Bitmine's strategic ETH accumulation and staking expansion signal growing confidence in crypto's recovery, potentially boosting market stability.

The post Bitmine adds 61K ETH as prices hit $2K, Tom Lee says mini crypto winter may be ending appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Anthropic's legal battle highlights tensions between AI ethics and national security, potentially reshaping tech-government collaborations.

The post Anthropic files lawsuit against US government over supply chain risk label appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The divergence between crypto and equities amid oil chaos suggests potential shifts in market dynamics, but long-term trends remain uncertain.

The post Oil chaos sends crypto and equities in opposite directions appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Geopolitical tensions and volatile oil prices highlight Bitcoin's vulnerability to macroeconomic factors, challenging its "safe haven" status.

The post Bitcoin ETF flows drop to $619M as spiking oil prices rattle risk assets appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The US Treasury's acknowledgment of legitimate crypto mixer uses may shift regulatory focus, potentially boosting privacy-focused crypto investments.

The post US Treasury report acknowledges legitimate uses for crypto mixers appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Teeters Near $69,000 Despite Market Volatility and Oil Price Swings

Bitcoin price traded near $69,000 on Monday, stabilizing after last week’s brief rally and then sell-off into the weekend. The cryptocurrency has remained resilient even as traditional equities and oil markets experience sharp swings.

Bitcoin price remains confined to the $62,500–$72,000 range following February’s sharp decline, with repeated attempts to break above $72,000 failing, according to Bitfinex analysts. 

A high of $74,047 on March 4 marked a brief breakout for the bitcoin price, but momentum could not be sustained, and the move was quickly reversed. The March 6 spike in negative realized profits of around $900 million shows that many investors exited positions at a loss during the failed rally. 

Passive sell orders and late-entry leveraged longs absorbed buying pressure, keeping the price trapped within its established range. 

Since the February low, dip buyers have supported a 20.5% recovery, helping stabilize the market. 

Realized losses have now sharply compressed, suggesting that forced selling has largely subsided, but upside remains capped until $72,000 is decisively cleared, according to Bitfinex. 

Bitcoin price weathers macro turbulence

The surge in volatility comes alongside dramatic movements in energy markets, where West Texas Intermediate crude briefly rose above $110 per barrel before easing back. 

Supply concerns driven by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have weighed on global equities and safe-haven assets such as gold, while pushing demand toward the U.S. dollar.

Bitcoin’s own volatility measures suggest the crypto market may have already experienced its most stressful phase. The Bitcoin Volmex Implied Volatility Index (BVIV) spiked earlier this year when bitcoin price briefly fell to $60,000, indicating heightened market stress. 

Since then, volatility has eased, suggesting that crypto markets front-ran some of the turbulence now affecting traditional assets. 

Despite macro uncertainty, bitcoin’s price has held above $66,000, recovering from minor pullbacks that followed attempts to break through resistance near $74,000. The market has seen a consolidation phase, with buyers defending levels around $66,000 to $69,000, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro data.

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East and disruptions to shipping routes have contributed to sharp spikes in oil prices. The Strait of Hormuz closure and recent strikes on regional depots tightened supply, adding upward pressure on crude and fueling concerns about global inflation. Rising energy costs ripple through industries worldwide, potentially increasing borrowing costs and putting pressure on risk-sensitive assets, including bitcoin.

On top of this, underlying financial pressures that could influence Bitcoin’s appeal.

“While chaotic global events are getting most of the attention and are often credited for bitcoin’s price moves, there may be deeper stresses forming beneath the surface,” Timot Lamarre, director of market research at Unchained Pressure, wrote to Bitcoin Magazine. “In the private credit market, including unusually high withdrawal requests from large funds, suggests liquidity in parts of the financial system may be tightening. Markets tend to anticipate the policy response to financial stress before it happens, and if investors begin expecting another round of monetary expansion, the incentive to hold bitcoin only grows stronger.”

Global equities have reflected these pressures. Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s KOSPI both dropped more than 7% after market openings, while China and Hong Kong’s indices recorded smaller declines.

The strength of the U.S. dollar, coupled with elevated yields, has reinforced its role as a primary defensive asset in the current environment, leaving bitcoin price and other risk assets to navigate a more complex landscape.

Within this context, bitcoin price has maintained relative stability. Its market capitalization has remained above $1.3 trillion, and trading activity shows continued interest across spot and derivatives markets. 

Bitcoin’s mined supply also surpassed 20 million  BTC today — over 95 % of the 21 million cap — leaving just about 1 million coins left to be mined over the next century.

This post Bitcoin Price Teeters Near $69,000 Despite Market Volatility and Oil Price Swings first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Hits 20 Million Mined: Less Than 1 Million Coins Left 

Bitcoin has just crossed a major milestone: more than 20 million of its 21 million coins have now been mined. That means over 95% of the cryptocurrency’s total supply is out in the world, leaving less than one million coins yet to be created.

But don’t expect them to appear anytime soon — the last fractions of Bitcoin, called satoshis, are projected to be mined around the year 2140.

Bitcoin’s supply is built into its code, making it very different from traditional money like dollars or euros. When Satoshi Nakamoto launched the network in 2009, the system was designed to release coins gradually. 

Miners earn new bitcoins as rewards for validating transactions and adding them to the blockchain. These rewards started at 50 BTC per block and are cut in half roughly every four years in an event called a “halving.” 

The latest halving in 2024 reduced the reward to 3.125 BTC per block, slowing the pace of new BTC entering circulation.

This means the early years saw a faster creation of coins, while the final million will trickle out extremely slowly. Right now, miners produce about 450 BTC per day, half of what they did before the 2024 halving. 

As the rewards continue to shrink, miners will increasingly rely on transaction fees rather than new coins to sustain their operations.

Another factor affecting BTC’s supply is that some coins are effectively lost. Some early coins were sent to addresses with no private keys, and estimates suggest between 2 and 3.5 million BTC may never be recovered.

In addition to lost keys, some BTC are unspendable by design — for example, the 50 BTC from Bitcoin’s very first block cannot be spent — taking them permanently out of circulation.

That reduces the number of coins actually available to trade, increasing scarcity and reinforcing BTC’s “hard money” characteristics.

Bitcoin price fluctuations

Despite the slowing issuance, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies still move with global markets, investor sentiment, and economic news. Prices can swing daily, showing that even though the supply is predictable, demand and market conditions still drive short-term value. 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading in between $69,000 and $70,000. 

Over the long term, however, Bitcoin’s fixed supply and transparent issuance schedule are expected to give it a unique edge compared to traditional currencies. 

Analysts say that predictability and scarcity are features that people tend to value in money, especially in a world of unpredictable central bank policies and inflation risks.

Looking ahead, the final BTC isn’t just a theoretical number. By 2140, miners will rely entirely on transaction fees to secure the network, which could make sending Bitcoin more expensive but also ensures the system remains operational without new coins. 

In short, BTC is moving from a fast-growing experiment to a rare, hard-to-get digital asset. While daily prices will keep bouncing with the world’s economy, its ultimate scarcity is now hard-coded into its DNA, making it a long-term experiment in digital money that no one can change.

This post Bitcoin Hits 20 Million Mined: Less Than 1 Million Coins Left  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

U.S. Treasury Recognizes Legitimate Uses for Crypto Mixers, Proposes “Hold Law” for Suspicious Assets

The U.S. Treasury Department told Congress that bitcoin or crypto mixers can serve legitimate financial privacy purposes, signaling a shift in the government’s approach to blockchain privacy tools. 

The 32-page report, submitted under the GENIUS Act, also proposes new legislative tools to combat illicit finance, including a “hold law” that would give financial institutions temporary safe harbor to freeze suspicious digital assets.

The report acknowledges that lawful users may employ mixers to protect sensitive information on personal wealth, business payments, or charitable donations.

This represents a recalibration from Treasury’s earlier stance, which included sanctioning Tornado Cash in 2022 and designating international mixers as money-laundering hubs in 2023.

At the same time, Treasury data shows that criminal actors, particularly those linked to North Korea, continue to exploit mixers. 

The report cites DPRK-affiliated cybercriminals who stole at least $2.8 billion in digital assets between January 2024 and September 2025, including a $1.5 billion hack of the Bybit exchange.

In these operations, mixers are commonly used to break tracing links, often in combination with stablecoin swaps and cross-chain bridges.

New data on crypto laundering

The report provides original Treasury analysis of mixing activity involving stablecoins and bridges. 

Since May 2020, more than $37.4 billion in withdrawals from over 50 bridges were denominated in the two largest stablecoins by market capitalization. Of that total, approximately $1.6 billion flowed from mixing services, with over $900 million concentrated in a single bridge scrutinized for DPRK-linked activity. 

The Treasury noted in the report that direct stablecoin deposits into crypto mixers for illicit purposes are relatively low, but criminals frequently convert other digital assets through mixers before swapping into stablecoins to obscure the source.

The report distinguishes between custodial and non-custodial crypto mixers. Custodial services, which must register with FinCEN as money services businesses, can provide identity data, off-chain transaction information, and behavioral patterns. 

The Treasury does not recommend new restrictions on non-custodial mixers and refrains from finalizing FinCEN’s 2023 proposed recordkeeping rule, instead citing a 2025 Presidential Working Group report recommending careful evaluation of privacy and illicit finance risks.

‘Hold law’ to crack down on illicit activity 

Treasury also urged Congress to enact a digital asset–specific “hold law,” creating a temporary safe harbor for freezing suspicious assets during brief investigations. 

The department described such a law as particularly useful for countering illicit finance involving permitted stablecoins.

On decentralized finance, the report recommends Congress specify which actors should face anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) obligations based on their roles and associated risks. 

It also proposes expanding Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act to authorize the Treasury to impose conditions on certain digital asset transfers that fall outside correspondent banking relationships.

These proposals align with concerns raised by industry groups, including Galaxy Research, which in January warned that the Senate Banking Committee’s CLARITY Act could represent the largest expansion of financial surveillance authority since the Patriot Act.

The report comes at somewhat of an inflection point for crypto regulation. 

Treasury lifted Tornado Cash sanctions in March 2025 after a federal appeals court found OFAC had exceeded its authority, though a Manhattan jury later convicted co-founder Roman Storm of operating an unlicensed money transmitter. 

The Department of Justice has indicated a narrower approach to prosecuting developers, suggesting that coding privacy tools without criminal intent should not constitute a violation.

The U.S. Treasury framed the report within a broader effort to study “innovative or novel” tools for detecting illicit activity in crypto, as mandated by the 2025 GENIUS Act. 

The report draws on more than 220 public comments and consultations with financial institutions, blockchain analytics firms, crypto firms, law enforcement, and recent national risk assessments.

This post U.S. Treasury Recognizes Legitimate Uses for Crypto Mixers, Proposes “Hold Law” for Suspicious Assets first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Nigel Farage Acquires 6% Stake in Bitcoin Firm Stack BTC

Nigel Farage has taken a stake in a bitcoin treasury company led by former UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, deepening links between the crypto sector and the populist political movement led by Nigel Farage.

Farage invested £215,000 in Stack BTC through his media company Thorn In The Side Ltd, according to disclosures tied to a fundraising round for the London-listed firm. The purchase gives the leader of Reform UK a stake of about 6.3% in the company.

The investment forms part of a £260,000 capital raise that also included participation from Blockchain.com. Stack issued 5.2 million new shares at 5 pence each, with the shares set to trade on the Aquis Growth Market.

Farage’s Bitcoin advocacy

Nigel Farage’s investment aligns with his long-term vision to integrate Bitcoin into the U.K.’s financial landscape.

“I have long been one of the UK’s few political advocates for bitcoin,” Farage said. “London and the UK have served as a center of global finance, and the country should aim to serve as a global hub for the crypto industry.”

In May 2025, during the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, he pledged to create a Bitcoin reserve at the Bank of England and introduce legislation that would favor the adoption of Bitcoin if he were to become Prime Minister.

Farage’s pledge includes fostering a regulatory environment that encourages Bitcoin integration into traditional financial systems.

Reform UK also became the first European party to accept Bitcoin donations. Partnering with UK-based payment firm Radom, the party aims to modernize fundraising and engage supporters interested in Bitcoin, reinforcing Farage’s role in crypto politics.

Nigel Farage has argued that the state could hold bitcoin as part of a sovereign wealth structure tied to technology and financial infrastructure.

The party also counts major crypto investor Christopher Harborne among its financial backers. Harborne, a businessman with ties to digital asset trading and venture investment, has contributed large sums to the party over the past several years.

Stack BTC’s role in Bitcoin treasury management

Stack BTC plays a pivotal role in helping corporations and institutions manage their Bitcoin holdings effectively.

The firm specializes in secure storage solutions, risk management strategies, and advisory services to help businesses integrate Bitcoin into their treasury operations.

By acquiring a stake in Stack BTC, Farage aims to enhance the firm’s capabilities, facilitating the adoption of Bitcoin among UK businesses as a viable treasury asset.

This post Nigel Farage Acquires 6% Stake in Bitcoin Firm Stack BTC first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy (MSTR) Spends $1.28 Billion to Buy More Bitcoin, Holdings Reach 738,731 BTC

Strategy, the bitcoin treasury company led by executive chairman Michael Saylor, purchased another 17,994 bitcoin for about $1.28 billion last week, continuing one of the largest corporate accumulation strategies in the digital asset market.

The company disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the purchases took place between March 2 and March 8 at an average price of $70,946 per coin. The acquisition brings the firm’s total holdings to 738,731 bitcoin.

Strategy has now spent roughly $56.04 billion to build its bitcoin position, with an average purchase price of $75,862 per coin. At the current price near $68,000, the company’s holdings carry a market value close to $50 billion.

The stash represents more than 3.4% of the fixed 21 million supply of Bitcoin, reinforcing MSTR’s status as the largest corporate holder of the asset.

Last week, Strategy purchased 3,015 bitcoin for about $204.1 million at an average price of $67,700 per coin, bringing its total holdings to 720,737 BTC at the time.

Strategy’s stock sales and stock issuance

The latest purchases were financed through a mix of equity sales and preferred stock issuance. The company sold 6,327,541 shares of its Class A common stock for about $899.5 million through an at-the-market program. 

The company also raised roughly $377.1 million from the sale of 3,776,205 shares of its STRC perpetual preferred stock.

Strategy said about $6.71 billion in common stock remains available for issuance under its existing program. Another $3.16 billion in STRC preferred stock capacity remains available for sale.

The purchases form part of Strategy’s broader capital strategy designed to fund continued bitcoin accumulation. The company operates several perpetual preferred stock programs, including STRK, STRC, STRF and STRD, which together provide access to billions in potential financing.

Those offerings support the firm’s long-term “42/42” capital plan, which targets $84 billion in capital raises through equity offerings and convertible notes by 2027. The proceeds are intended to support continued purchases of bitcoin.

Saylor hinted at the acquisition before the official disclosure in a post on social media that referenced Strategy’s bitcoin tracker. The message stated that “the second century begins,” a reference to the firm surpassing 100 separate bitcoin purchases since launching its accumulation plans in 2020.

At the time, Strategy’s stock (MSTR) is trading up half a percent in pre-market. Bitcoin is trading slightly shy of $69,000.

This post Strategy (MSTR) Spends $1.28 Billion to Buy More Bitcoin, Holdings Reach 738,731 BTC first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin spent the weekend mostly within a familiar price channel, then slipped lower before recovering as traders reacted to the developing impact of the Iran war.

However, while real-world macro events now dictate Bitcoin's movements more than fundamentals or adoption levels, where on the chart it stops to test the waters has not changed.

Bitcoin has tested both long-term support and resistance since Friday. But with trading desks now back at their terminals, it has now rebounded into the middle of a price channel we've seen many times before.

This type of activity is exactly why I’ve kept coming back to the same price-channel framework since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in early 2024.

My channels have consistently helped identify the zones where BTC is most likely to stall, bounce, or break into a new range, giving a clearer read on market structure than raw price action alone.

Related Reading

Bitcoin channel predictions align with market movements over 6 months

Analyzing Bitcoin's support at $49k and resistance at $61k using simple trading channels.

Aug 20, 2024 · Liam 'Akiba' Wright

Introducing The Akiba Price Channel Indicator

Over the weekend, I built a tool around that framework. Instead of relying solely on chart screenshots, it tracks how Bitcoin interacts with those channels in real time, flagging key bounces and breaks, making the analysis faster, cleaner, and easier to review.

The dataset is built from horizontal price channels that I've tracked for over 2 years. The levels are manual, not machine-generated. They combine psychological round numbers, historical reaction zones, order-book depth, and leveraged futures accumulation. The interaction labels are also narrow by design.

• A “break up” means BTC moved through a boundary without first rejecting it.
• A “break down” means the same in the other direction.
• A “bounce” means the price rejected the line and stayed inside, or returned to, the channel structure.

With this framework, I'm not trying to call direction. The tools show where the market has actually reacted, and when it's likely to do so again.

That record still leans hard toward rejection over escape. Across the full sample, BTC logged 234 interactions, 178 bounces, 30 break downs, and 26 break ups. That puts the bounce share at 76.1%.

The data since March 3 tells a similar story. It shows 54 interactions, with 41 bounces, seven break downs, and six break ups.

The recency heuristic (which is not a predictive model) puts the next interaction at 72.4% for a bounce, 16.4% for a break down, and 11.2% for a break up.

The indicator says support returned, with resistance still overhead

Bitcoin moved back above the $67,995 boundary today after a failed break below $66,894 on Sunday.

The move put BTC back inside the $68,000-$71,500 range after a short trip into the lower $67,900-$61,700 channel. As of press time, Bitcoin is holding $69,000.

The clearest read is that BTC has repaired back into an active range, but it has not yet proved a new expansion leg.

The first fact in that view is simple, the March 8 move below $66,900 did not hold. The second is just as important, price has reclaimed $68,000, but it still sits below $71,500, the ceiling of the current channel. In other words, support returned before a breakout arrived.

That leaves Bitcoin heading into another week of macro releases and cross-market pressure with a working floor, but without a clear upside escape.

The strongest working level in the recent sample is $68,000. It drew 25 interactions, more than any other visible boundary. Twenty of those were bounces. Three were break downs. Two were break ups.

That does not make it permanent support, but it does make it the level that has done the most work.

The latest sequence reinforces that role. BTC first treated $68,000 as resistance after reclaiming $66,894, then moved through it, then bounced from above it. That is the clearest sign in the dataset that the market has rebuilt a floor after last week’s weakness.

The second line to watch is $66,894. That level is the top of the lower $66,900-$61,700 channel, so it acts as the failure line under the current repair. It saw 12 visible interactions, eight of them bounces.

The March 8 break down through that line was key, followed by a March 9 break up that reversed it.

When a downside move loses acceptance that quickly, the market usually treats it as a failed test rather than the start of a durable lower range. That is what the chart shows here. BTC did not stay below $66,900 long enough to build a new base there.

The main ceiling is $71,500. That level posted six visible interactions, five of them bounces and only one clean break up.

Above it sits $72,000, then the $73,500-$73,800 area, which also showed repeated rejection in the recent sample.

So the upside path is clear, but it is layered. BTC has moved from weakness back into a channel that still has a well-defined lid.

That structure also helps separate accepted moves from fragile ones. The March 7 break down through $68,000 was accepted for a time because BTC then spent roughly two days trading beneath that line and pressing into the $66,900 area.

By contrast, the March 8 break below $66,900 looks fragile because it reversed within hours. The March 9 move back above $68,000 now counts as an accepted reclaim, but only in an early sense. One bounce from above is a good start.

Full upside acceptance still requires a move through $71,500.

The broad message from the channel work is restrained. BTC has re-entered a range that has produced more rejections than escapes.

That makes $68,000 the first line that bulls need to defend and $71,500 the first line they still need to take.

Until price changes one of those facts in a durable way, the range remains the best description of the market.

Macro still points to a range, with event risk at the edges

The channel picture would look cleaner in a soft, risk-on macro backdrop. That is not the environment Bitcoin is trading in.

The Federal Reserve held its policy rate at 3.5%-3.75% in its January statement and said inflation remained somewhat elevated. January CPI was 2.4% year over year, while core PCE was still 3.0% year over year in December.

Labor data points the other way. February payrolls fell by 92,000, unemployment rose to 4.4%, and average hourly earnings were up 3.8% from a year earlier. That combination tends to keep markets guessing. Growth is cooling, but inflation is not fully gone.

Rates and commodities have added another layer. The US 10-year yield rose from 3.97% on Feb. 27 to 4.13% on March 5.

In a separate shock, Brent crude briefly rose to $119.50 before settling a little above $101 amid the Iran conflict. That does not determine Bitcoin’s path on its own. But it does show why markets have not shifted into a clean chase for risk.

Higher yields can limit how far risk assets rerate. Higher oil prices can keep inflation fears alive just as labor data softens. The result is a market that can bounce hard from washed-out levels without getting a free pass to trend.

How the broader crypto market is reacting

Crypto-specific positioning has improved enough to support the repair, but not enough to settle the argument. Digital-asset products took in $1 billion in the week of March 2, including $881 million into Bitcoin.

That ended a five-week run of outflows. But the same source said the earlier washout was large, five straight weeks of spot BTC and ETH ETF outflows totaled $4.3 billion. It also said futures open interest fell to about $7.6 billion and leverage dropped to 25% from 33% in October.

That is the kind of reset that can help a market build a floor. It still falls short of proof that fast money is ready to chase the next leg higher.

Options traders still look cautious. Bloomberg said traders continued to favor downside protection even after the recent rebound. That lines up with the channel data better than a breakout call does. The market has rejected lower acceptance below $66,900.

It has not yet embraced higher acceptance above $71,500. In a mixed macro setting, that is often how transitions look, support rebuilds first, conviction comes later, and sometimes it never comes at all.

A late-February update from CoinShares argued that Bitcoin was still in consolidation with a modest downside bias, even as several conditions for a bottom were starting to form. That fits the present setup. The data do not show a market that has broken free of macro drag.

They show one that has flushed leverage, found buyers back inside a known range, and is waiting for the next piece of evidence.

That is also why the latest bounce should be read as a repair inside uncertainty, rather than a settled verdict on the quarter.

Lower yields, calmer energy prices, or softer inflation prints could help BTC press the top of the range. Sticky inflation, firm yields, or another commodity shock could do the opposite.

The channel maps how price is responding to those drivers.

What the next move looks like from here

The least stretched narrative is that Bitcoin is stabilizing inside a reclaimed channel, rather than starting a confirmed trend. The numbers support that. The full sample is still bounce-dominant at 76.1%. The recent sample is bounce-dominant at 75.9%.

The recency heuristic still tilts toward another rejection rather than a clean directional break. And the most recent directional event that stands out is the failure of downside acceptance below $66,900.

That leaves three live paths and one tail risk. The weights below are an analytical overlay on the channel record, not market-implied odds.

The base case remains the cleanest because it asks the market to do what it has done most often in this sample, respect a boundary, move inside the range, and force traders to prove the next break instead of assuming it.

The bull case is simple too, but it needs evidence. BTC would need to hold above $68,000 through the next round of macro data and then turn $71,500 from ceiling into floor. Only then does $72,000 become more than a wick target.

Above that, the failed supply zone around $73,500-$73,750 comes back into view, with $77,000 as the next upper channel boundary on the broader map.

The bear case is not dead just because the March 8 breakdown failed. It only lost the first test. If BTC falls back through $68,000 and then starts spending time below $66,900, the structure changes fast.

The lower $66,900-$61,700 channel would open again, and the conversation would shift from repair to renewed weakness.

A March 5 report cited a Standard Chartered view that still allowed for a near-term slide toward $50,000 before recovery and carried a $100,000 year-end 2026 target. The wide gap between those figures is useful because it shows how uncertain the path remains even when long-run forecasts stay high.

A more constructive case is easier to state than to prove. The market has already done the first part by rejecting a fresh stay below $67,900 and then taking back $68,000. The second part is harder. Bulls need repeated acceptance above $71,500 and then above $72,000, where last week’s move began to stall.

If that happens while flows keep improving and options hedging eases, the upper channel cluster near $73,500-$73,750 becomes a live retest rather than a memory of the last failed push.

For now, the channel offers a disciplined way to read that uncertainty.

BTC has taken back $68,000. It has rejected a fresh stay below $66,900. But it has not yet forced a change in the most important nearby fact, $71,500 still caps the current range. The next evidence is straightforward.

If Bitcoin keeps holding the lower edge and starts closing through the upper one, the upper channels return to the foreground.

If it loses both support lines again, the market will start looking back toward $61,726.

Until one of those things happens, the strongest conclusion is the narrow one, the range is alive, the lower breakdown failed, and the next test is still overhead.

If you'd like access to Akiba's Price Channel Indicator, send me a DM on Twitter

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and analytical purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Market scenarios and probabilities discussed are observational interpretations of price data, not predictions. Readers should conduct their own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.

The post New Bitcoin indicator reveals we just avoided a major drop — but one level could decide the next breakout appeared first on CryptoSlate.

XRP remains under significant pressure as the latest oil shock and broader market unease push investors toward a more defensive stance.

The Ripple-linked digital asset has fallen 26% this year to about $1.34 and is down 54% over the past six months, according to CryptoSlate data. In the latest 24-hour session, XRP slid from about $1.37 to as low as $1.33 before recovering to nearly $1.35 as of press time.

The move was modest by crypto standards. However, the larger signal comes from on-chain and exchange data showing a market still working through a large pool of holders sitting on losses and a trading environment that has lost some of its depth.

Glassnode data show that about 36.8 billion XRP are being held at a loss at current prices. In dollar terms, those unrealized losses amount to about $50.8 billion, or roughly 60% of the circulating supply.

That leaves a wide band of investors who are still underwater and are likely to cut exposure as the price approaches their entry levels.

This dynamic helps explain why XRP has struggled to turn short-lived recoveries into a more durable advance.

When a large share of supply sits below cost basis, rallies can meet a steady stream of sellers seeking to exit closer to breakeven. In that setup, price strength has to do more than attract momentum buyers. It also has to absorb lingering supply from earlier holders.

At the same time, the macro backdrop has added to the pressure.

Rising oil prices and the broader repricing across risk assets have pushed traders to reassess exposure across digital tokens, especially older, more liquid names that often move quickly when sentiment turns.

XRP has been caught in that adjustment, though its internal positioning suggests the market was already vulnerable to renewed selling.

Related Reading

Bitcoin traders focus on $61k as oil surges past $115 and weak jobs data rattle markets

Data shows traders hedging amid Bitcoin price decline, fueled by global market uncertainties.

Mar 9, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

XRP's cost basis near $1.44 is shaping the market

The clearest line in the market sits around $1.44, where Glassnode places XRP’s realized price. Realized price is widely used as an on-chain proxy for holders' aggregate cost basis.

When spot trades below that level, the average holder is underwater. That condition often changes the behavior of rallies, turning them into opportunities to repair the balance sheet.

For XRP, that cost-basis gap has become central to the market’s structure.

With spot XRP trading around $1.35 and a realized price of around $1.44, the token remains below the level at which the broader holder base begins to move back toward profitability. That places the next meaningful recovery zone directly in an area where selling pressure can build.

Other on-chain indicators support the same picture. Glassnode’s Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) remains below 1, indicating that coins moving on-chain are being spent at a loss on average.

At the same time, XRP's Net Unrealized Profit and Loss (NUPL) is also negative, indicating that the market as a whole remains in aggregate loss territory.

Taken together, those readings point to a market that has yet to move out of its loss regime.

However, these readings do not mean XRP price cannot rally. Instead, it shows that the hurdle for a sustained rally is higher.

This means that XRP needs sufficient new demand to clear a sizable block of supply held by holders who have been waiting for better exit levels. Until that happens, the realized-price band is likely to remain a reference point for both bulls and bears.

Related Reading

Why 26.5 billion XRP tokens are now sitting at a loss despite a $2 price tag

XRP struggles as profit realization by holders accelerates 240%, yet institutional inflows hint at possible stability ahead.

Nov 19, 2025 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Sell-side aggression is showing up across order flow and derivatives

The institutional picture has also become less supportive of any uptrend for XRP.

Data from SoSoValue shows spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) products recorded their third weekly outflow of the year in the week ending March 6, with about $5 million leaving the funds.

Those products still show about $70 million in net inflows for the year, though the shift in recent weeks suggests some allocators have become more selective amid rising volatility across markets.

For context, CoinShares data shows XRP-focused investment products are the worst-performing this month, with over $30 million in outflows.

The flow picture shows a marginal pullback rather than a collapse. In a market already carrying a large block of underwater supply, even small shifts in demand can have an outsized effect.

XRP can remain under pressure without a broad institutional retreat if fresh buying slows while existing holders use strength to lighten positions.

Related Reading

XRP ETF inflows collapse 93% as price capitulates, will this cause a reset or repair phase?

As XRP experiences capitulation, its ability to reclaim the $1.45 threshold may dictate future market movement.

Feb 24, 2026 · Oluwapelumi Adejumo

Meanwhile, the derivatives market also shows participation has cooled. Total XRP open interest has fallen to about $2.25 billion, the lowest level since January 2025.

Open interest tracks the value of outstanding futures contracts and is often used as a gauge of speculative appetite. A decline of that size suggests traders have been closing positions and reducing directional exposure rather than adding fresh leverage.

The same caution is visible in the digital asset's order flow, where the market is dominated by aggressive sell orders.

CryptoQuant's taker buy-sell ratio sits at around 0.912, indicating that aggressive sell orders are outweighing aggressive buy orders.

In practical terms, the side taking liquidity is dominated by sellers. That leaves buyers providing liquidity through resting limit orders rather than pressing the market higher with market orders.

With XRP trading around $1.34, that imbalance reinforces the view that the market lacks strong, aggressive demand.

Though XRP buyers are still present in the book, they are not driving the price upward with urgency.

That signal fits the broader setup. A market can stabilize for a period while passive buyers absorb incoming supply, but the price usually struggles to build momentum when the more aggressive side of the flow remains dominated by sellers.

The combination of all of the above leaves XRP with less upward momentum.

In stronger phases, rising open interest can reinforce a spot move and add urgency to the tape. In the current setup, a smaller open interest base means the price is relying more heavily on outright spot buying to push through resistance.

However, that is not happening because the market is currently dominated by sellers.

Thin exchange activity raises market’s sensitivity

Exchange data show activity has slowed in ways that could make the next move more abrupt.

CryptoQuant’s 30-day XRP volume z-score on Binance stands at about -1.16, indicating daily trading volume has fallen below its recent average. The latest reading corresponds with a daily volume of roughly 27 million XRP while the token trades near current levels.

Lower volume does not guarantee a larger move. However, it leaves the market with less cushion when orders arrive in size.

CryptoQuant data also show the net number of active wallets depositing and withdrawing XRP across 15 major exchanges has fallen to its lowest level since early 2025, with Binance still accounting for the largest share of activity.

That suggests a market with fewer participants actively repositioning and less urgency from both buyers and sellers.

When wallet activity and trading volume decline together, order books can become thinner, and prices can become more reactive.

Under those conditions, smaller flows can move the market further than they would in a deeper environment. A stable-looking chart can therefore mask a more fragile structure underneath, especially when macro headlines can jolt sentiment across assets.

The post XRP is bleeding with over $50 billion in unrealized losses as 60% of supply goes underwater appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Bitcoin slid below $70,000 this weekend after a weak US jobs report, and another jump in oil prices revived stagflation concerns and pushed investors out of risk assets.

The largest cryptocurrency fell as low as $65,660, according to CryptoSlate’s data, less than a week after reaching a monthly high near $74,000.

The move put Bitcoin back below a closely watched price level for spot traders and derivatives markets, reinforcing how quickly macro shocks can spill over into crypto when liquidity conditions tighten.

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Macro shock hits crypto

The February employment report gave BTC traders the first jolt.

Data from the US Bureau of Labor showed that nonfarm payrolls fell 92,000 in February 2026, the unemployment rate rose to 4.4%, average hourly earnings climbed 0.4% from the prior month, and wages were up 3.8% from a year earlier.

The combination pointed to a more difficult backdrop for markets, with signs of slower growth arriving without a clean break in wage pressure.

As a result, the market reaction followed a familiar pattern where rates moved, equity futures weakened, and crypto followed.

Essentially, traders did not treat the labor report as a straightforward signal that the Federal Reserve could cut rates quickly.

Instead, the data raised the risk that inflation could remain sticky even as growth slowed, an outcome that tends to unsettle cross-asset markets.

That is a difficult setup for Bitcoin in the short run. When macro data forces investors to rethink growth, inflation, and policy all at once, the first instinct is often to reduce exposure to liquid assets.

Bitcoin remains one of the most liquid risk trades in global markets, and that feature can work against it during periods of stress.

On derivatives-heavy venues, a decline can quickly intensify if lower prices trigger forced unwinds and prompt more selling.

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Mar 7, 2026 · Andjela Radmilac

Oil adds to the policy problem

Meanwhile, oil prices gave investors another reason to stay defensive.

Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, told CryptoSlate that oil prices surging above $110 a barrel should be factored into the discussion, given that they have doubled in three months as the Middle East conflict escalated.

Data from CryptoQuant ties the oil price move to rising tension around the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint that accounts for about 20% of global daily oil exports and nearly 35% of oil transported by sea.

Oil has gained more than 60% since the beginning of the year, a jump that could reinforce inflation concerns and tighten financial conditions.

Crypto trading firm QCP also described the oil move as part of a broader deterioration in market sentiment.

It said tensions in Iran failed to de-escalate over the weekend, sending oil prices above $115 on fears of sustained supply disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, broader Middle East instability, and a conflict that could last longer than markets had hoped.

QCP said global equity markets turned defensive and added that US Treasuries and gold also came under pressure as crude pushed inflation fears higher and lifted yields, leaving the US dollar as the preferred defensive asset.

For Bitcoin, the oil shock matters because it feeds directly into the rates debate. Higher crude prices can reinforce inflation pressure even as the labor market weakens.

That is the kind of combination that clouds the Fed’s outlook and reduces confidence in near-term rate relief.

In crypto, where sentiment can turn quickly, that uncertainty is often enough to overpower longer-term narratives about scarcity or adoption.

ETF flows and miner selling shape the trade

The break below $70,000 also matters because Bitcoin’s market structure has changed over the past year.

The arrival of spot ETFs expanded access to the asset, but it also made day-to-day price action more sensitive to institutional flows.

In periods of strong demand, that structure can support steady spot buying. In periods of uncertainty, it can amplify weakness if allocators pull back or turn tactical.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs posted two consecutive weeks of inflows for the first time since October 2025 after back-to-back inflows of $787 million for the week ending February 27 and a net inflow of $568 million for the broader March 2 to March 6 period.

This positive performance marked a significant turnaround for the investment vehicles, which had recently experienced five consecutive weeks of outflows totaling more than $3 billion.

However, the current inflows showed that the institutional bid had become less one-way just as price action turned fragile again.

Meanwhile, that shift came alongside fresh evidence that miners remain a source of supply.

Misir pointed out that publicly listed miners have sold more than 15,000 BTC since October.

According to him, Cango sold 4,451 BTC in February, Bitdeer liquidated its entire BTC treasury, and Core Scientific plans to sell about 2,500 BTC in the first quarter as some miners redirect capital toward AI infrastructure and data center expansion.

Those sales do not necessarily determine price on their own, but they matter when broader liquidity is already tight.

Notably, CryptoQuant's data show that the market has thin liquidity and signs of strain in stablecoin flows.

The firm noted that stablecoin netflows to exchanges had remained negative since the beginning of the year.

Binance showed a monthly netflow of around -$2 billion, followed by Bitfinex at roughly -$336 million, though both figures had improved from -$6.7 billion and- $443 million on Feb. 15.

QCP said Bitcoin had shown unusual resilience in that environment, a pattern the crypto market has not seen in some time, even with the VIX above 29. The firm also pointed to options positioning that looked less panicked than during the initial shock.

It said short-dated downside protection was concentrated between $61,000 and $64,000, while a trade involving 500 BTC of the 24APR26 72k straddle suggested expectations for continued volatility.

QCP added that March’s highest open interest sat at the $75,000 and $125,000 call strikes.

What should Bitcoin traders watch next?

The labor data were not without caveats. The largest payroll declines were concentrated in a handful of areas, including health care, where the report flagged strike activity, along with information, and the federal government.

That raised the possibility that part of the weakness reflected temporary distortions rather than a broad collapse in hiring.

Still, investors are unlikely to wait for perfect clarity. Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal, said the US economy has lost jobs since April 2025.

She said total job gains from May 2025 to February 2026 are now -19,000, and that companies are not hiring amid headwinds and uncertainty, with even health care beginning to slow.

For Bitcoin, the next leg now depends on whether the labor shock proves temporary or becomes the start of a broader slowdown.

Much of that debate will turn on the next inflation print and the Fed’s response. US CPI for February 2026, due March 11, will be central to the question of whether inflation is easing fast enough to offset labor-market weakness.

The March 17-18 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting will then shape how investors interpret the jobs report, either as noise or as the start of a more meaningful deterioration.

After that, the next jobs report on April 3 will serve as a confirmation test.

For now, the message from this weekend's sell-off was clear. Bitcoin’s drop below $70,000 reflects broader macro forces: slowing growth, persistent wage pressure, higher oil prices, and a market that still treats Bitcoin as one of the first liquid assets to sell when uncertainty rises.

The post Bitcoin traders focus on $61k as oil surges past $115 and weak jobs data rattle markets appeared first on CryptoSlate.

In the latest SlateCast episode, Fantium CEO and co-founder Jonathan Ludwig joined CryptoSlate Editor-in-Chief Liam “Akiba” Wright and CEO Nate Whitehill to discuss why he returned to building, how Fantium structures athlete financing, and why its broader sports-token vision is focused on utility rather than pure speculation. Across the conversation, Ludwig framed tokenization as a tool for expanding access to capital and participation, provided it is tied to real financial activity and designed with aligned incentives.

Returning to company building

Ludwig said his decision to move from investing back into operating came from a sense that he was not fully applying his strengths. Reflecting on a period of traveling and angel investing, he said, “I felt like something was missing,” adding that he did not want to remain “standing on the sidelines.” He said the turning point came when he realized, “I want to be in the driver’s seat,” and needed to “roll up my sleeves” again. Ludwig added that selling his previous company gave him the freedom to pursue a business he believed could have “a very positive impact on different levels.”

Finance first, speculation second

When asked what should and should not be tokenized, Ludwig drew a clear line between financial assets and purely speculative cultural instruments. He said, “financial assets will be tokenized,” arguing that tokenization can democratize participation for both institutions and retail investors. At the same time, he expressed caution around areas driven mainly by hype, saying he is “a little bit skeptical on cultural things” and is “not very interested” where tokenization is “really about pure speculation.”

That distinction shaped his view of sports tokens as well. Ludwig said tokenization can work in sports when it helps athletes, clubs, and teams raise money while also giving supporters exposure to “the journeys and in the upside, but then also the risk they’re facing.” In his framing, tokenization is most compelling when it creates a real financial relationship rather than a detached trading narrative.

How Fantium’s athlete model works

Discussing Fantium’s core product, Ludwig said the company has built “the number one tennis player financing platform in the industry over the last three and a half years.” He explained that athletes decide what portion of their economics they want to tokenize, but that “99% of the cases are just purely focused on prize money.” According to Ludwig, prize money is preferred because it is “more predictable” and “more transparent,” making execution and payouts easier than structures tied to sponsorship revenue.

He noted that sponsorships and endorsements could theoretically be included if they were auditable, but said those earnings are much harder to forecast than tournament winnings. That practical focus, he suggested, is part of what makes the platform workable today.

Ludwig also emphasized the directness of the model. “There are no intermediaries. It’s like a P2P transaction,” he said. He added that some junior tennis players on the platform “have completely changed their lives,” raising meaningful funding for their careers while also building direct relationships with supporters, including access-driven utilities tied to verified ownership.

Why fan tokens fell short

Ludwig argued that earlier fan-token models faced a structural problem: the underlying clubs or athletes often were not the true creators or owners of the tokens’ upside. “They’re not owning the upside,” he said, and because of that, they were not fully incentivized to integrate the tokens into their ecosystems. His view is that future sports tokens work better when athletes, clubs, and teams own both “the upside” and “the downside,” giving them a reason to fully support utility, monetization, and token-gated access.

$BANK and the poker expansion

Ludwig said Fantium’s broader “Sports Capital Markets” vision expanded with Fanstrike and now with “the first poker on-chain bankroll token,” $BANK. He explained the structure in straightforward terms: “We use that money in order to invest into professional poker players.” Because poker players often sell portions of tournament buy-ins privately to manage variance and bankroll demands, Ludwig said Fantium sees an opportunity to formalize that market on-chain.

He said returns from those investments would be used “to buy back the token, integrate flywheels, and just recycle it into the token.” Over time, the goal is for Fanstrike to let individual poker players launch their own bankroll tokens using $BANK as the ecosystem’s underlying token.

Building where liquidity already exists

On launching in Solana, Ludwig said the decision came down to infrastructure and market activity. “We want to be present where liquidity is at its peak,” he said, calling Solana “the obvious choice.” He also noted that not every crypto-native mechanic translates well to sports, citing bonding curves as one example that did not fit because typical sports fans would be disadvantaged by the speed required to participate effectively.

Closing

Taken together, Ludwig’s comments outlined a sports-token strategy centered on access, financing, and real-world alignment. He argued that adoption will depend on better regulation, improved on-ramps and off-ramps, and products that offer “real utility” to fans, clubs, and athletes alike. For Fantium, that means abstracting crypto where needed, leaning into crypto-native rails where appropriate, and building sports assets that do more than trade.

The post Fantium CEO Jonathan Ludwig says sports tokenization needs utility, alignment, and real access appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Riot case study shows US Bitcoin miners can clear power costs long before they clear full profit

Bitcoin mining costs are often reduced to a single number: the “cost to mine one BTC.” In reality, that figure depends on what layer of the business you measure.

Electricity determines whether machines should run today, operating expenses determine whether a mining fleet supports the broader company, and accounting costs determine whether the business ultimately reports profit.

To examine those layers more clearly, CryptoSlate built a Bitcoin Mining Cost Model that calculates mining economics from first principles using network difficulty, block reward, transaction fees, ASIC efficiency, and electricity price.

The model then applies company-specific cost inputs using Riot Platforms’ public filings to illustrate how the economics stack up in practice.

Under current network conditions, the model shows that a miner can cover power costs but still fails to cover broader operating and accounting expenses.

Riot’s Texas operations reveal how far apart electricity break-even, operating break-even, and full accounting profitability can remain even after Bitcoin’s price recovery.

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Riot’s mining economics reveal three break-even layers

At the current Bitcoin price of $67,200, Riot clears one break-even layer and misses the next two.

We modeled the data based on current network conditions, including Bitcoin difficulty of 145,042,165,424,850, a 3.125 BTC block reward, BTC per block, modern ASIC efficiency in the ~17–19 J/TH range, and Texas industrial electricity at roughly $0.0667 per kWh. We ignored block fees given that current averages sit around 0.02 BTC per block.

That setup produces a network total of 622.95 sextillion hashes per block (the total work the network must do, on average, to mine one block), 199.34 sextillion hashes per BTC (how fast a miner or the whole network does that work), and 969.04 megawatt-hours of energy per BTC.

These assumptions yield an electricity cost of $64,635 to mine 1 BTC at its current price, resulting in a power margin of $2,565 per BTC.

When we add Riot’s filing-based non-power operating cost layer of about $9,809 per BTC, the operating margin turns negative $7,243, and the total cost per BTC jumps accordingly. Adding the non-cash depreciation layer of about $39,687 per BTC pushes accounting profit to negative $46,930.

This clearly shows that, for large US miners, “cost to mine one Bitcoin” does not have a single figure.

1. One layer captures short-run electricity cost and helps decide whether machines are worth running.
2. A second layer adds broader operating costs and shows whether self-mining covers the rest of the business.
3. A third layer adds depreciation and shows whether the reported profit keeps pace with the cash margin.

The model places those layers side by side and shows how far apart they remain after the market’s recovery.

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The break-even ladder defines the operating picture

The model produces a break-even ladder that says more than any single all-in mining-cost figure. Electricity-only break-even sits at $64,635 per BTC.

Add Riot’s filing-based non-power operating cost layer, and break-even rises to about $74,444.

Add the accounting depreciation layer and full accounting break-even rises again to $114,130.

Therefore, miners can report positive power economics while still posting weak operating or accounting results.

I modeled four price scenarios to show how that ladder works in practice.

In my $49,000 bear case, Riot is negative on every measure. Power margin per BTC is negative $15,635, operating margin is negative $25,443, and accounting profit is negative $65,130.

In the $67,200 current-price case, Riot moves just above electricity break-even, but only barely. The power margin turns positive, yet the operating and accounting views stay negative.

In the $80,000 recovery case, Riot clears the operating threshold, with an operating margin of $5,557 per BTC, while the accounting view still shows a loss of $34,130.

It requires retaking the all-time high of $126,000 before all three views turn positive, with an accounting profit of $11,870 per BTC.

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The distinction is substantive. Riot’s depreciation layer is explicitly framed as non-cash and based on a three-year useful life. It is an accounting allocation rather than a short-term avoidable cash outflow.

It still belongs in the picture because public miners do not live on power margin alone. They report income statements. They replace machines. They absorb corporate costs.

So the useful question is which profitability line investors, analysts, and management teams are actually using and when to say a miner is profitable.

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Riot’s next-halving projection extends the price test

We then ran a cost projection until the next halving in 2028.

Using Riot's latest publicly available filings, we assume 38.5 exahash per second, ramping to 45 EH/s by March 31, 2026, and then holding that level flat through to the next halving window.

We are not attempting to rebuild the entire market. The model keeps current per-BTC economics constant and scales them through Riot’s reported and planned self-mining hash-rate path.

This is a scenario exercise focused on operating leverage, and the price sensitivity is hard to miss.

Across all four scenarios, the projected cumulative BTC mined is 15 thousand. What changes is the profit stack.

At $49,000 Bitcoin, Riot’s cumulative power margin is negative $239,436,036, cumulative operating margin is negative $389,648,124, and cumulative accounting profit is negative $997,428,094.

At $67,200, the cumulative power margin turns positive at $39,286,667, but the cumulative operating margin stays negative at $110,925,420, and the cumulative accounting profit remains negative at $718,705,391.

At $80,000, Riot turns cumulatively positive on operating margin at $85,099,338, while cumulative accounting profit is still negative at $522,680,632.

Only in the $126,000 scenario do all three lines move above zero, with cumulative accounting profit of $181,783,343.

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A miner can be power-positive for a long stretch and still fail to cover broader operating costs. It can also turn operating-positive and still remain far from accounting profit. Riot’s case study shows that the gap between those states is wide.

In the model, the difference between power break-even and full accounting break-even is roughly $49,495 per BTC. That spread helps explain why miners can look healthy on fleet dispatch and strained on reported earnings at the same time.

Our cumulative chart does not call future difficulty, fees, outages, curtailment revenue, financing, or new capex. It assumes today’s per-BTC economics persist and scales them only according to Riot’s planned hash-rate path.

That limitation still leaves a clear signal. Holding the rest of the economics flat shows how much of the next-halving debate still hinges on Bitcoin's price.

In Riot’s case, the model does not reach cumulative accounting profitability until the $126,000 scenario. However, in absolute terms, the level is $114,200.

Riot’s case gives a read-through for the wider US mining trade

The broader lesson for US miners is straightforward. Price alone does not settle the operating picture. Fleet efficiency and power price still decide the first cut.

In terms of cost sensitivity, we compare three ASIC presets: the Bitmain S21 at 17.5 J/TH, the WhatsMiner M60S at 18.5 J/TH, and the Antminer S19 Pro at 29.5 J/TH, using a Texas industrial power reference rate.

Across that range, the S19 Pro stays above the newer machines on cost per BTC. The two newer models run close to one another, while the less efficient fleet carries a visibly higher cost line throughout the chart.

That point carries beyond Riot. Riot’s filing-based non-power cost layer and depreciation assumptions are company-specific. Another miner may have a different overhead base, a different useful-life assumption, a different curtailment profile, or a different realized power mix. But we feel the three-layer structure still travels well.

First comes power cost. Then operating cost. Then accounting cost.

The companies that survive weak price periods tend to clear the first layer comfortably. The companies that compound value through the cycle need to clear all three over time.

At the current price of around $67,000, the model does not show a company in distress at the machine level. The power margin is positive. Machines still earn more than they spend on electricity.

At the same time, it does not show a miner that has solved the full income statement. The operating line stays red. The accounting line stays deeper in the red. For a public miner, that split shapes treasury decisions, fleet replacement timing, and market expectations for earnings.

We can therefore extrapolate that Bitcoin miners can cross into positive power margin well below six figures, cross into positive operating margin in the recovery case, and still miss cumulative accounting profitability until we retest the all-time high above $114,000

The post New model proves miners need Bitcoin above $74k to break even on power – but other costs push it over 6 figures appeared first on CryptoSlate.

In a historic moment for decentralized finance, the $Bitcoin network has officially surpassed the 20,000,000 BTC circulating supply mark. As of March 9, 2026, the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency has entered its final "million" phase. This milestone confirms that 95.23% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist has already been produced, leaving a tiny fraction for the next century of miners and investors to fight over.

How Many Bitcoins Are Left?

If you are looking for the exact number, here is the breakdown:

• Total Supply Cap: 21,000,000 BTC
• Current Supply: 20,000,000 BTC
• Remaining to be Mined: 1,000,000 BTC

While the first 20 million took roughly 17 years to mine (2009–2026), the protocol’s programmed difficulty and halving events mean the final 1 million coins will not be fully exhausted until approximately the year 2140.

Why is the Bitcoin Supply Capped at 21 Million?

The 21 million limit is hard-coded into the Bitcoin protocol by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. This specific number was chosen to ensure absolute scarcity. Unlike fiat currencies that can be printed infinitely by central banks, Bitcoin acts as a "hard" asset.

The scarcity is enforced through a geometric supply reduction. Every 210,000 blocks (roughly every four years), the amount of new Bitcoin created per block is cut in half. This makes Bitcoin more scarce over time, often leading investors to move their assets to for long-term holding.

How Long Will it Take to Mine the Final 1 Million BTC?

It will take 114 years to mine the remaining 1,000,000 $BTC. This staggering timeline is due to the exponential decay of the block reward:

• Current Era (Post-2024): 3.125 BTC per block.
• Next Era (Post-2028): 1.5625 BTC per block.
• Final Era: By the late 21st century, the reward will be measured in tiny fractions of a satoshi.

This slow release ensures that the network remains secure for over a century while the market slowly absorbs the remaining supply. You can track the current of this scarcity on our live ticker.

What Happens When the Last Bitcoin is Mined?

A common question among new users is: Will miners stop working when there is no more Bitcoin to create? The answer is no. When the subsidy hits zero in 2140, miners will be paid entirely in transaction fees. As the network grows and more people use to trade, the volume of fees is expected to be sufficient to incentivize miners to keep securing the blockchain.

Why Does the 20 Million Milestone Matter for Investors?

Reaching 20 million is a psychological "supply shock" trigger. With institutional adoption rising and the "liquid supply" on exchanges hitting record lows, the fact that only 1 million coins remain to be discovered serves as a massive bullish signal for the "Digital Gold" narrative.

The world’s largest energy exporter, Saudi Aramco, has reportedly begun reducing crude production at two of its major oil fields. According to a recent Reuters report, this strategic shift follows mounting logistical pressures and security concerns in the Strait of Hormuz. As energy markets react to the supply squeeze, the digital asset sector is also feeling the ripples of this macroeconomic shock.

Why is Aramco Cutting Production?

The decision to curb output stems from the escalating conflict in the Middle East, which has rendered the Strait of Hormuz—a transit point for 20% of the world's oil—virtually impassable.

1. Storage Constraints: With export routes throttled, Saudi Arabia's domestic storage capacity is reaching its limits.
2. Rerouting Challenges: While Aramco is rerouting shipments to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, the East-West Pipeline’s capacity is insufficient to offset the Gulf's closure.
3. Force Majeure: This move follows similar actions by Kuwait and the UAE, signaling a coordinated regional scale-back to manage surplus inventory that cannot be shipped.

Oil Production Impact on the Crypto Market

Historically, energy shocks create a "risk-off" environment in global financial markets. As oil prices surge toward $110 per barrel, investors often flee volatile assets like cryptocurrencies in favor of safe havens like gold.

1. Bitcoin’s Correlation with Energy

As inflation fears rise due to soaring energy costs, $Bitcoin initially faced downward pressure, dipping below the $66,000 mark. High energy prices increase the cost of Bitcoin mining, potentially squeezing profit margins for industrial miners and leading to sell-side pressure to cover operational expenses.

2. The Inflation Hedge Narrative

Conversely, if the oil-induced inflation becomes persistent, the narrative of Bitcoin as "digital gold" could resurface. While the immediate reaction is often a price drop, long-term scarcity may attract capital looking for a hedge against devaluing fiat currencies.

3. Market Volatility

The broader crypto market cap has already seen a 1.8% decline following the news. Traders are advised to monitor crypto exchange comparison metrics to ensure liquidity during these high-volatility periods.

What will happen to Crypto Prices?

The Aramco production cuts mark a significant turning point in the 2026 energy crisis. For the crypto industry, the path forward depends on whether $BTC can decouple from traditional "risk-on" equities or if it will remain tethered to the broader macroeconomic fallout of the Middle East conflict.

The cryptocurrency market is entering a pivotal second week of March 2026, characterized by a tug-of-war between technical bearish patterns and optimistic regulatory milestones. While Bitcoin (BTC) has shown resilience by reclaiming the $67,500 level after a brief weekend dip, the broader market remains cautious. Investors are currently weighing a heavy US macro calendar against transformative legislative developments in Washington that could redefine digital asset classes for the remainder of the year.

Crypto Market Performance: Bitcoin and Major Altcoins

As of March 9, 2026, the $Bitcoin price is attempting to stabilize after a period of consolidation. Despite five months of sideways to downward movement since late 2025, a "higher low" structure on the daily charts suggests a potential base is forming.

Current Price Action

• Bitcoin ($BTC): Trading around $67,600, up 1.5% in the last 24 hours.
• Ethereum ($ETH): Holding steady above $3,400 ahead of a scheduled network upgrade.
• Polkadot ($DOT): Gaining momentum due to its upcoming "Pi Day" tokenomic overhaul on March 14.

The total crypto market capitalization currently fluctuates between $2.2 trillion and $2.4 trillion, reflecting a market that is waiting for a decisive catalyst to break the current range.

The "CLARITY Act" and Regulatory Momentum

One of the most significant fundamental drivers this month is the CLARITY Act of 2026. This landmark US legislation aims to provide a definitive regulatory framework, clearly demarcating the jurisdictions of the SEC and CFTC.

Industry leaders, including Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, have signaled high confidence in the bill's progression. For holders of XRP, Stellar (XLM), and other ISO 20022-compliant assets, the act represents the potential end of "regulation by enforcement." According to reports from Forbes, the passage of such a bill could unlock massive institutional inflows from pension funds and insurance companies that have remained on the sidelines due to legal ambiguity.

Key Crypto Events for Next Week (March 9 – March 15)

The upcoming week is packed with high-impact economic data and network milestones that will likely trigger volatility across crypto exchanges.

1. US CPI Inflation Data (March 11)

On Wednesday, March 11, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for February.

• Bullish Scenario: A lower-than-expected inflation reading could signal a "risk-on" environment, potentially pushing BTC toward the $72,000 resistance.
• Bearish Scenario: If inflation remains "sticky" due to rising energy costs, the Fed may maintain a hawkish stance, pressuring Bitcoin back toward the $60,000 support level.

2. Ethereum Network Upgrade (March 10)

A minor but essential Ethereum network upgrade (v1.17.1) is scheduled for March 10. Major platforms like Binance have already announced a temporary suspension of ETH deposits and withdrawals. This move is part of the ongoing "Glamsterdam" scaling roadmap aimed at increasing TPS.

3. Polkadot "Pi Day" Overhaul (March 14)

Polkadot is set to execute a community-approved tokenomic shift this Friday. The upgrade will significantly reduce annual inflation from 10% to approximately 3.1%, introducing a hard cap on the total supply of DOT. This "halving-like" event is being closely watched by traders as a potential supply-side catalyst.

Crypto Future: The $60,000 Line in the Sand

Despite the recent bounce, some technical analysts warn of a "Head and Shoulders" pattern on the 4-hour Bitcoin chart. If Bitcoin fails to maintain its current neckline, a 10% correction toward $59,500 remains a statistical possibility.

However, the "institutional era" is providing a stronger floor than in previous cycles. With Morgan Stanley recently filing for its own Bitcoin Trust and the persistent accumulation by spot ETF providers, the "four-year cycle" theory is being challenged by a more sustained, macro-driven demand.

Summary Table: This Week's Watchlist

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Can BTC Recover After the Drop to $66K?

Bitcoin is currently trading near $66,000 after experiencing a sharp correction from its recent highs. After reaching levels above $120,000 earlier in the cycle, BTC has now lost almost half of its value during the latest market reset.

While some investors fear the bull market may be ending, historical patterns suggest these corrections are often a normal part of the Bitcoin cycle.

The key question now is whether Bitcoin is preparing for a recovery — or if another leg down could still occur.

Bitcoin Is Consolidating After a Major Correction

Bitcoin’s recent drop follows a familiar pattern seen in previous cycles.

In past bull markets, BTC often experiences 40–60% corrections before continuing upward.

Examples include:

• 2017 cycle: BTC dropped from $20K to $10K before continuing the trend.
• 2021 cycle: BTC fell from $64K to $30K before the next rally.
• 2026 cycle: BTC dropped from around $127K to nearly $62K.

This pattern shows that sharp corrections do not necessarily signal the end of a bull market.

Instead, they often represent a cooling-off phase after excessive leverage and speculation.

Key Support Levels for Bitcoin

From a technical perspective, several levels are now important for Bitcoin traders.

Major support zones:

• $62,000 – $64,000 (cycle low area)
• $58,000 – $60,000 (strong historical demand zone)

If Bitcoin remains above these levels, the broader bullish structure could remain intact.

Key Resistance Levels to Watch

For Bitcoin to regain bullish momentum, it would need to reclaim several resistance zones:

• $70,000 psychological resistance
• $75,000 – $80,000 previous consolidation range
• $100,000+ long-term breakout target

A break above $70K could signal renewed bullish momentum across the crypto market.

Macro Events Are Adding Volatility

Bitcoin’s recent volatility is also occurring alongside major global developments.

Markets are currently reacting to:

• Rising oil prices
• Escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East
• Increasing uncertainty across global financial markets

During these periods, investors often temporarily reduce exposure to risk assets such as cryptocurrencies.

However, some analysts argue that prolonged macro instability could eventually strengthen Bitcoin’s narrative as a hedge against global uncertainty.

Bitcoin Price Prediction

Based on the current structure, three main scenarios could unfold.

Bullish scenario

• BTC holds above $64K support
• Breakout above $70K
• Possible rally toward $80K–$90K

Neutral scenario

• Bitcoin consolidates between $60K and $70K for several weeks

Bearish scenario

• Breakdown below $60K
• Possible retest of $50K–$55K

For now, Bitcoin appears to be entering a consolidation phase, where the market resets before the next major move.

Are Cryptos Dead?

Every time the crypto market crashes, the same question resurfaces across social media and financial media:

“Is crypto finally dead?”

After the recent market drop, many investors are once again questioning the future of digital assets. $Bitcoin has fallen sharply from its recent peak near $127,000 to around $62,000, wiping out billions in market value and triggering widespread fear across the market.

Altcoins have been hit even harder, with some losing 50–70% of their value in a matter of weeks. But despite the panic, history suggests that these crashes are not the end of crypto — they are part of its natural cycle.

Here are three key reasons why crypto is far from dead.

1. Crypto Cycles Always Include 50% Crashes

Crypto markets are extremely cyclical. Major bull runs are almost always followed by deep corrections.

This pattern has repeated multiple times over the past decade:

In each cycle, investors believed the market collapse signaled the end of crypto. Yet every time, the market eventually recovered and pushed to new highs.

The current correction may feel dramatic, but historically it fits the same pattern that has defined crypto markets since their beginning.

2. Global Uncertainty Is Driving Market Volatility

The current market decline is also happening during a period of extreme global uncertainty.

Several macro factors are weighing on risk assets:

• Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East
• Surging oil prices
• Concerns about global liquidity
• Uncertainty around central bank policies
• Volatility across stock markets

When global uncertainty rises, investors often reduce exposure to risk assets such as crypto and move capital into safer assets like gold, cash, or government bonds. However, this does not mean crypto has lost its long-term relevance. It simply means the market is reacting to broader macro conditions.

Historically, once macro conditions stabilize, capital tends to flow back into high-growth sectors like crypto.

3. Crypto Adoption Is Still Growing

Perhaps the strongest argument against the “crypto is dead” narrative is that adoption continues to expand worldwide.

Over the past few years:

• Major financial institutions have launched Bitcoin ETFs
• Governments are exploring blockchain infrastructure
• Large corporations are integrating crypto payments
• Stablecoins are becoming a core part of the global digital economy

Even during market downturns, the underlying infrastructure continues to grow.

This is similar to the early internet era, where massive market crashes occurred while the technology itself kept advancing.

What Could Happen Next?

If historical patterns repeat, the current correction could represent a mid-cycle reset rather than the end of the market.

Crypto markets often experience:

1. Rapid price expansion
2. Excessive speculation
3. A sharp correction
4. Consolidation
5. The next major rally

While no outcome is guaranteed, previous cycles suggest that deep corrections often set the stage for the next phase of growth.

Conclusion: Are Cryptos Dead?

Crypto markets are highly volatile, and sharp corrections can easily trigger fears that the entire industry is collapsing.

But history shows a different story.

The current market decline reflects cyclical corrections, macro uncertainty, and profit-taking after massive gains — not the end of crypto. If anything, these downturns have repeatedly been the moments when the foundations for the next bull market were quietly built.

Michael Saylor declared the start of a “second century,” following the firm’s 100th Bitcoin purchase last month.

Crypto funds saw $619M weekly inflow as oil spikes triggered late outflows, with experts split on whether Bitcoin can withstand macro pressure.

Bitcoin and other crypto coins are rising as oil's surge cools, Polymarket and Kalshi are reportedly raising at massive valuations, and more.

The price of Ethereum is up 4% over the last day, rebounding after a weekend slump under $2,000 as BitMine reveals its latest ETH buy.

The initiative is geared towards modernizing processes including corporate actions, shareholder engagement and proxy voting.

Peter Brandt rejects the $500,000 BTC "Cup & Handle" theory. Unlike gold's rally by 180%, he claims Bitcoin's chart structure fails to qualify.

Transfer of $28 million in Dogecoin (DOGE) from Kraken to a private wallet has been detected. Explore how this whale activity aligns with market expectations ahead of Wednesday's US CPI inflation report.

Shiba Inu spot flows surged 658%, attracting attention from traders as the price returns to green.

Nasdaq collaborates with Kraken amid efforts to allow tokenized equities trading on its market to move across on-chain markets.

Seventeen years after its creation, the Bitcoin network has hit a historic milestone with the creation of the 20 millionth coin.

TLDR

• Anthropic filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Defense over a supply chain risk designation.
• The designation restricts Anthropic from working with defense contractors on federal projects.
• Federal officials labeled the company after talks failed over surveillance and weapons use.
• Anthropic refused to allow its systems for mass surveillance of Americans or autonomous weapons.
• The Pentagon paused a contract valued at up to 200 million dollars following the dispute.

Anthropic has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Defense and other federal agencies over a supply chain risk designation. The company challenges the Trump administration’s decision that restricts its work with defense contractors. The dispute centers on failed talks about surveillance use and a Pentagon contract valued at up to $200 million.

Anthropic Challenges Federal Supply Chain Risk Designation

Anthropic filed the lawsuit after federal agencies labeled the company a supply chain risk and restricted defense partnerships. The designation followed collapsed talks between the company and defense officials over permitted uses of its systems. Federal officials insisted the technology must support all lawful purposes, including surveillance and weapons programs.

However, Anthropic refused to allow its systems for mass surveillance of Americans or autonomous weapons. As talks ended, the government halted adoption plans and jeopardized a Pentagon deal worth up to $200 million. The company argues the classification lacks legal basis and seeks judicial review to protect its operations.

An Anthropic spokesperson told CNN, “Seeking judicial review does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security.” The spokesperson added that the lawsuit protects its business, customers, and partners. Meanwhile, the Pentagon maintained that lawful use requirements remain essential for defense technology.

Defense Contract Dispute and Corporate Responses

The Financial Times reported that Chief Executive Dario Amodei sought last-minute negotiations with defense leaders. He attempted to de-escalate tensions and prevent a formal blacklist. However, the effort failed to stop the supply chain risk classification.

Following the designation, federal agencies limited cooperation with Anthropic in defense projects. The Pentagon stated that contractors must ensure full lawful access to deployed systems. Officials maintained that defense technology providers must meet comprehensive operational requirements.

Despite the government dispute, Anthropic’s consumer business showed resilience. The company’s Claude application surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT in Apple App Store rankings after news of the contract termination. By early March, Anthropic reported that more than one million users signed up for Claude daily.

Major technology companies responded to the federal classification with public statements. Google confirmed it would continue providing Anthropic technology to cloud customers for non-defense purposes. Microsoft issued a similar statement, and Amazon said it would maintain access outside defense work.

Anthropic continues discussions with government officials while pursuing its lawsuit in federal court. The company maintains that the designation lacks a clear statutory foundation. As of early March, more than one million users join Claude daily, according to company data

The post Anthropic Sues US Over Supply Chain Risk Blacklist appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• The US Treasury Department acknowledged that crypto mixers serve lawful privacy and security purposes.
• The report stated that mixers can protect personal wealth, business transactions, and anonymous charitable donations.
• The Treasury cited $2.8 billion in digital asset theft by North Korean groups between 2024 and 2025.
• Officials reported that cross-chain bridges processed over $1.6 billion in mixed assets since May 2020.
• The department proposed temporary hold laws to freeze suspect assets during active investigations.

The US Treasury Department has acknowledged lawful uses for crypto mixers in a new report to Congress. The 32-page document outlines both privacy benefits and criminal risks tied to these services. Officials propose targeted legislative tools instead of broad prohibitions.

The Treasury Department submitted the report on March 5 and outlined its updated position on digital asset privacy tools. The document states that mixing services can protect personal wealth, business payments, and anonymous donations. However, it also details how criminals used these tools to launder stolen funds.

Treasury Outlines Framework for Crypto Mixers

The report states that public blockchains expose transaction histories to anyone with internet access. As a result, users seek tools that prevent public tracking of spending activity. The Treasury wrote that some mixing services address “legitimate privacy and security concerns.”

However, the department also cited criminal misuse of crypto mixers in recent years. North Korean cyber groups stole about $2.8 billion in digital assets between January 2024 and September 2025. The report states that mixers served as a primary laundering channel for those proceeds.

Cross-chain bridges processed more than $1.6 billion in mixed assets since May 2020. Authorities linked a large share of those transactions to illicit actors. Therefore, the Treasury recommended legislative “hold laws” to temporarily freeze suspect assets during investigations.

The department explained that these measures would allow authorities to pause transfers without permanent bans. Officials described the approach as a “regulatory pause button.” The framework maintains reporting requirements for compliant custodial services under FinCEN rules.

Enforcement History and Market Response

The updated stance follows prior enforcement actions against privacy protocols. In August 2022, the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Tornado Cash. Regulators targeted the protocol for facilitating unlawful transactions.

Federal prosecutors later charged Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm. A court convicted him in August 2025 for transmitting over $1 billion in criminal proceeds. That conviction remains in effect under federal law.

Earlier this year, authorities removed Tornado Cash from the US sanctions list. The Treasury report now provides formal reasoning for revising policy direction. Officials stated that compliant alternatives can operate within regulatory frameworks.

Market data reflects increased activity in privacy-focused assets. Privacy coins reached a combined market capitalization of $24 billion in early 2026. Monero traded at an all-time high of $790.91 and accounted for over $14 billion of that total.

Railgun reported about $800 million in total value locked across its protocol. Aztec Network surpassed $1.2 billion in total value locked by mid-2026. Ethereum traded near $2,123 in early March, according to market data.

The report states that compliant mixers must continue reporting suspicious activity to FinCEN. Lawmakers will now review the proposed hold laws for possible legislative action. The Treasury released the report as digital asset oversight remains under congressional review.

The post US Treasury Backs Limited Framework for Crypto Mixers appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Global oil prices have climbed more than 60% this year as tensions disrupt flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
• Iran halted traffic in the Strait of Hormuz during its conflict with the United States and Israel.
• The waterway handles about 20% of daily global oil exports and 35% of seaborne shipments.
• Higher energy costs have increased inflation expectations across major economies.
• CryptoQuant analyst Darkfrost said rising oil prices could create headwinds for Bitcoin.

Global oil prices have jumped over 60% this year as tensions in the Strait of Hormuz disrupt energy flows. Market data shows that Iran halted traffic through the channel during its conflict with the United States and Israel. Analysts now assess how these developments could influence the Bitcoin market in the near term.

Oil Tension in Hormuz Brings Bitcoin to Focus

Rising friction around the Strait of Hormuz has sent shockwaves through commodity markets and digital assets. Darkfrost, a verified CryptoQuant author, said the tensions are “beginning to ripple through global financial markets.” He added that energy disruptions can quickly shift inflation expectations and risk appetite.

The Strait of Hormuz carries about 20% of global daily oil exports and 35% of seaborne shipments. Therefore, any blockage can trigger swift reactions in crude benchmarks and related markets. Iran closed the route last week during its war with the United States and Israel, and oil prices climbed as supply fears grew.

Brent crude has advanced sharply since January as traders respond to supply risks. Energy costs have increased transportation and production expenses across several regions. As a result, inflation expectations have edged higher in multiple economies.

Higher inflation can tighten liquidity conditions in global markets. When liquidity tightens, risk-oriented assets often face pressure. Bitcoin has historically reacted to these broader macroeconomic shifts.

Darkfrost stated that past energy spikes have coincided with later Bitcoin cycle phases. He said that “periods of rising commodity prices have aligned with cooling momentum in crypto markets.” His analysis linked current oil strength with potential headwinds for digital assets.

Bitcoin Price Faces Pressure From Energy Market Trends

Historical data shows a pattern between Brent crude movements and Bitcoin price cycles. In 2021, Bitcoin reached $69,000 while Brent crude accelerated toward $120. After that peak, Bitcoin entered a correction as oil continued climbing.

CryptoQuant charts highlight episodes where oil strength overlapped with Bitcoin downturns. These overlaps occurred during periods of tightening financial conditions. Consequently, traders monitored commodity signals alongside crypto metrics.

Bitcoin price often reflects broader investor sentiment across risk markets. When energy costs rise sharply, capital sometimes shifts toward defensive positions. This shift can reduce short-term demand for volatile assets.

Darkfrost wrote that the current oil momentum mirrors earlier macro setups. He explained that commodity rallies can coincide with reduced speculative activity. He also stated that correlation does not guarantee identical outcomes.

Market data shows Bitcoin trading below its previous cycle high. Oil benchmarks remain elevated following the Strait closure. The latest figures continue to show oil prices holding gains as geopolitical tensions persist.

The post Oil Price Spike Raises Fresh Pressure on Bitcoin Price appeared first on Blockonomi.

BlockDAG is officially live, and the launch impact was immediate and impressive. Thanks to the most successful presale in crypto history and the high demand from hundreds of thousands ready to trade, BDAG hit the ground running with no lag.

It is now available on Coinstore and  with direct swaps on the BlockDAG website for instant participation. Early trading shows record-breaking volumes that surpass Kaspa and Solana’s first days, setting a new benchmark for crypto launches.

Staking activity is even ahead of what Solana saw in its early stage, showing strong engagement from the community. The near-term target of $0.20 is already visible, while $0.40 and $0.50 are next on analysts’ watchlists. A top 30 global market cap over $10 billion seems increasingly likely.

Additional global exchange listings are coming soon, and Tier 1 US platforms are still ahead. Experts are already discussing potential returns of 100x or more from the launch price, proving this historic crypto launch is creating momentum to match its record-breaking start.

Strong Momentum Built Before Markets Open

The surge behind BDAG did not start at launch. It began during the presale, which shattered every previous crypto record in the industry. By the time BDAG appeared on Coinstore and  a huge number of holders, stakers, and institutional participants were already ready to act instantly. Direct swap access through the BlockDAG website gave holders an easy and immediate way to join without waiting for exchange onboarding or approvals.

This pre-launch momentum makes the early trading data remarkable and highly significant. The high volumes seen across these platforms are not the result of a slow buildup. They reflect months of pent-up demand ready to hit the market.

Launching a project with the most successful presale in crypto history across multiple platforms guarantees that early momentum is structural, not just hype. It is the natural result of the work and anticipation built before the first trade, creating a strong foundation for sustained growth.

Volumes Skyrocket in Early BDAG Trading

Data from BDAG’s opening trading sessions shows numbers that set a new benchmark for crypto launches, with early results already exciting the community and analysts alike. Key highlights include:

• Trading volumes on Coinstore and the BlockDAG direct swap are already surpassing Kaspa and Solana’s early trading days, showing widespread participation.
• Staking participation is ahead of early Solana levels, reducing circulating supply faster than Solana did in its first phase, and adding strong support to prices.
• The combination of high trading volume plus reduced supply is creating upward price pressure toward the $0.20 target in a way few early projects have achieved.
• Institutional orders show strong buying from day one, proving that large holders are actively building positions, not just retail traders.
• Additional global exchanges are confirmed, bringing new liquidity, wider trading audiences, and more market depth.

All of this is happening before BDAG has listed on Tier 1 US exchanges. The momentum is historic, and the most powerful catalysts are still ahead, meaning there is more potential growth to come.

BDAG Price Path to $0.50 and Beyond

The $0.20 mark is drawing attention now and looks achievable very soon, based on activity and trends seen across live exchanges. But BDAG’s story does not stop at this first milestone. Analysts are already monitoring $0.40 and $0.50 as the next levels on the post-launch price map, and the same factors driving the move to $0.20 remain fully in play.

A top 30 global market cap, over $10 billion, is expected to anchor the path above $0.50. Achieving this level would place BDAG alongside the most liquid and widely traded digital assets, providing the sustained buying support necessary to maintain higher prices.

The current momentum from Coinstore,  and direct swap access represents only the first wave. As additional global exchanges launch and Tier 1 US listings come online, the path from $0.20 to $0.40 and $0.50 will gain the liquidity and market strength needed to hold and grow these levels sustainably.

Major US Listings to Boost BDAG

The strongest catalyst is still ahead. Major Tier 1 US exchanges have not yet listed BDAG, and their entry could significantly boost trading volume and liquidity. The largest US platforms that can bring substantial retail and institutional capital are still coming. Once these platforms are active, the already historic volume and staking momentum will multiply, creating an even larger surge across the market.

This is why analysts are discussing potential 100x or higher returns from the launch price. Volumes already beat Kaspa and Solana, staking is ahead of early Solana levels, and Tier 1 US exchange listings will act as the next big multiplier. The biggest crypto launch ever is continuing at full speed, and its next stage of momentum is just beginning, promising more historic records ahead.

Final Thoughts

BDAG’s launch is redefining what a major crypto debut looks like and is already making waves in the industry. It is live on Coinstore and with direct swap available on the BlockDAG website.

Additional global platforms are preparing to join soon. Trading volumes exceed Kaspa and Solana’s early numbers, and staking is ahead of early Solana levels. Short-term targets at $0.20 are now within reach, with $0.40 and $0.50 as the next points on the post-launch price map.

A top 30 global market cap above $10 billion is the structural target, and Tier 1 US exchange listings remain the largest remaining catalyst. These listings will support the 100x potential that analysts are discussing. The biggest crypto launch in history is already setting records, and its momentum is still building with more milestones ahead.

Website: https://blockdag.network

Telegram: https://t.me/blockDAGnetworkOfficial

Discord: https://discord.gg/Q7BxghMVyu

The post BlockDAG Launch Hits Record Volumes, Analysts Predict $0.20 Next! Why It’s The Best Crypto of 2026 appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Q4 revenue climbed 61% year-over-year but came in below the $42.66M consensus estimate.
• Company surpassed earnings expectations: Adjusted loss per share of -$0.52 versus -$0.68 forecast.
• Adjusted EBITDA loss decreased while margin expanded to -55.8% compared to -111% previously.
• Total backlog decreased 10.8% to $1.17B, signaling potential headwinds in new orders.
• Five-year revenue CAGR reaches 19.6%, supported by increasing clean energy adoption.

Shares of FuelCell Energy, Inc. (FCEL) dropped approximately 7% during intraday trading to around $7.04 following the release of quarterly earnings that underwhelmed investors. While the clean energy technology provider demonstrated impressive year-over-year sales expansion, it couldn’t reach Wall Street’s revenue projections. This combination of results triggered selling pressure throughout the session.

FuelCell Energy, Inc., FCEL

Revenue Growth Surges But Falls Short of Forecasts

For its fourth quarter, FuelCell Energy disclosed revenue totaling $30.53 million, marking a substantial 60.7% jump compared to the same quarter a year earlier. However, this performance lagged behind the Street’s consensus projection of $42.66 million. The company thus delivered a revenue shortfall of approximately 28.4%.

Despite continued red ink, the firm showed progress on bottom-line performance. The adjusted loss per share narrowed to $0.52, beating analyst projections calling for a loss of $0.68 per share. This represented roughly a 23% improvement relative to consensus estimates.

The company’s adjusted EBITDA registered a loss of $17.03 million during the period. While still negative, this metric reflected meaningful improvement from the prior-year comparison. The adjusted EBITDA margin accordingly expanded to negative 55.8%, a substantial improvement from the negative 111% recorded previously.

Backlog Declines as Order Pipeline Slows

At quarter-end, FuelCell Energy’s backlog stood at $1.17 billion. This represented a 10.8% contraction versus the comparable year-ago period. The decline indicated that incoming orders failed to keep pace with the rate at which the company executed existing contracts.

The backlog growth trajectory also underperformed the company’s revenue acceleration during the same timeframe. This suggests the organization delivered on projects more rapidly than it secured replacement business. Such dynamics sparked concerns regarding the robustness of the near-term order pipeline.

Meanwhile, the company’s market capitalization hovered around $349.8 million. This valuation underscored ongoing investor interest in fuel cell innovation despite inconsistent financial performance. Nevertheless, the revenue disappointment took center stage and eclipsed the positive earnings surprise.

Long-Term Growth Continues in Fuel Cell Business

FuelCell Energy has maintained its presence in the fuel cell industry since establishment in 1969. The company specializes in carbonate fuel cell solutions designed for stationary power production and distributed energy infrastructure. Its products serve diverse applications spanning utility companies, manufacturing operations, and data center facilities.

Across the trailing five-year period, the organization achieved a revenue compound annual growth rate approximating 19.6%. This outpaced the average expansion rate observed across the wider industrial sector. The performance underscored consistent market appetite for the company’s power generation offerings.

More recently, revenue momentum has intensified, with the two-year growth rate accelerating to roughly 28.3% annually. This uptick correlates with increased project installations and rising demand for energy infrastructure solutions. FuelCell Energy remains focused on capitalizing on the ongoing transition toward cleaner energy sources.

The post FuelCell Energy (FCEL) Stock Drops 7% Despite Beating Earnings Expectations appeared first on Blockonomi.

The world’s largest crypto exchange will support an upgrade later this week, during which token deposits and withdrawals on the Ethereum network will be halted.

Additionally, it will expand the list of trading options on Binance Spot, as the effort is once again centered on the stablecoin U (United Stables).

The Upcoming Developments

Binance disclosed that the Ethereum network upgrade is scheduled for March 10 and is expected to take roughly an hour to complete. Once the process is finalized and the system is confirmed to be functioning normally, deposits and withdrawals will be resumed.

The company assured that trading assets on the aforementioned ecosystem will not be affected and promised to handle all user-related technical requirements. It also said there will be no further announcements on the above.

This is a standard procedure that Binance has carried out seamlessly many times before. Beyond briefly pausing Ethereum-related operations during upgrades, the exchange has implemented similar measures to support improvements across different ecosystems, including Cardano, BNB Smart Chain, and others.

Binance also shared another update with its community today (March 9). It confirmed that new trading pairs – BCH/U, NEAR/U, TRX/U, and NEAR/USD1 – will go live on March 10, with Trading Bots support launching on the same day.

The listing effort once again focuses on U (United Stables) – a stablecoin launched last year and pegged to the greenback. Last week, the firm opened trading for AVAX/U, LINK/U, LTC/U, PAXG/U, and ZEC/U. Prior to that, it added ADA/U, DOGE/U, and PEPE/U to its Cross Margin section, while XRP/U, SUI/U, ASTER/U, and PAXG/U were listed on its Spot market.

The Delisted Ones

The exchange has a strict policy of scrapping certain pairs that no longer meet its standards.

On March 5, it said goodbye to the cross margin pairs CHZ/BTC, CAKE/BTC, ENA/BTC, UNI/ETH, CRV/BTC, INJ/BTC, XTZ/BTC, and the isolated margin ones FET/BTC, OP/BTC, PAXG/BTC, CHZ/BTC, CAKE/BTC, ENA/BTC, CRV/BTC, INJ/BTC, XTZ/BTC. A day later, it removed the spot trading pairs CHZ/BNB, ENA/BRL, NEIRO/JPY, and RLC/BTC.

When delisting is focused on a particular cryptocurrency rather than on trading pairs, it usually has a negative price impact. Such was the case in late 2025 when Binance terminated all services with Flamingo (FLM), Kadena (KDA), and Perpetual Protocol (PERP). The involved digital assets crashed by double digits shortly after the announcement.

The post Binance Will Temporarily Suspend Withdrawals and Deposits on the Ethereum Network: Details appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The Bitcoin network has reached a massive milestone: the 20 millionth BTC has been officially mined. With its total supply permanently capped at 21 million, this moment marks a monumental step toward its permanent scarcity.

Moreover, the event highlights one of the network’s defining features: its transparency and predictability. Unlike traditional fiat currencies, which can be pretty much printed at will and indefinitely, BTC follows a very strict issuance schedule, hardcoded into its protocol. With Bitcoin, code is law, and this code cannot be changed (at least not without massive market turbulence and seismic shifts in the entire industry), and can be publicly verified by anyone interested.

Digital Scarcity, but at a New Level

Data from BiTBO shows that 95.2% of Bitcoin’s total supply, representing exactly 20,000,018.75 BTC, has been mined at the time of this writing.

The remaining one million coins will be increasingly difficult to mine because of how the network is structured to function. Halvings take place roughly every four years, which slashes the rewards miners receive for adding new blocks to the network by 50%. In essence, this reduces the fresh supply by half, hence the name. In other words, the more time passes, the harder it will become to mine BTC. In fact, some estimates predict that the last BTC will be mined in 2140.

All of this highlights one of Bitcoin’s core concepts – digital scarcity. That’s why many investors have been comparing it to gold – because of its limited and ever-decreasing supply.

But one thing that many tend to forget is that millions of BTC are believed to be permanently lost due to forgotten phrases, lost wallets, and more. this makes the situation even more constrained, putting the effective circulating supply significantly lower than 21,000,000.

What the Final Million Means

The last Bitcoin halving occurred in 2024, reducing the block reward from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. The next one should take place in two years, effectively making BTC even scarcer.

To put matters in perspective, only about 450 BTC (roughly) is mined daily, meaning that by 2030, only a tiny fraction of the remaining BTC will be in circulation.

This also means that miners, who secure the network and validate blocks, will be relying increasingly on the fees as the block reward continues to decline.

The post Only 1M Bitcoin Left: The 20 Millionth BTC Has Been Mined appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The past several days have been quite successful for Pi Network’s PI, whose price spiked to a three-month high.

While some market observers believe the asset could post additional gains in the short term, certain indicators suggest it might be time for a sharp pullback.

Back to Red Territory?

PI is the best-performing cryptocurrency (at least in the top 100) over the past week, with its valuation rising 30% during the period. A few days ago, it surpassed $0.23 for the first time since December last year, while it currently trades at around $0.21 (per CoinGecko’s data).

Its rally follows the latest updates announced by the Core Team. Recently, the protocol v19.9 migration was successfully completed, while the next version, v20.2, is scheduled for release around March 12 (just two days before Pi Day 2026). Another catalyst might have been the newly revealed case study showing that Pi Nodes could be used for distributed AI computing and model training.

However, two important factors suggest that the ascent may soon be replaced by a correction. Data shows that more than 6.2 million PI have been transferred to exchanges in the past 24 hours alone, thus bringing the total figure to almost 450 million. The majority of the coins (53%) are stored on Gate.io, whereas Bitget ranks second with approximately 148.8 million. This development doesn’t guarantee a short-term price decline but is often considered a pre-sale step.

Next on the list is PI’s Relative Strength Index (RSI). It measures the speed and magnitude of recent price changes to help traders gauge whether the asset is on the verge of a turning point. The tool ranges from 0 to 100, with ratios above 70 indicating that PI has entered overbought territory and could be due for a pullback. Currently, the index stands at around 71.

More Gains Ahead?

Contrary to the worrying factors mentioned above, some X users remain optimistic that PI could be gearing up for an additional rally in the near future. The analyst, who goes by the moniker Vuori Trading, predicted a potential increase to $0.64, while ALTS GEMS Alert forecasted an ascent to as high as $0.30.

The upcoming protocol update scheduled for later this week may give PI another boost, though there’s always the risk of a classic “sell-the-news” reaction, which investors should keep in mind.

The post Pi Network’s Price Skyrockets 30% Weekly: Can v20.2 Protocol Update Push PI to $0.30? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The Tom Lee-chaired former Bitcoin mining entity continues with its substantial ETH accumulation, adding another 60,976 coins for nearly $123 million.

Its total stash has risen to 4,535,563 ETH, valued at over $9 billion at current levels. Nevertheless, the firm’s average entry price for its ETH fortune is still well over $3,700 per coin, which means that it still sits on unrealized losses of billions of dollars.

Aside from owning 3.76% of all the Ethereum supply, though, the company still holds 195 BTC, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, a $14 million stake in Eightco Holdings, and $1.2 billion in cash reserves.

“Ethereum prices showed resilience this week, in the face of rising war concerns and surging oil prices. We continue to believe that crypto prices are in the late/final stages of the ‘mini-crypto winter’ and are tracking the base case outlined by Bitmine’s advisor, Tom DeMark of DeMark Analytics.

According to DeMark, ETH prices in 2026 are tracking the path of the S&P 500 in the fall of 2011 and fall of 1987 closely,” commented Lee.

He added that the correlations to these price trajectories is 89% and 93% for 2011 and 1987, respectively. If these analogs continue, ETH prices will bottom in the current week below $1,750, consistent with the overall market structure in the final stages of ‘mini-crypto winter.’

Consequently, Lee explained that BitMine’s strategy will continue to be to slightly increase its pace of ETH accumulation.

ETH has rebounded in the past few hours after the intense market-wide volatility prompted by the developments in the Middle East and now sits inches above the coveted $2,000 level. However, the asset’s breakout attempt from last week was halted at $2,200, and it has been unable to challenge those levels since.

The post Tom Lee’s BitMine Buys Almost 61,000 ETH аs Ethereum Price Eyes $2K appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Bitcoin is still stuck in a broader bearish structure, but the latest bounce shows buyers are trying to keep the recent recovery alive above the key $60k area. Even so, the bigger trend remains fragile, with BTC still trading below major resistance levels on the higher timeframes.

Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

On the daily chart, BTC remains below both the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, which keeps the broader bias tilted to the downside. The price is also still trading inside the descending channel, indicating that the market has not yet confirmed a proper trend reversal.

The main support zone remains around $60k to $61k, which has already produced a reaction earlier in February. On the upside, the first major resistance sits around $75k to $80k. As long as BTC stays below that region, rallies are likely to be viewed as corrective rather than impulsive.

BTC/USDT 4-Hour Chart

On the 4-hour timeframe, Bitcoin continues to move inside a large flag pattern, suggesting that the recent advance is still a recovery structure. The asset is now hovering around $69,000 after once again failing to sustain a break above the upper boundary of the pattern near the $73,000 area.

Momentum is neutral for now, with RSI recovering from weaker levels but still not showing a decisive breakout. If buyers defend the $64k to $65k area, which coincides with the lower trendline of the flag, another push toward channel resistance remains possible. A breakdown below the lower boundary, however, could send BTC back toward the $60,000 zone, and potentially lower in the coming weeks.

On-Chain Analysis

From an on-chain perspective, the 30-day exponential moving average of the Exchange Whale Ratio has surged sharply, which usually signals that large holders have become more active in sending coins to exchanges recently. That tends to be a warning sign, as elevated whale inflows often increase the probability of sell-side pressure.

So while price is trying to stabilize in the short term, the on-chain backdrop remains cautious. In other words, the chart structure may still allow for a recovery bounce, but the rise in whale activity suggests that upside could remain capped unless this metric starts cooling off again.

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