By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
While the bitcoin The price increase since the conflict with Iran began more than two weeks ago is impressive, Hyperliquid’s performance is even more notable.
Users of the decentralized perpetual exchange have traded millions in commodity futures, particularly those linked to oil, highlighting the usefulness of blockchain-based markets in price discovery when traditional markets are closed.
That trend looks set to continue as industry experts become increasingly bullish on commodities, especially energy.
““Energy contracts, particularly refined products such as heating oil and gasoline, exhibit stronger expected Sharpe ratios, tighter physical markets, and supportive term structures,” Prometheus Research said.
The conflict with Iran has already driven gains in commodity ETFs, and Mining.com predicts a lasting impact on key metals, including nickel and other critical minerals.
All of this suggests that on-chain commodity markets could siphon capital away from bitcoin and various parts of the cryptocurrency market. Rising AI stocks reportedly did that in 2024-25, capping gains in the largest cryptocurrency.
Another tail risk: Economists predict a rise in inflation due to the rebound in oil prices, which could lead central banks to proceed cautiously with interest rate cuts, further weighing on risky assets. Remember, the Federal Reserve will announce its rate decision tomorrow.
So while BTC appears buoyant, quick profits may not be easy to achieve. Prices briefly surpassed $75,000 early Tuesday thanks to short covering in the futures and options markets.
“When you combine that heavily hedged options market with the persistently negative perpetual funding rates we saw in recent weeks, it became clear that the market was very skewed: hedged, short and unowned,” Monarq Asset Management told CoinDesk.
The breakup, however, was short-lived. Prices fell back below $74,000, dragging down the CoinDesk 20 index and major tokens such as ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and solana (SOL). Meanwhile, S&P 500 futures fell, signaling renewed risk aversion in traditional markets. Stay alert!
Read more: For an analysis of current activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to watch
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Crypto
- March 17 – Lava Network (LAVA) will expand with 17 new chain integrations and nine new blockchain ecosystems.
- Macro
- March 17, 10 a.m.: Pending US Monthly Home Sales for February (previous -0.8%)
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- March 17: CEA Industries (BNC), post-market, $0.69
symbolic events
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- March 17: Mantle (MNT) will present State of Mind Ep. 07, analyzing CeDeFi milestones and DeFi strategies.
- March 17: OKX will host an X Spaces session on agent statuses with representatives from Uniswap, Dune, and Alchemy.
- Decentraland DAO is voting on whether to allow registered users to customize the color of their avatar’s nametag and add a more accessible volume slider to the UI sidebar. Voting ends on March 16 and 17.
- Convex Finance is voting on Curve and Frax gauge weighting allocations for the week of March 12, directing vlCVX voting power to hundreds of liquidity pools. He is also voting on FXN caliber weight allocations for the same period. Voting ends March 17.
- Aavegotchi DAO is voting to end its 2026-2027 multi-signature signer election, preserving the 5 out of 9 threshold and establishing quarterly compensation for signers. Voting ends March 17.
- Aavegotchi DAO is holding Vote 3 to elect seven of the remaining 10 nominees as multi-signature signers, completing the list of nine signers for the DAO Foundation wallet. Voting ends March 17.
- Aura Finance is voting on Balancer indicator weight assignments for the week of March 12, directing vlAURA voting power between the Balancer pools on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Gnosis, Base and Avalanche. Voting ends March 17.
- ShapeShift DAO is voting to establish and fund a new international UX workflow for six months to maintain professional multilingual translations of the ShapeShift app and website. Voting ends March 17.
- Unlock
- Token releases
Conferences
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 0.28% as of 4 pm ET Monday to $73,668.91 (24 hours: +0.22%)
- ETH is down 1.25% to $2,307.46 (24 hours: +1.76%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 0.96% to 2,147.86 (24 hours: +0.75%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate Up 7 Basis Points to 2.81%
- BTC funding rate is at -0.0054% (-5.9042% annualized) on Binance
- DXY rises 0.09% to 99.80
- Gold futures rise 0.03% to $5,003.80
- Silver futures down 0.61% to $80.19
- The Nikkei 225 closed unchanged at 53,700.39
- The Hang Seng closed up 0.13% at 25,868.54
- The FTSE 100 rises 0.54% to 10,373.64
- The Euro Stoxx 50 rises 0.45% to 5,764.94
- DJIA closed Monday up 0.83% at 46,946.41
- The S&P 500 closed up 1.01% at 6,699.38
- Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.22% at 22,374.18
- S&P/TSX Composite closed up 1.03% at 32,876.65
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed with a fall of 0.32% to 3,607.58
- The 10-year US Treasury rate fell 7 basis points to 4.22%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures rise 0.61% to 6,745.75
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures rise 0.66% to 24,839.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rise 0.59% to 47,261.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 59.06% (-0.17%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.0313 (-0.39%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 935 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $32.42
- Total fees: 2.54 BTC / $187,439
- CME Futures Open Interest: 115,130 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 14.8 oz.
- BTC market capitalization against gold: 4.93%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows daily swings in the ether-bitcoin ratio in candlestick format since November.
- The index rose 5% on Monday, breaking a prolonged trend of volatile price action.
- The so-called bullish breakout suggests the possibility that ether will continue to outperform in the future.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): Closed Monday at $203.32 (+3.98%), +0.33% at $204.00 in premarket
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL): closed at $125.83 (+9.06%), +0.79% at $126.82
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $23.10 (+3.36%), unchanged
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $9.23 (–0.97%), +0.11% at $9.24
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $14.40 (+2.56%), +0.21% at $14.43
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $16.97 (+2.91%), –0.41% to $16.90
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $10.02 (+2.66%), +0.50% at $10.07
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $9.32 (+3.90%)
- CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI): closed at $40.45 (+5.68%), unchanged
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $39.62 (+8.19%), –1.29% at $39.11
Crypto treasury companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $147.52 (+5.62%), –0.83% to $146.3
- Strive (ASST): closed at $10.86 (+13.96%), unchanged
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $8.20 (+8.90%), +0.49% to $8.24
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $1.08 (–2.70%), +4.63% to $1.13
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.25 (+5.93%)
ETF Flows
BTC Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: $199.4 million
- Accumulated net flows: $56.31 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.29 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: $35.9 million
- Accumulated net flows: 11.86 billion dollars
- Total ETH holdings ~5.74 million
Source: Farside Investors
