The crypto market moved lower on March 23, with total capitalization falling to $2.41 trillion, down 1.5% over the past 24 hours. Total trading volume came in at $70.5 billion. Sentiment weakened sharply as the Crypto Fear & Greed Index slipped to 8 from 10 a day earlier and 23 a week ago, placing the market in extreme fear territory.
Large-cap assets stayed under pressure. Bitcoin (BTC) traded at about $68,056.24, down 1.18% in 24 hours, with volume at $27.8 billion and market capitalization at $1.36 trillion. Ethereum (ETH) stood at $2,053.82, down 1.52%, with $14.44 billion in trading volume and a market cap of $247.86 billion. BTC dominance was listed at 56.1%, while ETH accounted for 10.2%.
SIREN Leads Daily Movers as Select Altcoins Outperform
Price action across altcoins was uneven. Siren (SIREN) climbed to $2.42, posting a sharp 160.09% gain in 24 hours on trading volume of $230.88 million. That made it one of the standout movers of the day. Other gainers included River (RIVER) at $30.28, up 19.15%; DeXe (DEXE) at $7.26, up 11.81%; and Monero (XMR) at $360.02, up 5.56%.
On the losing side, Quant (QNT) fell to $70.94, down 7.05%. Decred (DCR) dropped to $23.03, losing 6.89%, while ether.fi (ETHFI) slipped to $0.5464, down 6.43%. XRP traded at $1.38, lower by 1.69%. The DeFi market also weakened, falling 2.2% to a total capitalization of $50.47 billion with $3.4 billion in volume and 2.1% global dominance.
SEC Removes ETF Options Cap, FTX Starts $2.2 Billion Repayment Process
Regulatory and industry updates stayed in focus. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accepted rule changes removing the previous 25,000-contract limit on Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF options. Under the revised structure, limits now scale dynamically and FLEX options are allowed to trade. The source material linked the move to stronger liquidity conditions.
FTX was another major headline. According to the source, the exchange began a $2.2 billion creditor repayment process starting on March 31, with claims recovery at around 18%. Returns tied to U.S.-linked users were described as lower. In a separate protocol update, Venus Protocol halted USR trading after a depegging event in the Venus Flux market and said core systems remained safe and user funds were not lost.
Exchange, Security, and Employment Headlines Add to Market Stress
Corporate developments added to the risk-heavy tone. Bithumb plans to reappoint CEO Lee Jae-yeong on March 31, even as it faces fines, AML violations, an operations suspension, and an ongoing investigation. CoinDCX founders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal were arrested in a fake website scam investigation, while the company denied involvement and said fraud networks had impersonated their identities.
Security concerns also resurfaced. Fake Google Play apps were reported to be infecting Android devices, mining crypto through XMRig, stealing USDT, replacing wallet addresses, and enabling surveillance. At the same time, Algorand Foundation, Gemini, and Crypto.com cut a combined 450 jobs, citing weak markets, token declines, and increased AI usage. Stablecoins were one of the few areas that held up, posting a 0.6% increase over 24 hours with a market cap of $311.7 billion and trading volume of $54.6 billion.