Crypto World
Sanae Token Hits $27M Before Japan PM Denies Links
A cryptocurrency using the name of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi briefly surged to a market value of about $27.7 million before sliding sharply after Takaichi publicly denied any connection to the token.
In a statement posted on X, Takaichi said she had no knowledge of the “Sanae Token,” adding that neither she nor her office had granted any approval related to it. She said the clarification was issued to prevent public misunderstanding.
“Due to the name, it seems there are various misunderstandings, but regarding this token, I have absolutely no knowledge of it, nor has my office been informed about what this token entails,” she wrote.
According to crypto data tracker Gmgn, the Solana-based crypto token briefly reached a market capitalization of $27.7 million on Feb. 25. Following Takaichi’s denial, its price and market cap declined sharply. At the time of writing, the token’s market capitalization stood at about $7 million.
FSA considers investigating the token
Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) is reportedly considering investigating parties involved in the token’s issuance.
According to Kyodo News on Tuesday, the regulator is weighing a probe into related operators to confirm the relevant facts. The FSA has not publicly announced a formal investigation.
Related: Bank of Japan testing blockchain settlement for bank deposits in new sandbox
The report said the company involved may lack the registration required to issue crypto assets in Japan.
Under Japan’s Payment Services Act, crypto asset exchange service providers must register with the FSA. Operating without proper registration can draw regulatory scrutiny, particularly where consumer protection concerns arise.
Political-name tokens draw scrutiny globally
Tokens referencing public figures have surfaced in multiple jurisdictions during recent speculative market cycles.
In the US, tokens referencing President Donald Trump have periodically gained traction before the president announced an official token.
On Jan. 17, 2025, Trump’s team announced the launch of an official Trump memecoin. The token briefly rose to about $73 before declining sharply. At the time of writing, it trades around $3.40, roughly 95% below its peak.
In Argentina, the Solana-based Libra token sparked an international scandal in February 2025 after President Javier Milei promoted it on X shortly after launch.
On Feb. 18, 2025, the token surged above $4.50 within minutes before crashing below $0.20 within hours, prompting allegations of a pump-and-dump scheme.
Magazine: Telegram avoids Philippines ban, yen carry trade going onchain: Asia Express
The cryptocurrency market has rebounded over the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and many other leading digital assets posting slight increases.
For its part, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) outperformed every competitor in the top 100 club, registering an impressive 12% pump.
What Fueled the Rally and What’s Next?
NEAR has been at the forefront of gains lately, with its valuation rising to a monthly peak of around $1.45 just several hours ago. Currently, it trades at around $1.35 (per CoinGecko’s data), representing a roughly 40% jump on a weekly scale. Its market capitalization has surpassed $1.7 billion, making it the 44th-largest cryptocurrency and flipping popular altcoins like Bittensor (TAO), Pi Network (PI), and others.
The main catalyst for the rally seems to be the latest technical upgrade announced by NEAR Protocol’s team. The project’s official X account revealed that Confidential Intents is live, a feature that lets users make private DeFi transactions without exposing sensitive details.
“DeFi users, developers, and institutions now unlock a wide range of privacy-first use cases without forgoing discretion,” the disclosure reads.
X user Emperor Osmo argued that NEAR is “fundamentally undervalued,” adding that Intents are generating widespread adoption.
“Meanwhile, they continue to increase the rate of adoption under which AI enables privacy-first trading (Iron Claw). Agentic payments are scaling, and Near is positioned to capture a lot of that flow,” they stated.
Michael van de Poppe also spoke highly of NEAR, describing it as “simply the best AI protocol in the ecosystem.” He wondered why investors wouldn’t want to add it to their portfolios, adding that from a technical standpoint, “it’s the best representation of the current status of altcoins.”
Altcoin Sherpa believes NEAR “is insanely strong,” while Sjuul | AltCryptoGems thinks the asset is trying to print “a cup and handle” formation on its price chart. This pattern consists of a rounded bottom (cup) and a small pullback on the right side (handle), and together they usually signal a bullish setup.
Not so Quick
Despite the evident resurgence, NEAR remains far below its all-time high of around $20 witnessed at the start of 2022. Meanwhile, certain technical indicators suggest a correction could be on the way.
The asset’s Relative Strength Index (RSI), which measures the speed and magnitude of recent price changes, has briefly climbed past 70. This means that NEAR has entered overbought territory and could be on the verge of a move south. Conversely, ratios below 30 are considered buying opportunities.
The post NEAR Protocol (NEAR) Soars by Double Digits: Breakout Confirmed or Bull Trap? appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Iranian crypto exchange outflows spiked 700% to nearly $3 million immediately following coordinated US and Israeli military strikes, according to a blog post by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
The surge was detected on Iran’s largest exchange, Nobitex, suggesting a rapid flight to safety as users rushed to move assets off-platform and into overseas exchanges, in capital flight maneuvers that could be bypassing traditional banking systems.
This behavior signals acute distress in the local market, with capital potentially bypassing the domestic banking system entirely.
With the Iranian regime’s internet restrictions collapsing trading volumes by 80%, the value leaving exchanges indicates Iranian crypto speculation is over for now.
- Nobitex outflows surged 700% immediately after military strikes began.
- USDT trading pairs were suspended by central bank order, freezing liquidity.
- On-chain data shows 5.9% of volume is now linked to illicit or sanctioned activity.
Iranian Exchange Outflow Deep Dive: 700% Spike Defies Volume Collapse
Data from Elliptic reveals that net outflows on Nobitex, the country’s largest exchange, jumped 700% in the 48 hours following the strikes.
This massive exit occurred despite a wider collapse in market activity. Transaction volumes across Iranian platforms fell by roughly 80% between Feb. 27 and March 1 due to severe internet restrictions.
Bitcoin rebounded after the Iran strike shock, erasing losses quickly on global markets, but local Iranian traders did not wait for price discovery. They moved immediately to secure assets.
TRM Labs attributes the volume drop to “mechanical access limitations” rather than a collapse of market infrastructure. However, the simultaneous spike in withdrawals suggests that those who could access the network prioritized capital extraction over trading.
If these outflows sustain at current levels, domestic exchanges face a liquidity crisis. Users are effectively draining the order books, moving capital flow from centralized venues to decentralized wallets that are harder for local authorities to seize and harder for global regulators to track.
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USDT Sanctions Risk and Illicit Volume Signal: Is Tether the Next Target?
The primary bridge for this capital flight is Tether (USDT). Recognizing this, Iran’s central bank directed major platforms, including Nobitex and Wallex, to temporarily suspend trading of the USDT/toman pair. This move effectively severed the main link between the domestic fiat currency and the global crypto economy.
Given its deep liquidity and dollar peg, USDT is the preferred vehicle for sanctions evasion and illicit flows
This concentration of risk draws a target on Iran’s crypto infrastructure. Global regulators, particularly OFAC, are increasingly sophisticated at mapping on-chain relationships between exchanges and sanctioned entities. The suspension of USDT pairs suggests Tehran is aware of the vulnerability.
If sanctions enforcement tightens on Tether rails, Iranian exchanges could be cut off from global liquidity pools entirely. This would force flows into less transparent, peer-to-peer shadow banking networks, complicating compliance for every major exchange worldwide.
Macro Implication: Failure of Control vs. Risk of Isolation
The situation presents a binary outcome for the region’s crypto market. If tensions escalate, the oil price impact from the Iran war could further devalue the rial, driving a second, more desperate wave of capital flight into crypto assets. This would likely trigger aggressive secondary sanctions from the U.S. targeting any protocol or platform facilitating these flows.
On the other hand, if internet restrictions ease and the central bank restores USDT pairings, the market may return to the “risk containment mode” observed by TRM Labs.
However, the 700% outflow spike has already signaled that confidence in domestic platforms is fragile.
The implications for global traders are clear: liquidity in the region is becoming increasingly toxic, and compliance firewalls need to be higher than ever.
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The post Iranian Exchange Outflows Jump 700% as USDT Sanctions Alert Intensifies appeared first on Cryptonews.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Crypto perpetual futures have largely developed offshore because of the U.S. reluctance to pursue industry regulations, said U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Mike Selig, and his agency will soon provide guidance on how that business should be handled.
Such derivatives contracts, which don’t expire and are often associated with leverage, have been an area of high interest to the industry. U.S. exchange Kraken, for instance, recently announced a move into perpetual futures for tokenized stocks for non-U.S. users.
Selig’s agency is “working towards getting professional futures, true professional futures here in the U.S. within the next month or so,” he said at a Milken Institute event in Washington on Tuesday. “We expect to announce that very soon.”
“The prior administration drove a lot of these firms and the liquidity offshore,” he noted.
That was a theme of his remarks and those from his U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission counterpart, Chairman Paul Atkins. As they’ve often done lately to underline their shared mission on digital assets, which they call Project Crypto, the two appeared together on stage and highlighted their unified approach.
One of the things the two are pursuing are “innovation exceptions” to allow for crypto experimentation without fear of regulatory crackdown. Selig said they’ll also soon define how decentralized finance (DeFi) developers are approached after years of prosecution and regulatory uncertainty.
Selig, who can act on his own because he’s currently the only member on the CFTC’s five-member commission, also said prediction markets — an overlapping cousin of the crypto sector — will get “guidance in the very near future” from the regulator. “We’re going to be setting very clear standards.” And he said the agency is also working on a more fulsome rulemaking process to soon give that position more permanent footing than guidance, which is procedurally easy to eliminate and rewrite.
Oversight of the events-contracts firms, including such leaders as Polymarket and Kalshi, is under dispute, with state gambling regulators pressing their own authorities over the firm’s sports contracts. Selig stepped forward to combat that in courts, arguing the CFTC’s position as a lead regulator of such firms’ activities.
“They can exist in parallel,” he said Tuesday of the two regulatory regimes.
Atkins, though, delved into one of the drawbacks of the regulators’ current work: legal standing. Despite Atkins’ earlier confidence that the SEC can forge ahead without new laws directing its crypto work, he said on Tuesday, “We really do need statutory certainty.”
“We need the sense of Congress,” he said.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision two years ago removed a significant degree of authority that federal regulators enjoyed in court disputes over their actions, so agencies going it alone on policy guidance doesn’t carry the weight it once did. Agencies such as the SEC and CFTC can more easily be challenged, and their positions also easily reversed by future officials arriving at the commissions.
The U.S. Senate is still working on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that’s meant to establish a regulatory system for the U.S crypto markets. That legislative effort remains jammed up in negotiations involving the industry, bankers, lawmakers from both parties and the White House. Its chances for passage in 2026 grow more difficult with each day, as midterm elections approach and available Senate floor time dwindles.
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Bitcoin miners are increasingly moving away from holding bitcoin on their balance sheets by selling more BTC to fund new identities as players in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.
What started as holding onto bitcoin at all costs, or HODLing, is becoming a thing of the past for most publicly listed miners as they move into the capital-intensive but more attractive business of AI infrastructure. With tougher competition, higher energy costs and compressed prices, the profit margin for mining bitcoin, which during the 2021 bull run reached as high as 90%, has vanished, leaving miners who relied solely on that business struggling. Given that miners already have data centers ready to host AI computing machines, most have shifted their business away from bitcoin to become “AI infrastructure” companies.
This momentum is gaining more traction as prices sit roughly at $66,000, down nearly 50% from October’s all-time high. Many of the top 10 public miners are selling or openly discussing sales to fund these AI expansions.
Here are some miners that are either moving away from the bitcoin business by selling more BTC or have completely shifted into AI:
IREN (IREN) has never taken an ideological stance on holding bitcoin, focusing instead on infrastructure scale and operational execution as it leans into high-performance computing. The company currently holds 0 BTC, underscoring its lack of a treasury-driven strategy.
TeraWulf (WULF) has maintained a pragmatic posture, avoiding a hardline treasury approach while preserving balance sheet flexibility for AI aligned growth. It holds 15 BTC, in line with its historical peak, reflecting minimal emphasis on accumulation.
Cipher Digital (CIFR), formerly Cipher Mining, has made its repositioning explicit, calling 2025 a transformative year as it pivots toward HPC infrastructure. The company divested its 49% stake in three mining joint ventures for roughly $40 million in stock. Cipher now holds 1,500 BTC, down from an all-time high of 2,284 BTC, highlighting a gradual reduction alongside its structural shift.
Riot Platforms (RIOT) has treated bitcoin as a funding tool rather than a passive reserve, selling all monthly production and liquidating balance sheet holdings, including nearly 1,100 BTC to finance the Rockdale acquisition. Riot sold $200 million worth of bitcoin in the final two months of 2025. It currently holds 18,005 BTC versus peak holdings of 19,368 coins.
Hut 8 (HUT) said bitcoin is no longer a long-term strategic focus in its fourth-quarter earnings call, with exposure set to decline over time in favour of its equity stake in American Bitcoin (ABTC), which holds 6,039 BTC. Hut 8’s own balance stands at 13,696 BTC, unchanged from its peak.
Core Scientific (CORZ) sold $175 million of bitcoin as its AI pivot accelerated. After holding 2,537 BTC at year’s end 2025, its balance has dropped to around 630 BTC, well below its 9,618 BTC high watermark.
MARA Holdings (MARA) has softened its strict HODL identity, selling newly mined bitcoin and signaling it may buy or sell opportunistically, with about 28% of holdings loaned or pledged. It still holds 53,822 BTC, matching its all-time high, despite the more flexible policy.
CleanSpark (CLSK) treats its more than 13,000 BTC as productive capital, monetizing output, layering covered calls, and exploring bitcoin-backed credit lines as non-dilutive financing. Its current 13,513 BTC balance is in line with its historical peak.
Bitdeer Technologies (BTDR) reduced holdings to zero to fund AI data center expansion. That marks a massive drop from its prior peak of 2,470 BTC.
Bitfarms (BITF) has been blunt about its repositioning, with CEO Ben Gagnon stating, “We are no longer a Bitcoin company.” The miner now holds 1,827 BTC, down from a peak of 3,301 BTC, as it doubles down on AI infrastructure.
A federal court in the United States has dismissed a class action lawsuit accusing Uniswap Labs of facilitating the trading of scam tokens on its decentralized protocol. The court dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims with prejudice after four years of trial.
According to a filing with the U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed the case for several reasons, including the plaintiffs’ failure to allege the defendants’ knowledge of the fraud. Among other reasons, the judge also ruled that the plaintiffs failed to allege that Uniswap Labs and its founder, Hayden Adams, aided, abetted, and substantially assisted the fraud.
Uniswap Wins Scam Token Class Suit
While filing the initial complaint and the first amended complaint (FAC) in April and September 2022, respectively, the plaintiffs alleged 14 claims against Uniswap, Adams, and other defendants. The complainants argued that the defendants were liable for scam tokens issued and traded on Uniswap.
The argument stemmed from the fact that the identities of the scam token issuers were unknown. They claimed that Uniswap served as a marketplace for the tokens in exchange for transaction fees. The plaintiffs also insisted that the defendants had, in effect, sold the tokens as unregistered broker-dealers by drafting smart contracts that enabled ownership of the protocol’s native asset, UNI.
By August 2023, the court dismissed the FAC for failure to state a claim under federal securities laws. Judge Failla insisted that the accusers’ attempts to hold defendants liable for the losses from the scams were unconvincing. Although the complainants appealed the dismissal, the Second Circuit court affirmed the judge’s decision in part in February 2025. The appeal resulted in the plaintiffs again being allowed to amend their complaint.
No Plausible Claims
In the second amended complaint (SAC) filed in May 2025, the accusers focused on state-law violations. By this time, the judge had dismissed all defendants except Uniswap and Adams. By July, the defendants had filed a motion to dismiss under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
In dismissing the SAC, Judge Failla insisted that the plaintiffs still failed to allege plausible claims against Uniswap, despite three attempts.
“Even if Plaintiffs had adequately alleged Defendants’ actual knowledge, their claim would still fail because they have not alleged that Defendants provided substantial assistance to the issuers’ fraud,” the judge stated.
Meanwhile, Adams commented on the dismissal, calling it a “good, sensible outcome.”
The post U.S. Court Dismisses Years-Long Scam Token Lawsuit Against Uniswap Labs appeared first on CryptoPotato.
Yesterday’s modest rally in stocks in response to a new Middle East war breaking out over the weekend — for the moment — appears to have been a headfake.
In mid-morning U.S. hours, the Nasdaq is at session lows, down 2.5%. The S&P 500 is lower by 2.3%. European markets are being hit even harder, led by a 5.2% plunge in Italy’s IBEX 35 and a 4.1% fall in Germany’s DAX.
Having run up to historic highs in the weeks leading up to the war, precious metals are tumbling as well. Gold is lower by 4.3%, silver by 7.5% and platinum by 11.3%. WTI crude oil continues to surge, up another 8% to $77 per barrel.
Having declined relentlessly for about the last five months, crypto markets are, however, showing a tiny bit of relative strength. Trading at $68,000, bitcoin is down 1% over the past 24 hours, but higher by more than 2% from its worst levels of the day.
Also down over the past day, but nicely higher from the session’s worst levels are ether (ETH), solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP).
There’s no such bounce yet in crypto-related stocks, which remain under heavy selling pressure on Tuesday.
Shares of trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) dropped 7%, while Coinbase (COIN) fell 5%. Strategy (MSTR) and crypto platform Bullish (BLSH) each declined 4%. Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) held up better but still slipped about 1%.
“Historically, bitcoin, as the only liquid asset that also trades on weekends, has absorbed shocks during periods of forced risk reduction,” said James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares. “This time, the price development was constructive, bitcoin gained despite the increasing instability … This divergence is significant. The absence of significant liquidations despite rising yields and geopolitical tensions suggests that positioning is adjusted compared to previous episodes.”
John Williams, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, speaks during an Economic Club of New York (ECNY) event in New York, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025.
David Dee Delgado | Bloomberg | Getty Images
American consumers and businesses are taking most of the hit from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said Tuesday in remarks that counter White House claims.
“The tariffs have overwhelmingly been borne domestically — a New York Fed analysis estimates that most of the burden has fallen on U.S. firms and consumers.,” Williams said in remarks for a conference in Washington, D.C. “In addition, the tariffs have already meaningfully increased U.S. prices of imported goods, and the full effects have likely not yet been felt.”
The study Williams cited has generated a fair amount of controversy over the past few weeks.
In a white paper published on the New York Fed’s website, a team of researchers found that as much as 90% of the added cost from tariffs has been passed on to domestic producers and consumers. Trump and other White House officials had insisted that exporters would absorb the costs rather than raise prices.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett flamed the controversy during a CNBC appearance in which he suggested that the researchers should be “disciplined” for what he termed was “the worst paper I’ve ever seen in the history of the Federal Reserve system.” Hassett later stepped back the criticism.
Addressing the issue for the first time publicly, Williams said that not only were the tariffs being felt at home, but they also were keeping the Fed from reaching its 2% inflation goal.
“My current estimate is that, to date, the increase in tariffs has contributed around one half to three quarters of a percentage point to the current inflation rate of about 3 percent,” he said. “The FOMC defines price stability as 2 percent inflation over the longer run. Owing to the effects of tariffs, progress toward that goal has temporarily stalled.”
On the bright side, Williams said he still expects the tariff impact on inflation to be temporary, and he sees the Fed hitting its target by 2027. He added that the U.S. economy “appears to be on a good footing.”
As for current policy, he said it is “well positioned” for the Fed to hit its dual mandate goal of steady prices and full employment. Should inflation progress lower after the tariff impact fades, “further reductions in the federal funds rate will eventually be warranted to prevent monetary policy from inadvertently becoming more restrictive.”
Markets expect the Fed to resume cutting later this year, possibly in July or September, according to current futures pricing. As New York Fed president, Williams carries extra influence on the Federal Open Market Committee, where he is a permanent voting member.
New paper flags risk to bank funding just as payments giants ramp up tokenized settlement.
Summary
- The ECB warns euro-denominated stablecoins could drain bank deposits and blunt monetary policy, citing risks to lenders’ ability to fund the real economy.
- Visa is expanding stablecoin-linked cards to 100+ countries via Bridge after volume “more than quadrupled” last year; SoFi and Mastercard launched SoFiUSD for settlement across Mastercard’s global network.
- BTC trades near $67k–$68k, ETH near $2k, SOL mid-$80s — markets treat the ECB paper as a medium-term structural risk, not an immediate price shock.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has fired a shot across the bow of the stablecoin industry, warning that widespread use of private tokens could undermine its grip on monetary policy and squeeze traditional lenders’ funding bases. In a new research paper, the ECB argues that if euro‑denominated stablecoins gain serious traction inside the bloc, they could “weaken the effectiveness of monetary policy” by siphoning deposits out of commercial banks and into tokenized rails that sit at the edge of the regulated system. The authors caution that such a shift could “hamper lenders’ ability to support the real economy,” especially in stress scenarios where deposit flight accelerates.
The warning lands just as major payment firms move to normalize stablecoin settlement. SoFi and Mastercard recently unveiled a partnership that will allow SoFiUSD, a fully reserved dollar stablecoin, to be used for settlement across Mastercard’s global network, spanning SoFi Bank and its Galileo platform. Visa, meanwhile, is expanding its collaboration with Bridge, aiming to bring stablecoin‑linked cards to more than 100 countries, after seeing volume on Bridge “more than quadruple” last year. Industry advocates frame these moves as proof that stablecoins are evolving into mainstream payment infrastructure rather than just trading collateral, with crypto.news already tracking how tokenized cash is bleeding into everything from remittances to Web3 gaming payouts.
Regulators see a different risk profile. A recent breakdown of U.S. policy debates around stablecoin “rewards” versus deposit‑like “yield” shows how central banks and lawmakers worry that pseudo‑savings products could replicate money‑market‑fund fragility inside crypto wrappers. The ECB paper effectively extends that concern to Europe, signalling that any large‑scale euro stablecoin usage will likely face tight MiCA‑era constraints on reserves, disclosure and access to the central bank backstop.
Crypto market macro outlook
Markets are taking it in stride for now. Bitcoin (BTC) trades around $67,000–$68,000 over the last 24 hours, Ethereum (ETH) sits near $2,000, and Solana (SOL) hovers in the mid‑$80s, as traders treat the ECB note as a medium‑term structural story rather than an immediate shock. Where the paper does bite, however, is narrative: stablecoins are no longer a side‑quest in crypto, but a core fault line between central banks, banks, and the platforms now wiring tokens into everyday payments.
TOPSHOT – A saleswoman adjusts gold jewellery for sale at a shop in Lianyungang, in China’s eastern Jiangsu province on December 24, 2025. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images) / China OUT
Str | Afp | Getty Images
This year’s hottest trades — gold, silver and South Korea — are down big amid fears the war in Iran could go on for longer than expected.
Here are the moves.
- Gold prices slide: Spot gold was last down more than 5% to $5,041.81 per ounce, with gold futures dropping 5% to $5,049. They’re still up more than 16% this year.
- Silver prices tumble: Futures tied to the commodity fell more than 8% to $81.23 per ounce. They remain higher by 15% year to date.
- South Korea down huge: The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) plunged 14%, though it remains higher by nearly 30% year to date.
Each of these trades were huge momentum plays in 2026, catching a bid as investors nervous about their exposure to U.S. large-cap tech sought out asset classes that could better perform the market. After all, the S&P 500 shot up 64% on a cumulative basis over the last three years; it’s down 1% this year.
Gold, silver and South Korea each have their own appeal. Investors are optimistic that gold’s upward trajectory remains intact as central banks around the world diversify away from the U.S. dollar, with many confident bullion could soon top $6,000 an ounce. Silver is expected to benefit from tight supply-demand dynamics, and has big industrial use cases around AI.
EWY, 1-day
South Korea’s outperformance this year largely has to do with the worldwide demand for memory, which has especially lifted the shares of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix that account for a huge part of the country’s Kospi index. The two memory powerhouses are up more than 50% and 44% year to date, respectively.
Yet all three trades unwound alongside the broader market Tuesday as the prospect of a deepening conflict in Iran revived inflation fears, as oil prices spiked higher. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, topped $84 a barrel, while WTI crude jumped to above $77.
Even gold was caught up in the selling frenzy, odd for a safe haven asset usually turned to during times of crises. But investors appeared indiscriminate in dumping assets they fear may have gone too far, too fast.
Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin retests $70K but struggles to hold gains
- US PMI data sparks short-term crypto rebound
- ETF inflows support BTC amid global tensions
- On-chain data still signals bear market phase
- Analysts warn of potential bull trap scenario
Bitcoin retested $70,000 this week before pulling back to $68,306. The move followed stronger-than-expected US manufacturing data. However, on-chain indicators still point to a bear market backdrop.
BTC traded within a tight $64,000 to $70,000 range throughout the week. Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows and regulatory progress supported sentiment. Meanwhile, rising geopolitical tensions added uncertainty to global markets.
The US dollar index climbed to 98.72 amid inflation concerns. Escalating tensions between the United States and Iran pressured risk assets. As a result, traders assessed whether the rebound marks a bottom or a temporary rally.
Bitcoin Holds Range as Macro Data Drives Momentum
Bitcoin currently trades at $68,306 after briefly touching $70,000. The rally followed the latest US ISM Manufacturing PMI release. The index came in at 52.4 for February 2026, beating expectations of 51.8.
Although the reading slipped from January’s 52.6, it signaled continued expansion. New orders increased at a slower pace due to tariffs and elevated costs. Nevertheless, markets reacted positively to the stronger data.
Crypto-related stocks advanced sharply during the session. Strategy, Marathon Digital, Coinbase, and Robinhood gained between 5% and 7%. Circle jumped 15%, while Bitmine rose 7.48% to close at $20.40.
ETF inflows also strengthened short-term sentiment. Rising institutional participation supported spot demand for Bitcoin. However, derivatives data showed that futures activity remained subdued.
Trading volume stayed elevated as market participants awaited new economic reports. The ISM Services PMI and Nonfarm Payrolls data could influence rate expectations. Consequently, Bitcoin remains sensitive to macroeconomic signals.
Ethereum Follows Bitcoin Higher Amid Sector Rebound
Ethereum traded at $1,952, posting moderate gains during the broader rally. The asset moved in line with Bitcoin after the PMI data release. Improved risk appetite lifted large-cap digital assets across the board.
Ethereum benefited from stronger spot market activity. Additionally, ETF-related flows supported sentiment around major cryptocurrencies. Yet, derivatives positioning reflected restrained leverage in the market.
On-chain activity showed signs of stabilization. Network usage and transaction metrics improved compared to prior weeks. Even so, broader cycle indicators still suggested structural weakness.
CryptoQuant’s Bull-Bear Market Cycle Indicator remained below zero. The reading also stayed under its 365-day moving average. This configuration historically aligns with bear market conditions.
Market analysts compared current conditions to early 2022. During that period, Bitcoin rallied sharply after geopolitical shocks. However, prices later resumed their broader correction.
Bitcoin’s retest of $70,000 reignited optimism across the sector. Yet, on-chain indicators and macro risks temper expectations. For now, the crypto market remains in a correction within a fragile environment.
Market pumped yesterday and majority of traders started calling 72k and 80k for $BTC
While OI (Open Interest) was expanding aggressively there was heavy absorption at the highs $BTC swept pwH liquidity…expecting a sweep of this level again for round 2 short
Also, we had large… pic.twitter.com/aDtaeZzI6h— Simbaland (@PipsAlpha) March 3, 2026
Tomi’s Daily BTC Thread:
$BTC consolidating ~$68.5k–$69k after yesterday’s +5–6% bounce from $65k lows. Hit $70k+ resistance but rejected hard – shorts squeezed, but macro caution lingers. Breakout or more chop? Dive in 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/83fJbWkNhz— Tomi Point (@tomipoint) March 3, 2026
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