Bitcoin Soars to Break $85,000 Barrier, Then Retraces, Now Trading at $84,280

On March 18th, the Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust announced that Interop Labs (the initial development team of Axelar Network) has joined forces with industry leaders such as Citigroup, American Express, Chainlink, and Polygon to drive open-source and security development in the market and industry. Axelar Network and the Linux Foundation will work together to build an open-source future.
The Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust is a decentralized trust project supported by the Linux Foundation. It is committed to advancing trust and transparency in the digital world through blockchain technology and community-driven development. Its core idea is that "trust and transparency are the cornerstones of today's digital world." It plays a significant role in decentralized technology through community collaboration and open innovation.

On March 18th, the Bitget team partners with Bubblemaps (BMT) to launch the first phase of the Early Hunter Airdrop Program, with the aim of rewarding early supporters of high-quality projects. Moving forward, Bitget will collaborate with high-potential blockchain projects on a periodic basis to distribute token airdrop rewards. Users only need to hold at least 10 BGB in their Bitget spot account to participate in the Early Hunter Airdrop Program. The details of the first phase of the airdrop program are as follows: Sunshine Award: The first 1000 users who complete BMT spot trades before 6:00 PM (UTC+8) on March 18th will receive an airdrop of $10 worth of BMT tokens. The price of BMT for the airdrop will be based on the previous day's closing price. Surprise Prize: Users who complete BMT spot trades and hold at least 10 BGB by 6:00 PM (UTC+8) on March 19th will automatically enter the lucky draw. Bitget will hold a live draw on the Bitget official X platform at 11:00 PM (UTC+8) on M

On March 18th, the international rating agency Fitch Ratings stated in its latest Global Economic Outlook that it anticipates global economic growth to decelerate to 2.3% this year, which is significantly below trend levels and also lower than 2.9% in 2024. Simultaneously, Fitch Ratings reduced its US economic growth forecast from 2.1% in December of last year to 1.7% and lowered its 2026 growth forecast from 1.7% to 1.5%. Fitch Ratings mentioned that tariff hikes would result in higher prices for US consumers, reduce real wages, increase business costs, and a sharp increase in policy uncertainty would have an impact on business investment. It is estimated that the tariff shock will cause US inflation to rise by 1% in the short term. We think that the Federal Reserve will postpone further policy easing until the fourth quarter of 2025. We now expect the Fed to only cut rates once this year. However, with the economic slowdown and the stabilization of tariff levels, we anticipate three

On March 18th, based on Coinglass data, if Bitcoin drops below $80,000, the cumulative intensity of long liquidation on mainstream CEXs will reach 5.09 billion. Conversely, if Bitcoin goes above $85,000, the cumulative intensity of short liquidation on mainstream CEXs will reach 16.4 billion. **BlockBeats Note**: The liquidation chart does not display the exact number of contracts to be liquidated or the exact value of the contracts being liquidated. The bars on the liquidation chart actually represent the significance of each liquidation cluster in relation to adjacent clusters, that is, intensity. Therefore, the liquidation chart shows to what degree reaching a certain price level will affect the market. Higher "liquidation bars" indicate that once the price reaches that level, a more intense reaction will occur due to a liquidity cascade.

On March 18th, based on market data, the U.S. stock market opened with the S&P 500 Index declining by 0.29% and the Nasdaq by 0.36%. Cryptocurrency stocks opened with increased losses, including: Coinbase (COIN) down by 3.2%; Tesla (TSLA) down by 5.85%; MicroStrategy (MSTR) down by 6.99%; MARA Holdings (MARA) down by 5.16%; Hut 8 Corp. (HUT) down by 5.13%.