An abundance of caution
What's being bought and sold*
TOP TRENDING ASSETS
*Trading activity in the past 24 hours on the Uphold platform, as of 8 a.m. 6th March 2026.
The combined total of buy and sell percentages can exceed 100% due to customers who engage in both buying and selling the same asset within the 24-hour time frame.
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What’s up
Oil Price Spike Fuels Trepidation
Growing worries about prolonged disruption of energy production in the Middle East sent crude oil spiking to its highest level in nearly two years. As of early Friday, the widely watched global benchmark — Brent crude futures — crept toward $90 per barrel. Last Friday, the price was about $70.
The war between U.S./Israel and Iran now heads into day seven with no clear off-ramp in sight. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a press conference yesterday said the U.S. had “only just begun to fight.”
Qatar’s energy minister warned of $150 oil on the horizon (CNBC).
What's down
After Breakout Performance, Bitcoin Fades Into Background
Bitcoin’s spirited trek toward $74,000 earlier this week sent a message to the risk-hedging crowd that digital gold could hang with the safest of havens. But this bold wartime move could not be sustained. As of Friday at 9:30 a.m. (EST), BTC was struggling to stay above $69K after a 24-hour decline of 5%.
Spot BTC ETFs saw $228M in net outflows on Thursday, ending a multi-day streak of inflows totaling more than $1B (Cointelegraph).
Yesterday’s outflows, coupled with a generally cautious macro backdrop, would seem to suggest “the market is not out of danger yet,” The Block said.
What's next
Analysts Urge Caution Until BTC Can Cleanly Exit Current Band
Were it not for the war in the Middle East, China’s markedly slowing economy might be getting a lot more attention. As for a potential U.S. slowdown, that untimely prospect can't be ignored. Early Friday, the Labor Department released its latest jobs report. Surprise! Payrolls fell by 92,000 in February. Economists were expecting a decline of only 50,000.
And so the souring employment situation on top of rising oil prices led Dow futures sharply lower as of about 9 a.m. (EST).
Bitcoin’s tussle with $70K was not going well at all. When we checked CoinGecko as of 9:45 a.m. (EST), BTC was roughly $68,800.
Per a CoinDesk review of derivatives markets, there is currently rising open interest and increasing hedging via short positions. The options realm is pricing in “a near-term volatility event,” CoinDesk said.
A Nansen analyst, Nicolai Sondergaard, isn’t yet sold on BTC's chances to break out of the $60K-$70K range in which it has been mired for weeks. Sondergaard told The Block that before the market can treat the recent move as something more lasting, BTC needs to cleanly break above $71K and hold there.
QCP Capital analysts also urged caution, pointing to oil prices which are really roiling markets right now. It’s not clear how the world’s largest digital asset might perform in an energy crisis. Binance Research said BTC’s relationship with crude oil appears inconsistent.
