21Shares macro head Stephen Coltman said the 2026 divergence between Bitcoin and gold reflects different buyer bases, with gold more tied to central bank demand while BTC is more widely held by individuals. He noted gold slipped to about $4,497 per ounce after peaking near $5,600 in January 2026, while Bitcoin stayed relatively steady as Middle East hostilities began. Coltman argued around-the-clock BTC access can matter during crises, as some regional exchanges were shut down shortly after the conflict started.

NYSE Arca and NYSE American filed SEC rule changes to remove the 25,000-contract position and exercise limits on options tied to spot bitcoin and ether ETFs, with the changes effective immediately. The update covers options on 11 crypto ETF products and also permits these contracts to trade as FLEX options with customizable terms. With these filings, major U.S. exchanges now treat crypto ETF options the same as other commodity-based ETF options.

Immunefi's “State of Onchain Security 2026” report argues that a hack's impact extends well beyond the moment funds are stolen, often turning into a months-long operational and market crisis. The report estimates average direct theft at about $25 million and finds hacked tokens saw a median 61% drop over six months, with 84% failing to regain their hack-day price in that period.

Altcoin spot trading has continued to cool, with CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost noting volumes across Binance and other large exchanges have fallen to extreme lows versus February and October 2025. Binance’s altcoin spot volume dropped to $7.7 billion while other exchanges combined handled about $18.8 billion, putting Binance near 40% of the total. The data also shows prior spikes above $40 billion were common in 2025, but activity has stayed compressed since the start of 2026.

Indian media reports say CoinDCX co-founders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal were detained and sent to police custody until March 23 in a case tied to an alleged investment fraud. The complaint alleges a loss of about 71.6 lakh rupees (roughly $85,000) connected to a scheme promising high returns and CoinDCX-linked franchise rights. CoinDCX rejects the allegation, saying the fraud was executed via impersonators operating copycat websites rather than its platform.

Bitcoin fell 3.88% over the past week, dropping 3.5% from Saturday's $71.1k high within 24 hours, while altcoin market cap slipped 1.94% in the same window. Kaspa and DeXe led the gainers at +19.5% and +18.62%, while Uniswap, TRUMP, and OKB were among the biggest decliners at -12.4%, -20.51%, and -12.57% for the week.

In March 2026, multiple crypto and crypto-adjacent firms reported workforce reductions, with disclosed figures totaling about 450 roles in a few weeks. Cuts included Block’s 4,000+ job reduction in February, Crypto.com’s 12% (about 180 employees), and the Algorand Foundation’s 25% on March 18, 2026. Several companies framed the moves as part of broader AI adoption, while sector hiring signals showed new job postings running at roughly 6.5 per day in January.

On March 22, 2026, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Pepe were positioned below key resistance while Bitcoin defended the $70,000 area after a midweek dip to $69,370. The meme-coin market cap fell to $31.1 billion from $47.7 billion in early January, with SHIB up 3% and its burn rate jumping 370% as DOGE hovered near $0.095 and PEPE near $0.0000034.