On-Chain Data

QCP Capital analysis indicates that BTC price is maintaining around $74,000, with a lack of upward momentum. Although the overall crypto market remains under pressure, the declines are relatively controlled. Central bank policy meetings throughout the year will influence the market, as high oil prices have lowered expectations for rate cuts, and the interest rate environment has weakened support for crypto assets. Until policy and geopolitical situations become clearer, a volatile pattern may continue.

Under Middle East geopolitical tensions, Bitcoin faced widespread selling pressure, particularly from retail holders. According to Glassnode data, the market is experiencing heavy selling pressure, with the accumulated trend score declining to 0.04, indicating that retail and small-to-medium investors are reducing their positions significantly. Despite this, Bitcoin's resilience against the decline has surprised market observers.

Gate News update: On March 18, CryptoQuant posted on the X platform stating that Ethereum's open interest shows a continuous growth trend, indicating sustained liquidity inflows into the derivatives market. The institution believes this trend supports the stability of Ethereum's uptrend rather than short-term volatility.

Ethereum's price rebounded above $2,300 on March 18, primarily driven by whale purchases and net exchange outflows. On-chain data shows investors have reduced their selling pressure, with supply tightening. Technical indicators reveal short-term resistance at $2,380 to $2,400, with support near $2,320. The futures market is also displaying positive signals.

Key Insights XRP Ledger processed over 2.5 million transactions in 24 hours, reflecting rising network engagement while the asset price remained stable near resistance. XRP price holds near $1.41 while forming higher lows, indicating buyers continue supporting the asset despite repeated resis

Bitcoin price has fallen back to $74,000, with the market paying close attention to Fed Chair Powell's speech. Ongoing whale buying and ETF inflows demonstrate long-term demand, but short-term selling pressure should be watched carefully. Market sentiment is improving, and volatility could increase.

On March 18, on-chain data analyst Axel released a report indicating that the Bitcoin market has moved out of an overheated state, but selling pressure still exists and no reversal signals have appeared. The MVRV Z-Score indicator has dropped to 0.674, suggesting that the bubble has been deflated; meanwhile, the aSOPR indicator remains below 1.0, indicating that the market is still in a loss-selling phase, with a rebound facing the risk of selling pressure.

Gate News report: On March 18, according to Santiment data, the top 100 wallets holding USDC on Ethereum reached an all-time high, with a combined total of $32.71 billion.

Bitwise's research indicates that Ethereum's price movements are primarily driven by Bitcoin and macroeconomic liquidity, with relatively weak influence from on-chain fundamentals. The model shows that Bitcoin volatility can explain 65% of Ethereum's volatility, while accommodative monetary conditions and ETF fund flows also contribute to Ethereum's price. The current market views Ethereum as a "network commodity," and its price movements in the short term may still be dominated by Bitcoin and the liquidity environment.

The HIP-3 market of Hyperliquid has reached a milestone with open interest surpassing $1.43 billion. Significant trading activity, particularly in perpetual WTI contracts, indicates growing user interest in tokenized traditional assets.

Ethereum will introduce the "Fast Confirmation Rules" (FCR) on March 18, enhancing the efficiency of asset transfers from Layer 1 to Layer 2, with confirmation times reduced to approximately 13 seconds. This mechanism is implemented through "fast confirmation blocks," which enhance network throughput and user experience without compromising security, and is expected to drive the adoption of L2 solutions. No hard fork is required, simplifying the deployment process.

As the crypto market rebounds, on-chain capital inflows to Bitcoin have significantly increased, reaching the highest levels, indicating the market may face selling pressure. Meanwhile, prices are approaching short-term resistance zones, and macro interest rate policies remain a key factor. Market expectations for rate cuts have cooled, which could constrain risk assets.

On March 18, the SEC Chair announced that XRP was classified as a "digital commodity," ending regulatory uncertainty. On the same day, Coinbase displayed an XRP spot order book reaching a 9:1 buy-to-sell ratio, the strongest buyer signal. This development reduced compliance risks for holders, boosted institutional confidence, and paved the way for future financial product applications.

International oil prices declined on March 18, with WTI crude falling over 3% and Brent crude dropping over 2%. The WTI futures contract price on the Hyperliquid platform fell below $93, and Abraxas Capital's positions turned fully profitable with total positions of $27.8 million.

On March 18, US natural gas prices fell 3.6% briefly, leading all liquidations across the network, with a cumulative decline of 11.6%. The largest long position address was liquidated as prices fell below $2.91, with liquidation size reaching 638,364 contracts and losses of $200,000. Meanwhile, the address held BTC short positions and crude oil and gold long positions as hedges, but suffered losses on both sides.

Stacks Labs has successfully implemented the SIP-034 upgrade, enhancing network processing efficiency for DeFi applications by up to 30 times by resolving critical bottlenecks. This update allows selective reset of resource limits, enabling more transactions per block, particularly benefiting complex DeFi use cases. While STX tokenomics remain unchanged, the upgrade may boost long-term network activity.

Bitmine, linked to crypto analyst Tom Lee, recently purchased $142 million in Ethereum, raising its total holdings to over $10.7 billion. It now holds 3.8% of total ETH supply and continues buying aggressively, prompting speculation about when this "whale" will stop.

Gate News bot message, the Royal Government of Bhutan transferred 596 BTC (valued at $44.44 million) to 2 wallets. Over the past 19 hours, the government has moved a total of 973 BTC ($72.32 million), which includes 20.5 BTC ($1.52 million) sent to QCP Capital.

The RWA (Real World Asset) tokenization sector is drawing significant attention, highlighted by Chainlink's dominance with 14.2 million interactions, far surpassing other projects. The article examines market perceptions and potential for growth among top projects like ONDO and AVAX.