News
The Solana proposal, called SIMD-0228, which could cause a drastic drop in SOL's inflation rate, had the support of 37.8% of the network validators at press time.
Per Dune Analytics, 746 validators, equating to nearly 58% of the total active validators of 1334 have voted on the proposal. 37.8% voted in favor of the proposal, 18.5% were against, and 1.2% abstained from voting. Overall, the proposal seemed headed for a failure as of writing. Voting ends at Epoch 755 scheduled to be reached in about 11 hours.
The proposal bats for a market-based token emission mechanism to ensure the network doesn't overpay for security and is expected to have positive effects on Solana-based decentralized finance and boost liquid onchain SOL markets.
"Since 2023, the Solana network has transformed significantly. Back then, on-chain volumes were often below $100 million daily, reflecting limited activity. Today, the ecosystem consistently achieves billions in daily on-chain volume, marking a dramatic shift. Given this progress, we believe now is the opportune moment to reduce the inflation rate in line with SIMD-228," Logan Jastremski, co-founder and managing partner at frictionless Capital, said on X.
Per some estimates, the proposal could see SOL's inflation rate slide from 4.5% to around 0.87%, an 80% reduction.
Tagus Capital expects that to have a positive impact on SOL's price.
"If approved, it would significantly reduce staking rewards and fresh SOL supply, potentially boosting its value. However, lower rewards could force smaller validators out, raising concerns about network decentralization," the firm said in the newsletter Thursday.
"However, lower rewards could force smaller validators out, raising concerns about network decentralization," the firm added.
Ether (ETH) has fallen 43% year-to-date, it hit a 2025 high of $3,744 before dropping to its current level of $1,899. According to CryptoQuant CEO, Ki Young Ju, ether has experienced record levels of active selling over the past three months—the highest in the last five years.
CoinDesk research indicates that the ether-to-bitcoin (ETH/BTC) ratio has declined to a five-year low, while the four-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) has turned negative against bitcoin.
ETH has only dipped below $1,900 a handful of times since 2020. If you had purchased ether between June 2022 and October 2023, as well as throughout 2020, you would currently be in profit.
Glassnode data reveals that short-term holders (STHs)—those who have held ETH for less than 155 days—are bearing the brunt of realized losses. However, long-term holders (LTHs) are also beginning to capitulate.
Meanwhile, realized losses have been primarily driven by whales holding 100,000 ETH or more, particularly since February, Glassnode data shows.
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
Bitcoin (BTC) staking platform Solv has raised $10 million for its Bitcoin Reserve Offering (BRO) as it aims to build a $100 million BTC reserve.
BRO merges aspects of traditional convertible bonds with crypto-native features to drive institutional adoption of BTC finance, according to an emailed announcement shared with CoinDesk on Thursday.
Solv is attempting to offer an "on-chain MicroStrategy" model, referencing the Michael Saylor-founded software company that now owns nearly 500,000 BTC.
BRO may appeal to institutions who wish to invest in BTC as a store of value in a similar way to Strategy (as MicroStrategy is now called) but without physically purchasing and holding it themselves. Furthermore, they may be seeking a more active yield-generating form of BTC investment.
Solv will deploy the BTC raised to various yield-generating vehicles, such as liquid staking tokens, and invested across decentralized finance (DeFi), real-world assets (RWAs) and institutional finance products.
"What this means is that Solv's protocol-owned Bitcoin Reserve will be active and productive, rather than having the BTC sitting idle," Solv said in Thursday's announcement.
Disclaimer: The analyst who wrote this piece owns shares of Strategy (MSTR). Strike (STRK), the preferred stock issued by bitcoin buyer Strategy (MSTR) has been listed for just over a month and is currently 3% higher than at its Feb. 5 introduction. Strategy's common stock, on the other hand, is 20% lower over the same period.
Preferred stock like STRK can be thought of as a hybrid of equity and debt. Holders have a greater right to dividend payments than common stock owners if the company makes them and also to the company's assets in the event of a liquidation. STRK is a perpetual issue, which lacks a maturity date (like equity) and pays a fixed dividend (like debt).
Those features mean preferred stock tends to be less volatile than the common stock. That certainly seems to be the case for STRK. According to Strategy's dashboard, STRK has a 26% correlation with MSTR and a slightly negative -7% correlation with bitcoin (BTC). It's also less volatile, at 49%, compared with bitcoin’s roughly 60% and MSTR’s volatility exceeding 100%.
Last week, Strategy announced a $21 billion at-the-market (ATM) offering for STRK. That is, it's prepared to sell up to that amount of the stock at the current market price over a period of time. If all the STRK is sold, the company would face a total annual dividend bill of about $1.68 billion.
Generating that amount of cash means the company would either to sell common stock through an ATM offering — unlikely given the depressed share price as of late —or use cash generated from operations or proceeds from any convertible debt raised.
STRK offers an 8% annual dividend yield based on its $100 liquidation preference and at the currently price of $87.45, offers an effective yield of around 9%. As with debt, the higher the STRK price, the lower the yield, and vice versa.
STRK also includes a feature allowing each share to be converted into 0.1 share of common stock, equivalent to a 10-to-1 ratio, when the MSTR price reaches or exceeds $1,000. Strategy stock closed at $262.55 on Wednesday, for the option to become viable it would have to appreciate significantly, offering potential upside beyond STRK’s fixed dividend.
As an income-generating product with lower volatility, STRK presents a more stable option with potential upside. However, the massive ATM offering could impact this potential upside, similar to how ATM share sales have affected the common stock’s performance.
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
The crypto market has steadied over the past two days, with bitcoin briefly topping the 200-day simply moving average at $84,000 early today. Wednesday's softer-than-expected U.S. CPI release aided the sentiment by validating traders' pricing of four interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year.
The past 24 hours' recovery was led by the memecoin sector, followed by tokens of layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains as well as AI tokens, according to data source Velo.
Still, issues such as President Trump's tariffs, U.S. recession concerns and the bond-market volatility that recently rocked risk assets, including BTC, remain to cast doubt on the sustainability of the market recovery. That said, at least two factors suggest otherwise.
The first is the quarter-end rebalancing. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 are down 6% and 4.8%, respectively, this quarter, while the 10-year Treasury note is up 5%. That means funds mandated to maintain a specific asset allocation mix are now overweight bonds and will probably rebalance by buying equities and selling bonds as the quarter end nears.
Those actions will push bond yields and stock prices higher and could bode well for bitcoin and the broader crypto market, given the strong correlation between BTC and the technology stocks.
The other factor is the yen, which has come under pressure since CoinDesk noted the potential for renewed crypto market stability on the back of overstretched bullish positioning in the Japanese currency. The yen, seen as a haven investment, may remain under pressure as the potential quarter-end rebalancing lifts U.S. bond yields. In other words, risk-off stemming from the JPY strength and the resulting unwinding of the yen carry trades may be over for now.
Positive net global liquidity could also grease risk-taking.
"Net global liquidity, largely due to China and the U.S., is increasing," Two Prime, an SEC-registered investment adviser, said in a Telegram chat. "This may counteract some of the effects of the yen trade’s unwind. In addition, as the U.S. gets its own rates and inflation under better control, which has already started to incrementally trend down over the past few months, it will reduce pressure on other central bank bonds and slow rate growth on yen borrow."
Still, traders need to be vigilant for volatility, as Deribit's BTC-listed options market tracked by Amberdata shows significant negative dealer gamma between $81,000 and $87,000. Dealers are likely to trade in the direction of the market to maintain their overall exposure neutral, adding to price swings.
The U.S. is set to publish the February producer price index (PPI) report and the weekly jobless claims later today. A hotter-than-expected PPI, representing pipeline inflation, may inject downside volatility into risk assets. Stay alert!
What to Watch
Crypto:
March 15: Athene Network (ATH) mainnet launch.
March 15: Reploy will close its V1 RAI staking program to new users as it transitions to a fully automated revenue-sharing protocol.
March 17: CME Group launches solana (SOL) futures.
March 18: Zano (ZANO) hard fork network upgrade which activates “ETH Signature support for off-chain signing and asset operations.”
March 20: Pascal hard fork network upgrade goes live on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) mainnet.
Macro
March 13, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases February producer price inflation data.
Core PPI MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.3%
Core PPI YoY Est. 3.6% vs. Prev. 3.6%
PPI MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.4%
PPI YoY Est. 3.3% vs. Prev. 3.5%
March 14, 8:00 a.m.: The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) releases January producer price inflation data.
PPI MoM Prev. 1.48%
PPI YoY Prev. 9.42%
March 16, 10:00 p.m.: The National Bureau of Statistics of China releases February employment data.
Unemployment Rate Prev. 5.1%
Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
March 14: Bit Digital (BTBT), pre-market, $-0.05
March 24 (TBC): Galaxy Digital Holdings (TSE: GLXY), C$0.38
Token Events
Governance votes & calls
Uniswap DAO is discussing continuing treasury delegation to maintain governance stability and retain active delegates, including a renewed framework and structure expiration and allocation mechanisms.
ApeCoin DAO is discussing the establishment of an APE base in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It’s also discussing the creation of ApeSites, which aims to provide the BAYC community with an “easy-to-use tool to create personalized websites.”
Aave DAO is discussing the formalization of a six-month agreement with Chainlink on the potential integration of the Chainlink Smart Value Recapture (SVR) system.
March 13, 10 a.m.: Mantra to host a Community Connect call with its CEO and co-founder to discuss various major updates.
March 13, 10 a.m.: Mantle Network to hold a Surge Ask Me Anything (AMA) session.
March 13, 11:30 a.m.: Jupiter to hold a Planetary Call.
March 13, 2 p.m.: THORChain to hold an X Spaces session on TCY / THORFi recovery.
Unlocks
March 14: Starknet (STRK) to unlock 2.33% of its circulating supply worth $11.16 million.
March 15: Sei (SEI) to unlock 1.19% of its circulating supply worth $10.65 million.
March 16: Arbitrum (ARB) to unlock 2.1% of its circulating supply worth $32.33 million.
March 18: Fasttoken (FTN) to unlock 4.66% of its circulating supply worth $79.80 million.
March 21: Immutable (IMX) to unlock 1.39% of circulating supply worth $13.19 million.
March 23: Metars Genesis (MRS) to unlock 11.87% of its circulating supply worth $97.6 million.
March 23: Mantra (OM) to unlock 0.51% of its circulating supply worth $32.4 million.
Token Listings
March 13: Nano (XNO) to be listed on OKX.
March 18: Paws (PAWS) to be listed on Bybit.
March 31: Binance to delist USDT, FDUSD, TUSD, USDP, DAI, AEUR, UST, USTC, and PAXG.
Conferences
CoinDesk's Consensus is taking place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.
Day 1 of 2: Web3 Amsterdam ‘25
March 16, 6:00 p.m.: Solana AI Summit (San Jose, Calif.)
March 18-20: Digital Asset Summit 2025 (New York)
March 18-20: Fintech Americas Miami 2025
March 19-20: Next Block Expo (Warsaw)
March 24-26: Merge Buenos Aires
March 25-26: PAY360 2025 (London)
March 25-27: Mining Disrupt (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
March 26: Crypto Assets Conference (Frankfurt)
March 26: DC Blockchain Summit 2025 (Washington)
March 26-28: Real World Crypto Symposium 2025 (Sofia, Bulgaria)
March 27: Building Blocks (Tel Aviv)
March 27: Digital Euro Conference 2025 (Frankfurt)
March 27: WIKI Finance EXPO Hong Kong 2025
March 27-28: Money Motion 2025 (Zagreb, Croatia)
March 28: Solana APEX (Cape Town)
Token Talk
By Shaurya Malwa
The cost of missing out on potential airdrops has been massive for potential recipients in the U.S., according to a report by Dragonfly Capital.
Up to 5.2 million American crypto users have been excluded from airdrops, missing out on an estimated $3.49 billion to $5.02 billion in token value, based on broader data.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg: 22%–24% of active crypto wallets are American, but they’ve been systematically cut off. The U.S. government lost out too, with $418 million to $1.1 billion in federal tax revenue gone, plus $107 million to $284 million in state taxes.
Regulatory confusion in the U.S. forced crypto projects to play it safe. Many blocked U.S. participants outright, moved their operations to other countries, or tweaked their airdrop designs to dodge potential lawsuits or penalties.
This created a big divide: While crypto adoption exploded worldwide, the U.S. lagged behind. Projects didn’t want to risk breaking unclear rules, so they geofenced Americans out — meaning U.S. users couldn’t claim tokens.
Things might be starting to shift, though. The policy environment in the U.S. is changing, with signs that regulators and lawmakers could ease up on crypto restrictions, Dragonfly concluded.
Derivatives Positioning
BNB, ETH, XLM, DOT and OM are the only top-25 coins by market value boasting positive perpetual futures cumulative volume deltas for the past 24 hours, according to data sourve Velo. It's a sign of net buying pressure.
Positioning in CME's bitcoin futures remains light, with open interest at 146K BTC, barely higher than the recent multimonth low of 140.84 BTC. The same can be said about CME's ETH futures.
BTC's CME basis remains stuck between annualized 5% and 10%, while ETH's has bounced to nearly 7% from the recent low of 4%.
BTC and ETH puts are trading pricier than calls out to the May-end expiry on Deribit, reflecting persistent downside fears.
Block flows featured a long BTC straddle, a bullish vol play and outright buys in OTM puts.
Market Movements:
BTC is unchanged from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $83,335.37 (24hrs: +0.98%)
ETH is down 0.29% at $1,896.33 (24hrs: -0.4%)
CoinDesk 20 is up 0.55% at 2,596.89 (24hrs: +1.65%)
Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 27 bps at 3.16%
BTC funding rate is at 0.0038% (4.18% annualized) on Binance
DXY is unchanged at 103.66
Gold is up 0.15% at $2,943.76/oz
Silver is down 0.48% at $33.11/oz
Nikkei 225 closed unchanged at 36,790.03
Hang Seng closed -0.58% at 23,462.65
FTSE is up 0.38% at 8,573.66
Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.25% at 5,372.83
DJIA closed on Wednesday -0.2% at 41,350.93
S&P 500 closed +0.49% at 5,599.30
Nasdaq closed +1.22% at 17,648.45
S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.72% at 24,423.34
S&P 40 Latin America closed +0.81% at 2,326.29
U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is up 1 bp at 4.33%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are up unchanged at 5,604.25
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are unchanged at 19,602.00
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are unchanged at 41,411.00
Bitcoin Stats:
BTC Dominance: 61.97 (-0.21%)
Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02272 (-0.39%)
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 832 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): $46.1
Total Fees: 5.19 BTC / $428.778
CME Futures Open Interest: 143,790 BTC
BTC priced in gold: 28.3 oz
BTC vs gold market cap: 8.04%
Technical Analysis
The SOL/ETH ratio continues to hold the bull market trendline despite the MACD, a momentum indicator, flashing negative readings for the fourth straight week.
That's a sign of underlying strength in the market and potential for a continued SOL outperformance relative to ether.
Crypto Equities
Strategy (MSTR): closed on Wednesday at $262.55 (+0.75%), down 0.63% at $260.89 in pre-market
Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $191.73 (+0.02%), down 0.18% at $191.39
Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$17.50 (+1.33%)
MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $13.11 (-1.58%), up 1.07% at $13.25
Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $7.85 (+1.68%), down 0.25% at $7.83
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $8.95 (+3.71%), down 1.12% at $8.85
CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $8.10 (-1.94%), down 0.62% at $8.05
CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $15.29 (+1.39%)
Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $33.60 (+2.44%)
Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $27.43 (+11.96%), down 5.18% at $26.01
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs:
Daily net flow: $13.3 million
Cumulative net flows: $35.49 billion
Total BTC holdings ~ 1,117 million.
Spot ETH ETFs
Daily net flow: -$10.3 million
Cumulative net flows: $2.70 billion
Total ETH holdings ~ 3.555 million.
Source: Farside Investors
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
The VIX index, Wallstreet's so-called fear gauge, has turned lower from the December high, hinting at a renewed risk-on upswing in stocks.
That could bode well for cryptocurrencies.
While You Were Sleeping
Poland’s President Urges U.S. to Move Nuclear Warheads to Polish Territory (Financial Times): Andrzej Duda said NATO’s nuclear deterrent should move eastward, citing the alliance’s expansion and Russia’s deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Worst of U.S. Equity Correction Is Likely Over, JPMorgan Say (Bloomberg): JPMorgan strategists said U.S. credit markets suggest a lower recession risk than equities, indicating recent stock declines may stem from hedge funds unwinding positions rather than economic fundamentals.
Consumer Angst Is Striking All Income Levels (The Wall Street Journal): U.S. consumers are spending less as shrinking savings and weaker wage growth limit their budgets, while tariff concerns stoke expectations of higher inflation and recession.
BOJ Set to Hold Rates This Month, Hike to 0.75% in Q3, Most Likely July: Reuters Poll (Reuters): A Reuters survey found 90% of economists see Trump's tariffs hurting Japan's economy, while 70% anticipate the Bank of Japan will raise rates in the third quarter.
Crypto Scam: Request Made for International Arrest of Hayden Davis (Página/12): An Argentine lawyer asked a federal prosecutor seek an international arrest warrant and Interpol Red Notice for Hayden Davis, aiming for his extradition over alleged involvement in the LIBRA memecoin scandal.
XRP Short Bias Lingers Amid Ripple Legal Hopes, DOGE Nears Death Cross as BTC Dominance Hits 4-Year High (CoinDesk): XRP’s price has rebounded, but traders are still betting against it in futures markets, signaling skepticism about its rally. Several other altcoins display similar bearish positioning.
In the Ether
