Bitcoin is trading in positive territory this morning even as major Asian stock indices suffer sharp losses, with South Korea's KOSPI down more than 9% and Japan's Nikkei off 6.5%. BTC climbed from the $67,100–$67,200 area to a peak near $67,600 around 04:25 UTC and is now changing hands at 67,816 as bulls try to build a higher support zone. Analyst Willy Woo expects the asset to remain in a broader bear market phase while potentially rallying toward the mid-$80,000 range as a possible bull trap into late April.

On-chain metrics from Glassnode indicate that 36.8 billion XRP are now held at a loss, translating into $50.8 billion in unrealized losses for investors. After reaching a new all-time high above $3 during its 2025 parabolic run, XRP has fallen back into the $1 to $2 range and is currently trading at $1.34.

According to Onchain Lens, Ethereum co-founder Jeffrey Wilcke has sent 79,859 ETH, valued at roughly $158.31 million at press time, to the Kraken exchange within the past 24 hours. After this transfer, his known wallet retains 16,037 ETH, while Ethereum’s market price remains under the key $2,000 level amid ongoing selling by early co-founders. Over recent years, Wilcke and Vitalik Buterin have together sold hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of ETH for personal initiatives and Ethereum Foundation funding.

On-chain analyst Willy Woo is cautioning Bitcoin traders that a possible move toward the mid-$80,000 area may only be a bull trap rather than the start of a new uptrend. He argues that BTC's sharp sell-off in this early bear market has left conditions suitable for a temporary relief rally, but he does not believe the market has definitively found a bottom. Woo suggests the rally, which he tentatively sees extending into late April, would be driven by liquidity dynamics and short-term investor cost bases rather than a confirmed macro reversal.

The XRP Ledger is pursuing native decentralized lending and borrowing through the proposed XLS-66 "Lending Protocol" amendment. Introduced in XRPL version 3.1.0 and co-authored by Ripple developers Vytautas Vito Tumas and Aanchal Malhotra, it aims to enable on-chain uncollateralized fixed-term loans using pooled funds. The change still needs an 80% validator supermajority sustained for two weeks, while current support stands at 17.14% with 6 validators backing the proposal.

Blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant reports that Bitcoin reserves on centralized exchanges have fallen to roughly 2.7 million BTC, the weakest exchange liquidity since November 2018. During prior bull cycles between 2020 and 2022, balances exceeded 3.5 million BTC, but sustained outflows through 2023, 2024 and early 2026 have coincided with Bitcoin trading slightly above $70,000. This decline is linked to users shifting coins off platforms, as well as U.S. spot ETF demand and corporate treasury accumulation tightening available supply.

Ripple's U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD has climbed to a market capitalization of about $1.58 billion and is approaching the $1.6 billion mark following a fresh 10 million token mint on XRP Ledger. The asset now ranks as the 52nd largest cryptocurrency and the 12th biggest stablecoin, having recently overtaken several rivals including Binance's BFUSD and Tron's USDD.

In the past 48 hours, Bitcoin has rallied nearly 8% and is now testing the $73,000 level, yet sentiment remains weak with the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index stuck at 22. Despite this rebound, the cryptocurrency is still down 42.6% from its all-time high set about five months ago. Recent data show that a brief improvement in early January followed a deep slump in December 2025, but February's extreme fear and single-digit readings have left traders cautious about the latest move.

On March 4, Bitcoin rallied strongly, hitting an intraday high of $73,952.99 while trading closely in line with U.S. SaaS tech stocks. Arthur Hayes cautioned that Bitcoin has not yet broken its correlation with software equities and suggested the move could be a dead cat bounce. At the same time, Peter Brandt viewed the breakout from a symmetrical triangle pattern and push toward $73,000 as a potentially important shift in the asset's price behavior.