US Stock Market Open: Cryptocurrency-related Stocks Experience a General Decline, SBET Falls Over 8%, MARA Bucks the Trend Rises Over 7%

March 26: U.S. President Donald Trump chaired a cabinet meeting today. When asked, “Will you enter Iran to seize uranium?” he declined to answer before quipping, “We’ll take action tomorrow at 3 p.m.”

March 26 — AI game creation platform Verse8 has raised $5 million in seed funding, with backers including Story Foundation, NEXPACE (Nexon’s Web3 division), Neowiz, MARBLEX (Netmarble’s Web3 arm), Solarium Labs, and NEXUS. The new capital will go toward enhancing Verse8’s core AI system, expanding creator onboarding and incentive initiatives, and scaling its publishing and distribution infrastructure. Co-founded by JC Kim and Kevin Lee, Verse8 lets creators build fully playable multiplayer games in minutes using natural language prompts—no coding required, no engine installations needed, and no large production teams to assemble.

March 26: Per market reports, Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) has lost a lawsuit against advertisers who boycotted the platform.

March 26 — UBS says ongoing inflation and geopolitical risks will likely lead the Federal Reserve to delay interest rate cuts until September, with a potential additional cut in December. Economist Andrew Dubinsky notes the Fed is waiting for clear evidence of a meaningful drop in inflation. Core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) currently remain around 3%, partly driven by tariff impacts. Fueled by Iran-related oil price gains and a stable labor market, the Fed is taking a "wait-and-see" approach. UBS forecasts economic conditions will improve in 2026, though the timing of rate cuts remains uncertain.

March 26 – Per LookOnChain data, James Wynn opened a 40x leveraged "ant barn" short on Bitcoin 30 minutes ago, with a liquidation price of $70,270.83.

On March 26, Greeks.live took to social media to note that the Q1 quarterly major options expiration is approaching—tomorrow marks the largest options expiry of the year so far, with nearly 40% of open options set to expire. ### Key Metrics - **BTC Max Pain**: Currently anchored at $75,000, which looks out of reach given current market conditions. - **Put/Call Ratio**: Holding steady around 0.6 (relatively low), indicating light put option trading volume—though overall sentiment remains leaning bearish. ### Implied Volatility (IV) Alert An IV crush is imminent. Front-end IV (near the expiration date) is still holding firm, but a severe volatility collapse is highly likely once expiry wraps tomorrow. Short-term option buyers are at a notable disadvantage right now, while sellers hold a clear edge. ### Whale & Block Trade Updates Today’s block data on Deribit shows smart money is actively deploying rolling strategies. Many institutions are closing out positions expiring