Bitcoin rose to $75,000 for the first time since early February
On March 17, Bitcoin rose to $75,900—levels the market hadn't seen since early February. Prices later retreated, and at press time, the asset is trading around $70,740. Over the past 24 hours, liquidations on the crypto market reached $498 million, with short positions accounting for the bulk of the loss—$329 million. Bitcoin traders suffered the heaviest losses.
XRP hits new record: number of holders exceeds 7.7 million
The number of XRP holders exceeded 7.7 million for the first time in 13 years, according to analysts at Santiment. On March 16, activity on the XRP Ledger network reached a five-week high of 46,767 addresses. Against this backdrop, the price has risen 14% in two days and is currently hovering around $1.50.
Trading activity has also increased: daily trade volume exceeded $5.2 billion (up 60%), and market capitalization reached $92.2 billion, allowing XRP to overtake BNB.
Open interest on Binance rose to 349 million XRP, up from 222.8 million in October 2025—a 59% increase at a lower price. This indicates a return of interest, as traders are opening new positions rather than reducing risk, as they did earlier in the year.
Total stablecoin transaction volume on the TRON network fell by 14.6%
In February, TRON's share of total stablecoin transaction volume fell to 14.6%, according to Visa data. By comparison, at the beginning of 2025, this figure exceeded 36%, indicating a sharp decline in the network's influence in just one month. Visa uses an adjusted volume metric, which excludes bot transactions, high-frequency trading (HFT), and internal smart contract transactions, to reflect the actual use of stablecoins in payments. Over the year, the total volume of such transactions reached $8.8 trillion, but the adjusted volume amounted to only $1.4 trillion, demonstrating the gap between nominal activity and the real economy.
Ethereum developers are testing FCR
Ethereum developers are testing a fast confirmation mechanism (FCR), which could reduce transfer times between L1 and L2 from 13 minutes to approximately 13 seconds, according to researcher Julian Ma. Currently, users rely on bridges and rules like k-deep, where a transaction is considered confirmed after several blocks, but without strict guarantees. The new approach instead analyzes validator attestations, allowing for faster and more secure transaction confirmation.
The mechanism operates under two conditions: fast network message transmission and the absence of a participant with more than 25% of the staked ETH. These requirements are less stringent than full finality, but are sufficient for most scenarios. Implementing FCR does not require a hard fork—it is already being integrated into clients and APIs. Exchanges and L2 projects are expected to be able to integrate the solution with minimal changes.
Altcoin turnover plummeted by 80%
Daily altcoin turnover on Binance has fallen by 80% from its peak to $7.7 billion, indicating a decline in investor interest, noted analyst Darkfost. On other major exchanges, the figure is hovering around $18.8 billion, compared to $63–91 billion at the 2025 highs.
According to the expert, previous surges in activity coincided with FOMO phases and local peaks, when major players locked in profits amid the hype. Binance's share of the segment is estimated at approximately 40%, but its growing dominance is not due to market expansion, but rather to market contraction and the outflow of liquidity from alternative exchanges.
The overall situation remains weak for risky assets due to geopolitical uncertainty. However, periods of low interest historically provide the best entry points, the analyst emphasized.
Whale sold BTC he bought 13 years ago
On March 18, a large early investor transferred approximately 1,000 BTC (approximately $71.6 million) to Binance, according to EmberCN analysts. According to their data, this wallet purchased 5,000 BTC back in 2013 at approximately $332 per coin and began taking profits in November 2024. The average sale price reached $94,786, and the total profit exceeded $330 million. The investor still holds approximately 1,500 BTC, worth $106.8 million.
At the same time, another early holder sold 650 BTC (approximately $46.3 million), Lookonchain reported. In total, he has already sold approximately 11,000 BTC worth $1 billion. Analysts suspect a connection between the wallet and Owen Ganden, but this has not been confirmed.
