The crypto market took a mild hit on March 6, with total capitalization sliding to $2.48 trillion, down 1.6% in 24 hours. Trading volume reached $119.7 billion.
Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $71,085, losing 2.4%, with a market cap of $1.42 trillion and $50.1 billion in volume. Ethereum (ETH) fell 1.53% to $2,086.8, market cap $251.8 billion, volume $21.9 billion. Bitcoin dominance held at 57.1%, Ethereum at 10.1%.
Fear & Greed Index Sinks to 18 — Extreme Fear
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropped to 18 (Extreme Fear), down from 22 yesterday but above last week's 13 and last month's 14. The low reading signals heavy selling pressure and weak investor confidence.
Lombard Leads Gainers: +56%, OKB Nears $100
Several altcoins bucked the downturn. Lombard (BARD) skyrocketed 56.14% to $1.67, with $338.14 million in volume. Humanity Protocol (H) climbed 43.87% to $0.1796, volume $108.22 million. OKB (OKB) jumped 28.05% to $99.89 on $536.66 million trading.
Losers included Opinion (OPN) down 21.58%, Block Street (BSB) -6.04%, River (RIVER) -6.53%, pippin (PIPPIN) -5.84%, and OFFICIAL TRUMP (TRUMP) -5.56%.
Institutional Moves: BTC ETF Inflows, Core Scientific Loan
Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded approximately $500 million in net inflows on the day, according to Eric Balchunas. BTC rose 12% intraday, though short-term moves don't confirm a safe-haven trend.
Crypto miner Core Scientific secured a $500 million credit facility from Morgan Stanley to shift toward AI and high-performance computing data centers.
21Shares will launch the 21Shares Polkadot ETF (TDOT) tomorrow, a passive fund tracking DOT via the CME CF Polkadot-Dollar Reference Rate – New York Variant.
On the macro front, U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending Feb 28 came in at 213,000, slightly below the expected 215,000. The prior week was also revised to 213,000.
TD Cowen noted that more crypto firms may gain Federal Reserve master accounts after Kraken's approval, boosted by President Trump's pro-crypto stance.
Stablecoins and DeFi
Stablecoin market cap edged up 0.4% to $314 billion, with $102 billion in volume. DeFi capitalization fell 1.1% to $51.55 billion, volume $4.2 billion, representing 2.1% of the global crypto market.