Bitcoin (BTC) has settled back into the familiar consolidation band between 
roughly $65,000 and $74,000 after a short-lived attempt to clear higher 
resistance walls at around $76,000 earlier in the week failed. Trading around 
$69,000 at the time of writing, on-chain analytics from Glassnode and market 
commentary from analysts suggest the market is likely to remain in an 
accumulation phase through the end of March, with several indicators pointing 
to lower near-term volatility but heightened defensive positioning. Rising 
Demand For Downside Protection Glassnode’s posts on X (formerly Twitter) 
highlight record-high positioning in derivatives markets: options open 
interest reached a new all-time high ahead of the current quarter’s expiry. 
That elevated positioning may still reflect short-term hedging rather than 
directional conviction, and the firm noted that the picture of refreshed 
positioning and sentiment should become clearer after the March 27 expiry. 
Volatility metrics are showing signs of normalization. At-the-money implied 
volatility (1‑week ATM IV) has cooled from about 70% to 53%, and longer-dated 
maturities have fallen roughly 10 vols from recent highs. This drop in implied 
volatility indicates traders are expecting less dramatic price swings in the 
immediate term. Related Reading: AI Model Ranks Bitcoin, XRP, And ETH For 
2026: Expected Returns And Price Targets Despite falling IV, skew measures 
have widened back toward the downside. After the failed breakout to $75,000, 
demand for downside protection reemerged, and 25‑delta skew moved into the 
15–20% range. The renewed premium for put options reflects caution among 
participants who are seeking protection against a reversal. That caution shows 
up in flow dynamics. Glassnode reported that the put/call ratio flagged 
limited momentum to sustain a push above $75,000. On the way up, flows were 
dominated by put buying above $72,000—a classic sign that the market was 
fading the breakout—while the pullback was accompanied by a brief surge in 
call purchases. In the most recent 24‑hour tape, put buys led the way with a 
30.7% share of activity, and calls lagged at roughly 10%, underscoring a 
defensive tilt after the rejection at $75,000. Consolidation Rather Than 
Immediate Breakout Gamma positioning has also been adjusted. For the Q1 
expiry, short gamma exposure around the 75,000 strike contracted from $3.9 
billion to $2.4 billion in under two days, a $1.5 billion unwind as prices 
moved away from that level. Lower gamma exposure reduces the need for dealers 
to dynamically hedge, which in turn can dampen directional flows and help 
explain part of the pullback. Relatedly, the volatility risk premium (VRP) has 
reset. Over the past week, short-gamma positions had been profitable because 
implied volatility exceeded realized volatility, but realized volatility 
increased during the selloff, compressing the VRP. With VRP near equilibrium, 
option prices now look more fairly valued—another indicator that the market 
may be settling into a consolidation range rather than preparing for an 
immediate breakout. Bitcoin Nears Key Multi‑Year Support When it comes to full 
price analysis, market expert Ali Martinez recently flagged a longer-term 
technical backdrop that may be constructive. He noted Bitcoin is approaching a 
multi-year trendline that has supported major advances in previous cycles. 
Related Reading: BTQ Unveils First Bitcoin Upgrade Testnet Designed To Thwart 
Quantum Attacks The expert asserted that every touch of this foundational 
support over the past nine years has preceded significant rallies: the 2017 
parabolic run, the 2020 rebound from the COVID crash, and the 2022 recovery 
after the FTX collapse. That trendline now lives between roughly $60,000 and 
$56,000; if it holds, Martinez believes the area could become more than just a 
bounce zone and serve as a potential launchpad for the next sustained bull 
phase. Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin Holds At $69,000— Glassnode Data Shows What To Expect Through Late March

Unlike Bitwise, Grayscale doesn’t plan to incorporate staking for its 
Hyperliquid ETF but hasn’t ruled out integrating it in the future.

Grayscale files S-1 for Hyperliquid ETF, joining Bitwise, 21Shares

Digital asset adoption has become an immediate priority, with 72% of global 
finance leaders warning that action is needed now to stay competitive as 
stablecoins, custody, and tokenization rapidly move into core financial 
operations. Digital Asset Adoption Surges Across Global Finance Sector 
Mounting competitive pressure is pushing financial institutions toward digital 
asset adoption. Ripple published […]

Ripple Survey Shows 72% of Finance Leaders See Digital Asset Revolution Happening Now

Whale wallets quietly shifted to buying mode over the past two weeks — even as 
the broader crypto market absorbed one of its worst single-day liquidation 
events in recent memory. Related Reading: Bitcoin Stalls Near $75K As Traders 
Move Coins To Exchanges A Massive Options Expiry Freezes The Price Friday&#8217;s 
settlement of Deribit&#8217;s March options contracts has effectively put Bitcoin on 
hold. The expiry involves 24,838 contracts with a combined notional value of 
$1.72 billion, and BTC has landed squarely at the $70,000 strike — the exact 
level known as &#8220;max pain,&#8221; where the greatest number of options contracts 
expire worthless. That pins price in a tight band. Traders expect it to hold 
between $69,000 and $71,000 until contracts settle later today. Max pain is 
not a coincidence. It describes the point where option sellers — typically 
institutional market makers — collect maximum losses from buyers. When open 
interest is concentrated enough, the market tends to drift toward that level 
as expiry approaches, and that appears to be exactly what happened this week. 
Bitcoin fell about 1.4% from midnight Thursday, landing at $70,000 by the time 
derivatives traders were watching closely. Longs Got Crushed While Shorts 
Walked Away The damage across the broader market was severe. Data shows 
141,810 traders were liquidated over a 24-hour stretch, with total losses 
reaching $541 million. Long positions — bets that prices would rise — 
accounted for $443 million of that, or roughly 80% of the total. Short 
sellers, by contrast, lost only $97 million. Bitcoin led the wreckage at $191 
million in liquidations. Ether followed at $165 million. The single largest 
loss was a $18 million ETH/USDT position on the Aster exchange, wiped out in 
one move. Open Interest, Futures Down The time breakdown tells the story 
clearly. The one-hour window showed relatively balanced liquidations at $18 
million. But zoom out to four hours and the figure jumps to $126 million — and 
over 12 hours, it hit $300 million, almost entirely from leveraged buyers who 
got caught on the wrong side. Related Reading: Bitcoin Gains Ground On Gold 
Even As Both Assets Slide Futures open interest industry-wide fell 5.6% to 
close to $107 billion. Ether futures dropped 9% alongside a 6% decline in spot 
price, a combination that points to capital leaving the market outright, not 
just prices falling. Funding rates for Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and BNB have 
all turned negative, a sign that short positions are back in demand across the 
board. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Over Half A Billion Dollars Wiped Out As Bitcoin Locks In At $70,000

A crypto analyst has broken down everything investors and traders need to know 
about the current Bitcoin (BTC) cycle. In his post, the pundit argued that the 
present cycle is different. He explained that the widely followed four-year 
cycle theory is fundamentally flawed, suggesting that a far more reliable 
framework exists for understanding where the market truly stands. Market 
expert Sykodelic took to X on March 17, delivering a sharp critique of the 
four-year cycle theory. He argued that the widely cited model relies on 
nothing more than two historical data points and anchors itself purely in time 
rather than in any meaningful economic foundation. Whereas, he noted that the 
business cycle is supported by virtually every major market chart available, 
giving it substantially more analytical weight. Why This Bitcoin Cycle 
Operates By Different Rules Backing his thesis with a chart, Sykodelic laid 
out a sequence of market behavior he noted has played out consistently across 
cycles. According to him, Gold’s price rallies during periods of economic 
contraction and uncertainty, then peaks the moment the ISM Manufacturing Index 
returns to expansion territory. Related Reading: Bitcoin To Rally 250% This 
Year? Crypto Founder’s Bullish Prediction Shows New ATHs Once certainty 
returns to the macro environment, risk assets enter their genuine bull phase, 
and Bitcoin Dominance (BTC.D) begins its characteristic end-of-cycle decline. 
Sykodelic stated that each of these fundamental chart indicators lines up. And 
this is because the market cycle is strictly governed by the business and 
economic cycle, which is inherently linked to liquidity and economic 
performance. The analyst further argued that the reason the current business 
cycle feels so unusual and goes largely unnoticed is that no one has managed 
to read it correctly. He noted that most people are too focused on the Bitcoin 
chart and the four-year cycle theory to pay close attention to the actual 
business cycle. Sykodelic attributed this to human psychology, pointing out 
that people naturally find it difficult to believe events that have not yet 
occurred. He said they would rather defend events that have already taken 
place. The analyst argued that this instinct is why many are likely to be 
caught off guard in the present market cycle. What The Charts Are Actually 
Saying In his post, Sykodelic pointed to several observable conditions as 
direct evidence supporting his thesis. He shared the reason the current cycle 
is significantly weaker than previous ones and why most altcoins have failed 
to break higher despite gold experiencing a historic and unprecedented rally. 
Related Reading: Bitcoin Just Flashed The Most Powerful Fractal In The Market, 
Here’s What To Expect According to the analyst, all of these trends stem from 
a common root cause: a prolonged contraction in the business cycle. He noted 
that this contraction suppressed the conditions necessary for a typical risk- 
asset explosion. Concluding his analysis, Sykodelic expressed the belief that 
the market is not heading lower, noting that bearishly positioned traders are 
still operating under a seemingly faulty four-year cycle framework. Featured 
image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com

Cryptocurrency price in MMK