By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
Even like bitcoin rallies, non-serious tokens such as memecoins emerge as the biggest winners.
Among the majors, bitcoin jumped more than 2% in 24 hours, and at one point early Monday briefly topped $74,300 for the first time since early February. Other tokens including XRP (XRP) and solana (SOL) rose over 4%, and ether (ETH) gained 7%. The CoinDesk 20 index added nearly 4%.
However, the best performing token among the top 100 over the last 24 hours is memecoin PEPE, which is up 19%. Its compatriots BONK and PENGU are up over 10%, and SHIB also outpaced ether’s 7% rise. In fact, five of today’s top performing coins are meme tokens.
This illustrates a trend observed since 2023-24. Observers have dubbed it the “leverage strategy:” holding a serious token like bitcoin, with growing institutional adoption, on one end while speculating on smaller, non-serious coins such as memecoins on the other.
The behavior contrasts with the previous bull market, where BTC rallies tended to lift more productive sectors of the market, such as DeFi and play-to-earn projects.
A possible reason for the absence of a so-called “meaningful alt season” is the influx of new altcoins, which have spread demand across thousands of projects. CoinMarketCap data shows that the total number of tokens has exceeded 37.8 million in just three years, highlighting the massive influx of new projects.
Some observers are hoping for the Clarity Act in the US to revive the broader market. Others warn that time is running out for decisive legislative action.
In traditional markets, S&P 500 futures traded higher even as oil prices tested the $100 level. Nvidia’s GTC conference begins on Monday, and CEO Jensen Huang could outline the company’s AI roadmap, an event the crypto industry will be watching closely for signals of data center demand. Pay attention!
Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to see
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Crypto
- Macro
- 16 March at 8:30 AM: Canada Consumer Price Index (CPI) YoY for February (prev 2.3%)
- Earnings (Estimated based on FactSet data)
- March 16: Bakkt Holdings (BKKT), post-market, -$0.47
- March 16: Bitcoin Depot (BTM), pre-market, -$0.47
- March 16: Cango (CANG), after market, -$0.34
Token Events
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- Decentraland DAO votes on whether to allow registered users to customize the color of their avatar moniker and add a more accessible volume slider to the UI sidebar. Voting ends March 16 and 17.
- Unlocks
- March 16: Arbitrum (ARB) unlocks 1.78% of its circulating supply, worth $9.65 million.
- The token is launched
Conferences
For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is up 2.22% as of 16 ET Sunday at $73,300.29 (24 hours: +2.02%)
- ETH is up 5.98% to $2,259.15 (24h: +6.57%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 3.81% to 2,130.70 (24 hours: +3.79%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 2.74%
- BTC funding rate is at 0.0041% (4.4435% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is unchanged at 100.29
- Gold futures are down 1.36% at $4,983.70
- Silver futures are down 2.80% at $78.65
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.13% at 53,751.15
- The Hang Seng closed up 1.45% to 25,834.02
- The FTSE 100 is unchanged at 10,261.99
- The Euro Stoxx 50 is down 0.67% to 5,678.08
- The DJIA closed Friday down 0.26% at 46,558.47
- The S&P 500 closed up 0.61% at 6,632.19
- The Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.93% to 22,105.36
- The S&P/TSX Composite closed up 0.91% at 32,541.93
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed up 0.16% at 3,584.57
- US 10-year Treasury is up 1 bps to 4.28%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures rose 0.37% to 6,660.50
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.45% to 24,504.25
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.78% to 46,957.00
Bitcoin statistics
- BTC Dominance: 59.22% (-0.29%)
- Ether to bitcoin ratio: 0.03088 (3.24%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 947 EH/s
- Hash price (spot): $32.00
- Total Fees: 1.97 BTC / $140,987
- CME Futures open interest: 111,895 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 14.8 oz.
- BTC vs Gold Market Cap: 4.92%
Technical Analysis
- The chart shows bitcoin’s daily price swings in candlestick format since September 2025.
- Despite the recent bounce, BTC remains trapped in a sideways grind characterized by trend lines connecting highs hit on February 8 and March 4 and lows from February 6 and February 24.
- The next move largely depends on the direction in which the range game is resolved.
- A similar price action played out in the two months to mid-January and ended up deepening the selloff to nearly $60,000.
Crypto stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed Friday at $195.53 (+1.19%), +2.72% at $200.84 in premarket
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $22.35 (+8.34%), +2.68% at $22.95
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $9.32 (+6.39%), +3.54% at $9.65
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $14.04 (–3.17%), +2.42% at $14.38
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $16.49 (+1.54%), +0.73% at $16.61
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.76 (+2.20%), +3.18% at $10.07
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $8.97 (–9.94%)
- CoinShares Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $38.28 (+0.83%)
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL): closed at $115.38 (+1.05%), +2.88% at $118.70
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $36.62 (+1.05%), +2.40% at $37.50
Crypto Treasury Companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $139.67 (+1.70%), +3.10% at $144.00
- Strive Asset Management (ASST): closed at $9.53 (+7.93%), +3.04% at $9.82
- SharpLink (SBET): closed at $7.53 (+0.67%), +5.84% at $7.97
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $1.11 (+19.35%), +9.91% at $1.22
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.18 (+2.61%)
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs
- Daily net flows: $180.4 million
- Cumulative net flows: $56.12 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~ 1.29M
Spot ETH ETFs
- Daily net flows: $26.7 million
- Cumulative net flows: $11.82 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~ 5.73 million
Source: Farside Investors
