Crypto Currents: Bitcoin tops $71,000 as ETF inflows return

IRAN CONFLICT RATTLES MARKETS AS CIRCLE GETS A RATE-DRIVEN BOOST:

Bitcoin’s rebound above $71,000 represented a surge of more than 5% from Tuesday afternoon levels as the Middle East conflict entered its fifth day,Bloomberg reportedBloombergalso reported that Iran’s $7.8B cryptocurrency market is drawing fresh scrutiny, with Elliptic data showing outflows from Nobitex, Iran’s largest exchange, surged 700% within minutes of the first airstrikes, and total outflows from Iranian exchanges reached roughly $10.3M between February 28 and March 2. Circle’s premarket gain came after the stock surged over 20% this weekBarron’snoted that Mizuho raised its price target from $90 to $100, citing rising oil prices and fading Fed rate-cut expectations. Because Circle earns the bulk of its revenue from interest on U.S. government debt reserves backing USDC, a higher-for-longer rate environment is directly accretive, the stock had already rallied 62% over the prior week after a Q4 revenue beat of $770M, up 77% year-over-year.

MINERS ACCELERATE AI PIVOT AS APPLIED DIGITAL PRICES $2.15B BOND AND CORE SCIENTIFIC DUMPS ALL BTC:

Applied DigitalSEC 8-Kannouncing the pricing of a $2.15B offering of 6.750% senior secured notes due 2031, with proceeds funding a 200-megawatt AI data center, Polaris Forge 2, in North Dakota leased to OracleBloomberg reportedIn a related filing, Babcock & WilcoxSEC 8-Kthat it received full notice to proceed on a $2.4B power generation project to supply 1.2 gigawatts of electricity to Applied Digital’s AI Factory campuses. Core ScientificBITCOIN TREASURY ARMS RACE HEATS UP WITH A WAVE OF WEDNESDAY FILINGS: A cluster of filings and press releases underscored the accelerating bitcoin treasury trend among publicly traded companies. Jiuzi Holdingscompany press release.DDC EnterpriseSEC 6-Kthat its BTC treasury expanded to 2,183 BTC after purchasing an additional 65 BTC, alongside record 2025 revenue of $39-41M ProCap Financiala company press release.Hyperscale DataBarchart. MARA Holdings(MARA)drew attention after its 2026 10-K filing revealed an expanded bitcoin strategy that now permits the sale of BTC held on its balance sheet, not just newly mined coins, perYahoo FinanceMARA VP of Investor Relations Robert Samuels clarified on X that the policy change is not an intention to liquidate most reserves but allows periodic purchases and sales based on market conditions, perCryptoBriefing.MARA holds roughly 53,822 BTC. Separately, American Bitcoin(HUT) subsidiary co-founded by Eric Trump, announced the purchase of 11,298 new miners adding approximately 3.05 EH/s to its fleet, per acompany press release.

ETF FLOWS REVERSE, ARK BUYS THE DIP, AND WALL STREET BUILDS CRYPTO PLUMBING:

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded a 4,046 BTC net inflow on Wednesday, approximately $290.89M, with the trailing seven-day total of 20,816 BTC marking the strongest weekly figure since mid-January and a sharp reversal from February’s extended outflow streak, perLookonchainThe prior day, March 3, spot BTC ETFs took in $458.2M and spot ether (ETH-USD) ETFs added $38.7M, according toFarside dataARK Invest’s Tuesday trade disclosures showed Cathie Wood purchased $16.15M in crypto-linked equities, 22,452 shares of Coinbase(COIN)($4.09M) and 158,587 shares of RobinhoodTraders Union. On the institutional infrastructure front, Tradeweb Marketscompany press release.Tradeweb CEO Billy Hult called it the firm’s “entry into institutional crypto,” with plans to provide global clients algorithmic order-routing access to crypto spot liquidity.

REGULATORY LANDSCAPE SHIFTS FROM D.C. TO ANKARA:

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins will headline Day 1 of the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit in New York on March 24-26, alongside BlackRock’s Samara Cohen, Morgan Stanley’s Amy Oldenburg, and Binance CEO Richard Teng, per acompany press release.Separately,Reuters reportedthat British and U.S. regulators are divided over how to test blockchain-based versions of financial securities, with Britain pushing for a more cautious approach in joint Transatlantic Taskforce talks. Turkey’s parliament is considering a draft law that would impose a 10% withholding tax on crypto gains and a 0.03% transaction tax on crypto service providers, expected to generate at least $96M annually,Reuters reported.The CBOE BZX Exchange published aFederal Register noticeproposing listing criteria for options on multi-crypto ETFs, requiring each underlying asset to have at least $700M in average daily market value.