President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States and allied nations 
are preparing to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz to keep the world’s 
most critical oil chokepoint open as the Iran conflict threatens roughly 20% 
of global petroleum flows. Strait of Hormuz Flashpoint: Trump Calls for 
Warships as Iran Targets Shipping Trump’s […]

Oil Markets Brace as Trump Calls Allied Navies to Defend Hormuz Passage

Crypto pundit Crypto Bully has shared his base case for Bitcoin and what to 
expect before the flagship crypto rallies above $100,000. This comes as BTC 
continues to struggle to hold above the $70,000 resistance amid escalating 
tensions in the Middle East. Analyst Shares Base Case For Bitcoin In an X 
post, Crypto Bully stated that the path and exact levels of Bitcoin are not 
important in the long run, aside from immediate support and resistance levels. 
The analyst shared key points, including the observation that downside retests 
have not worked for a while. He pointed to the $85,000 level, which he noted 
is the logical lower high from the previous value generated before a further 
collapse due to extensive selling. Related Reading: The Bitcoin Game Plan That 
Shows How To Navigate BTC Below $100,000 However, the analyst suggested that 
the downtrend is not over, noting that bear market bottoms take months, not 
weeks. His accompanying chart showed that Bitcoin could still drop to $50,000. 
In the short term, he predicted that the flagship crypto could drop to 
$65,000. As for the bullish outlook for BTC, Crypto Bully stated that a break 
above the current level near $72,000 could easily spark a rally towards 
$85,000. He explained that a Bitcoin rally to $85,000 is possible, given the 
strength the flagship crypto has shown amid the ongoing geopolitical turmoil. 
The analyst added that the aggressive inflows into the BTC ETFs have not 
disappeared during this period. SoSoValue data shows that the Bitcoin ETFs 
recorded a net inflow of $767 million this week. Crypto Bull said the best DCA 
strategy is to buy Bitcoin whenever it drops from $65,000 down to $50,000. He 
revealed that his current spot buying average is around $67,000. BTC Is Not 
Yet At A Bottom A CryptoQuant analysis noted that the Bitcoin bottom is “not 
quite” in. The analysis revealed that, despite BTC’s resilience amid recent 
geopolitical tensions, on-chain data indicate the leading crypto is in a 
critical “stress test” phase. It added that the bottoming process could take a 
long while, with institutions being the primary investors in this cycle. 
Related Reading: Has Bitcoin Price Bottomed Yet? Analyst Says We’re Not There 
Yet The analysis also highlighted two paths to a Bottom for Bitcoin. The first 
path is a potential Black Swan that could trigger a crash, forcing 
liquidations and wiping out high-cost “new money.” CryptoQuant noted that this 
is the fastest route to a solid floor, which could form between one and two 
months. The second path is longer and involves a scenario in which Bitcoin 
trades sideways between $60,000 and $80,000 for a year, allowing new money to 
grow into long-term holder status. Under this path, the bear market could 
extend to late 2026 or early 2027. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price 
is trading at around $71,000, down in the last 24 hours, according to data 
from CoinMarketCap. Featured image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com

Bitcoin’s Base Case: What To Expect Before The Run-Up Above $100,000

Over the past seven days, the stablecoin economy padded its coffers with 
another $2.983 billion, gliding past the $315 billion threshold this week. 
Among the ten largest fiat-pegged tokens by market capitalization, Circle’s 
Treasury-fund stablecoin USYC posted the biggest weekly gain, climbing 13.9% 
over the same stretch. Top 10 Stablecoins Control 94% of a $315B […]

Stablecoin Economy Crosses $315B as Circle’s USYC Leads Weekly Gains

Wall Street legend Stanley Druckenmiller just tossed a polite grenade into the 
global payments debate, predicting that within 10 to 15 years the machinery 
moving money around the planet won’t rely on SWIFT wires or card networks—but 
on blockchain-powered stablecoins that settle transactions faster, cheaper, 
and without bankers checking the clock. Faster, Cheaper Payments? 
Druckenmiller […]

Wall Street Titan Druckenmiller Predicts Stablecoins Will Power the Future of Global Payments

The past week recorded a significant change in the Bitcoin price action, where 
there was a momentum-driven rally to the upside of the charts. As of Tuesday, 
March 10, this move had boosted the flagship cryptocurrency tp reclaim its 
previous psychological $70,000 level. Interestingly, the Bitcoin price would 
go on to reach about $74,000 on Friday. While this might be good for Bitcoin, 
if at all in the short term, data from a recent on-chain evaluation has been 
published, leading to the suspicious conclusion that Bitcoin&#8217;s market 
participants are currently not as enthusiastic as they should be. Related 
Reading: Bitcoin Price From $70,000 To $110,000 In 2 Months? Analyst Reveals 
How Negative Funding Rates On Binance Reveal Increasing Short Positioning In 
an X post on March 13, pseudonymous on-chain analyst Darkfost reveals that 
there is a widespread wave of cautious pessimism in the Bitcoin market, 
despite the most recent bullish performance. As noted by the crypto expert, 
every rebound of the BTC price seen in March seems merely to be opportunities 
for short positioning, rather than clear recovery movements. For this reason, 
there has been a progressive display of negative funding rates on the Binance 
exchange for close to a week, as shown by the Bitcoin: Funding Rates &#8211; Binance 
metric. Darkfost points out that this is reflected in the extreme readings 
obtained on the Funding Rates metric, with funding rates slipping under -0.006 
both on the 10th and 11th of March. According to the analyst, this 
significantly negative level indicates that most of the positions currently 
open on Binance are biased towards shorts, as high skepticism remains among 
investors on the tenability of Bitcoin’s recovery taking place in the near- 
term. Related Reading: Bitcoin Eyes Gold’s Crown As Institutional Money 
Quietly Shifts Extreme Bearish Sentiment Could Trigger Counterintuitive 
Bullish Move Interestingly, Darkfost references historical data to explain 
that the Bitcoin market could still see a sharp inflow of bullish momentum. 
This is because, when most traders open clusters of short positions, they open 
the market to an increasing possibility of a short squeeze. According to 
history, Darkfost explains that “when funding rates reach extreme levels or 
when a strong market consensus forms, it is often too late to position in that 
direction.” Hence, in the scenario where the Bitcoin price can sustain its 
recent upside movement, a short squeeze would likely occur. As a result, all 
of the sell-side liquidity currently sitting above Bitcoin&#8217;s market price 
would become converted to fuel for the upside move, and this in turn could 
cause the liquidation of even more short positions, further reinforcing the 
bullish move. Barring a definite move occurring, market participants are 
therefore advised to retain a more cautious stance in their dealings. As of 
press time, the Bitcoin price trades at $70,852 following a 1.09% loss over 
the past 24-hours. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview.com

Cryptocurrency price in LKR