CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2029.47, up 3.9% (+76.88) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Eighteen of 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: SOL (+5.6%) and AAVE (+5.0%).

Laggards: NEAR (-2.4%) and DOT (-0.4%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

Tether, the crypto firm behind the most popular stablecoin USDT USDT$0.9999, has invested $50 million in sleep technology startup Eight Sleep at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to a Wednesday press release and data from Crunchbase.

With the funding, Eight Sleep plans to develop new AI health features using Tether’s QVAC architecture, a computing framework designed to process data at the device level rather than relying fully on cloud systems.

Eight Sleep builds sensor-equipped sleep systems that track biometrics such as heart rate and temperature during the night. Its flagship “Pod” product adjusts mattress temperature and generates sleep insights based on real-time physiological data.

“We believe advanced personalized AI is the perfect pathway to understand and expand human potential,” Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, said in a statement.

The investment is the latest example of Tether pushing beyond stablecoins and crypto infrastructure. The firm is best known for its $183 billion USDT stablecoin, which is popular as a savings and payments tool across emerging markets with limited access to U.S. dollars. Tether reported more than $10 billion in net profits through 2025 and has increasingly channeled those earnings into venture investments across energy, payments, artificial intelligence, and health technology.

The deal follows Tether’s recent launch of QVAC Health, a platform that aggregates personal health data from wearables and other sources while keeping the information encrypted and under the user’s control.

Stablecoin firm KAST has hired Brad Jaffe as its chief communications officer, the company said Wednesday. Jaffe previously led global communications at cryptocurrency exchange Binance for more than three years.

Jaffe handled strategic communications at Binance during a period at the exchange which saw tumultuous regulatory challenges against a backdrop of rapid growth. At KAST he will oversee global communications, brand positioning, regulator and stakeholder engagement, according to a press release.

This is the latest key hire from KAST, the firm said, with the business making over 300 hires in the past year across engineering, product and compliance from across the fintech and crypto ecosystem including Circle, Stripe and Airwallex.

“KAST is built for people who need money to work reliably – entrepreneurs operating internationally, professionals paid in digital assets, families sending funds across borders, or individuals looking for a more predictable way to store and use value.” Jaffe said. “The opportunity now is to turn this infrastructure into financial tools people trust and rely on.”

“Brad has led communications at global scale during pivotal moments in this industry. That perspective will help us shape the next phase of KAST’s growth,” added Raagulan Pathy, Founder & CEO of KAST.

The Sui Dollar (USDsui), the stablecoin of the Sui blockchain, went live Wednesday with a promise that income from the assets backing the token will be funneled back into the ecosystem from which it sprang.

Yield on the bonds and liquid assets backing USDsui will be used to repurchase and remove SUI$0.9388 tokens from circulation or deployed to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and into automated market making for incentivizing swaps, said Adeniyi Abiodun, a co-founder at Mysten Labs, the original contributors to Sui.

Stablecoin growth has been rapid, and the $310 billion market-cap industry led by Tether and Circle Internet (CRCL) is entering the global payments arena. Both companies keep all the yield generated by the masses of U.S. Treasury bonds backing their dollar-pegged tokens, USDT and USDC, respectively.

“I think we are starting to see a dislocation of the business model of stablecoin issuers, whereby the yield is largely kept to external agencies that don’t really pour value back to the ecosystem,” said Adeniyi Abiodun, co-founder at Mysten Labs, the original contributors to Sui. “That yield effectively can get funneled back from the foundation straight to the Sui ecosystem.”

Plans for the coin, which is issued by Bridge, the stablecoin firm acquired last year by payments giant Stripe, were first announced toward the end of 2025. Sui was built by a group of former Meta engineers who worked on the soial media company’s abandoned Libra/Diem digital dollar project.

“Right now those funds do not hit the ecosystem; they really flow out,” Abiodun said. “We are all about closing that loop. So it’s real yield from real world finance that is going back into DeFi that creates a flywheel.”

Bootstrapping a stablecoin is not such a heavy lift when your network has carried over $1 trillion in stablecoins: the likes of USDT, USDC and other stablecoins, Abiodun said.

“The Sui Foundation actually has USDC and other stablecoins today, and so can transition a lot of that straight to Sui Dollar. Mysten Labs can do the same. On top of that, we actually have a lot of investors and hedge funds who are interested in minting Sui USD. So bootstrapping this is actually very easy,” he said.

Abiodun’s former Facebook colleagues and Libra coin partners are the Mysten Labs co-founders: George Danezis (chief scientist), Sam Blackshear (CTO), Evan Cheng (CEO), Kostas Kryptos Chalkias (chief cryptographer).

Polkadot price will be in the spotlight this month as the layer-1 network makes one of its biggest changes since its inception.

Polkadot (DOT) token was trading at $1.5223 on Wednesday, up by 37% from its lowest point in February. Its market capitalization has jumped to $2.5 billion.

DOT price will be in focus next week as the developers implement the new tokenomics framework that will cap the number of tokens to 2.1 billion.

It will also reduce its emissions immediately by 53.6% and eliminate treasury burns, replacing it with a new Dynamic Allocation Pool. Instead of burning tokens, the network fee generated from transactions, slashes, and coretime sales will go to a new permanent on-chain pool available for governance allocation.

The governance will be free to allocate the DOT tokens to validator rewards, staking incentives, treasury budgets, and strategic reserves.

The other big change will be on staking, where validators will have to lock at least 10,000 DOT tokens as self-stake. On top of this, the minimum validator commission will move to 10%, while unbonding will be slashed from 28 days to between 24 and 48 hours.

Polkadot’s tokenomics changes come after the network completed the move to Polkadot 2.0, which involved three core parts: asynchronous backing, agile coretime, and elastic scaling. 

Asynchronous backing reduced its block time from 12 seconds to 6 seconds, while agile coretime replaced parachain auctions with a more flexible model. Elastic scaling enabled vertical scalability by allowing parachains to access multiple cores in real time.

Still, a major challenge for Polkadot is that its ecosystem growth has been relatively limited, with developers opting for other popular chains like Solana and Ethereum.

Polkadot price prediction: Technical analysis 

The daily timeframe chart shows that the DOT token price has rebounded in the past few days, moving from a low of $1.2260 to the current $1.550.  This rebound happened after forming a double-bottom pattern at $1.2260 and a neckline at $1.4300.

Polkadot price then pulled back, forming a bullish flag pattern, which often leads to a bullish breakout. It has also flipped the Supertrend indicator from red to green.

Therefore, the most likely DOT price forecast is bullish, with the next initial target being last month’s high of $1.7445. A move above that level will point to more upside, potentially to $2.

However, there is also a risk that it will retreat after the tokenomics changes as investors sell the news.

The White House’s crypto adviser pushed back on JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s assertion that stablecoin issuers who pay interest should be regulated like banks.

Stablecoins need not be treated like deposits because the Genius Act explicitly bars issuers from lending the reserves that back their tokens, Patrick Witt, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets, wrote in an X post.

Dimon said banks want stablecoin issuers that pay interest on customer balances to face the same rules as traditional lenders, sharpening the debate over U.S. crypto regulation.

He also addressed reported tensions with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who withdrew support for the proposed Clarity Act a day before the Senate Banking Committee was scheduled to vote on the legislation. Dimon argued there needs to be a line between rewards paid on transactions and interest paid on stored balances.

“Rewards are the same as interest,” Dimon said. “If you are going to be holding balances and paying interest, that’s the bank. You should be regulated by a bank.”

Banks would accept a compromise in which crypto platforms offer rewards tied to transactions, he said. But firms that function like deposit-taking institutions should meet the same standards as banks, including capital and liquidity rules, anti-money laundering controls and federal deposit insurance requirements.

“The deceit here is that it is not the paying of yield on a balance per se that necessitates bank-like regulations, but rather the lending out or rehypothecation of the dollars that make up the underlying balance,” Witt said. Rehypothecation occurs when banks use clients’ collateral to support their own borrowing.

He also pointed to the Genius Act, which he said “explicitly forbids stablecoin issuers from doing the latter. Stablecoins ≠ Deposits.”

Chinese national, TRON creator, and unrealized crypto billionaire Justin Sun is having a difficult week, with his stock, TRON Inc., continuing to crater and now his Rednote (Xiaohongshu) account getting banned.

A reason for the ban wasn’t stated by the platform, but speculation among users has been rampant.

Indeed, replies have run the gamut from joyful, to calling him a scammer, to disappointment, and even suggesting they’ll now rely on X instead of Rednote.

Sun doesn’t mention the ban on X

Despite the fact that Sun had well over 100,000 followers on his Rednote account and relied on it to share his crypto hot takes with the Chinese community (like that he’s “all in on web 4.0”) he’s failed to mention the ban on X.

Sun has two X accounts, @justinsuntron for his English language audience and @sunyuchentron for his Chinese mainland followers.

The Rednote ban means that Sun now has no active social media accounts in China whatsoever, with his TikTok account getting shut down relatively recently.

One of his Weibo accounts got banned in 2019 and another in 2020.

Read more: Justin Sun’s TRON stock is dying

He still has one unbanned Weibo account, but he hasn’t posted from it in over a year. At least four different Sun social media accounts have been banned in China, likely more that are unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, users of Rednote, which has been described as the Chinese answer to Instagram, responded to the ban in mixed ways, with some suggesting that the ban was because Sun was “reported by someone [born] before the ’90s” and another stating, “So tragic, I can only go to X from now on” with a reply of “no internet spirit at all, banning accounts at every turn.”

However, others seemed happy with the takedown. One user in Inner Mongolia said, “This is a good thing,” while another took credit for the ban, posting, “You’re welcome, I’m the one who reported [him].”

Sun’s latest ban begs the question as to why American social media companies haven’t taken a similar step to nix the serial crypto entrepreneur.

While his incessant shilling and promotion of high-yield staking on TRON appears to be enough to get him removed from every single major Chinese social media platform, the cringe-worthy and scam-adjacent posting doesn’t seem to be enough to get him removed from X, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

Between all of his American social media accounts Sun has amassed just under 10 million followers.

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Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) bulls are targeting a move back toward $80,000 in March, supported by a technical setup that has begun to show meaningful upside momentum. After a rally that pushed BTC above key levels, the asset retraced and then re-accelerated, signaling that demand is re-emerging as buyers step in around pivotal price zones. In recent trading, BTC rose more than 5% to around $71,900, a move that coincided with a breakout from what some analysts characterized as a bear pennant, though others see it as the early stages of a bullish symmetrical triangle. The pattern suggests a potential catalyst for a larger advance if buying interest remains firm and volume sustains its uptick.

The evolving chart pattern centers on a symmetrical triangle, formed as price makes lower highs and higher lows within a narrowing price range. In practice, the triangle’s widest cross-section spans roughly from $63,000 on the lower side to $71,000–$72,000 on the upper edge. A breakout above the upper boundary could unleash a measured move toward the $80,000 area, a target that also happens to align with BTC’s 100-day exponential moving average, a level many traders view as a significant longer-term gauge of trend health. The breakout’s credibility hinges on follow-through volume, with higher turnover often translating into increased conviction behind the move.

From a near-term perspective, the chain of moving averages presents both a challenge and an objective. The 50-day EMA sits near $74,400, posing a near-term hurdle. A rejection around that level would raise the odds of a pullback toward the 20-day EMA, which sits closer to $68,700, potentially reigniting short-term volatility. Still, if BTC can clear the 50-day EMA and maintain momentum, the path toward the broader target remains plausible, with the 100-day EMA acting as a guidepost for the longer-term trend.

Beyond pure price action, the market atmosphere is colored by a functional market mechanics element: an unfilled CME futures gap. That gap sits approximately in the $79,660–$81,210 zone, offering a magnet for price in the event of rebalancing between the spot market and the futures market. The dynamic arises because CME futures markets do not trade over the weekend, so when spot prices move during those periods, a gap can form that the futures market may revisit once trading resumes. Traders monitor this area closely as a potential catalyst zone where price could pause or accelerate in the days ahead.

On the speculative side, market-derived odds from prediction platforms have started tilting more decisively toward a bullish outcome for BTC in March. Polymarket has shifted toward pricing in a 40% probability that Bitcoin reaches $80,000 this month, up from 20% a day earlier. The odds for a price of $75,000 in March are even higher, around 70%, signaling a stronger collective belief among market participants in a constructive move in the near term. Conversely, the probabilities for a more pronounced downside in March have declined, suggesting traders are trimming expectations for deeper retracements.

Another data point enhancing the bulls’ case is the broader ETF narrative, which has been getting attention as institutions evaluate real-world demand versus supply pressures. Coin-media coverage has highlighted inflows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products as a factor supporting a steady bid around the $80,000 mark, with inflows and redemption dynamics shaping near-term price discovery. This context complements the technical setup, underscoring how demand dynamics interact with market mechanics to shape BTC’s trajectory in the weeks ahead.

Finally, a pattern is emerging that many traders watch closely: the accumulation and reallocation narratives that tend to re-emerge at critical price levels. An ongoing focus on the $80,000 region, supported by a history of CME gap fillings, adds another layer of potential momentum if price can sustain a breakout and clear immediate resistance. With Polymarket indicating growing odds for a March push and with the 100-day EMA aligned with the target, the stage appears set for a test of the upper triangle boundary and, if successful, a potential extension toward the $80k target in the coming weeks.

Why it matters

Bitcoin’s struggle to retake $80,000 has been a focal point for traders seeking signs of renewed momentum after a period of consolidation. A sustained breakout beyond the upper trendline would reaffirm a broader technical setup that has attracted attention from both technical analysts and derivative market participants. The alignment of the target with the 100-day EMA adds a level of significance because this moving average is widely watched as an indicator of the longer-run trend, not merely a short-term impulse. If price action confirms the breakout, it could attract additional buyers who are looking for a clearer signal of trend continuation rather than mere volatility spikes.

Moreover, the CME gap provides a practical reminder of how futures dynamics can accentuate price moves. Gaps are not guarantees, but they can act as magnets when market participants anticipate a return to a fair price after periods of dislocation. The $79,660–$81,210 zone has persisted for weeks, and a close above that area could signal renewed risk appetite and confidence in a new leg higher. In the same vein, the contemporaneous market sentiment reflected in Polymarket’s odds adds a qualitative dimension to the story: a shift in probability toward a higher price target implies traders are pricing in a more favorable near-term trajectory for BTC.

Finally, the conversation around spot Bitcoin ETFs adds a macro layer to the narrative. Inflows associated with these products can influence demand dynamics by providing institutional exposure that complements a rising risk-on environment. While not a guarantee of a specific price path, the presence of sustained demand from ETF products reinforces the underlying thesis that BTC could participate in a broader upswing if macro and liquidity conditions remain supportive.

What to watch next

• Watch for a daily close above the triangle’s upper boundary to confirm a breakout with sustained momentum.
• Monitor the 50-day EMA around $74,400 as the near-term hurdle; a clear hold above this level would strengthen the bullish thesis.
• Track the CME gap region near $79,660–$81,210 for signs of price reversion or continuation as futures reopens.
• Observe Polymarket’s updated odds for March to gauge whether market sentiment continues to tilt toward higher BTC prices.
• Assess whether price action in the coming sessions can stage a clean move toward the $80,000 target and test the 100-day EMA as a guiding benchmark.

Sources & verification

• Bitcoin price action and the breakout context: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-price-nears-one-month-high-as-bulls-propel-btc-toward-72k
• CME gaps and their trading implications: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-cme-gaps-how-to-trade-them
• Polymarket odds for BTC in March: https://polymarket.com/event/what-price-will-bitcoin-hit-in-march-2026
• Bitcoin accumulation wave and the $80k case: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-accumulation-wave-puts-dollar80k-back-in-play-analyst
• ETF inflows context and market impact: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-etf-225-million-inflows-blackrock–ibit-counters-selling