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Bitcoin tested $75,000 for the first time since early February
On March 17, the price of the leading cryptocurrency rose to $75,900. Similar levels were last seen at the beginning of February.
At the time of writing, digital gold is trading around $74,200 (+0.9% over the past 24 hours).
Hourly chart of $BTC/$USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView
At the same time, the price of Ethereum jumped to $2,300. Over the past 24 hours, the altcoin gained 2.4%, and 13.5% over the week. The asset outperformed Bitcoin in growth rates amid the return of institutional investors.
Hourly chart of ETH/$USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView
Over the past 24 hours, the volume of liquidations in the crypto market reached $498 million. The majority — $329 million — came from short positions. Bitcoin traders suffered the largest losses.
Source: CoinGlass
The popular market sentiment indicator rose to 28, leaving the “extreme fear” zone. This is the highest level since the end of January. Nevertheless, uncertainty still dominates among investors.
Source: Alternative.me
Why are cryptocurrencies rising?
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, believes that the price increase is largely explained by the closing of short positions that traders opened during the February decline.
“Traders are massively closing put options with strike prices of $55,000 and $60,000. They realized that these contracts are unlikely to end up in the money before expiration, and began exiting positions. It was the removal of these protective hedges that pushed the price upward,” he noted.
Rick Maeda from Presto Research pointed to the return of institutional demand. Over the past week, spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $767.3 million, while Ethereum funds received $160.8 million.
Purchases by Strategy also had a positive impact on prices. Last week the company bought 22,337 $BTC for $1.57 billion. The transaction became one of the five largest in the company’s history.
According to social data, the top trending coins driving markets across social media are:
Bitcoin $BTC: large-scale institutional accumulation by MicroStrategy — the company purchased 22,337 $BTC (~$1.57B) during March 9–15, 2026, mainly using STRC preferred shares.
Source: Santiment
Analysts at QCP noted that the digital asset market “reversed despite the geopolitical storm.” Bitcoin and Ethereum are rising, while traditional markets remain under pressure.
“If this pattern continues, we may witness an unexpected turn at the end of the quarter, considering crypto’s outsider status and its tendency to correlate with traditional assets mainly during downturns,” analysts wrote.
According to them, recent price dynamics revived the narrative of Bitcoin as a “digital safe haven.” This is also hinted at by a surge in on-chain activity and new capital inflows into stablecoins.
Earlier, the supply of USDC reached a record $81.1 billion.
It is worth recalling that analysts at Santiment pointed to a positive signal for Bitcoin. Large Bitcoin holders have once again started increasing their positions.
A massive withdrawal of 32,000 $BTC to cold wallets indicated a possible rise of Bitcoin to $80,000.
See also: "Bitcoin ETFs: six consecutive days of investment inflows and nearly $1 billion in a week"
