Everyone's calling bitcoin resilient, may be it's just complacent

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Bitcoin’s BTC$69,387.85 been trading in a tight range lately, with volatility indices surprisingly calm despite the Iran war, oil shocks and Fed rate-hike expectations hanging over the market.

Bulls are calling it resilience. But if you zoom out and look at other markets, maybe it is just complacency — and could lead to a brutal reality check.

Take oil, for example. WTI has jumped 37% this month to $91.84, and some analysts are saying $200 isn’t out of the question. Call options on oil are now three times pricier than puts. That's a pretty clear sign of outsized bullish positioning. All this means more inflation and economic shocks ahead.

In the U.S. Treasury market, the MOVE index, which tracks expected volatility in the backbone of global finance, has shot up 33% to 98.00. Increased volatility in debt of the world's largest economy, which underpins global finance, typically leads to tightening of credit worldwide.

Compare that with bitcoin’s implied volatility index, BVIV, which has actually slipped 7% to 54%. Resilience or complacency? Some firms think it's latter.

"Notably, short-dated implied volatilities have compressed to their lowest levels since February, signaling a degree of market complacency regarding this tail risk," TDX Strategies said in a market note.

The firm recommends "accumulating gamma," basically, betting on big moves on select altcoins, as a proxy hedge for your portfolio.

As of now, bitcoin is down 2.4% on the day at $69,500. Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and solana (SOL) are following suit, while non-serious tokens like DOGE$0.09136 are taking a bigger hit, down nearly 5%.

The backdrop isn’t helping: Iran just rejected the U.S. peace plan, laying out conditions that include closing all U.S. bases in the Gulf, reparations for attacks, lifting all sanctions, and keeping its missile program unrestricted. The U.S. probably isn’t going to agree, which leaves the situation deadlocked and risk assets on edge.

The dollar index is climbing, Treasury yields are ticking up, and U.S. stock index futures are in the red. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today

What to Watch

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

• Crypto
  • March 26: SoonBase officially winds down.
• Macro
  • March 26, 8:30 a.m.: U.S. Initial Jobless Claims for week ending March 21 est. 210K (Prev. 205K)
  • March 26, 4:00 p.m.: Fed Gov. Lisa Cook speech on "Reflections on Financial Stability" at Yale
  • March 26, 7:00 p.m.: Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson speech on "Economic Outlook and Energy Effects" at Global Perspectives Speaker Series, Dallas
  • March 26, 7:10 p.m.: Fed Gov. Michael Barr speech on “Economy”, Washington, D.C.
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
  • March 26: Hyperion DeFi (HYPD), pre-market, -$4.62

Token Events

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

• Governance votes & calls
  • ENS DAO is voting on an update to the endowment manager's permissions that removes deprecated permissions and upgrades the Roles instance. Voting ends March 26.
• Unlocks
  • No major token unlocks.
• Token Launches
  • March 26: Katana Network (KAT) Epoch 1 for KAT rewards begins

Conferences

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

• Day 4 of 7: Polish Blockchain Week (Warsaw)
• Day 3 of 3: Digital Asset Summit 2026 (New York City)

Market Movements

• BTC is down 1.63%% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $69,946.60 (24hrs: -2.67%)
• ETH is down 4.04% at $2,079.75 (24hrs: -4.84%)
• CoinDesk 20 is down 2.78% at 1,991.19 (24hrs:-3.91%)
• Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 2.74%
• BTC funding rate is at -0.0023% (-2.5032% annualized) on Binance

• DXY is up 0.10% at 99.70
• Gold futures are down 2.91% at $4,417.60
• Silver futures are down 6.11% at $67.94
• Nikkei 225 closed down 0.27% at 53,603.65
• Hang Seng closed down 1.89% at 24,856.43
• FTSE 100 is down 1.23% at 9,982.48
• Euro Stoxx 50 is down 1.50% at 5,564.52
• DJIA closed on Wednesday up 0.66% at 46,429.49
• S&P 500 closed up 0.54% at 6,591.90
• Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.77% at 21,929.83
• S&P/TSX Composite closed up 1.38% at 32,382.60
• S&P 40 Latin America closed up 2.35% at 3,562.75
• U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is down 6 bps at 4.33%
• E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 0.83% at 6,585.50
• E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.96% at 24,135.00
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 0.76% at 46,355.00

Bitcoin Stats

• BTC Dominance: 59.98% (0.01%)
• Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.0299 (-1.65%)
• Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 976 EH/s
• Hashprice (spot): $32.89
• Total fees: 2.65 BTC / $188,510
• CME Futures Open Interest: 117,100 BTC
• BTC priced in gold: 15.6 oz.
• BTC vs gold market cap: 4.64%

Technical Analysis

• The chart shows XRP's daily price swings (UTC) in candlestick format since November 2025.
• XRP's price has dropped below a triangular consolidation pattern represented by the two converging trendlines.
• That's a signal that bears have established the path of least resistance lower, opening the doors for deeper slides.

Crypto Equities

• Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Wednesday at $181.10 (+0.03%), -2.07% at $177.36 in pre-market
• Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $21.33 (+0.14%), -1.73% at $20.96
• MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $8.28 (+0.36%), -2.42% at $8.08
• Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $15.16 (+5.79%), -2.51% at $14.78
• Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $17.05 (+1.19%), -2.87% at $16.56
• CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.96 (+3.97%), -2.01% at $9.76
• Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $7.29 (+1.25%)
• CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI): closed at $40.30 (+3.68%)
• Circle Internet Group (CRCL): closed at $103.86 (+2.66%), -2.52% at $101.24
• Bullish (BLSH): closed at $37.43 (+0.16%), -1.63% at $36.82

Crypto Treasury Companies

• Strategy (MSTR): closed at $139.13 (+2.11%), -2.03% at $136.31
• Strive Asset Management (ASST): closed at $10.85 (+9.26%), -1.84% at $10.65
• Sharplink (SBET): closed at $7.28 (+1.53%), -3.98% at $6.99
• Upexi (UPXI): closed at $1.19 (+7.21%), -1.68% at $1.17
• Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.20 (+0.00%)

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs

• Daily net flows: $7.8 million
• Cumulative net flows: $56.31 billion
• Total BTC holdings ~1.29 million

Spot ETH ETFs

• Daily net flows: -$8.5 million
• Cumulative net flows: $11.69 billion
• Total ETH holdings ~5.75 million

Source: Farside Investors

While You Were Sleeping

• Gulf states say they’re ready for ‘self defense’ as stance shifts on Iran war (CNBC): Gulf states issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s “blatant” and “criminal” attacks against their energy infrastructure. “A price must be paid” for the attacks, they warned.
• Iran launches fresh strikes after Trump says regime wants deal (The Wall Street Journal): Iranian strikes continued after Arab mediators and other people familiar with the matter had said Tehran was privately showing a willingness to hear out diplomatic efforts to end the war.
• Gold declines as US and Iran offer divergent routes to end war (Bloomberg): Bullion fell as much as 2% to dip below $4,420 an ounce and erase most of the gains from the previous two sessions.
• Rocket stocks soar on report Musk's SpaceX to file for share sale (BBC): The stock prices of rocket makers Firefly Aerospace and Rocket Lab rose by more than 10%, while other space-related firms also saw their shares jump.