described as productive with Washington. He added that Iran has not responded to messages passed through third-party countries — Turkey, Oman, and Egypt among them — urging a negotiated off-ramp from the conflict. Iran’s conditions for ending the war remain unchanged: US military bases closed, American forces disarmed, full control of the Strait of Hormuz transferred to Iranian governance, financial compensation for war damages, and a binding guarantee against future military action. Those are not conditions that bend easily. Markets Caught Between Two Stories With Washington and Tehran offering opposing accounts of where diplomacy stands, crypto traders were left with little to go on. Bitcoin stalled near the $70,000 mark, unable to hold the momentum it briefly found on Trump’s remarks. The mismatch in statements from both governments has kept investors cautious, and analysts say continued volatility is likely as long as the geopolitical situation stays unresolved. Oil prices are a key variable. If the conflict heats back up — especially around the Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant portion of the world’s oil passes — energy costs could surge again. Higher energy prices feed inflation, and inflation clouds the outlook for interest rates. That chain of events tends to pull risk assets lower, and crypto has not been immune. Upcoming releases on US inflation and unemployment claims, along with commentary from the Federal Reserve on how rising energy costs might shape rate decisions, are all on traders’ radar this week. Related Reading: Crypto Adoption No Longer Optional, Survey Finds As 72% Of Finance Leaders Signal Commitment Whale Activity Points To A Market At A Crossroads On-chain data shows Bitcoin’s Exchange Whale Ratio sitting at 0.7. Based on historical patterns, that level has often appeared near market bottoms, which some read as a sign that large holders are accumulating rather than selling. Featured image from Trends Research, chart from TradingView

Making fiat access more seamless for Hyperliquid users through a fiat on-ramping testing live via Swapped was not the only milestone the leading perp DEX achieved this past week. Hyperliquid offered a weekly recap of everything that happened on the third week of March. Hyperliquid’s “Weekly Update” on its official Telegram Challenge. Hyperliquid Launched S&P500 Perps Last Wednesday, TradeXYZ, a decentralized perpetuals platform built on Hyperliquid, announced its partnership with S&P Dow Jones Indices to launch the first officially licensed S&P500 perpetual derivative on Hyperliquid, giving the decentralized exchange legitimacy, data accuracy, and a direct bridge between TradFi and DeFi. This move positions Hyperliquid as the first crypto-native platform offering 24/7 access to official S&P market exposure. S&P Dow Jones Indices and trade[XYZ] have joined forces to launch the first official S&P 500 perpetual contract, available exclusively on Hyperliquid. For 69 years, the S&P 500 has been a defining reference point for global finance. Until now, access to that benchmark has been… — trade.xyz (@tradexyz) March 18, 2026 Related Reading: Bitcoin Shorts Squeezed Out $44M As Spot Demand Stays Weak USDC Support On HyperEVM Coinbase added USDC support on the HyperEVM, Hyperliquid’s own EVM-compatible smart contract layer that runs on top of its L1 blockchain, strengthening liquidity options across the ecosystem. This integration aligns with Hyperliquid’s scaling vision: stable liquidity, reduced slippage, and enhanced pair variety. USDC integration creates stronger liquidity rails across spot, perps, and ecosystem apps, turning this venture into a major liquidity enhancement. Sends and receives of USDC on HyperEVM are now available on coinbase․com and in the Coinbase iOS & Android apps in supported regions. — Coinbase Markets ????️ (@CoinbaseMarkets) March 16, 2026 New HIP- 3 ATH’s NewsBTC reported last Friday that the combined HIP-3 (oil, gold and silver) open interest surpassed $1.5 billion, meaning that Hyperliquid is now trading more volume in tokenized commodities than digital assets. However, as of today, HIP-3 markets hit new all-time highs: $7B in open interest and $5.9B in 24h volume, showcasing record trading activity. This record-level engagement signals growing confidence in Hyperliquid’s product maturity and execution speed. Trade.xyz reported on Monday that 24-hour trading activity has climbed to $5.6 billion, with about 45,300 unique users active in a single day. The busiest markets are tokenized real‑world assets: WTI oil leads with $1.27 billion in daily turnover, followed by Brent oil at $1.04 billion and silver close behind at $1.01 billion, cementing Hyperliquid’s reputation as the new go‑to venue for 24/7 RWA’s and macro risk. @tradexyz reached new all time highs across the board: – Cumulative trading volume: $110B – Open Interest: $1.6B – 24hr peak volume: $5.6B – Daily unique traders (24hr peak): 45.3k – Weekend trading peak volume: $1.09B – XYZ share of Hypercore volume (24hr peak): 44.4% pic.twitter.com/7nW3TdJ3n1 — trade.xyz (@tradexyz) March 24, 2026 Related Reading: Cardano Bottom Signal? Shorts Hit Highest Level Since June 2023 Finally, the organic ecosystem’s growth is reinforced by community initiatives like Hype Global and Hyperliquid FR’s ETHCC Cannes event, to be celebrated on March 31. From the high-intensity shipping in Seoul to the shores of the French Riviera. ???????? Hype Global is landing in Cannes for EthCC with Hyperliquid Builders Night, an evening for those pushing the boundaries of HyperEVM. Powered by @HypeRPC_ and co-organized with @HyperliquidFR.… — HYPE Global (@hypeglobal_) March 21, 2026 With fiat support, verified data, and institutional bridges, Hyperliquid is emerging as a cross-market hub for professional traders. HYPE’ trades for more than $38 on the daily chart. Source: HYPEUSDT on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, HYPEUSDT chart from Tradingview

Fidelity’s latest quarterly crypto livestream framed the second quarter of 2026 as a transition period for crypto assets, with the firm’s speakers pointing to a mix of macro, regulatory, and on-chain developments that could shape the next phase of the market. The discussion centered on bitcoin’s current consolidation, the growing role of stablecoins, and whether smart contract platforms could find new momentum through tokenization and AI-driven developer productivity. Crypto Outlook For Q2 2026 Jurrien Timmer, Fidelity’s director of global macro, described the recent selloff as a “mild winter” rather than the kind of deep crypto washout seen in prior cycles. Bitcoin, which he said peaked around $126,000 before falling to roughly $60,000, has already endured a drawdown of more than 50%, but he argued that such declines should become less severe as the asset matures. “I’m not looking for an 80% drawdown, which would be a pretty harsh winter,” Timmer said. “I think a 50% to 60% drawdown, which is what we’ve had, is probably as much as it needs to go. Again, not market timing here, but I think we’re in the zone. So yes, a mild winter, but maybe spring is around the corner.” That view ties into a broader Fidelity debate around whether bitcoin’s four-year cycle is still intact. Max Wadington of Fidelity Digital Assets said Q1 likely confirmed the timing component of the cycle, given that the prior all-time high in November 2021 lined up closely with the market peak in late 2025. But both speakers argued that the mechanism behind the cycle is changing as halvings matter less and demand-side factors take on greater importance. Related Reading: Sen. Lummis Predicts Crypto Market Structure Markup In April, Senate Passage By Year-End For Timmer, the immediate setup is less about a fresh breakout than a base-building phase. He said bitcoin appears to be testing a range around $60,000 to $70,000 while the market searches for a new narrative after both the “hard money” and speculative trades lost momentum. “We’ve done the hard money narrative. Gold is running that show right now. We had the speculative narrative,” Timmer said. “And so I think it’s sitting here waiting for a new storyline, if you will. It’ll still be related to those two. But something needs to happen.” One possible catalyst is macro policy. Timmer said he is watching prospective leadership changes at the Federal Reserve closely, arguing that a closer alignment between the Fed and Treasury in managing the debt load could eventually revive the hard-money case for bitcoin if markets begin to question central bank independence. In his telling, gold has already responded to that theme, while bitcoin has lagged. The macro picture is not one-dimensional, however. Timmer said bitcoin is currently caught between two identities: an “aspirational store of value” tied to monetary debasement and a speculative asset that often trades in line with tech risk. Related Reading: Crypto Adoption No Longer Optional, Survey Finds As 72% Of Finance Leaders Signal Commitment He pointed to a disconnect between rising global money supply, which he pegged at around $120 trillion and up roughly 12% year over year, and bitcoin’s weaker recent performance. At the same time, he noted that software stocks have been under pressure, and bitcoin has moved more in that direction than alongside hard-money assets. Wadington’s Q2 focus sits further down the stack. He highlighted tokenization, DeFi, and stablecoins as major themes already gaining traction, especially after Fidelity Digital Assets launched its own dollar-backed stablecoin, FIDD. He stressed that stablecoins should not be viewed as long-term investments so much as on-chain cash instruments designed for round-the-clock, low-cost global transfers. More interestingly, he said the next leg for Ethereum and Solana may come not only from AI agents transacting on-chain, but from AI making crypto developers more productive in the near term. “What I’m looking for are any signs or signals that show the thousands of crypto developers getting marginally or incrementally more productive,” Wadington said. “And I think that’ll have a direct impact on the underlying value of these assets. I personally don’t think it’s something that’s been talked about much that we could see come up in the metrics pretty shortly here.” At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $2.41 trillion. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Bitmine has increased its bet on Ethereum (ETH) with a $137 million purchase, as the King of Altcoins reclaims the crucial $2,150 level, and some market observers call for the end of the crypto market correction. Related Reading: Ethereum Whales Return to Profitability as Historical Bottom Signal Reappears Bitmine Adds 65,000 ETH Amid End Of Crypto Winter Calls On Monday, the largest Ethereum treasury in the world, Bitmine, announced it continued to ramp up its bet on the King of Altcoins by purchasing roughly $137 million in ETH last week. In its weekly update, the company reported it acquired 65,341 ETH over the past week, maintaining its “increased pace of ETH buys in each of the past three weeks.” This represents a significant increase in the average 45,000-50,000 ETH acquisitions from prior weeks. Notably, Bitmine’s latest purchase has pushed the company’s total crypto and cash holdings to $11 billion at current prices. As of March 22, the second-largest crypto treasury firm holds 4,660,903 ETH, 196 Bitcoin (BTC), a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, a $95 million stake in Eightco Holdings as part of its “Moonshots” initiative, and unencumbered cash worth $1.1 billion. In addition, it holds 3.86% of ETH’s total supply, and nears its goal to control 5% of the leading altcoin’s 120.7 million supply. Meanwhile, the firm’s total staked ETH stands at 3,142,643, worth $6.5 billion at $2,072 per ETH. Bitmine’s chairman, Tom Lee, highlighted that the company maintained its increasing purchasing pace due to its base case that “ETH is in the final stages of the ‘mini-crypto winter.’” As he noted, “crypto and particularly ETH have outperformed the broader market since the Iran war commenced, with ETH rising 18% and outperforming equities by 2,450bp.” To Lee, this has demonstrated that cryptocurrencies are a “good ‘wartime’ store of value.” He also highlighted the US Congress’s recent progress on the CLARITY Act, affirming that it will be a positive fundamental catalyst for Ethereum and “another reason probabilities favor the crypto winter as being largely behind us.” Ethereum Bullish Momentum Returned? On Monday morning, Ethereum rose alongside the rest of the crypto market after President Donald Trump announced he was postponing planned strikes on Iranian energy power plants for five days. Ethereum surged 8% from the $2,000 psychological level, reclaiming the crucial $2,150 area. Analyst Ali Martinez noted that the King of Altcoin is “showing signs of a major structural shift,” as it has shown the strongest combination of technical support and on-chain signals in months. From a technical perspective, Ethereum is currently trading within a multi-year ascending triangle pattern on the weekly chart. This pattern suggests a potential breakout towards the $10,000 level. As he explained, the recent move toward $1,800 served as “a critical reaction point, aligning with the rising trendline of this multi-year structure.” In addition, on-chain data confirms that the recovery “wasn’t just a random bounce,” with the MVRV ratio recently dropping below 0.8, which historically has been a “generational buy zone.” The fact that this on-chain reset happened exactly as price tested the triangle’s support adds massive weight to the bullish thesis. He also highlighted that the key SuperTrend indicator has flipped from Sell to Buy for the first time since May, suggesting that the extended sideways period is ending, and a new uptrend is beginning. Related Reading: Dogecoin Could 200% Rally If This Floor Holds, Analyst Says Martinez concluded that a sustained move above the $2,350 area would be the first signal that Ethereum is exiting its accumulation range and entering a “true bull market expansion” and that any dips into the $1,800-$2,000 range should be “viewed as an opportunity as long as the $1,800 floor remains intact.” Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

A crypto analyst who previously warned traders and investors that the recent Bitcoin (BTC) price surge could be a fluke has shared a new update. Confirming that his earlier prediction was accurate, the analyst now provides insight on where Bitcoin is really headed as it continues to navigate the ongoing bear market.  Where The Bitcoin Price Is Headed Next DeFi researcher and market analyst Sherlock has taken to X to share a fresh update on an analysis he published earlier last week. In this new report, Sherlock presented a rather foreboding Bitcoin price forecast, suggesting that the world’s largest cryptocurrency is heading toward new lows around $53,000 soon.  Related Reading: Pundit Shares Everything To Understand About Bitcoin, ‘This Cycle IS Different’ He emphasized that the $53,000 level was not a random bearish target but a point established after multiple data signals converged, which also corresponds to Bitcoin’s next weekly support level. According to Sherlock, Bitcoin’s record high last week near $76,000 was a deviation he had anticipated despite some traders hoping that the rebound could become a sustainable breakout.  The analyst noted that the weekly candle on the chart is expected to confirm this deviation trend if it closes below $72,500. Sherlock also drew parallels to a January price movement, when the Bitcoin price climbed to $94,500 before crashing by approximately 38%. Usually, in crypto market terms, this type of action is called a “fakeout,” which is when the price briefly breaches key resistance levels, enticing traders to enter positions, before rapidly reversing in the opposite direction.  Currently, the Bitcoin price is hovering around $68,100, more than 10% below its previous high of $76,000 set last week. The cryptocurrency suffered a sharp, unexpected collapse in a single day following reports of a hawkish stance by the US Federal Reserve (FED). After briefly dipping toward the $70,000 level that day, Bitcoin has continued on a downward trajectory.  Data from CoinMarketCap also indicate that BTC’s decline was further accelerated by a surge in geopolitical tensions, after US President Donald Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran, triggering a broader sell-off across risk assets.  A Look Back At BTC’s $76,000 Fluke In his previous analysis, Sherlock had cautioned traders not to get baited by short-term Bitcoin price spikes. He noted that during the last major deviation in January 2026, many traders went long, only to incur significant losses after Bitcoin’s price collapsed over the next five weeks.  Related Reading: Is This The Bitcoin Price Bottom Or A Fakeout? Analyst Reveals When You Shouldn’t Be Excited The analyst had warned that if Bitcoin fails to close above $74,500 on the weekly chart, its brief rebound would be nothing more than a deviation, not a true breakout. Sherlock added that, with the FOMC meeting last week and market consensus expecting another interest-rate pause, the outlook for Bitcoin is far from bullish. He described Bitcoin’s previous rebound as a trap, likely engineered to lure investors and traders into long positions prematurely. Featured image from Pngtree, chart from Tradingview.com

As XRP attempts to defend a crucial support level, an analyst has called for a 30%-40% rally in the coming weeks, suggesting that the altcoin could see short-term relief before it reaches its “critical inflection point.” Related Reading: Analyst Says Dogecoin At $2 Is ‘Inevitable’ As Elon Musk Revives ‘Dogefather’ Meme XRP Defends Its ‘Lifeline’ On Friday, XRP saw a 2.5% intraday retrace to retest the $1.43 area before bouncing above the crucial $1.40 level. The altcoin has been hovering between $1.34-$1.50 over the past month, recently attempting to break out of the range’s upper boundary. During this week’s market rally, the cryptocurrency surged 15% from the weekend lows, reaching a one-month high of $1.60 on Tuesday. However, broader market volatility has pulled XRP back into its local range, leading the altcoin to retest a crucial area. Analyst ChardNerd affirmed that the altcoin is “currently defending a lifeline as it clings to support” and that he expects continuation to what he believes will be its “critical inflection point” in the coming weeks. XRP has been trading around its 200-Week Exponential Moving Average (EMA), currently at $1.41, with multiple closes below it and a bullish reclaim above this level in the latest weekly candle. As he explained, this is the key guardrail that the cryptocurrency must defend as the end of the week approaches, as it would set the stage for a new retest and potential reclaim of its $1.50 resistance and a relief rally toward two crucial levels above, the 20 EMA and 50 EMA. “So, what I’m trying to say is XRP could potentially have some sort of relief in the coming months, up towards these EMAs, which sit between $1.80 and $2.00. And if it gets this relief, that will mark a very critical inflection point.” He further emphasized that XRP must defend and hold the 200 EMA, as it has reclaimed the critical support level in the weekly timeframe and pushed the price toward its recent local highs. Why An April Rally Is Likely Diving deeper into the potential upcoming relief rally, the analyst observed that in previous cycles, XRP also had a “very interestingly unfolding price action.” He noted that after peaking in 2021, the altcoin fell to the 200 EMA, saw a relief rally toward the 20 and 50 EMA before being rejected and ultimately dropping to its bear market lows. Now, the cryptocurrency has done “exactly what we did in the prior cycle peak in 2021,” significantly retracing from its July 2025 peak and falling back to the 200 EMA. Notably, the altcoin saw around three months of relief after the successful back test, which could signal that “this is where we could see the next sort of few months, if Bitcoin behaves.” Related Reading: Solana Eyes ‘Clear Path’ Towards $115 Amid SEC Guidance, SOL ETFs Demand Moreover, the previous relief rally took place around March 2022, ChardNerd asserted, noting that “It doesn’t have to repeat the exact same way.” If the March relief rally doesn’t retest the $1.80-$2.00 in the next week, the analyst suggested that “there is a possibility that it lasts a bit longer than it did the prior cycle” and continues into April or May. “So, this is why there’s still the potential, I think, to get the push to $2 and then XRP comes back to $0.80 to $0.70,” he concluded. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Bittensor’s TAO ripped higher on Thursday and topped in early European trading on Friday after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang highlighted the project on the All-In podcast, pushing the token from $243.5 to $310.6 before it cooled to $298.1 by press time. The move put one of crypto’s most closely watched AI-linked assets back in focus, not because Huang endorsed the token directly, but because he treated the underlying technical milestone as meaningful in a much bigger debate over open AI infrastructure. The moment came when Chamath Palihapitiya pointed Huang to what he called a “pretty crazy technical accomplishment” inside “this crypto project called Bittensor.” He described a recent training run on Subnet 3 in which participants used distributed excess compute to train a Llama model “totally distributed” while still managing the process statefully. Nvidia CEO Responds To Bittensor’s Accomplishment Huang’s immediate reaction was brief but memorable: “Our modern version of Folding@home.” That line mattered because it effectively reframed Bittensor’s latest milestone in language traditional tech audiences already understand. Folding@home was one of the most recognizable examples of decentralized volunteer computers; Huang’s comparison suggested he viewed Bittensor’s experiment less as crypto theater and more as a legitimate expression of distributed coordination. Related Reading: Austin Arnold Unveils His Top 6 Crypto Altcoin Picks For 2026 In the context of TAO’s price action, traders appeared to read that as external validation from one of the most influential executives in AI hardware. Huang then widened the discussion beyond Bittensor itself and into the structure of the AI market. “I believe we fundamentally need models as first-class products, proprietary products, as well as models as open source. These two things are not A or B, it’s A and B. There’s no question about it,” he said. He followed that with an even sharper distinction: “Models are a technology, not a product. Models are technology, not a service.” Related Reading: Is Dogecoin About To Repeat NVIDIA’s Run? Here’s What The Chart Says He spent the next stretch explaining why that dual-track model matters. For general-purpose consumer use, Huang said most people will continue to prefer turnkey services rather than fine-tuning their own systems. “I would really, really love not to go fine-tune my own. I would really love to keep using ChatGPT. I love to use Claude. I love to use Gemini. I love to use X,” he said, arguing that this horizontal layer of AI products “is thriving” and “is going to be great.” On the @theallinpod this week, @chamath asked @nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about decentralized AI training, calling our Covenant-72B run “a pretty crazy technical accomplishment.” One correction: it’s 72 billion parameters, not four. Trained permissionlessly across 70+ contributors… pic.twitter.com/BN0tWG66e8 — templar (@tplr_ai) March 19, 2026 But he drew a hard line when it came to industry-specific deployment, saying domain expertise “has to be captured in a way that they can control,” and that “it can only come from open models.” That distinction goes to the heart of why Bittensor reacted so violently. While Huang didn’t make a token call, or presented Bittensor as the winner of open AI, he did endorse the coexistence of proprietary and open model ecosystems, while acknowledging that specialized industries will need more controllable, open foundations. At press time, TAO traded at $297.0 Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

As Hyperliquid continues its unstoppable ascend to become the new go‑to venue for 24/7 real word assets (RWA’s) and macro risk, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes is doubling down on his prediction that $HYPE, Hyperliquid native token, will surge to $150 by August 2026. Related Reading: Hyperliquid Breaks Crypto Wall? Fiat On-Ramp Lets Anyone Trade With Bank Card HYPE Is Taking Over Pretty impressive that oil contracts are trading $1.5bn a day. $HYPE is taking over. See you at $150. ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/rD5cdBw0UL — Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) March 20, 2026 After the essay he published on his Substack on March 9, Hayes predictions are now supported by new evidence: not only are oil perpetual contracts trading $1.5bn a day on the platform, as the trader demonstrated on a post published today on the social media X, but new data from research outlet Coin Bureau also highlights that this all-time high open interest means that the platform is now trading more volume in tokenized commodities than digital assets. Oil, gold and silver now account for more than crypto in Hyperliquid. ????BREAKING: Hyperliquid now trades MORE oil, gold, and silver than crypto. Combined HIP-3 open interest surpassed $1.5 BILLION, an all-time high. The platform is processing more volume in tokenized commodities than digital assets. The 24/7 advantage is pulling volume from… pic.twitter.com/pp4Etq0mk9 — Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) March 20, 2026 Hayes’ logic is straightforward: if Hyperliquid establishes itself as the primary venue for around‑the‑clock oil and macro trading, then HYPE effectively becomes the high‑beta way to own that growth in on‑chain volume and fees. In other words, every spike in real activity on the exchange, from war‑driven oil hedging to broader RWA speculation, feeds back into the token’s value capture, turning HYPE into a leveraged expression of Hyperliquid’s market share and revenue trajectory. Related Reading: Crypto Market Regains Its Nerve as ETF Inflows Top $1B, Report Shows The Geopolitical-Driven Intertwinement Of Hype And Oil Oil has been on a war‑driven tear this week, with benchmark Brent crude spiking toward the $120 mark after Israeli strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure and fresh threats to facilities across the Gulf. The conflict has effectively injected a hefty risk premium into crude, as attacks on export terminals, refineries and shipping lanes around the Strait of Hormuz raise the odds of prolonged supply disruptions. Prices are now hovering near triple‑digit levels after an initial surge of roughly $40–50 percent since the Iran war began, and intraday moves have turned extremely volatile as traders try to handicap whether the fighting escalates into a broader regional energy shock WTI Crude Oil trades for almost $95 on the daily chart. Source: OILUSD on TradingView HYPE has been on a war‑driven tear of its own, grinding higher alongside crude. After a sharp impulse move that pushed the token into the low‑$40s this week, intraday swings have widened and funding has turned choppy, reflecting aggressive positioning on both sides of the book rather than a slow, organic grind. Even so, $HYPE is still trading several hundred percent above its levels from last year, and each fresh spike in oil‑linked perp volume on Hyperliquid is being read as confirmation that the token remains a high‑beta proxy on growing on‑chain demand for geopolitical and commodities exposure. HYPE trades for almost $40 on the daily chart, a slight surge from yesterday. Source: HYPEUSDT on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, OILUSD and HYPEUSDT chart from Tradingview  

While some market observers suggest that Dogecoin (DOGE) could be primed for a massive price expansion, Elon Musk revived his popular meme after a long time, reigniting enthusiasm among crypto community members. Related Reading: Solana Eyes ‘Clear Path’ Towards $115 Amid SEC Guidance, SOL ETFs Demand The ‘Dogefather’ Is Back? As investors wondered whether Elon Musk had abandoned Dogecoin, the Tesla CEO and X owner put the memecoin front and center of the crypto conversation after reviving his popular “Dogefather” meme. In a Thursday X post, the tech entrepreneur shared an AI-generated video recreating a famous scene from “The Godfather.” The video, created with Grok Imagine, displays Musk in a black tuxedo as Vito Corleone, the iconic character played by Marlon Brando in the Francis Ford Coppola film. While holding a Shiba Inu dog, the breed that inspired the original Dogecoin meme, the AI version of Musk recited a modified version of the legendary scene: “You come to me on the day of my doge’s wedding, and you ask me for my private key. Are you even a friend? You don’t even think to call me the Dogefather.” The post reignited enthusiasm among crypto community members, several interpreting it as a new sign of support for DOGE. The CEO has long advocated for the oldest memecoin on his social media, often calling himself the “Dogefather.” His doge-inspired posts have historically caused significant fluctuations in the cryptocurrency’s price, although their frequency has decreased over time. Notably, he triggered a massive rally in 2021 when he promoted his Saturday Night Live (SNL) appearance using the “Dogefather” meme. Ahead of the show, the memecoin surged to its all-time high (ATH) of $0.73, but quickly crashed by around 40% amid the broadcast after he called it a “hustle” during a sketch. Dogecoin Macro Structure Signals New Highs Despite the online excitement, DOGE’s price didn’t react to Musk’s acknowledgement this time, with the price remaining mostly flat in the following hours before plunging alongside the rest of the crypto market. An X user noted that “Posts like this used to give us money a few years ago.” However, the memecoin fell from the recently reclaimed $0.10 level, falling to a $0.0918 one-week low on Thursday afternoon. A market observer noted that, regardless of short-term price action, DOGE’s macro structure remains intact, which could signal it’s ready for the next major pump. Trader Tardigrade highlighted memecoin’s performance during each of its ATH rallies in previous cycles and emphasized that every rally it “tells the same story—because Doge makes its own rules.” As the chart above shows, following its previous peak, Dogecoin has moved within a multi-year range, reaching its market bottom before bouncing. During the last stage of its recovery, the memecoin has formed a falling wedge pattern, which has led to a significant price expansion to new highs after breaking out of this crucial formation. Related Reading: BNB Chain Momentum Grows As Total RWA Value Hits $3B Now, DOGE has “just completed the final falling wedge inside the yellow circle, and it looks primed for the next pump into the next circle,” the analyst pointed out. He also stated that the cryptocurrency’s setup shows that the price is in a “prime accumulation window,” concluding that “Doge at $2 is inevitable.” As of this writing, Dogeocin trades at $0.092, a 2.5% decline in the daily timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Crypto analyst CrypFlow has revealed that the signal that started the last 2 altcoin seasons has returned. The analyst pointed to bullish indicators of the ‘Others’ chart against Bitcoin, which signal that capital may be flowing to lower-capped tokens.  Signal Points To Another Altcoin Season as Capital Flows From Bitcoin In an X post, CrypFlow stated that the signal that started the last two altcoin seasons is forming again. He explained that every major altcoin expansion has started the same way, with the others/Bitcoin chart breaking out of a falling wedge, and that then the Squeeze Momentum turns green.  Related Reading: Expert Says There Will Be No Altcoin Season In 2026, Here’s Why The analyst remarked that when these two indicators align, altcoins start to massively outperform Bitcoin, as seen during the 2017 and 2021 altcoin seasons. However, he noted that this cycle was different as the Squeeze Momentum stayed red for years after the 2021 bull cycle peak.  CrypFlow noted that this meant a prolonged Bitcoin dominance, with no real altcoin season happening since the last one in 2021. That could change soon, though, as the others/BTC chart has broken out of another multi-year falling wedge and momentum is rising again. The analyst added that if the Squeeze Momentum flips green, the same conditions that triggered previous altcoin seasons could return.  CrypFlow also mentioned that when that happens, the biggest moves usually start when nobody expects them. Blockchain Center data shows that it is not yet altcoin season, with the index currently at 49. The altcoin season index needs to hit 75 to be classified as an altcoin season, with 75% of the top 50 coins by market cap outperforming Bitcoin during that period.  Bitcoin continues to lead the way at the moment, with altcoins mirroring its price action. Notably, BTC’s dominance is currently at 58%, a level it has maintained since the start of the year. Crypto analyst Javon Marks also echoed CrypFlow’s sentiment, noting that similarities and macro trends in altcoin setups continue to point to altcoin season being in its early stages.  Another Sign That Points To An Altcoin Season In an X post, crypto analyst CW revealed that Ethereum is forming an 8-year-long convergence and will break through it during this bull market. The analyst declared that this altcoin season will be at the level of the 2017 cycle, not the 2021 cycle. “Investors do not remember how strong the 2017 altcoin season. The 2026 Alt Season will be stronger than 2021,” he added.  Related Reading: The 8-Year Ethereum Convergence That Says An Altcoin Season Stronger Than 2021 Is Coming Amid predictions of an imminent altcoin season, market expert Benjamin Cowen has suggested that the focus should be on Bitcoin. In an X post, he said that over time, everything in the cryptoverse eventually bleeds back to Bitcoin. He added that after people have engineered all sorts of different things, but that after a cycle or two, it all just bleeds “back to the king.” Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com

Amid strong institutional demand and regulatory clarity from US authorities, an analyst has suggested that Solana (SOL) could potentially rally above a crucial psychological barrier for the first time in a month. Related Reading: BNB Chain Momentum Grows As Total RWA Value Hits $3B Clear Skies Ahead For Solana Over the past week, Solana has had a remarkable performance, jumping 22% from March lows and breaking out of its multi-week consolidation range. The cryptocurrency has been hovering between the $77 and $92 levels over the past month and a half, failing to break above the upper zone of this range despite multiple attempts. Following the recent crypto market bounce, the altcoin reached a one-month high of $97 at the start of the week, before dropping to $90 on Wednesday. Amid this performance, analyst Ali Martinez reported that SOL recently flashed a key bullish signal for the first time since January, suggesting a relief rally could be ahead. As he explained, the SuperTrend indicator, which is used to identify the current market trend, has turned bullish on Solana, flipping from Sell to Buy on the daily chart. In addition, the market watcher noted that there’s little resistance until the $100 psychological barrier, signaling a potential breakout to $115. Per the post, the UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) metric shows that “a robust demand floor” was established between $85.55 and $82.60, where 76 million SOL tokens were transacted. “This 38-day accumulation phase has effectively exhausted sell-side liquidity. With no significant supply barriers remaining on the horizontal profile, Solana has a clear path toward the $100 psychological level, followed by the $115 liquidity cluster,” he detailed, adding that the “‘ceiling’ is significantly thinner than the current floor.” Martinez emphasized that if Solana holds the 39-day distribution zone that flipped into a structural floor around the $93 area, a bull rally could happen “much faster than people think.” Institutional Demand, Regulatory Clarity Fuel SOL’s Momentum SOL’s anticipated recovery comes as spot Solana Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) record their largest single-day performance in two weeks and their best weekly run since the mid-January market crash. According to SoSoValue data, the category saw $17.81 million in inflows on March 17, its highest single-day net flows since the start of the month, suggesting strong institutional demand. Meanwhile, the SOL-based funds have seen a five-week positive streak despite market volatility, largely fueled by geopolitical tensions. As the report noted, Solana Spot ETFs have cumulative net inflows of $989.3 million amid strong, “just shy of the $1B milestone.” Related Reading: The End Of Ethereum’s Downtrend? Key Indicator Flashes First Bullish Signal Since September Adding to the momentum, US regulators have recently shared long-awaited clarity on how federal securities laws apply to many crypto assets, resolving years of regulatory ambiguity. On Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued joint guidance to provide clearer rules for market participants, officially confirming that most crypto assets, including Solana, Cardano, and XRP, are digital commodities rather than securities, joining Bitcoin and Ethereum in this classification. As of this writing, Solana trades at $90, a 6.4% increase in the monthly timeframe. Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

Momentum has picked up on Capitol Hill this week as lawmakers and industry leaders converged at the DC Blockchain Summit, where Senator Cynthia Lummis said she expects the long‑delayed Senate Banking Committee markup on the crypto market‑structure bill (CLARITY Act) to be scheduled for late April.  Breakthrough On DeFi And Stablecoin Yield Senator Lummis told attendees she is confident the committee will approve the crypto market structure bill and that the full Senate could pass the legislation by the end of the year.  “We’re gonna have this thing done come hell or high water by the end of the year.” She added that a Banking GOP markup is likely in the second half of April after the Easter recess. “We think we’ve got it,” she claimed at the event.  Related Reading: This Week Could Be The Most Volatile For Bitcoin In 2026, Top Expert Warns Stablecoin yield has been one of the thorniest issues slowing talks; bank lobbyists have argued that such yield could effectively resemble deposit interest and threaten deposit accounts.  Lummis said negotiators have drafted language to block crypto platforms from marketing or delivering rewards in ways that sound like traditional deposit yield or that scale with the amount of assets a user holds.  “Anything that sounds like banking product terminology will not appear,” she said, noting she had not seen the most recent text but that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had signaled willingness to compromise. Senators Fast‑Track Crypto Bill  Lummis also said negotiators believe they have resolved outstanding questions around decentralized finance. “We think we’ve got the DeFi issue put to bed,” she said, reflecting industry and legislative efforts to clarify how peer‑to‑peer (P2P) and protocol‑level services should be regulated. The senator used social media to underscore the political moment, stating that there has “never been a more pro‑digital asset administration in United States history than @POTUS,” and urging colleagues to seize what she described as a unique opportunity to finalize crypto market‑structure reform.  Related Reading: Citigroup Lowers 12-Month Bitcoin Price Forecast To $112,000, ETH To $3,175—Here’s The Reason Reporting from Crypto in America added further signs of progress. Journalist Eleanor Terrett relayed comments from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, who told the summit he expected to have “the first proposal” on stablecoin yield by the end of the week.  Chair Scott credited Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis, along with Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House Crypto Council, for helping advance negotiations between the two financial sectors.  Importantly, Scott also said the committee is making headway on decentralized finance (DeFi), ethics, and quorum issues, and that some Democratic concerns are being addressed by proposing minority‑party representation at the SEC and CFTC — a concession aimed at broadening bipartisan support. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Crypto just suffered its first major electoral setback of the 2026 cycle in deep‑blue Illinois, where Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton beat pro‑crypto Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi in the Democratic Senate primary, NBC News reports. Related Reading: Crypto Rails Go Mainstream — Inside Mastercard’s Bold $1.8 Billion BVNK Acquisition An Electoral Crypto Loss Fairshake, the industry‑backed super political action committee (PAC), poured almost $10 million into ads attacking Stratton as anti‑innovation, but local political muscle, including Governor JB Pritzker’s endorsement and millions in support, proved stronger than crypto money this time. In a state this blue, Stratton’s primary win all but guarantees her a Senate seat in November, turning the race into a warning shot for the digital assets lobby ahead of the 2026 midterms. Fairshake, funded by giants like Coinbase and Ripple as well as venture capital heavyweights Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, entered Illinois with more than $191 million in cash and a broader $221 million war chest for this election cycle. The PAC and its affiliate Protect Progress spent heavily in multiple Illinois House primaries, often on the side of more centrist or business‑friendly Democrats against progressives Candidates such as Melissa Bean and Nikki Budzinski appeared in races where crypto‑aligned super PAC money was present, though it is hard to show Fairshake was uniquely decisive in “electing” them rather than being one of several big spenders. Fairshake publicly frames its mission as defending “American innovation” and “consumer choice” in financial services, and it has signaled it plans to stay active through 2026 and beyond. Related Reading: Crypto Payments Are Going Mainstream: Can Tourists Turn Into Daily Users In South Korea? What This Means For Traders Short term, this defeat is unlikely to move prices by itself, but it adds a layer of policy uncertainty for 2026 that could resurface as volatility around key primary dates, especially if Fairshake reallocates more of its $221 million war chest into tighter, more winnable races. Regulatory and legislative outcomes around stablecoins, market structure, and crypto‑friendly bills like the GENIUS Act and Clarity Act will remain highly political and uneven across states, rather than following a straight, pro‑industry trajectory. In the moment of writing, BTC’s trades for $72k. Source: BTCUSDT on Tradingview Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSDT chart from Tradingview