Bitcoin’s mining difficulty just logged its second sizeable cut of 2026, easing conditions for remaining miners as competition from artificial intelligence data centers rises. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty fell by around 7.7% at the latest adjustment on March 20 to 133.79 trillion at block 941,472, the sharpest drop since February, according to CoinWarz data. The latest move takes difficulty down from around 145 trillion in mid-March and roughly 148 trillion at the start of the year. A lower difficulty means it takes less computational work to earn the same block reward, slightly improving revenue per unit of hashrate for firms that stay online. The adjustment followed slower-than-target block production over the prior 2,016 blocks. CloverPool data showed average block times at about 12 minutes 36 seconds, well above Bitcoin’s 10-minute target, forcing the network to recalibrate lower. Read more
Early Ethereum whale thomasg.eth is rebuilding his position with $19.5 million in ETH purchases this week, as BitMine’s Tom Lee calls for the end of “crypto winter.” An early Ethereum wallet known as thomasg.eth is steadily rebuilding his exposure, according to Arkham Intelligence data. Arkham data shows that, over the past week, thomasg.eth built a roughly $19.5 million Ether (ETH) position across Arkham-tracked wallets in spot, wrapped ETH (WETH), and Aave-deposited ETH, capped by a fresh $3 million purchase on March 20. Arkham said the wallet held around $537 million in crypto assets at the 2021 market peak, and has started accumulating again as ETH trades around 56% below its all-time high of $4,946 on Aug. 24, 2025, according to CoinGecko. Read more
Bitcoin price remains rocky, and BTC and equities ETF outflows soar as the US and Israel-Iran war enters a fourth week. After a strong start to the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is down nearly 5%, alongside the S&P 500, DOW, Nasdaq, and Gold. Crude oil, on the other hand, has risen 7.30% and is up 53% since the US and Israel–Iran war began on Feb. 28. The collective market weakness highlights a coordinated shift in capital flows as the war continues in the Middle East, with an uptick in outflows from the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) further highlighting traders’ decision to cut risk. The Kobeissi Letter reported a combined $64 billion outflow from the S&P 500 (SPX) ETF and Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) over the past three months, the largest on record. Read more
Gold is also being impacted by rising anticipation that the US Federal Reserve won’t cut interest rates this year, while Fed chair Jerome Powell said inflation would rise. Gold tumbled another 3.5% to $4,488 per ounce on Friday, marking an 11% fall for the week and the largest weekly loss the precious metal has seen since 1983 as geopolitical instability and uncertainty in the Middle East continue to weigh on the markets. Gold has fallen more than 15% since Feb. 28, when the US and Israel first attacked Iran, erasing part of the rally that pushed its price up to the $5,500 mark in late January and casting doubt on its safe haven status. TradingView confirmed that March 16-20 was gold’s worst-performing week since 1983. The 11% weekly fall was slightly larger than the last week of January, when gold shot up to about $5,320 before diving to $4,650, a drop that saw more than $2 trillion shaved off the precious metal’s market cap in days. Read more
Unlike Bitwise, Grayscale doesn’t plan to incorporate staking for its Hyperliquid ETF but hasn’t ruled out integrating it in the future. Crypto asset manager Grayscale has filed for a spot Hyperliquid exchange-traded fund, joining Bitwise and 21Shares in seeking to offer a product tied to the Hyperliquid perpetual futures protocol and blockchain. The Grayscale HYPE ETF would track the price movement of the Hyperliquid (HYPE) token and trade under the ticker GHYP on the Nasdaq if approved, according to Grayscale’s S-1 registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. Grayscale listed Coinbase as the custodian but didn’t disclose a management fee for the proposed Hyperliquid product. Read more
The deal reportedly focuses on stablecoin yield and interest-bearing stable tokens, a major pain point for the banking industry. Rumors are circulating that a tentative deal has been struck between the White House and US lawmakers on stablecoin yield, potentially moving the CLARITY crypto market structure bill forward. Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks, both members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, have reached an “agreement in principle,” according to a Friday Politico report. “I think what it will do is to allow us to protect innovation, but also gives us the opportunity to prevent widespread deposit flight,” Alsobrooks said, adding that the deal prohibits stablecoin yield on “passive balances.” Read more
Bitcoin searches for equilibrium at $70,000 while rising crude oil prices and tanking stock markets have investors worried over the future of inflation in the US. Bitcoin’s (BTC) swift rejection from its $76,000 range high on Tuesday, and the subsequent sell-off below $70,000, raised concerns among traders that the bottom is not in for BTC. Chartered market technician Aksel Kibar suggested that a bearish wedge pattern similar to the one seen from December 2025 to early January 2026 may be forming again. Kibar said, Read more