Institutional Demand Returns — What Drove Crypto Markets This Week

This snapshot article gives readers a crypto market weekly recap, covering crypto prices, market sentiment, ETF flows, current and expected trends, as well as macroeconomic, geopolitical, or regulatory events that affected Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins in the past seven days.

The crypto market has seen a notable rise over the past week, signaling a renewed confidence in the short- to mid-term upside performance. The move upwards was largely influenced by softening geopolitical tensions, major cryptos’ very own resilience to geopolitical and macro shocks, and strong institutional flows, as well as the expectations around the US Fed interest rate decisions and its Chair’s upcoming remarks.

TL;DR

• Crypto market cap increased 9% in a week;
• Bitcoin is up 7.8% over the past 7 days, trading at $73,150;
• Ethereum is up 12.5%, now standing at $2,247;
• 80 of the top 100 coins appreciated in this timeframe;
• Five major factors influenced the crypto market moves;
• Geopolitical tension and institutional flows were the dominant factors;
• Regulatory developments continue to be bullish for crypto;
• Crypto gained despite broader risk-off sentiment;
• Bitcoin and Ethereum mining and network activity boosted the prices;
• The market sentiment jumped up into the neutral area;
• Both BTC and ETH spot ETFs posted consecutive inflows;
• Kraken received approval for a US Fed master account;
• US stocks ended a third consecutive week lower.

Market performance this week

The global cryptocurrency market cap rose 9% over the past 7 days. At the time of writing on Monday morning (UTC), it stands at $2.57 trillion, compared to $2.34 trillion this time last week. It is also up 2.2% over the last 24 hours. Overall, this is a notable increase following recent downturns.

Additionally, the current amount is the market cap’s highest point in the past week. Importantly, this metric is now green for the 14-day and 1-month timeframes, signaling a longer trend. Now we’re waiting to see if it will last long enough to cover a quarter. 

Meanwhile, all top 10 coins per market cap have appreciated over the past week, as well as the past day. Cardano (ADA) wins in the 24-hour category, while Ethereum (ETH) leads in the 7-day timeframe. 

Bitcoin price movements

Bitcoin is up 7.81% over the past 7 days, reclaiming the $70,000 level and currently trading at $73,150. Compared to the coin’s rise during a bull run, this may not seem like a large change. However, it’s notable due to the recent string of decreases. 

Also, BTC is up 1.75% in the past day and 5.1% in a month. It fell 41.9% from its October all-time high of $126,080.

Bitcoin price chart. Source: TradingView

Last Monday saw the coin at the intraweek low of $67,608. It then hit the $70,000 mark on Tuesday, slipping just below it during Wednesday, but managing to hold the level and surpass it in the following days. It’s been climbing steadily since. 

Investors are now waiting to see if BTC will move above $75,000, which would set the stage for further increases to $78,370, $80,210, and $83,500. Conversely, a bear hit would push it back towards $65,000. 

Ethereum price movements

Ethereum is up 12.47% in the past week, and it’s the category’s best performer. The coin now trades at $2,247. Notably, ETH has been outperforming other major coins, including BTC, for several months now.

Moreover, ETH rose by $5.89% in a day, as the second-highest gainer among the top 10, behind Cardano. It’s also up 15.8% in 14 days and 9.6% in a month. Unlike BTC, ETH is also green in the 1-year timeframe, appreciating by 17%. It’s currently down 54.4% from the ATH of $4,946 seen in August 2025.

ETH price chart. Source: TradingView

The week’s lowest point was $1,992, seen on last Tuesday. It traded relatively sideways for three days before jumping to $2,188 on Friday. After a couple of more days of sideways movement, the price surged to the current level. Market participants’ eyes are now on the $2,200 level. Surpassing it would allow ETH to rise further towards $2,380 and $2,500. 

Altcoin price movements

Altcoins have seen increases across the board. Over the past week, all altcoins in the top 10 coins per market cap saw their prices rise. As noted above, ETH is the category’s winner, but it’s closely followed by Cardano and Dogecoin (DOGE). These appreciated 11.64% and 11.28% to $0.2856 and $0.1006, respectively.

At the same time, the smallest change is Tron (TRX)’s 3.06% rise to $0.2966. Notably, this is the only coin still in the red in the 24-hour timeframe. But even that drop is quite low, just 0.12%.

Source: coinmarketcap.com

Let’s look at the top 100 coins per market cap now. 80 of these coins are up at the time of writing, and nearly 30 of these posted significant, double-digit increases. The best performer is River (RIVER), having increased by 97% to the price of $25.47. It’s followed by Bittensor (TAO)’s 48.8% and Render (RENDER)’s 34.7%, now trading at $25.47 and $292, respectively.

On the other hand, Midnight (NIGHT), Provenance blockchain (HASH), and Pi network (PI) fell the most, between 8% and 6%. The rest of the red list is down by 2.7% and less.

Why did the crypto market rise this week? 

This latest market increase wasn’t a result of any single event but rather a combination of institutional flows, macro relief, eased geopolitical risk, regulatory advancements, and Bitcoin and Ethereum onchain activity.

Strong institutional flows 

One of the most bullish drivers over the past week was institutional demand. As we will see in detail below, both the U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs posted a (nearly) full week of inflows. While the US stock market keeps closing lower and global equities are weakening, institutional accumulation pushes BTC, ETH, and altcoins upwards, helping the market hold tight among the geopolitical and macro shocks.

The market recorded three weeks of net inflows into crypto-related products, with CoinShares’ head of research, James Butterfill, commenting that: “We read this as a meaningful signal: institutional investors are treating Bitcoin as an asset worth holding through geopolitical turbulence, not one to be exited.”

Adoption is also on the rise. Wells Fargo recently filed a U.S. trademark application for “WFUSD,” which covers crypto exchange services, blockchain-based payment verification, lending, staking, tokenization software, and crypto hardware wallets.

Bitcoin mining milestone and Ethereum network activity

Two notable factors last week worked together to reinforce the long-term scarcity narrative and boost investor sentiment. The first is the 20 millionth Bitcoin mined last week. With this, it surpassed 95% of its total supply cap of 21 million. It will take more than 110 years to mine the remaining one million.

Additionally, Ethereum saw record onchain activity levels, surpassing the 2021 peaks, hitting all-time highs in active addresses and smart contract calls. Daily active addresses on Ethereum approached 2 million, and smart contract calls surpassed 40 million per day, according to the March 10 report by analytics firm CryptoQuant. The numbers support a bullish outlook, which may not be fully reflected in the ETH price yet.

Wednesday’s interest rate meeting

Investors across markets are awaiting the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision this Wednesday, though most expect it to remain steady.

Importantly for crypto, holding rates flat is typically a neutral or bullish signal. It shows a pause in aggressive monetary tightening, lowering the pressure on risk assets. Overall, the meeting is expected to be beneficial for the crypto market.

US Fed Chair remarks

Additionally, the markets will keep an eye on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks after the FOMC meeting, because they could signal how policymakers believe the war in the Middle East will impact the economy.

Overall, the U.S.–Israel attack on Iran remained the top geopolitical factor affecting the crypto market and sentiment. With certain statements from the US administration suggesting a potential stabilization, the markets generally rebounded. Yet, unlike traditional markets, crypto managed to keep steady even when the rhetoric quickly shifted back to uncertainty.

Kraken Federal Reserve master account application

Kraken Financial, a subsidiary of the crypto exchange Kraken, saw a massive regulatory victory in early March. It received approval for a US Federal Reserve master account as the first digital asset bank to get direct access to the country’s central bank’s core payment infrastructure. 

Kraken will be able to hold reserves directly at the Fed instead of a commercial bank intermediary, access the bank’s payment systems, and maybe even offer crypto and fiat products, legitimizing crypto at the highest regulatory level. 

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said on Wednesday that this is a “pilot” meant to test how some “nonbanks” can access the Fed’s payments system. 

Speaking of regulatory developments, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a new Memorandum of Understanding to coordinate oversight and modernize how the agencies regulate financial markets, including crypto.

Bullish buying accelerates, analysts say

According to Glassnode’s recent report, BTC consolidated within a $62,800-$72,600 range for over a month, and it failed several times to break out to the upside. It has now moved above the $73,000 level, and we’ll see if it will hold this level and continue upwards. 

Additionally, key strike formed at $75,000 key strike, “where concentrated call positioning could begin influencing price dynamics,” the analysts argued. They added, however, that by Friday, bullish buying accelerated. Flow in the 24 hours leading to the report leaned to the upside, with the majority of activity being bullish.

Meanwhile, short-dated Bitcoin volatility started to ease, with metrics suggesting the market “sees less immediate event risk.” More signals suggested a potential breakout. The skew shifted toward calls as prices increased, while call volume dominated consistently, meaning that the calls accounted for a larger share of activity. 

Market sentiment surges

The crypto market sentiment has recorded a massive jump from this time last Monday. The crypto fear and greed index now stands at 41, compared to 19 seen just a week ago. 

With this move, it pushed out of the extreme fear zone, straight through the fear region, and into the neutral area where it sits now. The last time the metric stood in this zone was two months ago in mid-January 2026.

Source: CoinMarketCap

The current level, as well as the speed at which the metric reached it, suggests an overall rise in confidence among the market participants, with fear no longer ruling the sentiment. It closely follows the rise in prices and general, even if brief, softening in geopolitical circumstances. That said, it now sits at the verge of the neutral zone. Given how sensitive the market is following a series of shocks, a strong enough tremor can push the sentiment back into the fear region.

Institutional flows: Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs

The US BTC spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw the cumulative total net inflow rise to $56.14 billion. Notably, they closed their Friday session in green. As a matter of fact, the entire week was green. The week started with $167.03 million in inflows, and it ended with $180.33 million. The highest amount of positive flows was recorded on Tuesday with $250.92 million.

Focusing on Friday flows, we find five of the twelve ETFs posted inflows, while there were no outflows. BlackRock took in $143.59 million on March 13. It’s followed by Fidelity’s positive flows of $23.24 million. 

Source: SoSoValue

As for the ETH spot ETFs, over the past week, the total net inflow moved upwards to the current $11.79 billion. Unlike their BTC counterparts, ETH ETFs closed last Monday’s session with $51.32 million in outflows. The week proceeded with four days of inflows, the highest of which was Thursday’s $115.85 million. They closed the week with $26.69 million in positive flows.

The Friday session saw two green and one red fund. BlackRock posted $32.39 million in inflows, while Fidelity let go of $2.16 million.

Source: SoSoValue

Meanwhile, institutions continue expanding their BTC treasuries. Corporate treasury strategies built around Bitcoin exploded over the past several years, with many publicly traded firms accumulating holdings in order to benefit from the No. 1 crypto’s long-term growth potential.

Just recently, Nasdaq-listed Strive bought 179 BTC, bringing its total holdings to about 13,311 BTC.

US stocks ended another week lower

Unlike the crypto market, the US stock market closed lower for a third straight week. By the end of trading on 13 March, the S&P 500 was down 0.61%, the Nasdaq-100 decreased by 0.9%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.26%. 

The market was largely influenced by the ongoing Israeli-US attacks, particularly on Iran, leading to surges in oil prices and countries turning to other sources, specifically Russia. At the same time, investors were digesting the US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index. This was a delayed January release, showing a 2.8% inflation increase year-over-year and 0.3% month-over-month.

Editor’s notes

The key conclusion we can make from this past week’s developments is that the crypto market is absorbing shocks, not panicking. Two weeks ago, it posted a minor increase, fighting to stay in the green zone. This was followed by last week’s significant gain, which, despite being lower than what we’re accustomed to seeing during bull market highs, is still notable following a series of major drops. We can’t say how the incoming geopolitical and macroeconomic forces will impact the crypto market, especially as the policies by authorities creating these forces are unclear, leaving the near-term events largely unpredictable. However, we can say for sure that the market is capable of soaking up much of what comes its way.