Federal Reserve Keeps Benchmark Interest Rate Unchanged in March, BSC Sparks Another MEME Frenzy | Hotcoin Research Market Insights: March 17 — March 21, 2025

Cryptocurrency Market Performance

As of now, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $2.83 trillion, with Bitcoin dominance at 60.6%, totaling $1.72 trillion. The stablecoin market cap is $230.3 billion, reflecting a 7-day increase of 0.87%, with USDT accounting for 62.46% of the total.

This week, BTC traded within a narrow range and is currently priced at $83,936. ETH also remained range-bound, currently trading at $1,967.

Among the top 200 projects on CoinMarketCap, most saw gains while a few experienced losses. Notable 7-day gainers include:

• FORM: +109.18% (7-day gain)
• CAKE: +47.98%
• AUCTION: +79.15%
• ZRO: +78.05%

This week’s net inflows and outflows in U.S. spot ETFs:

• Bitcoin Spot ETF Net Inflows: $639.9 million
• Ethereum Spot ETF Net Outflows: $91 million

On March 21, the Fear & Greed Index stood at 31 (lower than last week). Market sentiment this week:

• 5 days of Fear
• 2 days of Neutral sentiment

Market Outlook

This week, the market exhibited range-bound movements, with sentiment shifting from Extreme Fear to Fear. Stablecoin issuance on-chain increased slightly, while U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows, and Ethereum ETFs saw net outflows. Activity on the BSC network surged significantly, sparking a BSC MEME coin frenzy.

The Federal Reserve confirmed that it would maintain interest rates in March, fueling fears of a potential U.S. economic downturn. However, market expectations still hold hope for rate cuts in the second half of the year.

In the short term, the market may form a temporary bottom and maintain a range-bound movement. Investors may focus on new projects on chains such as BSC, Tron, and Base. Additionally, monitoring Hotcoin’s New Token List could unlock more wealth opportunities.

Weekly Key Events Recap

1. On-Chain & Institutional Activity

1. March 16: On-chain data shows that Monad testnet addresses surpassed 14.55 million, with 2.02 million daily active users recorded on March 15.
2. March 18: WLFI’s “Macro Strategy” allocated assets to BTC, ETH, TRX, LINK, SUI, and ONDO as part of its strategic reserve plan. The strategy may support WLFI’s innovation funding, ecosystem expansion, and broader DeFi growth.
3. March 17: A wallet labeled Strategy purchased 130 BTC at an average price of $82,981, totaling $10.7 million between March 10–16
4. March 19: According to Arkham, Justin Sun’s wallet staked 60,000 ETH (~$116 million) via Lido.
5. March 19: Raydium introduced a new token launch platform called LaunchLab, modeled after pump.fun. This move comes shortly after pump.fun announced plans to build its own AMM.
6. March 20: Coinbase’s ETH staking report revealed that the platform has staked 3.84 million ETH, accounting for 11.42% of all staked ETH — making Coinbase the largest Ethereum staking node operator.
7. March 19: DefiLlama reported that Jupiter’s February revenue hit an all-time high of $31.7 million.
8. March 21: According to Santiment, Ethereum’s exchange supply dropped to 8.97 million ETH, its lowest level in nearly 10 years (previous low in November 2015). Compared to 7 weeks ago, ETH on exchanges has fallen by 16.4%.
9. March 21: Japanese listed company Metaplanet announced the creation of its Strategic Advisory Board, naming Eric Trump (second son of Donald Trump) as a board member.

Macroeconomic Events

1. March 17: The Bank of Korea stated it has “never considered” including Bitcoin in its foreign exchange reserves.
2. March 18: U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social the appointment of Michelle Bowman, current Federal Reserve Board member, as the new Vice Chair for Supervision.
3. March 18: On Polymarket, the probability that the Fed will end quantitative tightening before May reached 100%, with a cumulative trading volume exceeding $6.25 million.
4. March 19: The Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.5%, in line with expectations.
5. March 20: The Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate steady at 4.25%-4.50%, also aligning with market forecasts.

ETF Market Overview

Between March 17 — March 21:

• Bitcoin Spot ETF Net Inflows: $639.9 million
• Ethereum Spot ETF Net Outflows: $91 million

As of March 21:

• GBTC (Grayscale) Total Outflows: $22.48 billion, currently holding $16.256 billion.
• IBIT (BlackRock) Holdings: $47.885 billion.
• Total U.S. Bitcoin Spot ETF Market Cap: $96.294 billion.

Looking Ahead

Upcoming Events

1. Southeast Asia Blockchain Week 2025: March 30 — April 5, Bangkok, Thailand.
2. 2025 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival: April 6–9, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hall 5BCDE.

Project Developments

1. March 24: U.S. Bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark will be added to the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, which includes publicly listed U.S. companies with a market cap over $1 billion.
2. March 24: Berachain’s airdrop claim portal will reopen at 22:00 (UTC+8).
3. March 25: Taproot Wizards will begin the sale of their Bitcoin Ordinals collection (2,121 NFTs). Inspired by the 2013 Bitcoin wizard meme, the launch includes: A whitelist phase (0.2 BTC per NFT), a Dutch auction open to the public, starting above 0.2 BTC.
4. March 26: Celo will activate its hard fork at 11:00 UTC, transitioning to an Ethereum Layer 2. The upgrade will reduce block time from 5s to 1s while preserving historical chain data.
5. March 30: IRIS Network will execute its mainnet v4.0 upgrade, introducing cross-chain NFT support and improved network performance. Validators and node operators must prepare in advance.
6. March 31: VanEck’s Bitcoin Spot ETF (HODL) will remain fee-free until March 31, 2025. After this date, a 0.2% management fee will apply if AUM exceeds $150 million.

Key Economic Data Releases

1. March 24: Eurozone & UK March Manufacturing PMI (Preliminary).
2. March 27: U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Data.
3. March 28: U.S. February Core PCE Price Index YoY.

Token Unlocks

1. March 27: Axelar (ALX) will unlock 13.51 million tokens (worth $5.37 million, 1.13% of circulating supply).
2. March 27: Jupiter (JUP) will unlock 100 million tokens (worth $52 million, 1% of circulating supply).

About Us

As the central research hub of the Hotcoin ecosystem, Hotcoin Research delivers professional analysis and forward-looking insights for global crypto asset investors. We have established a comprehensive three-pronged service framework — trend analysis, value discovery, and real-time tracking — integrating in-depth cryptocurrency industry trend research, a multi-faceted project evaluation framework, and 24/7 market monitoring.

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Together, we navigate the rapidly evolving crypto landscape, leveraging data-driven decision-making and strategic resource integration to seize value-growth opportunities in the Web3 era.

Risk Disclaimer

The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, and all investments carry inherent risks. We strongly advise investors to thoroughly assess these risks and adhere to a strict risk management framework to safeguard their funds.

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