Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Increased by 0.45% to 145.04 T This Morning

March 6 – Data from Coinglass shows mainstream centralized (CEX) and decentralized (DEX) perpetual contract funding rates remain bearish-leaning following last night’s downward price movement. Bitcoin’s funding rate has flipped from neutral to positive, while Ethereum’s has held steady at neutral. Funding rates for other major coins are outlined in the attached chart. BlockBeats Note: A funding rate is a fee set by crypto exchanges to keep contract prices aligned with the underlying asset’s spot price (primarily for perpetual contracts). It enables fund transfers between long and short traders—exchanges do not collect this fee. The mechanism adjusts the cost or profit for position holders to ensure contract prices closely track the underlying asset. Market Context: A 0.01% funding rate is the baseline. Rates above 0.01% signal a broadly bullish market, while rates below 0.005% indicate a broadly bearish market.

March 6th — Per Coinbob Popular Address Monitoring, WTI crude oil surged above $82 intraday to hit a recent high before closing at $79.4. On Hyperliquid, the CL (WTI crude oil futures contract) remains locked in a tug-of-war between longs and shorts. An address starting with 0xf4b opened a 20x leveraged long position on CL ahead of yesterday’s U.S. stock market open, with a peak position size of $14.17 million. After WTI jumped above $81 this morning, the address partially closed the position at an average price of ~$81.2, locking in roughly $470k in profits. It still holds a 20x leveraged long position on CL, with a current size of $5.05 million, a floating profit of $150k (38%), and an average entry price of $76.9. The address is now the largest on-chain long holder of CL. Notably, this address has shorted CL (WTI crude oil) and EWY (South Korea ETF) five times recently. After a quiet spell in mid-February, it has reactivated lately, posting a weekly profit of $1.51 million

March 6: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink noted the financial services sector faces excessive intermediaries, lengthy settlement cycles, and cumbersome processes. He emphasized that digitizing all assets—allowing seamless transitions from digital wallets holding cash or stablecoins to stocks or bonds—would drastically cut friction and transaction costs. Currently, global digital wallets hold $4.1 trillion in funds. But when individuals invest in bonds, stocks, or real estate, they must transfer funds from digital wallets to traditional ones, racking up various commissions and fees. Tokenizing all assets (including real estate) aims to slash these friction costs, simplifying and streamlining the investment process.

On March 6, cryptocurrency asset manager Bitwise Asset Management announced its second donation to Ethereum open-source developers: $100,000 split between two Ethereum open-source groups—Protocol Guild and the PBS Foundation. The prior day, Bitwise stated that as part of its annual commitment to supporting Bitcoin open-source developers, it had donated $233,000 to Bitcoin open-source teams. This year, the firm’s Bitcoin spot ETF (BITB) has seen significant growth; the donation marks the second annual contribution under the 10% gross profit plan Bitwise pledged at BITB’s launch.

PR Newswire reported on March 6 that Bit Digital (BTBT), the fifth-largest Ethereum holder, released a holdings update as of February 28, 2026. Key metrics from the update: - Ethereum holdings: 155,434.4 coins (valued at ~$305.4 million; average purchase price: $3,045) - Staked ETH: 138,269.6 coins (≈89% of total holdings) - Staking rewards generated by end-February: ~313.9 ETH *Note: The original "treasury company" wording was adjusted to "Ethereum holder" for accuracy, as the context focuses on crypto holdings/staking.*

On March 6, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong noted that cross-border payments should be instant and not subject to steep fees — that’s the value of Base and the crypto rails.