By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
Same as Bitcoin rallies, non-serious tokens such as memecoins emerge as the biggest winners.
Among the majors, bitcoin jumped more than 2% in 24 hours, and at one point early Monday, it briefly topped $74,300 for the first time since early February. Other tokens, including XRP (XRP) and solana (SOL), gained over 4% and ether (ETH) rose 7%. The CoinDesk 20 Index added nearly 4%.
But the best-performing token among the top 100 over the past 24 hours is memecoin PEPE, which surged 19%. Fellows BONK and PENGU are up over 10%, and SHIB has also outpaced Ether’s 7% rise. In fact, five of the best performing coins today are meme tokens.
This illustrates a trend observed since 2023-2024. Observers have dubbed it the “dumbbell strategy”: holding a serious token like bitcoin, with growing institutional adoption, on one side, while speculating in smaller, non-serious coins such as memecoins, on the other.
This behavior contrasts with the previous bull market, where BTC rallies tended to boost the most productive sectors of the market, such as DeFi and Play-to-Earn projects.
One possible reason for the lack of a “meaningful alt season” is the flood of new altcoins, which has spread demand across thousands of projects. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that the total number of tokens has exceeded 37.8 million in just three years, highlighting the massive influx of new projects.
Some observers are pinning their hopes on the American Clarity Act to revitalize the broader market. Others warn that time is running out for decisive regulatory action.
In traditional markets, S&P 500 futures traded higher even as oil prices tested the $100 level. Nvidia’s GTC conference begins Monday and CEO Jensen Huang may outline the company’s AI roadmap, an event the crypto industry will be watching closely for signals on data center demand. 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
- Macro
- March 16, 8:30 a.m.: Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Canada for February (previous 2.3%)
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- March 16: Bakkt Holdings (BKKT), post-market, -$0.47
- March 16: Bitcoin Depot (BTM), pre-market, -$0.47
- March 16: Cango (CANG), post-market, -$0.34
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Votes and calls on governance
- Decentraland DAO is voting on whether to allow registered users to customize the color of their avatar’s name tag and add a more accessible volume slider to the UI sidebar. Voting closes on March 16 and 17.
- Unlocks
- March 16: Arbitrum (ARB) will unlock 1.78% of its circulating supply worth $9.65 million.
- Token Launches
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is up 2.22% from 4 p.m. ET Sunday at $73,300.29 (24 hours: +2.02%)
- ETH is up 5.98% at $2,259.15 (24 hours: +6.57%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 3.81% at 2,130.70 (24h: +3.79%)
- Ether CESR composite staking rate unchanged at 2.74%
- BTC funding rate is 0.0041% (4.4435% annualized) on Binance
- The DXY is unchanged at 100.29
- Gold futures are down 1.36% at $4,983.70
- Silver futures are down 2.80% at $78.65
- The Nikkei 225 closed down 0.13% at 53,751.15
- Hang Seng closed up 1.45% at 25,834.02
- The FTSE 100 is unchanged at 10,261.99
- The Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.67% at 5,678.08
- DJIA closed Friday down 0.26% at 46,558.47
- The S&P 500 closed down 0.61% at 6,632.19
- The Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.93% at 22,105.36
- The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 0.91% at 32,541.93
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed down 0.16% at 3,584.57
- The 10-year US Treasury yield is up 1 basis point at 4.28%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.37% at 6,660.50
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.45% at 24,504.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 0.78% at 46,957.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 59.22% (-0.29%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03088 (3.24%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 947 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $32.00
- Total fees: 1.97 BTC / $140,987
- CME Futures Open Interest: 111,895 BTC
- BTC valued in gold: 14.8 ounces.
- Market capitalization BTC vs gold: 4.92%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows daily Bitcoin price fluctuations in candlestick form since September 2025.
- Despite the recent rebound, BTC remains stuck in a sideways situation marked by trendlines connecting the highs reached on February 8 and March 4 and the lows of February 6 and February 24.
- The next move depends largely on the direction in which the distance game is resolved.
- Similar price action occurred in the two months leading up to mid-January and ended up deepening the sell-off to near $60,000.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed Friday at $195.53 (+1.19%), +2.72% to $200.84 in pre-market
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $22.35 (+8.34%), +2.68% to $22.95
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $9.32 (+6.39%), +3.54% to $9.65
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): close at $14.04 (–3.17%), +2.42% to $14.38
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $16.49 (+1.54%), +0.73% to $16.61
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.76 (+2.20%), +3.18% at $10.07
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $8.97 (–9.94%)
- CoinShares Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): Closed at $38.28 (+0.83%)
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL): closed at $115.38 (+1.05%), +2.88% at $118.70
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $36.62 (+1.05%), +2.40% at $37.50
Crypto Cash Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $139.67 (+1.70%), +3.10% at $144.00
- Strive Asset Management (ASST): closed at $9.53 (+7.93%), +3.04% to $9.82
- SharpLink (SBET): closed at $7.53 (+0.67%), +5.84% to $7.97
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $1.11 (+19.35%), +9.91% at $1.22
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.18 (+2.61%)
ETF Feed
Spot BTC ETF
- Daily net flows: $180.4 million
- Cumulative net flows: $56.12 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.29 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flow: $26.7 million
- Cumulative net flows: $11.82 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~5.73 million
Source: Farside Investors
