Bitcoin touches $75,000 for the first time since early February

Bitcoin briefly hit $75,900 before easing; ether outperformed as shorts were squeezed.

On March 17 the price of the leading cryptocurrency rose to $75,900, levels last seen only in early February.

At the time of writing, the digital gold trades around $74,200 (+0.9% over 24 hours).

At the same time, Ethereum jumped to $2,300. The altcoin gained 2.4% over the past day and 13.5% over the week. The asset outpaced bitcoin in terms of gains amid the return of institutions.

Over the past 24 hours, crypto-market liquidations totalled $498m. Most — $329m — were short positions. Bitcoin traders suffered the largest losses.

A popular gauge of market sentiment rose to 28, breaking out of the “extreme fear” zone. It is the highest reading since late January. Even so, uncertainty still reigns among investors.

Why are cryptocurrencies rising?

Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, says the rally is largely explained by the closing of short positions that traders opened during February’s drop.

“Traders are massively closing put options with $55,000 and $60,000 strikes. They realised that by expiry these contracts are unlikely to end up in the money, and began to exit positions. It was the removal of these protective hedges that pushed the price up,” he noted.

Rick Maeda of Presto Research pointed to the return of institutional demand. Over the past week, spot bitcoin ETF drew $767.3m. Ethereum funds took in $160.8m.

Purchases by Strategy also buoyed prices. Last week the company bought 22,337 BTC for $1.57bn. The deal ranked among the firm’s five largest.

🗣️ According to social data, the top trending coins driving markets across social media are:

🪙 Bitcoin $BTC: Large, institutional-scale BTC accumulation by MicroStrategy: the company bought 22,337 BTC (~$1.57B) during March 9–15, 2026 using primarily its STRC preferred‑share… pic.twitter.com/9VUUNGEejP

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) March 16, 2026

QCP noted that the digital-asset market “turned around despite the geopolitical storm”. Bitcoin and Ethereum are rising while traditional markets remain under pressure.

“If the pattern holds, we will witness an unexpected twist into quarter-end — given crypto’s status as an outsider and its habit of correlating with traditional assets mainly on declines,” the analysts wrote.

They say the latest price action has revived the narrative of bitcoin as a “digital haven”. A spike in on-chain activity and fresh capital flowing into stablecoins also points that way. Earlier, the USDC supply reached a record $81.1bn.

Earlier, Santiment analysts pointed to a positive signal for the leading cryptocurrency. Large bitcoin holders have resumed building positions in the asset.