U.S. inflation, Polkadot upgrade, Solstice-Kamino announcement: Crypto Week Ahead

U.S. inflation data is the main catalyst to watch this week as it could influence market sentiment and Fed rate expectations.

War in the Middle East and other geopolitical risks lead to volatility in commodity markets, Bitcoin Bitcoin$68,153.83 It failed to stay above the $70,000 mark last week.

The conflict between the United States and Israel and Iran is escalating, and the likelihood of a near-term ceasefire in prediction markets seems slim. Traders will be watching crude oil prices closely for potential signs of its impact on inflation.

Against this backdrop, there are some specific cryptocurrency events that stand out. Solstice and Kamino have made announcements of new products without revealing any details, while Succinct has said it will make an announcement.

What to see

(All times are Eastern Time)

• cryptocurrency
  • March 9: Solstice and Kamino announce new products or features. No details were provided.
  • March 10: Succint will make an announcement. No details were provided.
  • March 12: Polakdot economic upgrades begin rolling out, including DOT supply caps, emission reductions, and unconstrained emission reductions.
  • March 12: BOB mainnet will undergo a Jovian hard fork.
• Macro
  • March 9, 6:50 pm: Japan’s fourth-quarter GDP growth annualized final estimate is 1.2% (previous value -2.6%)
  • March 9, 10:00 pm: China’s trade balance from January to February (previous value $114.1B)
  • March 11, 7:30 a.m.: U.S. inflation rate in February year-on-year (previous value 2.4%); core interest rate year-on-year (previous value 2.5%)
  • March 11: OPEC monthly report
  • March 12, 7:30 a.m.: U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending March 7 (previous value 213K)
  • March 12, 7:30 a.m.: U.S. trade balance in January (previous value – $70.3B)
  • March 12, 3:30 p.m.: Fed balance sheet for the week ended March 11 (previous value $6.63)
  • March 13, 7:30 am: Second estimate of US fourth-quarter GDP growth rate (previous value 4.4%)
  • March 13, 7:30 am: US core PCE price index month-on-month (previous value 0.4%)
  • March 13, 9:00 am: US JOLTS January job openings (first 6.542M)
  • March 13, 9:00 am: Initial value of Michigan consumer confidence index in March (previous value 56.6;)
• income (Estimate based on FactSet data)
  • March 9: Sharplink (SBET), pre-market, $0.31
  • March 11: Exodus Movement (EXOD), pre-market, $0.14
  • March 12: Cango (CANG), post-market, -$0.34
  • March 13: Bit Digital (BTBT), pre-market, -$0.01

Token event

• Governance votes and calls
  • Convex Finance is voting on Curve Ownership DAO voting ID: 1358, which will join GHO as a Pegkeeper with a debt limit of 3 million crvUSD. Voting ends on March 9.
  • Lido DAO is voting to make the Representative Incentive Program (DIP 2.0) a permanent governance mechanism. Voting ends on March 9.
  • The Lido DAO is voting to authorize a one-time allocation of $5 million in DAO vaults to Lido Earn ETH and USD vaults. Voting ends on March 9.
  • The Lido DAO is voting on whether Stakin (recently acquired by The Tie) should continue to operate as a node operator, and whether to approve updates to Stakin’s on-chain name and reward address. Voting ends on March 9.
  • The Aavegotchi DAO is conducting the first and second rounds of voting for multi-signer elections, requiring token holders to choose a signer from among the nominees. Voting closes on March 10.
  • The Ssv.network DAO is voting to rescind DIP-46 and reallocate the originally approved $15 million development budget, splitting it into $14.9 million for DVT and $100,000 as a retroactive research grant. Voting closes on March 10.
  • The Realtoken Ecosystem Governance DAO is voting to temporarily reduce the interest rate on RMM (Real Estate Monetary Fund) to zero for 15 days. Voting closes on March 10.
  • Unlock DAO is voting to approve the Unlock Protocol DAO budget for the first quarter to the second quarter of 2026, totaling approximately $30,768. Voting ends on March 11.
  • The Arbitrum DAO is voting on an operating directive to automatically consolidate idle and remaining non-ARB funds in the DAO program directly into the Arbitrum Treasury Management Company (ATMC) portfolio. Voting closes on March 12.
  • The CoW DAO is voting on the CoW Swaps Affiliate Program to reward affiliates who refer new retail traders and traders who reach qualifying volume milestones, with allocations of up to 500,000 USDC over a six-month pilot. Voting closes on March 12.
  • World Liberty Financial DAO is voting to introduce the WLFI governance staking system, requiring unlocked token holders to stake (locked for at least 180 days) to participate in governance. Voting closes on March 12.
  • The Arbitrum DAO is voting to implement the Delegated Voting Power (DVP) quorum model, update its charter, and enable on-chain proposal cancellation. Voting closes on March 12.
• Unlock
  • March 12: Aptos easy$0.9488 Unlocks 0.69% of circulating supply, worth $11.21 million
  • March 13: WhiteBit Coin (WBT) unlocks 27.77% of its circulating supply, worth $4.59 billion.
  • March 15: Connex (CONX) unlocked 1.54% of its circulating supply, worth $15.79 million.
• Token issuance
  • March 9: Nexira (NEXI) token generation event occurs. The token will be listed on KuCoin soon.
  • March 12: ForU AI (FORU) token generation event occurs.

Meeting