March 10th, 2025, London, UK & Vancouver, Canada
Bitcoin (BTC) closed the week at approximately $80,735, marking a 14.4% decline from the previous week’s close of around $94,270. Strong selling pressure early in the week pushed BTC down to $85,000 before rebounding above $90,000 on Wednesday. The second half of the week saw renewed downward momentum, with a sharp decline on Sunday bringing the price below $81,000 by the week’s close.
BTC spot ETFs recorded outflows of approximately $800 million last week, marking the fourth consecutive week of negative flows. This trend reflects heightened uncertainty and risk-off sentiment among investors, driven by macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns.
Ethereum (ETH) spot ETFs also saw outflows, with around $120 million exiting over the past week. ETH ended the week at approximately $2,020, down 19.8% from $2,520 the previous week. This underscores broader selling pressure across the digital assets market, as investors take profits and de-risk amid ongoing uncertainties.
Market participants now anticipate the Federal Reserve (FED) will cut interest rates by 75–100 basis points in 2025, following the latest inflation and labour market data. While the labour market remains relatively strong and inflation appears contained, early signs of a slowdown are emerging. As a result, expectations have shifted towards a more aggressive monetary easing policy compared to recent forecasts, which had priced in a 25–50 basis point cut in 2025 amid a previously resilient labour market and concerns over inflationary pressures.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has also been implementing rate cuts in response to sluggish economic growth. Last week, the ECB introduced its sixth consecutive rate cut, lowering interest rates to 2.5%. Given recent US economic data, the FED may accelerate its own rate-cutting cycle to align more closely with the ECB’s approach.
In Europe, the full implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation is set to take effect at the start of Q2. As a result, most exchanges operating legally in Europe will delist all non-MiCA-compliant stablecoins by the end of the month. This includes major stablecoins such as USDT, DAI, and PAXG. The regulatory shift is expected to increase the dominance of USDC in the European market, as Circle secured the necessary licensing several months ago to continue offering USDC trading in the region.
