NDAQ News & Events

Today's tape is led by an ether conviction trade: BlackRock'snew staking product is drawing institutions into ether. In addition, on-chain trackers are logging more than $73.5M of identifiable ether buying in 24 hours, and a fresh Fortune feature says tokenized stocks built on Ethereum-style infrastructure are approaching a bitcoin-scale disruption moment. Bitcoinis steady but second fiddle, hovering near $73,000 in a macro environment Bloomberg describes as stagflation‑tinged.ETHER, STAKING AND ON-CHAIN FLOWS:BlackRock'sbegan trading on Nasdaq as ETHB on March 12 with about $100M in seed assets and roughly $15.5M–$16M in first‑day volume, a launch Bloomberg Intelligence'sfor a new ETF. The vehicle stakes most of its ether through Coinbase Primeusing third‑party validators, pays investors around 82% of an estimated 3.1% staking yield, layers on a sponsor fee temporarily discounted to 0.12% on the initial asset base, and exposes holders to both validator‑slashing and staking‑queue liquidity risks that now sit alongside IBIT and ETHA in equity models.On-chain,Arkham Intelligencedata showShapeShift founder and Venice AI co‑founder Erik Voorheesspent $49.08M in USDTtoday to buy 23,393 ether at an average of $2,098, lifting his recent accumulation to 24,968 ether worth about $56.5M and leaving one tagged wallet still holding stablecoins and staked ether . A separate Arkham‑based analysis showsIntuition Protocol CEO Billy Luedtkepurchasing 7,769 ether for $17.46M at an average of $2,248; together, those moves create more than $73.5M of clearly attributed ether demand in one day as ether gains roughly 7.4% versus bitcoin's ~3% rise.BITCOIN FLOWS, STRUCTURAL SIGNALS AND LIQUIDATIONS:U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in approximately $767M of net inflows in the week through March 13,. BlackRock's fund accounted for about $601M of that, Fidelity's added roughly $148M, Grayscale's converted trust bled about $25.9M, and the complex as a whole now sits near $91.8B in net asset value, or about 6.4% of bitcoin's market cap. Glassnode data, summarized in, show bitcoin's Accumulation Trend Score recently near 0.04 on a 0–1 scale, implying that larger cohorts have been net distributors rather than accumulators, while its newsletter notes only about 57% of BTC supply is in profit, a level associated with prior bear phases, even as ETF and spot flows remain supportive.At the derivatives level,FameEX, citingCoinglass, reports that as bitcoin briefly reclaimed $73,000 and ether pushed above $2,200, roughly $193M of leveraged positions were liquidated across the crypto market, most of them shorts; in one concentrated hour, liquidations totaled about $116M, with $113M of that from shorts, mirroring a classic short squeeze in an over‑borrowed equity.INFRASTRUCTURE AND TREASURY PIVOTS:On the equity side, Signing Day Sportstrades for the last time today before its merger with BlockchAIn LLC transitions the combined company to NYSE American under the ticker AIBat tomorrow's open, per aMarch 16 press release. The target adds a roughly 40‑megawatt South Carolina AI and high‑performance computing data center that earned $22.9M in revenue and $5.7M in net income in 2024, plus a non‑binding LOI with an international private equity firm for a 5‑megawatt, $100M‑plus AI/HPC build‑to‑suit project that could reach about $300M in value with extensions,.Digi Power Xused a March 16 clarification viato stress that its U.S. data centers spinout is strictly a manufacturing and distribution arm for its ARMS modular data centers, while Digi Power X retains all site‑level economics and a 55% stake; it reports roughly $80M in combined cash, bitcoin and ether, no debt or 2026 equity dilution, about 400 MW of secured power across four owned sites, and expects its ARMS200 deployment in Alabama to begin generating revenue in April.Further down the market‑cap spectrum, Bitcoin Depot(BTM),which operates more than 9,000 bitcoin ATMs worldwide, released its Q4 and FY25 figures before the bell and is hosting an earnings call at 10:00 A.M. ET, as flagged in.DEFI STRESS AND TOKENIZED EQUITY PLUMBING:argues that tokenized stocks have reached roughly $2B in value across platforms and are nearing a disruption phase comparable to bitcoin and stablecoins as rails, particularly with NYSE partnering with OKX and Nasdaqwith Kraken on chain‑native equity infrastructure. The piece highlights Securitize, Superstate and Figureas core plumbing providers, points to Coinbase, Robinhood, Kraken and Ondo as likely listed beneficiaries, and quotes Stan Druckenmiller predicting that stablecoins will dominate global payments in about 15 years.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin was trading at$73,669.85, while ether was trading at$2,286.57,according to price data from TipRanks.

The tape today is a live test of how much geopolitical cooling can reflate the "digital gold" and "on-chain capital markets" trades at the same time. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with "Crypto Currents," daily from The Fly. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio.BITCOIN JUMPS BACK ABOVE $70,000 AS OIL COOLS:reports that bitcoin (BTC-USD) reclaimed $70,000 and dragged ether (ETH-USD) and XRPhigher after President Trump said the Iran conflict could end "very soon," easing the war-premium pressure that had built up in oil and haven trades.Bloombergadds that bitcoin briefly pushed above $71,000 alongside a bounce in equities as crude backed off recent highs, reversing part of last week's energy-driven risk-off move.Bloombergseparately reports that many Hong Kong-based family offices plan to add exposure to digital assets and private equity over the next three years, signaling that institutional appetite in Asia is firming even as Western retail sentiment remains fragile.SPOT BITCOIN ETFS SNAP BACK TO $167M AS STRIVE AND CIRCLE GET STREET UPGRADES:says U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in about $167M of net inflows on Monday, reversing roughly $577M of outflows from the prior Thursday and Friday as BlackRock'sIBIT led with $109M and Fidelity's FBTC added $60M. Total spot bitcoin ETF assets sit near $88.3B, even as ether, XRP, and solanafunds logged a third straight day of redemptions. On the sell-side, B. Riley analyst Fedor Shabalin initiated Strive Enterprises (ASST) at Buy rating with a $12 price target, citing a dual-engine model that combines a roughly 13,100 bitcoin corporate treasury with about $2.5B of ETF assets under management across 13 products.TOKENIZED STOCKS TOP $1B AS NASDAQ AND KRAKEN BUILD THE ON-CHAIN EQUITY GATEWAY:Cointelegraphreports that tokenized stocks have crossed $1B in outstanding on-chain value for the first time, with Ondo Finance controlling about 60.5% share, roughly $605M, and Kraken's xStocks at about $232M.The Wall Street Journalcontinues to cover Nasdaq's (NDAQ) partnership with Kraken parent Payward to build an issuer-sponsored equity-token gateway using xStocks, which has processed more than $25B in cumulative volume since its June 2025 launch and now counts 85,000-plus on-chain holders. The tokens are expected to go live through DTCC settlement in the first half of 2027, putting traditional voting and dividend mechanics on-chain.BITCOIN TREASURY PLAYS DIVERGE AS HYPERSCALE STACKS AND EMPERY SELLS INTO STRENGTH:A freshpress releaseshows Hyperscale Data (GPUS) holding 617.16 bitcoin, worth about $40.7M at March 8 prices, plus $42.2M of cash and restricted cash, for total bitcoin-plus-cash of roughly $82.9M, or about 138% of its equity market cap. Empery Digital (EMPD) is running the opposite book, with adisclosing that it sold 102 bitcoin last week at an average of $71,636, raising about $7.3M to fund buybacks and bolster cash, while still holding 3,562 bitcoin and having repurchased 20.175 million shares under a $200M program. On the M&A front,notes that Signing Day Sports (SGN) expects to close its BlockchAIn Digital Infrastructure merger on March 16, with the combined company to trade as "AIB" on NYSE American and operate a 40 MW South Carolina AI/HPC data center.ETHER WHALES REPOSITION AS BITMINE MOVES $19.5M TO COINBASE PRIME:shows Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) moved 9,608 ether, about $19.5M, into Coinbase Prime in two tranches today, routing through an intermediate wallet in a pattern consistent with institutional custody or staking rather than spot selling. Bitmine still controls more than 1 million ether across tracked wallets and disclosed 4.53 million ether, 195 bitcoin, and $1.2B in cash on March 9, with Chairman Tom Lee telling investors the firm stepped up purchases to about 61,000 ether last week, its largest weekly buy of 2026. Separately, an OG whale address completed a full liquidation by sending its final 5,082 ether, about $10.3M, to Coinbase, closing out a position that traces back to a 23,300 ether withdrawal from Kraken in October 2016 at roughly $10.37 per coin for a roughly 19,383% gain, while a different whale bought 10,158 ether for $21M at around $2,069 and holds about $83.6M in 20x leveraged bitcoin and ether longs with more than $3M in floating profit.Cointelegraphframes all of this against ether's 65% underperformance versus bitcoin since the proof-of-stake transition, with the "ultrasound money" narrative fading as post-Dencun fee burns decline and supply turns modestly inflationary.SEC FILINGS ROUNDUP FROM BULLISH TO PERSHING SQUARE TO SOLUNA:Bullish (BLSH) filed its20-F annual reportshowing $84.1B in February 2026 trading volume, an adjusted revenue jump to $288.5M from $213.9M, adjusted EBITDA of $94.3M, and gross liquid assets of $3.72B, but a statutory net loss of $785.5M driven by digital-asset impairments. Teucrium Commodity Trust alsoregisteredits 7RCC Spot Bitcoin and Carbon Credit Futures ETF on NYSE Arca, targeting an 80/20 split between bitcoin and regulated carbon credit futures.The Wall Street Journalreports that Bill Ackman's Pershing Square filed its N-2 IPO registration for a closed-end fund planning to list on the NYSE under ticker 'PSUS', with $2.8B already committed toward an anticipated $5B-$10B raise, and the filing includes "cryptocurrency," "blockchain," and "digital asset" within its risk factors and investment universe language. A Lazard Fundsdisclosurerevealed holdings in Coinbase (COIN), Riot Platforms (RIOT), CleanSpark (CLSK), and MARA Holdings (MARA). Soluna Holdings (SLNH) filed an8-Ka day after putting a $1B shelf registration on file, advancing its 83 MW wind-powered bitcoin mining facility in Texas with a projected 3.5 EH/s hashrate and $17M to $20M in annual revenue, plus a 350 MW Tier 3 AI campus on more than 500 acres. BitGo Holdings (BTGO) CEO Mike Belshe is presenting at the Canaccord Genuity Digital Assets Symposium today, fresh off announcements that BitGo will provide stablecoin infrastructure for SoFiUSD, the first stablecoin from a U.S. nationally chartered bank, and completed the first tokenized equity trades with Figureon the Provenance blockchain.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin was trading at$71,354.18, while ether was trading at $2,068.70,.