Spot Gold Breaks Below $4600/Ounce

**March 19 (CoinDesk) — Ahead of Deribit’s quarterly Bitcoin options expiration, the $20,000 put option is the third-most popular strike price with ~$5.96B in notional value, reflecting traders positioning for extreme downside amid Middle East geopolitical tensions.** Open interest breakdown shows the top three strikes: $125,000 calls ($7.4B), $75,000 ($6.87B), and $20,000 puts ($5.96B)—signaling broad expectations for both upside and downside moves. Total notional value for the expiration is $13.5B, with 195,719 BTC in open interest (120,236 BTC in calls, 75,482 BTC in puts). With BTC currently trading below $70k, the $20k strike is a deep out-of-the-money (OTM) option—only profitable if BTC plummets 70%+ from current levels. Much of this activity likely stems from traders selling deep OTM puts to collect premiums, indicating a $20k downturn is seen as low-probability (not a direct collapse hedge). In short, it’s more an income boost or volatility play than a direct bearish bet.

March 19 — Strive, the Bitcoin Treasury (DAT) firm tied to Vivek Ramaswamy, added 317 BTC over the past week (through March 17), pushing its total holdings to 13,627.9 BTC, according to The Block. The firm now ranks 10th among the top 10 public Bitcoin treasuries, surpassing CleanSpark. Since its September 2025 listing, Strive has accumulated Bitcoin via three key channels: 5,886 BTC from its initial PIPE financing, 5,048 BTC from acquiring Semler Scientific, and 2,694 BTC from capital market activities including its IPO, follow-on offerings, and market issuance plans. It funds its Bitcoin strategy with structured financial instruments, led by its core product: the Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock (SATA). Despite growing holdings, Strive reported a GAAP net loss of $393.6 million in Q4 2025 and a non-GAAP adjusted net loss of $208.2 million. Roughly 93% of the non-GAAP loss ($194.5 million) stemmed from a decline in the fair value of its Bitcoin holdings. As of

On March 19, the Federal Reserve (Fed) on Thursday released a proposal to ease capital requirements for top Wall Street banks—a move that could unlock tens of billions of dollars for lending, stock buybacks, and dividend payouts. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said in a statement: “These reforms will strengthen our overall capital framework, which will remain robust under the new regulatory regime.” The proposal will undergo a 90-day public comment period before finalization. It was developed jointly by the Fed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The Fed Board will formally vote on the plan Thursday. Officials frame it as part of capital simplification efforts. If adopted—alongside relaxed enhanced supplementary leverage ratio (eSLR) rules and stress testing reforms—the package would represent the largest overhaul of U.S. bank capital rules since post-2008 global financial crisis measures w

On March 19, Layer 1 network 0G Labs—specialized in decentralized AI—announced the official launch of the 0G APAC Hackathon in partnership with HackQuest, with a total prize pool of $150,000. The event features four core tracks: AI Agent Framework & Orchestration, Verifiable On-chain Transactions, Autonomous Agent Economy, and Privacy-Preserving AI Applications. Participating teams will receive full-stack technical support from 0G, spanning the public chain, computing power, storage, and data availability layer. In-person Open Day events will be held across the Asia-Pacific region during the hackathon. Top-performing teams will be invited to showcase their projects at the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival.

March 19th — Bank of America’s Chief Equity Strategist Michael Hartnett says consumer stocks may now offer the best buying opportunity, even as surging oil prices threaten to stoke inflation and weigh on the economy. “Consumer stocks have fully priced in stagflation expectations,” Hartnett noted at a Thursday event. He warned rising oil prices could delay Fed rate cuts, pressuring stocks in the short term — and pegged a drop in the S&P 500 to around 6600 points as an ideal entry point. Hartnett dubs today’s investors the “quantitative easing generation” — used to central banks quickly bailing out markets. He argues this mindset needs to shift for policymakers to take meaningful action. Long-term, he’s bullish on international markets and commodities, calling them the “true bull market of the inflation era.” He also dismissed speculation the Fed could hike rates amid turmoil as “nonsensical.” (FXStreet)