Weekly Recap: Bitcoin Tests $74K, Miners Dump Holdings, ChatGPT Boycott Grows

The past week delivered significant volatility in crypto markets alongside a notable shift in trading patterns, growing miner capitulation, and a social media uprising against OpenAI's military partnership. Here's everything that happened.

Bitcoin Surges to $74,000, Then Gives It All Back

Bitcoin opened Monday at $65,000 and rallied to $70,000 by the evening — successfully breaking through a resistance level that had repelled multiple prior attempts. After a brief pullback on Wednesday, March 4, BTC spiked to $74,000 for the first time in a month. The level proved unsustainable: after retesting $74,000 on Thursday, the price slid steadily through the weekend, settling at $67,500 by Sunday.

BTC/USDT hourly chart on Binance. Source: TradingView

The rally coincided with renewed inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs. Net weekly inflows totaled $586 million, with Monday through Wednesday posting gains of +$458M, +$225M, and +$461M respectively. Thursday and Friday reversed course with outflows of -$227M and -$348M.

Weekly net flows into spot Bitcoin ETFs. Source: SoSoValue

A statement from President Donald Trump ruling out diplomatic resolution with Iran triggered rising oil prices and a stronger dollar, applying pressure to risk assets including crypto.

Why This Matters

The week exposed several structural vulnerabilities in the crypto market. Bitcoin remains tightly coupled to geopolitics and macroeconomic developments. Altcoins suffered even more: analyst Darkfost noted that roughly 38% of altcoins have approached all-time lows — a worse situation than the aftermath of the FTX collapse. Liquidity continues flowing out of crypto into equities and commodities.

Leading crypto asset performance over the week. Source: CoinGecko

ETH lost 2.5% over seven days, falling to $1,930. SOL dropped 3.5% to $82, while TRX gained 1.8%. As of March 8, total crypto market capitalization stood at $2.36 trillion, with Bitcoin dominance at 56% and Ethereum at 9.9%. The Fear & Greed Index remained anchored near 12.

Crypto Fear and Greed Index. Source: Alternative

Oil, Gold, and Silver Trading Surge on Hyperliquid

Middle East tensions drove crypto traders to decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, where perpetual futures on commodities are available via tokenized HIP-3 assets. On March 8, the USOIL token against USDH peaked at $125 before correcting to $115, with daily trading volume reaching $17 million.

Daily USOIL/USDH chart on Hyperliquid

Gold futures saw peak daily volume exceeding $159 million, while silver perpetuals led all commodities with $398 million in daily turnover. On March 2, Hyperliquid topped all protocols by generated fees, nearly reaching $2 million.

Daily GOLD/USD chart on Hyperliquid

«This is proof of the power of tokenized assets and perpetual contracts built on crypto infrastructure» — Kenny Chan, Head of Stablecoin Ecosystem at Coinbase, original post

Chan noted that previously, traders had no option beyond Bitcoin during weekend geopolitical events. Blockchain infrastructure now provides access to oil, gold, and silver without intermediaries.

Public Miners Sell Over 15,000 BTC in Five Months

Signs of miner capitulation intensified. Analysts estimate that publicly traded mining companies collectively sold more than 15,000 BTC over five months. Key sellers include:

• Riot — sold four times more coins in December than it mined in 30 days;
• Cango — liquidated 4,451 BTC (60% of reserves) in February;
• Bitdeer — fully sold its Bitcoin holdings in February (approximately 943.1 BTC);
• Core Scientific — announced plans to sell most of its coins by end of Q1.

Public mining company reserves. Source: BitcoinTreasuries

Hashprice has fallen below $30 per PH/s per day, down sharply from 90% mining margins in 2021. Most public miners now operate at or below breakeven. Proceeds are being directed toward debt repayment and building AI data center infrastructure.

Bitcoin mining hashprice dynamics. Source: TheEnergyMag

ChatGPT Boycott Gains Momentum After Pentagon Deal

OpenAI's agreement to deploy AI models in classified military networks triggered a major user backlash. A Reddit post calling for a ChatGPT boycott garnered 30,000 upvotes, while the quitGPT Instagram account attracted 78,000 followers. Over 700 Google and OpenAI employees signed an open letter demanding that AI not be used for surveillance or autonomous combat operations.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the misstep, stating the company should not have rushed the deal. The revised agreement with the Pentagon now includes a clause prohibiting «intentional use of artificial intelligence» for spying on U.S. citizens. Despite these changes, Anthropic's Claude chatbot overtook ChatGPT in App Store downloads in the U.S.

Claude by Anthropic overtook ChatGPT in U.S. App Store downloads

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei took the opposite stance, publicly refusing military contracts and prohibiting use of the company's models for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons development.

Morgan Stanley Files for Bitcoin ETF, Western Union Launches Stablecoin

Investment bank Morgan Stanley ($1.9 trillion in assets) filed an SEC application to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. Coinbase and BNY Mellon will handle custody, with most BTC stored in cold wallets. Morgan Stanley has steadily expanded its crypto footprint since 2021, when it became the first major U.S. financial institution to offer clients access to the NYDIG Bitcoin fund.

Western Union announced the USDPT stablecoin on Solana blockchain, developed in partnership with Web3 platform Crossmint. Its key differentiator: direct conversion to fiat currencies and cash withdrawal at 360,000 Western Union locations across 200+ countries.

Other stablecoin and crypto banking developments during the week:

• Visa and Stripe to launch stablecoin cards in 100+ countries;
• Bank of Japan launched a blockchain sandbox for domestic transfers;
• Tether backed a project to integrate USDT on Bitcoin's blockchain;
• Native stablecoin USDsui launched on the Sui network;
• Florida passed the first state-level stablecoin bill in the U.S.