BTC holds near $70,500 as derivatives turn defensive, macro risks weigh on sentiment and altcoins show pockets of strength.
South Korea’s tax agency is seeking a private custodian for seized crypto after a wallet seed phrase leak exposed government-held assets.
Technical indicators hint at a possible reversal in BTC’s relative performance, as traders watch whether key support levels can hold.
Ethereum, being the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has often drawn a lot of attention as the next in line to replicate Bitcoin’s success. But despite Bitcoin rallying to new all-time highs, Ethereum has stayed below $5,000, unable to hit this major target. This has not deterred investors, however, with analysts still predicting that the Ethereum price will eventually beat the $5,000 mark and rally toward 5-figures in the end. Why Ethereum Price Could Cross $5,000 Following the initial decline from the $4,900 high that was registered back in 2025, the Ethereum price was stuck in an accumulation range. This continued as the price decline deepened and Ethereum fell more than 50% from its all-time highs. However, with the recent turn in the tide, it seems that the digital asset is now emerging out of this accumulation trend. Crypto analyst Javon Marks points this out in an analysis shared on the X (formerly Twitter) platform, showing how this could play out for the cryptocurrency. Related Reading: Analyst Says Ignore The Noise, Dogecoin Is Still In The Game, And This Is Why Presently, the Ethereum price looks to be marking its support above $2,000, and this has set the stage for a bounce-off rally. According to the crypto analyst, this current trend suggests that Ethereum is actually breaking out of the accumulation trend. This, in turn, sets this digital asset on a course toward breaking $4,900. The story doesn’t end there because Marks highlights that the implications of the Ethereum price breaking above $4,900 are very bearish. In the case of a break above this major resistance, then the crypto analyst sees the ETH price eventually rallying to $8,500. Bull patterns that hold in $ETH hints at a push towards the $4,900 levels again and that may only be part of prices exiting a huge accumulation phase. Prices reach those levels and the next we’re looking at is above $8,500. (Ethereum) https://t.co/Ik7znLXZQb — JAVON⚡️MARKS (@JavonTM1) March 17, 2026 Metrics Are Itching For A Surge Besides the price, there has also been a major increase in the Ethereum open interest. Data from the Coinglass website shows a jump from around $25 billion last week to over $32 billion this week. It also coincides with the price increase, suggesting that investors may be coming back to the table. Related Reading: Top Meme Coins That Could Still Surge Despite Dogecoin, Shiba Inu Dominance Also, the daily trading volume is also on the rise, reaching over $89 billion earlier in the week. Following the correction, the daily volume has fallen, but remains above $50 billion, which also indicates a lot of interest coming back into the market. If this trend continues, then the ETH price could continue to surge, but with major resistance lying at $3,000, it remains to be seen if bears will give up totally. Featured image from Dall.E, chart from TradingView.com
Coinbase has introduced stock perpetual futures for eligible non-U.S. users, with selected ETF products also available.
The Fed kept rates unchanged at 3.50%-3.75% on Mar. 18, lifted its 2026 inflation projections to 2.7% for both headline and core PCE, and held to a median year-end fed-funds path of 3.4%. Chair Jerome Powell said higher energy prices will push up overall inflation in the near term and that the implications of events […]
The post Bitcoin defies drop below $70,000 as oil turns into a central-bank problem appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Today, the crypto market is going to see a slight volatility as Bitcoin and Ethereum options worth about $2.1 billion are set to expire. The market is already under pressure, so traders are watching important levels closely, Bitcoin’s “max pain” at $70,000 and Ethereum’s at $2,150, which could affect prices in the short term. $1.7 …
Gold is trading at $4,691 today. The tokenized gold market has surpassed $5.5 billion. And the same organization that built the world’s largest gold ETF just proposed the most ambitious overhaul of digital gold infrastructure ever attempted. The $163 Billion Question The World Gold Council helped launch SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) in 2004. That fund …
Gemini is facing a class-action lawsuit in New York accusing it of misleading investors about its strategy before and after its 2025 IPO.
The crypto market just saw an unexpected change. Hyperliquid briefly moved to the top 10 ahead of Cardano in market capitalization, showing how quickly positions can change. As per data, HYPE has been rising steadily, gaining around 21% this week and trading near the $40–$43 range. ADA also saw gains near $0.29, but the increase …
Data shows the Bitcoin perpetual futures market has seen a negative Funding Rate recently, suggesting a bearish sentiment is dominant. Bitcoin Perpetual Futures Traders Are Betting On The Short Direction As highlighted by Glassnode analyst Chris Beamish in an X post, the Bitcoin perpetual futures Funding Rate has been negative recently. The “Funding Rate” here refers to an indicator that measures the amount of periodic fee that traders on the various centralized derivatives exchanges are paying each other right now. Related Reading: Bitcoin Demand Heats Up: Coinbase Premium Green For 25 Straight Days When the value of the metric is positive, it means the long holders are paying a premium to the short ones in order to hold onto their positions. Such a trend implies a bullish sentiment is shared by the majority. On the other hand, the indicator being under the zero mark implies the shorts outweigh the longs and a bearish mentality is the dominant force in the perpetual futures market. Now, here is the chart shared by Beamish that shows the trend in the 3-day moving average (MA) of the Bitcoin Funding Rate over the past few months: As displayed in the above graph, the 3-day MA of the Bitcoin Funding Rate was positive earlier even as the cryptocurrency’s price went through a bearish shift. This suggests that perpetual futures traders were trying to bet on a market reversal back to a bullish trend. In March so far, BTC has found some stability and made some recovery, but from the chart, it’s visible that the market expectations have now flipped, with shorts instead dominating. This also didn’t change during BTC’s recent rally above $75,000. Generally, the side of the market that’s stronger is more vulnerable to mass liquidation events. As such, while the long investors were getting squeezed during the downtrend, it could be the short ones who might be at risk now. In some other news, Glassnode has revealed in its latest weekly report how a supply gap exists between the $72,000 and $82,000 levels on the UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD). The URPD tells us about the total amount of supply that was last moved at the various price levels visited by Bitcoin in its history. From the chart, it’s apparent that this indicator shows a chasm near the recent price levels, implying not a lot of supply has cost basis there. Related Reading: Bitcoin Long-Term MVRV Remains In ‘Opportunity’ Zone: Data Generally, supply walls above the spot price act as resistance levels as investors exit at their break-even level fearing price pullbacks. Though, while there isn’t much in the way of this on-chain resistance until $82,000, BTC’s recent attempt to get through the range still ended up in failure. BTC Price Bitcoin has dropped back to the $70,400 level following its latest retrace. Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
A new Ripple survey of more than 1,000 global finance leaders finds that digital assets are now seen as a strategic necessity rather than an optional experiment.
Cardano is beginning to show signs of stability after weeks of sustained pressure, with the price now hovering around $0.27. The recent pullback from higher levels appears to be slowing, as ADA price continues to hold above the $0.23–$0.26 support zone—a range that has repeatedly acted as a base in the past. While the broader …
Crypto.Com has laid off about 12% of its workforce, cutting roughly 180 jobs from its 1,500 employees, as it shifts focus to AI tools. CEO Kris Marszalek said companies that quickly adopt AI and combine it with top talent will grow faster, while others may struggle to survive. The move comes as crypto firms look …
VanEck's latest report noted that the selling pressure among bitcoin miners remained steady despite a decline in profitability.
Despite the crypto market’s renewed weakness on Thursday, a new AI-driven market model produced by Sam Daodu for 24/7 Wall St. projects higher year-end prices for Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, and Ethereum (ETH). AI Model Sees Bitcoin Rising 42% In 2026 Daodu’s analysis, which used ChatGPT as the modeling engine, places Bitcoin at the top of the trio, forecasting a roughly 42% gain from current levels and a year-end target near $105,000. Related Reading: Sen. Lummis Predicts Crypto Market Structure Markup In April, Senate Passage By Year-End The AI model identified institutional demand and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as the primary catalysts for its Bitcoin prediction. The model also identified BTC’s tightened supply as a potential catalyst. The latest Halving reduced daily issuance from 900 BTC to 450 BTC, cutting the annual inflation rate to 0.83%. This week, combined with ETF buying and large holders, institutional purchases outpaced miner issuance, creating a demand-supply imbalance that the model cited as a main reason for ranking Bitcoin first. XRP To Hit $2 By Year-End XRP ranked second in the AI’s predictions, with an expected return of approximately 32% and a year-end price near $2.00. ChatGPT noted the regulatory clarity provided by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which classified the altcoin as a commodity. This classification is expected to reduce a major barrier to institutional participation. The AI model also interpreted XRP’s most recent price breakout above the key $1.5 level as bullish, noting that sustained gains can move holders toward break-even positions and reduce selling pressure. However, the model highlighted a critical limitation: regulatory clarity has not yet translated into meaningful institutional demand for XRP, as ETF flows experienced $28 million in net outflows last week. In short, substantial institutional buying will be required for XRP to reach its predicted price point by the end of the year. ChatGPT Forecasts Modest ETH Rally Ethereum ranked third, with a comparatively modest forecast of about 20% upside to roughly $2,800 by year-end. ChatGPT argued that, despite Ethereum’s developer ecosystem and extensive infrastructure, the token faces the weakest near-term demand picture among the three major assets. A key reason is migration of activity to layer-2 (L2) networks—Base, Arbitrum (ARB), and Optimism (OP) now handle a large share of user transactions because of lower fees. Related Reading: XRP Price Projections Soar To $15-$30 On CLARITY Act Prospects And Bank Adoption That shift has reportedly compressed fee revenue on Ethereum’s base layer; weekly fees recently averaged about $2.3 million compared with peak weekly fees near $30 million. With fees now close to zero, burning has effectively stalled, and ETH’s supply is growing slightly rather than contracting. ChatGPT concluded that, until fee revenue rebounds or institutional flows reverse, Ethereum’s price will have to prove itself on other fundamentals. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $70,600, marking a 1% loss within the last 24 hours. XRP has seen a similar decline of 0.9%, but it is still holding onto gains of 6% recorded over the past week while trading at around $1.45 per token. Surprisingly, Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin during this period as well, with gains of 4.2%. However, over the past 24 hours, the market’s leading altcoin has retraced 2.3%, reaching approximately $2,148, according to CoinGecko data. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
Crypto exchange Gemini has cut about 30% of its workforce since January, reducing staff to around 445 employees. The company is also bringing in AI tools to improve efficiency and lower costs. Gemini reported a net loss of nearly $585 million in 2025, with about $60 million in revenue in the final quarter. The cuts …
Altcoin trading volumes have dropped sharply to their multi-month low, showing weaker investor interest across the crypto market. Meanwhile, lower activity, cautious sentiment, and global uncertainty are pushing traders away from risk.Money is still moving inside crypto, hinting at a hidden shift. Is this a warning sign, or the start of the next big move? …
Quant (QNT) price is extending its upward move, currently trading around $78 after a sharp 19% weekly surge. The rally reflects a steady shift in momentum, with buyers consistently stepping in on dips and pushing price toward a key resistance zone. Unlike short-lived spikes, this move has developed through controlled price expansion, indicating that the …
The recent price action echoes the November–January pattern, showing weak conviction among the “buy the dip” crowd.
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
Morgan Stanley, an American financial services firm, has filed a second amended S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its spot Bitcoin ETF. The fund, named Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust, is expected to trade under the ticker MSBT on NYSE Arca if approved. Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF Filing Signals Institutional Expansion According …
Markets are flying blind right now. With the Federal Reserve pausing rates and the Iran conflict shaking global stability, investors are navigating one big question: what comes next? At the same time, Bitcoin is holding near $70,587, showing slight short-term weakness as it dips marginally over the past hour and day. The broader market remains …
The WGC's digital platform could revolutionize gold's role in finance, enhancing accessibility, liquidity, and integration into modern systems.
The post World Gold Council plans to build shared infrastructure platform for digital gold appeared first on Crypto Briefing.
Galaxy Digital’s Will Owens says most crypto wallets aren’t exposed to quantum risks, with vulnerabilities limited to cases where public keys are revealed.
The company said it is now disclosing the April 2025 funding as it moves into 'a new era of leadership and further growth.'
Bittensor price has drawn strong market attention since February, rallying even as the broader market consolidated. Bulls stepped in aggressively below $250, driving TAO back toward a critical resistance zone. The token now trades near $304, up around 16.5%, as it retests the psychologically significant $300 level that has capped prior rallies. The move is …
US authorities say they have charged and arrested Supermicro co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw for allegedly funnelling $2.5 billion in AI servers to China through shell companies.
A price zone that held as a floor throughout all of 2025 is now blocking XRP from recovering. The $1.80 level — once a reliable support — flipped to resistance in January 2026, and the token has not come close to reclaiming it since. Until it does, one analyst says XRP remains “in deep trouble.” Related Reading: Bitcoin Stalls Near $75K As Traders Move Coins To Exchanges A Channel Break That Changed Everything For most of last year, XRP traded inside a large parallel channel with a ceiling near $3.45 and a floor around $1.80. The token stayed within those boundaries even as its price started slipping after hitting an all-time high of $3.60 in July 2025. Lower highs and lower lows piled up through the fourth quarter, but $1.80 held. Then January came. XRP closed the month below that level for the first time, and it has not looked back. The $1.80 floor became a ceiling, and every attempt to push higher has run into that wall. If I zoom out, I still see $XRP in deep trouble. It is clearly downtrending with a series of lower lows and lower highs, and above all, it is still below that key level at $1.80. As long as we don’t break this downtrend, we could expect that “no support zone” to be filled. pic.twitter.com/mNuF8O8LWo — Sjuul | AltCryptoGems (@AltCryptoGems) March 18, 2026 Analyst Sjuul of the AltCryptoGems channel laid out the situation in a recent market breakdown. Zooming out to the daily chart, he pointed to the pattern of lower lows and lower highs that has defined XRP’s price action since the July peak — a structure that leaves the broader downtrend fully intact regardless of short-term bounces. A 15% Rally That Still Went Nowhere XRP did manage a stretch of gains between March 9 and 16 — seven up days out of eight, its best run since September 2025. The token climbed 15% during that window, reclaiming $1.50 and closing at $1.54 on March 16. But the rally stalled almost immediately. A push toward $1.60 ran into resistance at $1.6074 earlier this week, and XRP has since pulled back on three consecutive days, now trading around $1.46. The recovery, impressive as it briefly looked, never came anywhere near $1.80. For context, XRP had dropped to $1.27 on February 28 during the initial market reaction to the Israel-Iran conflict before clawing back above $1.50. The March rally was largely a rebound from that low — not a trend reversal. Related Reading: Ripple’s $500M Raise And Institutional Ties Keep XRP Firmly In Place Two Scenarios, One Number Sjuul sees the path forward as straightforward. XRP either reclaims $1.80 and pushes back inside the parallel channel — invalidating the bearish setup — or it doesn’t, and the downside risk grows sharply. The level he flags on the downside is the $1.20 to $1.30 zone. That area offered no resistance during XRP’s explosive November 2024 rally, which is what analysts call a “no support zone” — a price range the market blew through so fast that few buyers established positions there. Since that rally, the zone has acted as a cushion during dips. If $1.80 continues to hold as resistance, Sjuul suggests XRP could fall back toward that range. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Crypto exchange Gemini is facing a class-action lawsuit over what a complaint alleges is an “abrupt corporate pivot to a prediction-market-centric business model” after its IPO.