As the XAU/USD chart shows, the gold price has been holding within the $5,060–$5,200 range over the past several sessions.

Bullish view: the key support is the lower boundary of the long-term channel that has been in place since the beginning of 2026.

Bearish view: pressure on the price comes from statements by President Trump suggesting that the conflict in the Middle East could end soon. Yesterday, the US president described the operation in Iran as a “small incursion” and a “short-term” measure, which helped ease geopolitical risks and reduce demand for gold as a safe-haven asset.

Technical Analysis of the XAU/USD Chart

On the morning of 2 March, while analysing gold price movements following the attack on Iran, we confirmed the validity of the long-term ascending channel and also:

→ drew a local purple channel;
→ noted that the price was trading in close proximity to resistance lines;
→ suggested that emotions would settle and that the gold price might pull back, with support likely emerging in the $5,250–$5,300 area.

Indeed, later that evening the indicated zone acted as local support (shown by the blue arrow), but by 3 March the pullback had extended to the lower boundary of the blue channel.

It is worth noting that yesterday’s attempt by the bears (marked by the red arrow) failed to gain continuation — a sign that selling pressure may be weakening. Therefore, it would be reasonable to expect bulls to attempt to regain the initiative. A closer look at the XAU/USD chart also reveals that yesterday’s rising local lows form a cup-and-handle pattern.

At the same time, in the near term an important test of bullish intent may come at the breakout level of the purple channel around the $5,250 mark.

Start trading commodity CFDs with tight spreads (additional fees may apply). Open your trading account now or learn more about trading commodity CFDs with FXOpen.

This article represents the opinion of the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand only. It is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to products and services provided by the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand, nor is it to be considered financial advice.

Strategy (MSTR), the largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin BTC$69,922.92, sold a record number of its perpetual preferred equity, Stretch (STRC), on Monday, using the proceeds to purchase about 1,420 bitcoin, according to data from STRC.live.

Proceeds from STRC, which debuted in July 2025, support the company’s bitcoin accumulation strategy. Monday’s session recorded nearly $300 million in total trading volume, compared with a 30-day average of $124 million, according to the company’s dashboard.

The estimates are based on a methodology that infers purchases from at-the-market (ATM) sales. The approach assumes 40% of trading volume above $100 represents ATM issuance, with a 2.5% broker commission deducted before calculating the implied bitcoin purchase.

Last week, Strategy bought roughly $1.3 billion worth of BTC, nearly 18,000 coins.

Strategy has described STRC as resembling a short-duration, high-yield savings instrument. The company recently raised the dividend rate on STRC to 11.5%. The stock pays monthly cash distributions. The dividend rate is adjusted each month to keep shares trading close to their $100 par value while limiting price volatility.

In an 8 K filing Monday, Strategy amended its Omnibus Sales Agreement to allow multiple agents to sell the same class of securities on a single trading day during pre-market or after-hours sessions. The change enables additional agents to handle early or late trades, while block sales after 4 p.m. ET remain permitted.

Strategy shares are up about 3% in pre-market trading to around $143 per share.

Key Highlights

• Palantir shares climbed approximately 9% throughout a five-day trading period amid escalating Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions.
• U.S. forces utilized Palantir’s platform to orchestrate strikes across 1,000 Iranian targets.
• The Department of Defense terminated Anthropic AI agreements citing national security risks, creating opportunities for Palantir.
• Fourth-quarter revenue jumped 70% year-over-year, reaching $1.41 billion; domestic commercial sales skyrocketed 137%.
• Analyst opinions remain polarized — projections span from $46 (Burry’s estimate) to $260 (Bank of America’s forecast).

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) delivered an impressive performance throughout the past week, climbing nearly 9% over five consecutive trading sessions. The upward trajectory coincided with geopolitical developments that placed the company’s defense capabilities under the spotlight.

Palantir Technologies Inc., PLTR

News surfaced indicating that American military strikes targeting approximately 1,000 locations across Iran relied on Palantir’s technology platform for coordination. This type of high-profile, mission-critical deployment typically generates significant investor interest and stock movement.

Palantir maintains a substantial $10 billion framework agreement with the U.S. Army alongside a $448 million Navy contract. The reports surrounding the Iran operations injected additional energy into an already robust government sector performance.

An unexpected catalyst emerged from within the Pentagon itself. Defense Department officials directed agencies to discontinue use of Anthropic’s artificial intelligence models following disagreements concerning national security protocols. A six-month transition timeline was established.

Rosenblatt analysts, who elevated their PLTR price target from $150 to $200 while maintaining a Buy recommendation on March 3, noted the transition period provides “ample time” to migrate toward LLMs supported by Palantir. The firm emphasized that Middle Eastern tensions underscore Palantir’s advantages over generic commercial AI solutions.

Piper Sandler maintained its Overweight stance with a $230 target price that same day, though analysts acknowledged potential short-term operational challenges stemming from the Anthropic disruption.

Financial Performance Shows Impressive Momentum

The underlying fundamentals have delivered remarkable results. During its latest quarterly filing, revenue surged 70% compared to the previous year, hitting $1.41 billion. U.S. commercial revenue — reflecting corporate adoption of Palantir’s artificial intelligence platforms — expanded by 137%.

Management projects revenue exceeding $7 billion for 2026, representing a 61% climb from the preceding year. This forecast significantly outpaces consensus estimates from most Wall Street research teams.

Palantir’s “Rule of 40” metric — combining revenue growth percentage with profit margin percentage — stands at 127%, which supporters cite as evidence the business can expand aggressively while maintaining profitability.

Valuation Concerns Persist Among Skeptics

Not all market participants share the optimistic view. Michael Burry, renowned for correctly predicting the housing market collapse, has proposed that Palantir’s intrinsic value might be closer to $46. With shares currently trading above 180 times earnings, he characterizes the valuation as bubble territory.

Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges maintains a reserved outlook, and institutional investors continue questioning whether Palantir can deliver its $7 billion revenue objective without experiencing a significant correction.

Conversely, Citi Research’s Tyler Radke alongside Bank of America’s Mariana Perez Mora have established price objectives of $255 and $260, respectively. Their thesis positions Palantir as the leading beneficiary of accelerating military and enterprise AI expenditures.

Aggregating 14 Buy recommendations, four Hold ratings, and two Sell opinions from the past three months, PLTR maintains a Moderate Buy consensus rating. The mean 12-month price objective stands at $191.76, suggesting approximately 22.6% appreciation potential from present levels.

Key Highlights

• ZODL (Zcash Open Development Lab) secured over $25M in seed capital
• Leading investors include a16z Crypto, Paradigm, and Coinbase Ventures
• The organization emerged following January’s separation from Electric Coin Company
• ZEC token surged approximately 10% within a 24-hour window after the announcement
• The Zodl wallet has facilitated north of $600M in ZEC exchanges since October 2025

The privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) experienced a significant price surge of almost 10% over a 24-hour period following news that the development team behind its primary wallet secured substantial venture funding.

ZODL, which stands for Zcash Open Development Lab, successfully closed a seed funding round exceeding $25 million. The company made this disclosure public on Monday.

Some of crypto’s most prominent venture capital firms participated in the funding round. The investor lineup features Paradigm, a16z Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, and Winklevoss Capital. Additional participants included Cypherpunk Technologies, Maelstrom, and Chapter One.

Notable angel investors also took part in the raise. Contributors included Balaji Srinivasan, former Chief Technology Officer at Coinbase, investor David Friedberg, and Dragonfly partner Haseeb Qureshi.

Josh Swihart, who previously served as CEO of Electric Coin Company, established ZODL. His departure from ECC occurred in January, accompanied by the entire engineering and product development teams.

The separation stemmed from internal conflicts with Bootstrap, the nonprofit entity that provides oversight for ECC. Central to the disagreement were differing visions regarding Zcash’s operational direction as a privacy-preserving protocol.

ZODL’s Development Focus

The organization concentrates its efforts on the Zodl wallet, a non-custodial mobile application designed specifically for Zcash users. The wallet first debuted under ECC branding as Zashi in 2024, before being rebranded to Zodl following the team’s transition.

The application enables shielded transactions, a feature that conceals transaction participants and amounts. This functionality represents the foundational privacy capability of the Zcash blockchain.

According to ZODL, the Zodl wallet contributed to expanding the Zcash shielded pool by more than 400% since its initial release. Additionally, the platform has facilitated over $600 million worth of ZEC swaps beginning in October 2025.

The freshly raised funds will be allocated toward expanding ZODL’s engineering capabilities and advancing both wallet functionality and core protocol development.

Market Response to ZEC

ZEC climbed 4.1% to reach $217.80 in the immediate aftermath of the funding disclosure, based on CoinGecko market data. Throughout the complete 24-hour trading window, the digital asset posted gains of 9.8%.

Among privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies, Zcash delivered exceptional performance over the previous year. The token appreciated from approximately $55.86 to peak at $527.84, representing nearly a tenfold increase.

Early 2026 saw ZEC experience a correction in tandem with wider cryptocurrency market weakness. However, the funding news provided upward momentum for the price.

The shielded pool mechanism, which obscures transaction details through mixing, has expanded by over 400% since the Zodl wallet’s 2024 introduction.

ZODL characterized the successful raise as evidence of “strong conviction from some of the most respected investors in crypto.”

Blockchain data shows that crypto treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies recently transferred around 9,600 ETH to wallets linked to Coinbase’s institutional platform Coinbase Prime.

Bitmine transfers 9,600 ETH to Coinbase Prime

According to on-chain intelligence platform Arkham, the transactions moved roughly 9,600 Ethereum (ETH), worth about $19–20 million at current prices, from Bitmine-controlled wallets to Coinbase Prime addresses.

Such transfers are commonly associated with institutional custody management, liquidity provisioning, or over-the-counter trading activity. The first transfer sent 5,300 ETH worth $10.75 million followed by a second batch of 4,308 ETH worth $8.74 million.

Despite the movement, Arkham data indicates that Bitmine continues to control more than 1 million ETH across tracked wallets, while a large portion of its holdings, around 3.04 million ETH, are staked.

Large transfers to Coinbase Prime are often linked to institutional custody management, over-the-counter (OTC) trading, or liquidity provisioning, rather than immediate spot market selling.

The company has emerged as one of the most aggressive corporate accumulators of Ethereum. Its strategy mirrors the corporate Bitcoin treasury model popularized by companies like MicroStrategy, but with a focus on Ethereum as the primary reserve asset.

Bitmine has dramatically expanded its ETH holdings in recent months as part of a large-scale buying spree. The company now holds over 4.5 million ETH tokens worth more than $9 billion, making it one of the largest institutional holders of the asset.

The firm has repeatedly added tens of thousands of ETH during market pullbacks, including purchases of more than 50,000 ETH in a single week, signaling strong long-term conviction in the network’s growth and institutional adoption.

This aggressive accumulation has drawn investor attention, particularly as Bitmine positions itself as a publicly traded vehicle for exposure to Ethereum. The company’s stock, traded under the ticker BMNR, has also shown signs of recovery alongside renewed buying activity and broader crypto market stabilization.

While the latest transfer represents only a small portion of its total reserves, it highlights the scale of Bitmine’s treasury operations and the growing role of large corporate entities in Ethereum markets.

Key Highlights

• PI experienced a ~7% price increase on March 10, while trading volume exploded over 65% to reach $39.7 million
• Crypto analyst Dr. Altcoin forecasts PI reaching $0.50 within the week, citing Pi Day on March 14 as a major catalyst
• Scheduled network enhancements are set for completion by March 12, bringing anticipated DeFi capabilities
• Should Kraken announce a listing, the analyst suggests PI could surge to $0.75
• The token has gained approximately 70% from its record low and successfully breached critical resistance zones

The PI token from Pi Network recorded approximately 3% gains on March 9, bouncing back from a 5% decline the previous day. Throughout the last week, the cryptocurrency advanced from $0.166 to approximately $0.221, delivering stronger performance than both Bitcoin and Ethereum during this timeframe.

Trading activity has experienced a dramatic uptick. A month ago, daily volume barely reached $10 million. Current data from CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap shows it has rocketed past $400 million.

Cryptocurrency analyst Dr. Altcoin shared on X that PI may achieve the $0.50 milestone within the coming days. This represents approximately 130% appreciation from present values and would mark the token’s peak price point since July 2025.

His analysis identifies four key catalysts: the March 14 Pi Day celebration, escalating trading volumes, sustained price momentum, and speculation around a Kraken exchange integration.

Pi Day Celebration and Technical Enhancements

March 14 represents Pi Day, a significant annual milestone within the Pi Network ecosystem. Historically, the development team has leveraged this date to reveal substantial announcements and strategic roadmap developments.

Planned network improvements are targeted for completion by March 12. Fresh DeFi infrastructure, potentially featuring a PiDEX or automated market maker system, is anticipated to go live during this window.

The Pi Network development team utilized the first mainnet anniversary celebration in February to communicate strategic objectives encompassing artificial intelligence integration, accelerated KYC verification processes, and plans for a KYC-as-a-Service offering.

Chart Analysis and Price Targets

From a technical perspective, PI has climbed above its 100-day Exponential Moving Average. The Supertrend technical indicator has switched from bearish red to bullish green for the first time in several months.

The cryptocurrency successfully penetrated the $0.2146 barrier, which represented its January peak. The Percentage Price Oscillator has moved into positive territory and displays upward momentum.

Critical support exists within the $0.20 to $0.204 range. Maintaining prices above this area preserves the bullish technical structure. Falling beneath $0.20 could trigger a pullback toward $0.186.

Immediate resistance zones appear at $0.237, followed by $0.29. Clearing these barriers would bring the $0.50 projection into realistic territory.

Dr. Altcoin further noted that an official Kraken listing confirmation coinciding with Pi Day celebrations might propel PI toward the $0.75 level.

PI secured a position among the most-tracked cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap on March 10, indicating heightened retail investor attention building ahead of the upcoming event.

The countdown stands at five days until March 14 arrives.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds posted net inflows on Monday, snapping a two-session stretch of outflows as Bitcoin rose toward $70,000 and investor demand returned to the largest cryptocurrency.

Spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs recorded $167 million of inflows on Monday, following around $577 million in outflows on Thursday and Friday, according to SoSoValue data.

Demand was weaker across other crypto-linked ETFs. Altcoin funds experienced significant selling pressure, with outflows persisting across Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) ETFs even as the underlying tokens rose 3-5% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

The gains followed US President Donald Trump telling reporters on Monday that the war with Iran could be coming to an end, easing geopolitical fears and pushing oil prices lower.

Ether, XRP and Solana now on a three-day outflow streak

Ether, XRP and Solana ETFs saw outflows totaling $51 million, $18 million and $2.5 million, respectively, on Monday, according to SoSoValue. This marked a three-day outflow streak, with Ether seeing the largest cumulative losses at $225 million.

While ETH and SOL selling have been subsiding over the past three trading sessions, XRP outflows increased, totaling around $41 million since Thursday. Solana’s outflows amounted to roughly $16 million over the same period.

Related: Crypto funds gain $619M as markets hold up despite oil and war fears

The sideways trading in crypto ETFs came as analysts warned that it’s still early to declare a structural bottom in Bitcoin, which traded at $70,015 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko.

CryptoQuant’s analyst IT cited the Bitcoin long-term holder to short-term holder spent output profit ratio, which hit 0.89, showing short-term holders selling at a loss.

The data suggests market stress is building, but has not yet reached capitulation levels, meaning a clearer bottom may still be ahead.

Magazine: The debate over Bitcoin’s four-year cycle is over: Benjamin Cowen