Fed's dovish tone drives investors to riskier BTC

Market overview

The US stocks rose on March 19, with the Nasdaq closing higher by 1.41%. BTC began rising eight hours before the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, breaking through the $84,000 consolidation zone to a peak of $87,500. If the 4-hour closing price remains above $86,000, BTC may enter an upward range with a target of $92,000.

From a macroeconomic perspective, the Federal Reserve concluded its policy meeting on March 19, with key adjustments in Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks including:

1. Interest rates remain unchanged: The Fed maintained the federal funds rate target range at 4.25%–4.5%, which is in line with market expectations, with no signals of rate cuts or hikes.
2. Removal of risk balance statement: The statement removed the phrase "the risks to employment and inflation are broadly balanced" and instead emphasized "increased uncertainty in the economic outlook," reflecting a more cautious stance on future economic trends.
3. Slower balance sheet reduction: The Fed adjusted the US Treasury securities runoff cap from $25 billion/month to $5 billion/month while keeping the pace of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) reduction unchanged. This move aims to prevent excessive declines in bank reserves that could cause overnight rate volatility.
4. Inflation and employment outlook: The statement noted that inflation remains slightly elevated and labor market conditions remain strong but did not mention progress toward the 2% inflation target, suggesting cautious confidence in inflation control.
5. Uncertain policy outlook: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell stated that uncertainty is currently "exceptionally high," particularly due to the potential impact of new policies under the Trump administration (such as tariffs and immigration policies), suggesting that policy adjustments will remain on hold in the short term.

Key reasons some investors interpreted Powell’s remarks as dovish:

1. Slower balance sheet reduction: The decision to slow the pace of quantitative tightening amid increasing economic uncertainty is seen as creating room for potential rate cuts in the future.
2. No mention of rate hikes or stronger inflation control measures: The absence of any reference to rate hikes or the need for stricter inflation control was perceived as dovish rhetoric.
3. Powell’s ambiguous remarks: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in his post-meeting speech, emphasized "exceptionally high uncertainty" and a wait-and-see approach regarding the impact of Trump’s policies. Given the current environment, this was interpreted as a sign that the Fed is unlikely to take a hawkish stance prematurely.
4. Market expectations management: Some investors expected the Fed to maintain hawkish language due to persistent inflation concerns. However, the actual statement did not reinforce this stance and instead downplayed optimism about inflation progress.

Summary: Given the heightened uncertainty in inflation expectations due to President Donald Trump's tariff policies, some investors interpreted Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's remarks as dovish, leading them to bet on the appreciation of risk assets like Bitcoin.

Key events

• RWA stablecoin issuer Usual community has released a voting proposal for "Pledging Usual DAO treasury assets to USUALx" UIP-4, which will end on March 23.
• According to Forbes, three senior leaders at Donald Trump Media & Technology Group—Eric Swider, Devin Nunes, and Alexander Cano—have founded a new SPAC, Renatus Tactical Acquisition Corp I, aiming to acquire companies in cryptocurrency or related industries and seeking to raise $179 million.
• Volatility Shares, a registered investment adviser with the SEC and a commodity pool operator registered with the NFA has launched the first-ever Solana (SOL) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US.
• Crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial has confirmed receiving approval from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and has launched XRP futures contracts, marking the first-ever CFTC-regulated XRP futures product in the United States.
• According to Reuters, the US SEC will drop its appeal against payments company Ripple, which it had sued for violating US securities laws by selling XRP without prior registration, leading to a 10% surge in XRP.
• Decentralized lending protocol Beraborrow on Berachain will conduct a public token sale on March 28.
• The Turkish Lira's sharp decline to a record low against the US Dollar has triggered a surge in BTC/TRY trading on Binance, reflecting growing interest among Turkish investors in cryptocurrencies as a hedge against currency volatility.
• According to Whale Alert monitoring, Tether Treasury has minted 1 billion USDT (approximately $1.001 billion) on the Tron network.
• According to BlockBeats, the second web3 smartphone developed by Solana Mobile, Solana Seeker, is in testing and is expected to start shipping in the summer of 2025.

Hot projects

Token		Description	Market Cap（$)
	TUT BSC ecosystem meme	TUT Token is a test token deployed on BNB Chain, with its full name being "Tutorial Token." Originally designed as a tutorial example to demonstrate how to issue tokens on BNB Chain, it carries educational and demonstrative significance, aligning with CZ's vision. Recently, it has experienced a sharp surge in value.	47 million
	BROCCOLI BSC ecosystem meme	The BROCCOLI Token hype stems from CZ's influence and his intention to support the BSC ecosystem. In early 2025, CZ expressed his desire to attract liquidity to BSC through educational videos and community activities. BROCCOLI emerged as an unexpected product of this initiative. Currently, multiple versions of BROCCOLI have been shortlisted for Binance’s vote-to-list event, but the dispersed votes among different versions have made it difficult to secure a top-two position.	-

Exchange updates

• Bitget Wallet Swap has unveiled its latest upgrade, Super DEX, integrating smart trading tools, enhanced security, and support for over 130 blockchains, while celebrating with a KOL trading rebate program, and Bitget has also launched a 24-hour flash trading competition, allowing BMT traders to share a fee rebate pool.
• According to the Wall Street Journal, Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is considering acquiring foreign exchange and futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion.
• Bybit has listed TUT/USDT and FORM/USDT perpetual contracts with up to 12.5x leverage.
• Binance has launched its first batch vote-to-list campaign for new token listings, introduced a private portfolio feature for spot copy trading that allows lead traders to share with selected copy traders, and completed the BinaryX (BNX) token swap and rebranding to Four (FORM).
• Coinbase International has announced that Cardano (ADA) and Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (cbETH) can now be used as collateral for perpetual futures trading.

Industry landscape

• Decentralized AI model Pluralis has raised $7.6 million in a funding round, led by CoinFund and Union Square Ventures.
• Stablecoin company Stable Sea has completed a $3.5 million funding round, led by Kindred Ventures.
• Crypto wallet infrastructure provider Privy has completed a $15 million funding round, led by Ribbit Capital.
• Digital asset operations platform Utila has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round, led by Nyca Partners.
• Decentralized identity management platform Via Science has raised $28 million in a Series B round, led by Bosch Ventures.
• According to BlockBeats, US North Carolina is evaluating a proposal under the Bitcoin Reserve Bill SB327, which would permit the state treasurer to allocate up to 10% of public funds to Bitcoin. 

Emerging projects

Token	SIREN	MCPOS	$ROGERS
Description	Siren is an AI project built on BSC that allows users to engage in real-time conversations with Siren. With a total token supply of 100 million and all liquidity burned, it is currently one of the leading AI projects in the BSC ecosystem.	LYRAI is the first MCP protocol on the Solana chain. It serves as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) operating system for multiple AI agents, designed to enhance AI applications—such as Claude Desktop and Cursor—by enabling interactions with financial networks and public blockchains.	A memecoin on Solana is based on the concept of American television host Fred McFeely Rogers, who passed away in 2003.
Price	$0.05474	$0.002221	$0.001198
Market Cap（$）	40.6 million	2.22 million	1.19 million
Token Holders	31,560	3,564	1,370

Token	PEPPER	FAIR	LENS
Description	A memecoin on Base is a community that combines memes, gaming, and education.	A new memecoin issuance platform on BNB Chain allows all tokens to be minted at the same cost and sold at the mint price.	Lens is a specialized browser that enables users to view multiple websites simultaneously in an organized layout. It allows custom workspaces to be saved to the cloud and accessed from anywhere, with enhanced security and privacy features to protect the browsing experience.
Price	$0.003495	$0.003711	$0.002245
Market Cap（$）	3.49 million	3.71 million	2.24 million
Token Holders	74,394	3,821	1,874

Other opportunities

On-chain DeFi mining yield products:

Project Name	USUAL（Blockchain：Ethereum） ←→ Token： USD0++
Participation Method	Participate in Earn from the Usual official website.
Project Information	USUAL: A stablecoin protocol offering three main tokens—USD0, USD0++, and USUAL. USD0++: A staked version of USD0, similar to a four-year locked bond. USD0 is a stablecoin backed by US Treasury securities through RWA entities such as Hashnote and BlackRock. Both are products of Usual, with USUAL serving as the governance token.
Earnings Details	Staked currency: USD0++ Withdrawal cycle: Instant Annual interest rate: 9.5% (Fluctuating, with a yield of 9.5% in USD0++) Minimum slippage setting: 0.1%
Product Data	Token: USD0++ 7-day APY: 9.57% Total staked tokens: 882.87M

Risk: The exchange ratio and value of USD0++ may fluctuate based on protocol adjustments. For example, the Usual protocol recently revised the exchange rules for USD0++, lowering its fixed price from $0.995 to $0.87, which impacted holders' returns and asset value. Investors should proceed with caution and conduct their own research.

Disclaimer

The development and market cap of stablecoins mentioned in the above content are speculative and based on market analysis at the time of writing and should not be interpreted as guaranteed outcomes. Market conditions can fluctuate widely and unpredictably due to numerous factors such as regulatory changes, market demand, and global economic developments. 

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