By Francisco Rodrigues (All times Eastern unless otherwise noted)
Cryptocurrency prices are falling as some holders look to profit from a mid-week rally to $74,000 while others prefer less risky assets as war in the Middle East escalates.
Bitcoin It is down 3.7% in the past 24 hours to just above $70,000, while the broader CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index is down 3.5% as gains from earlier in the week cooled. Bitcoin price topped $74,000 on Wednesday, still up more than 6% in five days.
CEX.IO chief analyst Illia Otychenko said the decline reflected selling pressure from short-term traders who were buying into the recovery. “Despite the recent recovery, confidence that the rebound will be sustained remains limited,” Otechchenko told CoinDesk.
At the same time, pessimism in derivatives markets is growing. Funding rates remain negative, meaning traders need to pay to hold short positions.
But the underlying demand hasn’t gone away. Otychenko noted that stablecoin flows into exchanges recently reached their highest levels in 2026, while spot Bitcoin ETF flows turned positive.
“This creates a clear conflict in the market. Institutional spot buyers are accumulating Bitcoin, while derivatives traders are adding to short positions,” he added. “Historically, when spot accumulation coincides with negative funding, it often results in a short squeeze, where short sellers are forced to close their positions and prices move higher. However, this outcome is not guaranteed.”
Geopolitics remains a factor. Brent crude prices have risen more than 22% in the past week after U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and retaliatory attacks disrupted oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint that carries about 20% of global supply.
“Hormuz tanker traffic remains down 92%, Goldman Sachs warns oil prices could hit $100, and the curve is flattening again as short-term rates reprice inflation risks, with 2-year rates rising back to 3.51%,” Wintermute trader Bryan Tan said in a note.
A surge in energy prices added to inflation concerns, prompting traders to reconsider interest rate cut expectations. The shift has already been priced into the bond market, with U.S. Treasury yields rising as investors price in the risk that inflation will remain high.
Don’t forget, there’s also the U.S. jobs report later today, which will also influence the Fed’s interest rate decision. Stay alert!
Read more: For analysis of today’s altcoin and derivatives activity, see Today’s Cryptocurrency Market
What to see
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- cryptocurrency
- Macro
- March 6, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. February non-farm payrolls data (Eastern Time) 59K (previously 130K)
- March 6, 8:30 am: The U.S. unemployment rate in February is expected to be 4.3% (previous value 4.3%)
- March 6, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. average hourly earnings in February are expected to be 0.3% month-on-month (previously 0.4%)
- income (Estimate based on FactSet data)
- March 6: Metallpha (MATH), pre-market
Token event
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- There were no major governance votes and calls.
- Unlock
- March 6: Hyperliquid (HYPE) will unlock 2.72% of its circulating supply, worth approximately $288.77 million.
- Token issuance
Meeting
For a more comprehensive list of this week’s events, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
market trend
- BTC is down 1.15% since 4pm ET on Thursday to $70,398.30 (24 hours: -2.89%)
- ETH fell 1.58% to $2,055.24 (24 hours: -3.01%)
- CoinDesk 20 down 1.22% to 2,008.56 (24 hours: -3.52%)
- Ethereum CESR comprehensive pledge rate fell 8 basis points to 2.83%
- The BTC financing interest rate on Binance is -0.011% (annualized -1.2209%)
- DXY unchanged at 99.23
- Gold futures rose 0.69% to $5,100.10
- Silver futures rose 1.64% to $83.03
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.62% at 55,620.84 points
- The Hang Seng Index closed up 1.72% to 25,757.29 points
- The FTSE 100 index remained unchanged at 10,415.70
- The Euro Stoxx 50 index remained unchanged at 5,760.30
- The Dow closed down 1.61% on Thursday at 47,954.74 points
- The S&P 500 closed down 0.56% at 6,830.71 points
- The Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 0.26% at 22,748.99 points
- The S&P/TSX Composite Index closed down 0.98% at 33,610.00
- The S&P 40 Latin America Index closed down 3.12% at 7,318.90 points
- The U.S. 10-year Treasury bond rate rose 7 basis points to 4.15%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures unchanged at 6,804.50
- E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures unchanged at 24,905.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures unchanged at 47,804.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- Bitcoin dominance: 59.47% (-0.02%)
- Ethereum-Bitcoin ratio: 0.02917 (-0.24%)
- Hash rate (seven-day moving average): 1,026 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $30.66
- Total fee: 2.75 BTC / $198,402
- CME Futures Open Interest: 104,755 BTC
- BTC in gold: 13.8 ounces.
- Bitcoin and gold market capitalization: 4.71%
technical analysis
- The ratio of altcoins (excluding the top 10) to Bitcoin looks likely to close above the 50-week exponential moving average, meaning there is no clear breakout for altcoins relative to BTC.
- With no clear RSI divergence, we are unlikely to see a sustained rally in the broader altcoin space.
crypto stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): Closed Thursday at $205.71 (–1.54%), after closing at $204.89 pre-market, –0.40%
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): Closed at $22.73 (–6.61%), -0.70% at $22.57
- MARA Holdings (MARA): Closed at $8.77 (–5.60%), -0.91% at $8.69
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): Closed at $15.60 (–5.63%), –0.71% at $15.49
- Core Scientific (CORZ): Closed at $16.00 (+1.01%)
- CleanSpark (CLSK): Closed at $9.95 (–6.66%), –0.50% at $9.90
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): Closed at $11.18 (–8.06%)
- CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI): Closed at $39.25 (–4.73%)
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL): Closed at $105.74 (+0.45%), -0.43% at $105.29
- Bullish (BLSH): Closed at $35.02 (–4.99%), unchanged from $35.00
Cryptocurrency Treasury Corporation
- Strategy (MSTR): Closed at $139.81 (–4.53%), –0.30% at $139.39
- Strive Asset Management (ASST): Closed at $9.25 (–3.85%)
- Sharplink (SBET): Closed at $7.93 (–2.46%), –1.01% at $7.85
- Upexi (UPXI): Closed at $0.96 (–10.93%)
- Lite Strategies (LITS): Closed at $1.13 (–7.38%)
ETF flows
Spot BTC ETF
- Net daily traffic: -$227.9 million
- Cumulative net flows: $55.7 billion
- Total BTC holdings are approximately 1.29 million
Spot ETH ETF
- Net daily traffic: -$90.9 million
- Cumulative net flow: $11.74 billion
- The total amount of ETH held is approximately 5.68 million.
Source: Farside Investors