Bitcoin stalls at $75,000 as on-chain energy markets surge.

Your day-ahead look for March 17, 2026

Oil derivatives traders shifted to on-chain trading. (Gerhard Traschütz/Pixabay modified by CoinDesk)

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By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless stated otherwise)

While bitcoin’s BTC$73,907.94 price increase since the onset of the Iran conflict over two weeks ago is significant, the performance of Hyperliquid stands out even more.

Participants in the decentralized perpetuals exchange have engaged in millions of dollars worth of commodity futures, especially those related to oil, underscoring the role of blockchain-based markets in price discovery during the closure of traditional markets.

This trend appears poised to persist as industry experts become increasingly optimistic about commodities, particularly energy.

“Energy contracts – particularly refined products such as heating oil and gasoline – show stronger expected Sharpe ratios, tighter physical markets, and favorable term structures,” Prometheus Research noted.

The Iran conflict has already fueled increases in commodity ETFs, and Mining.com anticipates a lasting effect on essential metals, including nickel and other vital minerals.

All of this indicates that on-chain commodity markets could redirect capital away from bitcoin and segments of the crypto market. The rise of AI stocks supposedly did that in 2024-25, hindering gains in the largest cryptocurrency.

Another risk factor: Economists are forecasting a rise in inflation due to the surge in oil prices, which may lead central banks to adopt a cautious approach regarding interest rate cuts, further impacting risk assets. It is important to note that the Fed is scheduled to announce its rate decision tomorrow.

Therefore, while BTC shows strength, swift gains may not be easily attainable. Prices briefly exceeded $75,000 earlier Tuesday due to short-covering in futures and options markets.

“When you combine that heavily hedged options market with the persistently negative perpetual funding rates observed over the last couple of weeks, it became evident that the market was heavily skewed — hedged, short, and under-owned,” Monarq Asset Management informed CoinDesk.

However, the breakout was fleeting. Prices fell back below $74,000, dragging down the CoinDesk 20 Index and major tokens like ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and solana (SOL). Concurrently, S&P 500 futures dropped, indicating renewed risk aversion in traditional markets. Stay vigilant!

Read more: For insights into today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today

What to Watch

For an extensive list of events this week, refer to CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.

• Crypto
  • March 17: Lava Network (LAVA) plans to expand with 17 new chain integrations and nine additional blockchain ecosystems.
• Macro
  • March 17, 10 a.m.: U.S. Pending Home Sales MoM for February (Prev. -0.8%)
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
  • March 17: CEA Industries (BNC), post-market, $0.69

Token Events

For a comprehensive list of events this week, please see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.

• Governance votes & calls
  • March 17: Mantle (MNT) will host State of Mind Ep. 07, focusing on CeDeFi milestones and DeFi strategies.
  • March 17: OKX will present an X Spaces session on agent states featuring representatives from Uniswap, Dune, and Alchemy.
  • Decentraland DAO is voting on allowing registered users to modify the color of their avatar name tag and to introduce a more accessible volume slider to the UI sidebar. Voting concludes March 16 and 17.
  • Convex Finance is voting on Curve and Frax gauge weight allocations for the week of March 12, directing vlCVX voting power across numerous liquidity pools. It is also voting on FXN gauge weight allocations for the same period. Voting ends March 17.
  • Aavegotchi DAO is voting to finalize its 2026–2027 Multi-Sig Signers election, maintaining the 5-of-9 threshold and establishing quarterly signer compensation. Voting ends March 17.
  • Aavegotchi DAO is conducting Ballot 3 to elect seven of the remaining 10 nominees as Multi-Sig Signers, completing the nine-signer lineup for the DAO Foundation wallet. Voting concludes March 17.
  • Aura Finance is voting on Balancer gauge weight allocations for the week of March 12, directing vlAURA voting power across Balancer pools on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Gnosis, Base, and Avalanche. Voting wraps up March 17.
  • ShapeShift DAO is voting on the creation and funding of a new International UX Workstream for six months to ensure professional multilingual translations of the ShapeShift app and website. Voting ends March 17.
• Unlocks
  • No significant unlocks.
• Token Launches
  • No notable token launches.

Conferences

For a detailed list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead”.

• March 17: CBC Summit (London)
• Day 1 of 2: DC Blockchain Summit 2026 (Washington, D.C.)
• Day 1 of 3: Merge São Paulo (Brazil)

Market Movements

• BTC is down 0.28% from 4 p.m. ET Monday at $73,668.91 (24hrs: +0.22%)
• ETH is down 1.25% at $2,307.46 (24hrs: +1.76%)
• CoinDesk 20 is down 0.96% at 2,147.86 (24hrs: +0.75%)
• Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 7 bps at 2.81%
• BTC funding rate is at -0.0054% (-5.9042% annualized) on Binance

• DXY is up 0.09% at 99.80
• Gold futures are up 0.03% at $5,003.80
• Silver futures are down 0.61% at $80.19
• Nikkei 225 closed unchanged at 53,700.39
• Hang Seng closed up 0.13% at 25,868.54
• FTSE 100 is up 0.54% at 10,373.64
• Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.45% at 5,764.94
• DJIA closed on Monday up 0.83% at 46,946.41
• S&P 500 closed up 1.01% at 6,699.38
• Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.22% at 22,374.18
• S&P/TSX Composite closed up 1.03% at 32,876.65
• S&P 40 Latin America closed down 0.32% at 3,607.58
• U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is down 7 bps at 4.22%
• E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.61% at 6,745.75
• E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.66% at 24,839.25
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 0.59% at 47,261.00

Bitcoin Stats