Geopolitical Tensions Escalate Again as Iran Designates Three Countries' Oil Facilities as Legitimate Targets

March 18th — Per Coinglass data, total network liquidations hit $291 million in the past 4 hours, with long liquidations accounting for $274 million and short liquidations totaling $17.05 million. Additionally, over the past 24 hours, 127,712 traders globally have been liquidated, with total liquidations reaching $389 million. The largest single liquidation occurred in the Aster-ETHUSDT pair, amounting to $17.979 million.

March 18th — Bitcoin has fallen below $71,000, with its 24-hour decline widening to 4.1%, per HTX market data.

On March 18, web outage tracking site DownDetector reported that X was experiencing downtime.

Data from HTX shows Ethereum (ETH) fell below $2,200 on March 18th, with a 24-hour drop of 6.04%.

March 18 (Axios) — U.S. officials tell Axios that former President Donald Trump views regime change in Iran as an “additional win” but plans to end military engagement once core objectives are met. Trump’s core goals include dismantling Iran’s missile and nuclear programs, its naval capabilities, and funding for its proxy groups.

On March 18, SBI VC Trade—the digital asset subsidiary of SBI Holdings—announced it will officially launch its USDC lending service in Japan this Thursday. Retail investors can lend their stablecoins to the platform via fixed-term agreements to earn interest, with a maximum per-period application limit of 5,000 USDC. Unlike a deposit, the product is structured as a direct loan from users to SBI VC Trade, so users bear counterparty risk themselves. SBI VC Trade noted the platform may further lend out the borrowed USDC. Users cannot withdraw or transfer funds during the fixed lending term. Critically, the product has no asset segregation protection—unlike bank deposits—meaning users could fail to fully recover their assets if the platform goes bankrupt.