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- š¶āš«ļø Oil is back at the center of the crypto market
š¶āš«ļø Oil is back at the center of the crypto market
PLUS: Traders obsess over crudeās surge above $115, SharpLink posts a $734M loss on its Ethereum strategy, Rippleās RLUSD supply explodes, regulators warn banks could dominate crypto finance, and Anthropic sues the U.S. government over a national security label.
Cryptopolitan News
March 10, 2026 ā¢ Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes
Oil is now the talk of the crypto town
Crypto traders spent the week leading up to a deal talking about something they rarely obsess about: oil.
The commodity raced above $115 per barrel amid rising tensions in the Middle East before promptly dropping back toward the $86 range, igniting rampant speculation across trading desks and crypto social media.
According to data from the blockchain analytics platform Santiment, oil-related discourse made up about 2.6% of the total conversation share on Crypto Twitter, moments replacing haloin discussions about altcoins, memecoins and token launches.
That turn away reflects how rapidly macro narratives can move markets in crypto.
A geopolitical jolt shakes markets
The surge came after U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, sparking fears of possible disruptions to energy infrastructure and shipping lanes. Traders soon turned their attention to the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint through which an estimated 20 percent of the worldās oil shipments pass.
Even the threat of disruptions sent oil futures prices soaring on traditional platforms like the CME, and crypto-native venues also saw spikes in activity linked to energy speculation.
For a lot of crypto traders, oilās rise has implications beyond commodities. This is about the macro impact, ripple effects.
Higher oil prices can keep inflation high, leading central banks to hold rates up longer. A tighter monetary policy has, historically speaking, been a drag on risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
What this could mean for Bitcoin
The relationship between oil and crypto is complicated, to say the least.
Bitcoin is sometimes pitched as a hedge against inflation and geopolitical instability, but in practice it more often behaves like a liquidity-sensitive risk asset.
Bitcoin rallies in past market cycles have usually come after big moves up in commodities like gold and oil, which tend to indicate larger changes in macro conditions.
For now, traders remain cautious.
Despite all the conversation, though, open interest in Bitcoin derivatives hovers around $20 billion: an indication that a lot of players are still not quite ready to make strong directional bets.
Notably, Bitcoin is already reacting to the cooling off in the oil market. With crude abating from its peaks, BTC had a second wind towards $70,000 as it recovered.
It remains to be seen if oil itself proves a persistent macro driver for crypto markets.
But one thing is evident: energy markets are back at the center of the crypto dialogue for the first time in years.
POLL: After the recent geopolitical tensions, which asset do you trust most in a crisis? |
š Market Watch
1ļøā£ SharpLink's Ethereum treasury bet backfires
SharpLinkās brash Ethereum strategy was expensive. The annual loss of $734 million from the Nasdaq-listed firm came after ETHās fall eroded approximately $616 million in value from its crypto treasury.
The company continues to hold approximately 868,000 ETH, which means it has one of the largest Ethereum treasuries publicly traded. Since launching the strategy in mid-2025, SharpLink has also earned 14,500+ ETH in staking rewards.
The trade, however, reads as a hit on the firm's capital-acquisition model, but it was expected given CEO Joseph Chalom told The Block last October that the model would be able to absorb volatility as the firm seeks to become a bridge between traditional markets and Ethereum infrastructure.
2ļøā£ Ripple USD liquidity arrest on US CBDC resistance
Liquidity for Ripple USD (RLUSD) has skyrocketed, going from around $235 million at the end of 2025 to almost $1.5 billion today.
The increase comes as U.S. lawmakers advance legislation that could prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, making a case for privately issued stablecoins instead.
Ripple is branching out RLUSD to both the XRP Ledger as well as Ethereum networks, with ongoing new token issuances and exchange listings further boosting adoption.
3ļøā£ Ex-CFTC head says banks might win the crypto regulation war
Former CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo has warned that a continued lack of regulatory clarity in the U.S. could end up benefiting traditional banks at the expense of native crypto firms.
Interestingly, itās established financial institutions that are best poised to dominate regulated crypto services once rules do (eventually) land, according to Giancarlo, with major pieces of legislation such as the CLARITY Act still in limbo.
His warning to banks: donāt be too late. European and Asian countries are moving more quickly on digital finance, and thereās a risk that the U.S. lags behind with its caution.
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šļø Power & Policy
Anthropic sues Trump administration after being designated a security threat
Anthropic has sued the Trump administration after being designated as a āsupply-chain riskā to the Pentagon and losing access to federal contracts.
The AI company has filed its suit in a California federal court, arguing that the government exceeded its authority and invoked national security mechanisms to retaliate against the firm for resisting how the military was seeking to use its AI systems.
At heart of the dispute is Anthropicās insistence that its models not be utilized for mass domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons systems without strict guardrails. The Pentagon denounced those limits, arguing that the military needs to be able to use any technology in any lawful operation.
The fallout escalated quickly. One of the official designations Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic was as a supply-chain risk: a label usually affixed to companies associated with foreign adversaries.
Shortly thereafter, the White House directed federal agencies to stop using Anthropicās Claude AI model and move to alternatives within six months.
The move threatens a contract worth as much as $200 million and could bleed into its more general business if partners that have been doing work with the Pentagon are forced to steer clear of its technology, Anthropic says.
The case has already attracted support from around Silicon Valley. Thirty-seven AI researchers at OpenAI and Google submitted a brief in support of Anthropic, cautioning that penalizing U.S. AI companies for safety disagreements might undermine Americaās standing in the global race over the technology.
The lawsuit now raises a broader question: Who gets to decide how powerful A.I. systems are used: governments or the companies constructing them?
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