Fewer than 1 million bitcoins remain to be mined; the US Treasury acknowledged crypto mixers as a tool to protect the right to privacy; Hyperliquid crossed $4 trillion in trading volumes; and other events of the week.
Bitcoin stuck in a range
On March 9 the price of the first cryptocurrency briefly dipped to around $65,700. Macro factors, including rising oil prices, were the main cause.
Digital gold quickly reversed the drop, rebounding above $70,000. The move came amid falling oil quotes and rising equity indices.
Analysts noted that in a period of instability bitcoin held up markedly better than traditional assets.
An attempt to extend the uptrend with a test of $74,000 ended with a pullback to around $71,500.
Over the week the coin gained almost 6.5%.
Amid the sideways price action, spot BTC-ETFs posted net inflows for five straight trading days for the first time this year. Cumulative inflows reached $767.3 million.
Some large altcoins outpaced the flagship by performance. Ethereum, up 7.6%, held above $2000. Solana rose 7.1%, Dogecoin 7.7%.
As of March 15 the total market capitalisation of digital assets is $2.5 trillion. Bitcoin dominance stands at 57%, Ethereum at 10%.
The crypto fear and greed index remains at an extreme low of 15 points.
Fewer than 1 million bitcoins remain to be mined
On March 9 the amount of unminted coins in the first cryptocurrency hit 1 million.
Today more than 95% of the maximum 21 million BTC supply is available. The blockchain continues to run on a fixed issuance schedule:
- on average miners add 144 blocks per day;
- every 2016 blocks are produced in roughly two weeks.
The reward for a mined block halves every 210,000 blocks. Halving occurs about once every four years. After such an event in 2024 the reward is 3.125 BTC per block.
The network crossed the 20 million mark in just over 17 years; producing the final million coins will take nearly 114 years.
Meanwhile miners continue to diversify into serving the AI market, VanEck noted. Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets, believes miners’ access to increasingly scarce electricity makes their shares among the most attractive assets.
Analysts at Hashrate Index warned of the negative impact of the war in Iran on bitcoin miners’ businesses. In their view, the consequences of the international conflict will hit less through higher electricity prices from a spike in oil prices than through the cryptocurrency’s own volatility.
Wintermute said the traditional business model of miners is no longer relevant. To survive, firms will either have to pivot to AI hosting or learn to manage BTC reserves as working capital, the company argued.
What to discuss with friends?
- A study confirmed rising workloads after mass AI adoption.
- A user lost $50 million swapping tokens on Aave.
- China’s cyber centre warned of risks linked to OpenClaw.
- The AI boom deprived the crypto industry of more than half of its active developers.
US authorities recognise mixer users’ right to privacy
The US Treasury sent a report to Congress recognising the legality of using crypto mixers to protect financial privacy.
In 2022 and 2023 the department labelled mixers money-laundering hubs and imposed sanctions on Tornado Cash. It now notes that law-abiding users need these platforms to hide data on personal savings, business payments or donations.
Criminal use of such services remains a problem. According to the Treasury, from January 2024 to September 2025 hackers linked to North Korea stole $2.8 billion in cryptocurrency. Of that, $1.5 billion came from the hack of the Bybit exchange. Criminals regularly use mixers to obfuscate trails.
The Treasury divided such platforms into custodial and non-custodial. The former must register with FinCEN. They can provide authorities with data on clients and their transactions.
For the second category the department did not recommend new restrictions. The regulator continues to seek a balance between illicit-finance risks and citizens’ right to privacy.
The Treasury asked Congress to pass several new laws to ensure:
- the right to freeze. Financial institutions will be able to temporarily block suspicious cryptoassets during investigations;
- clearer rules for DeFi. Lawmakers should define which decentralised finance participants fall under AML requirements;
- the “sixth special measure” to the US anti-terrorism law. The authorities want powers to block cryptocurrency transfers outside correspondent banking relationships.
BlackRock launches an Ethereum ETF with staking
On March 12 trading began on Nasdaq in a yield-bearing Ethereum-ETF from BlackRock.
Turnover during the debut session reached $15.5 million. Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart called the result “quite respectable for the first day”.
The new instrument differs from other BlackRock exchange-traded funds that simply track the price of the second-largest cryptocurrency. ETHB generates yield via staking, locking 70% to 95% of holdings depending on market conditions.
By the end of the first week, assets in the product totalled $154.7 million. The corresponding figure for BlackRock’s flagship ETHA exceeds $6.7 billion. The fund dominates the spot Ethereum-ETF segment, whose combined capitalisation is $12.3 billion.
Also on ForkLog:
- Resilient bitcoin and a strong dollar: how the conflict in Iran affected markets.
- A MediaTek chip vulnerability put crypto wallets on a quarter of Android smartphones at risk.
- After Fusaka, address-poisoning attacks in Ethereum soared by 600%.
- US inflation matched forecasts. Bitcoin resumed its rise.
Hyperliquid passes $4 trillion and opens prediction-market testing
Cumulative perpetuals trading volume on Hyperliquid has surpassed $4 trillion. It took the project three years to reach this milestone.
Growth has accelerated. The first trillion dollars took 733 days, the second 141 days, the third just 88 days, and the fourth 141 days.
Reflexivity Research analysts note the effectiveness of the platform’s cyclical tokenomics: rising trading activity generates more fees, which are used for buybacks and burns. That steadily reduces the market supply of HYPE.
At the start of the week, daily volume in oil perpetuals (CL-USDC) on the exchange jumped from $21 million to $1.2 billion. The instrument displaced Ethereum from second place by popularity on Hyperliquid.
Open interest in the asset reached $183 million. The trading surge came amid sharp price moves and high volatility in commodity markets. As a result, the platform forcibly closed traders’ short positions worth about $75 million in a day.
Hyperliquid developers launched the HIP-4 protocol on testnet, whose main innovation is prediction markets. In the first stage, users have access to binary options on HyperCore base prices.
What else to read?
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Examined the state of the latest round of the AI-technology race in graphics processors.
In our regular digest, we compiled the week’s main events in cybersecurity.