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Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Buoyant With Trump Tariffs, Options Expiry Set to Add Volatility
By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
Risk-assets have a spring in their step. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading above $87,000 and the S&P 500 reclaimed its 200-day moving average for the first time since March 10.
However, volatility is expected to rise ahead of Friday’s quarterly options expiry, with over $12 billion in notional value set to expire on Deribit with a max pain price at $85,000. Most open interest, meantime, centers around $100,000 call options.
President Trump is deploying new trade war tactics, introducing “secondary tariffs” that could impose a 25% levy on any nation buying oil and gas from Venezuela, according to Bloomberg.
He also signaled that while some countries may receive exemptions on tariffs, additional tariffs on autos, lumber and semiconductor chips will be announced in the coming days. These measures, part of the president’s broader “America First” economic agenda, could take effect as early as April 2.
Bloomberg notes that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent continues to advocate for tariffs, framing them as a strategic tool that serves multiple purposes: providing leverage in negotiations, generating government revenue and rebalancing trade in favor of the U.S.
Meanwhile, in the U.K., Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing for Wednesday’s Spring Statement amid rising bond yields that threaten to complicate fiscal planning. Early reports indicate she will propose civil service job cuts while ruling out further tax increases. Stay Alert!
What to Watch
Crypto:
March 25: The Mimir upgrade goes live on Chromia (CHR) mainnet.
March 25, 11:00 p.m.: Celo (CELO) mainnet’s hard fork network upgrade at block height 31056500 transitions it from an L1 to an Ethereum L2.
March 26: Circle’s stablecoin, USDC, starts trading on Japan-based crypto exchange SBI VC Trade.
March 26, 3:00 a.m.: Cronos (CRO) zkEVM v26 mainnet upgrade introduces Smart Account SSO for simpler logins and lays groundwork for the ZK Gateway to enhance cross-chain interoperability.
March 26, 10:37 a.m.: Ethereum’s Hoodi testnet will activate the Pectra hard fork network upgrade at epoch 2048.
March 27: Walrus (WAL) mainnet goes live.
April 1: Metaplanet (TYO: 3350) 10-for-1 stock split becomes effective.
Macro
March 26, 3:00 a.m.: The U.K.’s Office for National Statistics releases February consumer price inflation data.
Core Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.5% vs. Prev. -0.4%
Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 3.6% vs. Prev. 3.7%
Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.5% vs. Prev. -0.1%
Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.9% vs. Prev. 3%
March 26: The U.K.’s Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) releases its latest Fiscal and Economic Outlook. Later in the day, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will present her Spring Statement to the House of Commons.
March 27, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis releases (Final) Q4 GDP data.
GDP Growth Rate QoQ Est. 2.3% vs. Prev. 3.1%
Core PCE Prices QoQ Est. 2.7% vs. Prev. 2.2%
PCE Prices QoQ Est. 2.4% vs. Prev. 1.5%
Real Consumer Spending QoQ Est. 4.2% vs. Prev. 3.7%
March 27, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment insurance data for the week ended March 22.
Initial Jobless Claims Est. 225K vs. Prev. 223K
March 27, 10:00 a.m.: The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Paul Atkins to the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Livesteam link.
March 27, 3:00 p.m.: Mexico’s central bank announces its interest rate decision.
Target Rate Est. 9% vs. Prev. 9.5%
April 2, 12:01 a.m.: The Trump administration’s reciprocal tariffs plan goes live.
Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
March 27: KULR Technology Group (KULR), post-market, $-0.02
March 28: Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY), pre-market, C$0.38
Token Events
Governance votes & calls
Uniswap DAO is discussing the recognition of the canonical deployment of Uniswap v2 and v3 on Soneium.
Floki DAO is voting on removing the 0.3% transaction fee charged when users buy or sell thought the TokenFi smart contract following a request from a “very important and strategically significant partner.”
Sky DAO is discussing redirecting the Boost program’s budget to promote USDS on non-Ethereum networks and stop Sky token buybacks to instead direct surplus toward Sky takers.
March 26, 1 p.m.: Livepeer (LPT) to hold an Open Ecosystem Call.
Unlocks
March 31: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.93% of its circulating supply worth $28.47 million.
April 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 2.03% of its circulating supply worth $154.07 million.
April 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 6.05% of its circulating supply worth $13.43 million.
April 3: Wormhole (W) to unlock 47.64% of its circulating supply worth $141.11 million.
April 7: Kaspa (KAS) to unlock 0.59% of its circulating supply worth $11.82 million.
April 9: Movement (MOVE) to unlock 2.04% of its circulating supply worth $22.82 million.
Token Listings
March 25: Particle Network (PARTI) to list on Binance, Gate.io, OKX, KuCoin, HashKey, Bitrue, Bitget, XT.com and others.
March 27: Walrus (WAL) to list on Gate.io and Bybit.
March 28: Binance to delist Aergo (AERGO).
March 31: Binance to delist USDT, FDUSD, TUSD, USDP, DAI, AEUR, UST, USTC, and PAXG.
Conferences
CoinDesk’s Consensus is taking place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.
Day 2 of 3: Merge Buenos Aires
Day 1 of 2: PAY360 2025 (London)
Day 1 of 3: Mining Disrupt (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Day 1 of 4: Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2025 (Boao, China)
March 26: Crypto Assets Conference (Frankfurt)
March 26: DC Blockchain Summit 2025 (Washington)
March 26-28: Real World Crypto Symposium 2025 (Sofia, Bulgaria)
March 27: Building Blocks (Tel Aviv)
March 27: Digital Euro Conference 2025 (Frankfurt)
March 27: Web3 Banking Symposium 2.0 (Lugano, Switzerland)
March 27: WIKI Finance EXPO Hong Kong 2025
March 27-28: Money Motion 2025 (Zagreb, Croatia)
Token Talk
By Shaurya Malwa
MOG jumped 25% as memecoins caught a bid on bitcoin and ether demand.
The cat-themed culture coin tends to surge whenever ETH sees buying demand, functioning as a «beta bet» on the Ethereum blockchain, where it is based.
Monitoring the highest performing memecoins during a market recovery can be profitable for traders, providing cues on which tokens tend to outperform when there are gains in major cryptocurrencies.
Cronos’ CRO caught flak from prominent on-chain sleuth ZachXBT after Trump Media signed a non-binding agreement with closely related Crypto.com to launch U.S. crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the token through Crypto.com’s broker-dealer, Foris Capital US.
“CRO is no different from a scam,” ZachXBT said in a tweet, referring to a governance proposal last week that increased CRO supply by more than 200%.
The contentious proposal drew to a close Monday last week, with the community voting in favor of increasing token supply from 30 billion CRO to 100 billion CRO over 10 years. The vote was influenced by a small group of large and influential token holders flipped the result with a 3.2 billion token swing just before the conclusion, drawing red flags among market watchers.
Derivatives Positioning
CME futures basis for BTC and ETH remains low, between 4% and 7%, indicating a lack of willingness among institutional players to deploy capital despite the recent market stability.
BTC perpetual funding rates dip below zero, hinting at a growing preference for bearish short positions on offshore exchanges.
XMR, HBAR, NEAR, BNB, SUI and AVAX boast positive 24-hour cumulative volume deltas in a sign of net buying in perpetual futures markets.
Short-dated BTC and ETH options listed on Deribit continue to show put skews. The $100K call remains the most popular option ahead of the quarterly expiry.
Market Movements:
BTC is down 1.12% from 4 p.m. ET Monday at $86,889.75 (24hrs: -0.77%)
ETH is down 1.01% at $2,064.85 (24hrs: -1.31%)
CoinDesk 20 is down 0.35% at 2,782.83 (24hrs: -0.55%)
Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 6 bps at 2.97%
BTC funding rate is at -0.003% (-1.141% annualized) on Binance
DXY is unchanged at 104.24
Gold is up 0.38% at $3,024.40/oz
Silver is up 1.38% at $33.72/oz
Nikkei 225 closed +0.46% at 37,780.54
Hang Seng closed -2.35% at 23,344.25
FTSE is up 0.4% at 8,672.92
Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.52% at 5,444.05
DJIA closed on Monday +1.42 at 42,583.32
S&P 500 closed +1.76 at 5,767.57
Nasdaq closed +2.27% at 18,188.59
S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +1.34% at 25,304.10
S&P 40 Latin America closed -0.62% at 2,455.50
U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is up 1 bps at 4.36%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.18% at 5,804.75
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.33% at 20,307.25
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 0.15% at 42,833.00
Bitcoin Stats:
BTC Dominance: 61.44 (-0.20%)
Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02375 (-0.17%)
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 829 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): $49.32
Total Fees: 6.17 BTC / $540,108
CME Futures Open Interest: 146,560 BTC
BTC priced in gold: 28.8 oz
BTC vs gold market cap: 8.19%
Technical Analysis
Bitcoin is rising toward the trendline that characterizes the sharp price drop from record highs.
A move through the trendline resistance would open doors to resistance at $100K, followed by record highs.
The strengthening of the upward momentum, signaled by the rising MACD histogram, favors the trendline breakout.
Crypto Equities
Strategy (MSTR): closed on Monday at $335.72 (+10.43%), down 0.94% at $332.58 in pre-market
Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $203.04 (+6.94%), down 1.11% at $200.79
Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$19.30 (+7.58%)
MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $14.61 (+18.01%), down 1.71% at $14.36
Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $8.72 (+9.69%), down 0.8% at $8.65
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $9.31 (+9.4%), down 0.97% at $9.22
CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $8.79 (+18.15%), down 1.48% at $8.66
CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $16.31 (+10.2%)
Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $42.88 (+9.33%)
Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $52.64 (+6.3%), up 3.84% at $54.66
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs:
Daily net flow: $84.2 million
Cumulative net flows: $36.22 billion
Total BTC holdings ~ 1,117 million.
Spot ETH ETFs
Daily net flow: $0 million
Cumulative net flows: $2.43 billion
Total ETH holdings ~ 3.419 million.
Source: Farside Investors
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
The chart shows the impact of the Ethereum Foundation’s ether sales on the token’s spot-market price.
Sales in excess of 15,000 ETH tend to move prices.
While You Were Sleeping
BlackRock to List Bitcoin ETP in Europe in First Crypto Foray Outside U.S. (CoinDesk): The asset management giant’s iShares Bitcoin ETP listed Tuesday on Xetra, Euronext Paris and Amsterdam with a 0.15% fee through year-end.
Binance Wallet Suspends Staff Member Over Front-Running Allegations (CoinDesk): The staffer allegedly used confidential information from their previous business development role at BNB Chain to front-run a token launch. Binance’s investigation found no evidence of insider trading.
Circle to Launch USDC in Japan on March 26 With SBI Partnership (CoinDesk): Japan-based crypto exchange SBI VC Trade, which got regulatory approval on March 4 to list USDC, will start trading of the stablecoin on March 26.
China Is Suffering Its Own ‘China Shock’ (Financial Times): China has lost 7.4 million factory jobs since 2011 as rising wages and lower-cost rivals like Vietnam and Indonesia erode its export edge, fueling concern over a rise in long-term unemployment.
China’s Vice Premier Meets Blackstone Chairman in Beijing (Reuters): He Lifeng said his country welcomed more U.S.-funded enterprises and long-term capital, which he said would contribute to the healthy development of U.S.–China economic relations.
Boom in Uranium Stocks Fizzles as Ukraine Ceasefire Talks Build (Bloomberg): Uranium-related stocks have fallen in 2025 amid prospects of new U.S. tariffs on Canada and looser Russian sanctions, both major sources of the nuclear fuel.
In the Ether
BlackRock is looking to add more people to its digital asset team as the industry grows in popularity among Wall Street firms.
Since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, big names in finance have taken several steps to expand their presence in crypto. While BlackRock has long been a pioneer in the space, especially among traditional financial banks, the asset manager seems to have more in store.
Four roles on BlackRock’s digital asset team were added to its website on Wednesday, including Director of Digital Assets, Director of Regulatory Affairs, Vice President for Digital Asset and ETF Legal Counsel and Associate for Digital Asset.
According to the job description, three of the roles are based in New York and another one in Atlanta. The descriptions have otherwise been kept fairly broad and don’t give away any clues regarding what BlackRock might be looking to work on in the future.
For the role of the legal counsel, the company is seeking somebody who can help with future crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) launches. BlackRock has so far issued two spot ETF products, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and the iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHE).
Other issuers have applied to launch funds for several other crypto assets, including Solana (SOL), XRP, and Litecoin (LTC). BlackRock has not announced any plans to do the same.
The asset manager is also strongly focused on tokenization, a sector in which it has quickly become a leading force.
The firm’s tokenized money market fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), has drawn in $1.7 billion since its introduction in 2023, making it by far the largest tokenized fund on the market currently.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin said he’s asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to pull its investigation against the crypto operation and hasn’t yet received a response.
Unicoin represented a final shot against the industry from previous Chair Gary Gensler’s SEC, which informed the firm in an official notice late last year that the regulator intended to accuse it of fraud, deceptive practices and handling unregistered securities. The investigation was announced in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration in December, before the SEC’s leadership was taken over by those selected by crypto fan President Donald Trump.
The CEO, who has watched a dozen other crypto companies let off the hook of their enforcement actions by the agency’s new management, told CoinDesk he wrote a March 17 letter to the agency’s new Crypto Task Force, asking about the investigation.
«I seek your guidance on the best way to address this abuse of power and bring it to an end,» Konanykhin wrote in the letter, a copy of which has been reviewed by CoinDesk. He requested the matter be terminated and that the conduct of the enforcement official involved with the case at the agency be reviewed, because of his «willingness to weaponize the SEC’s authority for political purposes.»
A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment on Unicoin’s status on Wednesday. A Unicoin spokesperson told CoinDesk on Tuesday that the company «remains in the final stages of the SEC review process. As of now, we have not received any new updates or formal feedback from the SEC regarding our registration. We are fully committed to compliance and transparency, and we continue to work toward securing the necessary approvals for our planned offerings.»
The CEO believes his company, which suggests investors can see up to 8,000% returns, was targeted by agency harassment last year, he said in an interview with CoinDesk in Washington.
«They demanded from us to promise not to go public in the United States, not to ICO, not to raise funds,» he said. «So I packed my bags and moved to Europe to resume business.»
He said the election of Trump and the president’s promises to make the U.S. the global crypto capital made him come back to New York from Switzerland, with an intent to go public here.
«We thought the war was over, and we said to the SEC, ‘Hey, we’re resuming our activity,» Konanykhin said. At that point, the agency announced it intended to target the company with civil charges.
Konanykhin noted that the regulator had accused them of violating securities laws with an airdrop. Konanykhin argued that it’s a common marketing strategy seen in many crypto assets, and is «what the president of the United States is doing with his memecoin.»
«It’s embarrassing that the war on crypto still continues,» he said. If the agency continues its war on crypto by pursuing Unicoin, «I think so many observers are going to be astonished.»
Unicoin started as an effort to create a «more transparent and reliable alternative» to Bitcoin in the U.S. (which, the Unicoin website said, has returned 9 million percent to investors over the last 10 years). He said some analysts believe bitcoin was «created by Chinese intelligence, but nobody really knows by whom.»
«I’m elated by the opportunity to participate in making American the crypto capital of the planet as the president pledged he wants to do, even though it’s highly annoying to still have the legacy persecution from the SEC,» Konanykhin said.
Meanwhile, he said, «we are preparing actively for going public.»
The U.S. Congress’ opening priority for the crypto industry is to quickly finish a stablecoin oversight bill, and the House of Representatives has released the text of its version on Wednesday, following in the heels of a recent committee approval of its Senate counterpart.
The House version, introduced by Rep. Bryan Steil, who leads the House Financial Services Committee’s crypto panel, and Rep. French Hill, the Republican chair of the overall committee, governs the way companies can issue dollar-denominated digital tokens.
The new version will «close the gap» between the House efforts and the Senate version of the bill, Steil said during a conference appearance Wednesday.
The Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE Act) «is a strong continuation of our work on digital assets in the last Congress,» Hill said in a statement.
The Senate Banking Committee had already advanced its own version of the legislation with a strong bipartisan vote, so it moves on now to consideration on the Senate floor. Rep. Tom Emmer, the House majority whip who has been among Congress’ top crypto advocates for years, said the two bills have «some minor differences that I’m sure can be ironed out.»
Read more: Trump-Tied World Liberty Financial Pitches Its Stablecoin in Washington With Don Jr.
Also on Wednesday, Emmer reintroduced his Securities Clarity Act, which seeks to define how a crypto asset might fall within the securities law framework. Emmer introduced the bill, which was part of last year’s Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT 21), alongside Democratic Representative Darren Soto.
Emmer, Steil and many other lawmakers involved in crypto efforts on Capitol Hill all appeared on Wednesday at the DC Blockchain Summit, a crypto policy event hosted by the Digital Chamber. Most of them shared hopes that the stablecoin effort would be completed by August.
As the conference wrapped up, the Senate prepared to vote for a second time on a Congressional Review Act resolution overturning the IRS’ 2024 regulation governing decentralized finance (DeFi) brokers. The Senate and House have both previously passed the resolution, which U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign, but the Senate must vote on it again due to a procedural rule requiring the House to vote first on tax-related issues.
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