By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
The big news of the last 24 hours is that the Fed, the world’s most powerful central bank, is unlikely to provide a significant bullish catalyst in the near term, and markets will react negatively.
As sentiment weakens, capital flows not only out of altcoins but also out of bitcoin. and in stablecoins, which are essentially tokenized versions of the US dollar.
The Fed on Wednesday kept U.S. interest rates unchanged, explicitly warned of a high degree of uncertainty and gave no indication of what the inflation-activity balance might look like after the surge in oil prices caused by the war in Iran.
Bitcoin fell below $70,000 earlier today and is now down 1% since midnight UTC, extending the decline from near $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’s dominance also dropped from 59.4% to 58.7% in three days. In other words, its share of the total crypto market has declined with price, a sign that even the largest cryptocurrency is experiencing capital outflows. Traditionally, its share increased during market falls, as investors shifted to BTC from alternative cryptocurrencies, or altcoins.
This time, they are turning into stablecoins. The share of the world’s leading dollar-pegged tokens, USDT and USDC, in the total crypto market cap increased from 7.7% to 7.76% and from 3% to 3.35%, respectively.
This behavior is a sign that investors feel safer in dollar equivalents, which is understandable, as the Fed’s lack of clarity has left financial markets at the mercy of oil price fluctuations. The energy market appears broken, with the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz leading to crazy and irregular energy import bills around the world, which will eventually make inflation worse.
The market remains constructive at the top, fragile below and still much more dependent on liquidity and positioning than broad conviction expansion, according to trading platform agent Nansen.
“Across all themes, the same market structure persists: capital remains selective,” Nicolai Søndergaard, research analyst at Nansen, said in an email.
“Central banks are no longer a direct catalyst for upside for all cryptocurrencies, institutional flows support the core of the market rather than the full risk curve, prediction markets capture attention faster than they develop depth, and altcoins still lack the scale that usually 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 vigilant!
Read more: For analysis of current altcoin and derivatives activity, see Crypto Markets Today
What to watch
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Cryptocurrency
- March 19: Walrus (WAL) deadline for Tusky users to migrate their data.
- Macro
- March 19, 8:30 a.m.: First U.S. jobless claims for the week ending March 14, est. 215,000 (previous 213,000)
- March 19, 8:30 a.m.: Philadelphia Fed US manufacturing index for March (previous 16.3)
- March 19, 10:00 a.m.: U.S. new home sales for January est. 730,000 (previous 745,000)
- March 19, 4:30 p.m.: Fed balance sheet for the week ending March 18 (previous $6.65 billion)
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- March 19: Gemini Space Station (GEMI), post-market, -$0.91
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Votes and calls on governance
- Cratos DAO is voting on extending the current standard mobile app reward deadline by one month, until April 30, 2026. Voting closes on March 19.
- Unlocks
- Token Launches
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 0.94% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $70,240.69 (24 hours: -4.92%)
- ETH is down 0.3% at $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 down 1bp to 2.74%
- BTC funding rate is -0.0024% (-2.5754% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is up 0.10% at 100.12
- Gold futures are down 2.73% at $4,689.99
- Silver futures are down 5.03% at $71.55
- The Nikkei 225 closed down 3.38% at 53,372.53
- Hang Seng closed 2.02% lower at 25,500.58
- The FTSE 100 is down 1.90% at 10,109.91
- The Euro Stoxx 50 is down 2.12% at 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
- The Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.46% at 22,152.42
- The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 1.87% at 32,312.67
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed down 0.57% at 3,497.26
- The 10-year US Treasury yield is up 6 basis points to 4.26%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.74% at 6,674.75
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.78% at 24,625.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 0.66% at 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
- Open interest on CME futures: 117,410 BTC
- BTC valued in gold: 15 oz.
- BTC vs. gold market capitalization: 4.68%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows daily Bitcoin price fluctuations in candlestick form since the end of 2025.
- Prices declined after probing the upper end of the channel identified by the trendlines connecting significant highs and lows since early February.
- A firm move beyond the upper end would confirm a bullish breakout. Conversely, a move below the lower end would signal a resumption of the broader downtrend.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): Closed Wednesday at $202.29 (–3.78%), –0.94% at $200.38 in pre-market
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $8.92 (–3.46%), –1.01% at $8.83
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): close at $14.10 (–3.95%), +0.28% to $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% at $9.75
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.58 (–8.17%), –1.25% at $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% at $131.35
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $38.28 (–4.16%), –0.47% at $38.10
Crypto Cash 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 Feed
Spot BTC ETF
- Daily net flows: -$129.6 million
- Cumulative net flows: $56.38 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.3 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$55.5 million
- Cumulative net flows: $11.94 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~5.79 million
Source: Farside Investors
