By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
The big news of the last 24 hours is that the Federal Reserve, the most powerful central bank in the world, is unlikely to provide a significant bullish catalyst in the near term, and markets are reacting negatively.
As sentiment weakens, capital flows not only from altcoins but also from bitcoin and in stablecoins, which are essentially tokenized versions of the US dollar.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday left U.S. interest rates unchanged, explicitly warned of a high degree of uncertainty and offered no clues about what the balance between inflation and activity might look like following the oil price surge triggered by the Iran war.
Bitcoin fell below $70,000 early today and is now down 1% since midnight UTC, extending the drop from nearly $76,000 earlier this week. The CoinDesk 20 index and major tokens such as ether (ETH), solana (SOL), and XRP (XRP) are following BTC’s lead.
Bitcoin dominance also fell, falling from 59.4% to 58.7% in three days. In other words, its share of the total crypto market has decreased with price, a sign that even the largest cryptocurrency is experiencing capital outflows. Traditionally, its share would increase during market declines as investors moved into BTC from alternative cryptocurrencies or altcoins.
This time, they are pivoting towards stablecoins. The share of the world’s leading dollar-pegged tokens, USDT and USDC, in the total crypto market capitalization has increased from 7% to 7.76% and 3% to 3.35%, respectively.
This behavior is a sign that investors feel safer in dollar equivalents, which is understandable, since the lack of clarity from the Federal Reserve has left financial markets at the mercy of swings in oil prices. The energy market appears broken, with the Strait of Hormuz disrupted, leading to unconscionable and erratic energy import bills around the world that will ultimately increase inflation.
The market remains constructive above, fragile below and still much more reliant on liquidity and positioning than broad conviction expansion, according to agent trading platform Nansen.
“Across all issues, the same market structure continues to emerge: capital remains selective,” Nicolai Søndergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, said in an email.
“Central banks are no longer a direct bullish catalyst for all cryptocurrencies, institutional flows are supporting the core of the market rather than the entire risk curve, prediction markets are gaining attention faster than they are building depth, and altcoins still lack the breadth that typically defines a true risk phase,” he added.
In traditional markets, the dollar index appeared to extend Wednesday’s strong rally above 100, and futures linked to the S&P 500 fell, both symptoms of growing risk aversion. 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 19: Walrus (WAL) final deadline for Tusky users to migrate their data.
- Macro
- March 19, 8:30 a.m.: US initial jobless claims for week ending March 14, approximately 215,000 (was 213,000)
- March 19, 8:30 am: March US Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (previous 16.3)
- March 19, 10:00 am: US new home sales for January: 730,000 (was 745,000)
- March 19, 4:30 pm: Fed’s balance sheet for the week ending March 18 (previously: $6.65 trillion)
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- March 19: Gemini Space Station (GEMI), post-market, -$0.91
symbolic events
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- Cratos DAO is voting to extend the current mobile app standard reward deadline by one month to April 30, 2026. Voting ends March 19.
- 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 0.94% since 4 pm ET on Wednesday at $70,240.69 (24 hours: -4.92%)
- ETH is down 0.3% to $2,177.57 (24 hours: -5.85%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 0.11% at 2,055.04 (24 hours: -4.66%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 1bp to 2.74%
- BTC funding rate is at -0.0024% (-2.5754% annualized) on Binance
- DXY rises 0.10% to 100.12
- Gold futures down 2.73% to $4,689.99
- Silver futures down 5.03% to $71.55
- The Nikkei 225 closed down 3.38% at 53,372.53
- Hang Seng closed down 2.02% at 25,500.58
- The FTSE 100 is down 1.90% to 10,109.91
- The Euro Stoxx 50 falls 2.12% to 5,615.49
- DJIA closed Wednesday down 1.63% at 46,225.15
- The S&P 500 closed down 1.36% at 6,624.70
- Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.46% at 22,152.42
- S&P/TSX Composite closed down 1.87% at 32,312.67
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed with a fall of 0.57% to 3,497.26
- The 10-year US Treasury rate rises 6 basis points to 4.26%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures rise 0.74% to 6,674.75
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures rise 0.78% to 24,625.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rise 0.66% to 46,539.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 58.68% (-0.25%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03099 (0.22%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 922 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $30.72
- Total fees: 2.62 BTC / $189,559
- CME Futures Open Interest: 117,410 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 15 oz.
- BTC market capitalization against gold: 4.68%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows daily bitcoin price swings in candlestick format since the end of 2025.
- Prices have fallen after testing the upper end of the channel identified by trend lines connecting notable highs and lows since early February.
- A firm move beyond the top end would confirm a bullish breakout. Conversely, a move below the low end would signal a resumption of the broader downtrend.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Wednesday at $202.29 (–3.78%), –0.94% to $200.38 in the pre-market
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $8.92 (–3.46%), –1.01% to $8.83
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $14.10 (–3.95%), +0.28% at $14.14
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $16.35 (–0.43%), –0.55% at $16.26
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.88 (–2.27%), –1.32% to $9.75
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.58 (–8.17%), –1.25% to $21.31
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $8.10 (–12.34%), +0.12% to $8.11
- CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI): closed at $39.10 (–2.57%)
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL): closed at $132.84 (+0.40%), –1.12% to $131.35
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $38.28 (–4.16%), –0.47% at $38.10
Crypto treasury companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $140.56 (–6.47%), –0.89% at $139.31
- Strive Asset Management (ASST): closed at $10.03 (–9.59%), –1.54% at $9.88
- Sharplink (SBET): closed at $7.87 (–5.29%), –0.25% at $7.85
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $1.07 (–6.96%), –2.80% at $1.04
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.18 (–2.48%)
ETF Flows
BTC Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$129.6 million
- Accumulated net flows: $56.38 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.3 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$55.5 million
- Accumulated net flows: 11,940 million dollars
- Total ETH holdings ~5.79 million
Source: Farside Investors
