Gate Ventures Weekly Crypto Market Review (March 2, 2026)

Quick Summary

• U.S. February non-farm payrolls dropped sharply, partly due to statistical distortions and temporary external factors.

• Key macro data releases this week include consumer inflation expectations, housing sales, CPI, PCE, Q4 2025 GDP estimates, personal income, and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index.

• Last week, BTC and ETH mostly sideways, with gains of 0.3% and a decline of 0.1%, respectively. BTC spot ETF net inflows totaled $568.45 million, while ETH spot ETF net outflows reached $82.85 million.

• The top 30 digital assets saw an average price decline of about 1.2%. TON performed best (+10.2%), boosted by the launch of TON Pay, enabling crypto payments within Telegram Mini Apps.

• SoFi partnered with BitGo to develop infrastructure for bank-issued stablecoins, indicating deeper cooperation between traditional financial institutions and digital asset infrastructure providers.

• Crossover Markets completed a $31 million Series B funding round to expand its institutional-grade crypto trading infrastructure.

Macro Market Overview

In February 2026, U.S. non-farm payrolls fell sharply, influenced by statistical distortions and external factors.

In February 2026, U.S. non-farm payrolls decreased by 92,000, well below Bloomberg consensus expectations of a 55,000 increase, with a downward revision of 69,000 over the previous two months. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points to 4.4%, above expectations, while the labor force participation rate declined 0.1 points to 62.0%. Hourly wages grew 0.4% month-over-month, with a slight acceleration of 0.1 points to 3.8% year-over-year, both exceeding market forecasts. Average weekly hours remained steady at 34.3 hours. The significant drop in non-farm jobs was mainly due to statistical distortions, compounded by strikes in the healthcare sector and severe weather.

Industry employment data show that the decline in February was primarily driven by statistical distortions. Typically, industry employment correlates positively month-over-month, meaning strong performance in one month usually continues the next. However, in February, industry employment was strongly negatively correlated with January: sectors like healthcare, construction, and manufacturing, which performed well in January, saw sharp declines in February. Healthcare employment fell by 135,000, with a net decrease of 19,000; construction declined by 59,000, net down 11,000; manufacturing decreased by 12,000. Contributing factors include Kaiser healthcare strikes, which reduced non-farm employment by 31,000, and adverse weather impacting leisure and hospitality employment.

Upcoming data releases this week include consumer inflation expectations, housing sales, February CPI, PCE, Q4 2025 GDP revisions, personal income, and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index. Middle East tensions will dominate market focus. Reports from IEA and OPEC will reveal their outlooks on energy supply shocks. U.S. economic data will focus on February consumer inflation and January PCE. CPI is expected to show annual inflation rising from 2.4% to 2.5%, with monthly growth steady at 0.2%. Core inflation is also expected to remain at 2.5%. The GDP revision may confirm that the economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.4% in Q4. PCE reports are expected to show a 0.3% monthly increase in overall prices in January, with core PCE steady at 0.4%.(1)

Dollar Index

Driven by soaring oil prices and unexpectedly weak U.S. employment data, the dollar index rose close to 100.(2)

U.S. 10-year and 30-year Treasury yields

Affected by the U.S.-Israel-Iran tensions and weaker-than-expected employment data, U.S. Treasury prices fluctuated, with yields on both long and short-term bonds rising sharply.(3)

Gold

Last week, gold prices retreated from recent highs amid expectations of a consolidation phase, influenced by a strong dollar, U.S. employment data, and geopolitical tensions.(4)

Crypto Market Overview

Mainstream Assets

BTC价格

ETH价格

ETH/BTC Ratio

Last week, BTC remained relatively stable, gaining only 0.3%, while ETH was flat, down slightly by 0.1%. In terms of capital flows, BTC spot ETF net inflows reached $568.45 million, while ETH spot ETF net outflows totaled $82.85 million.(5)

Meanwhile, the ETH/BTC ratio increased by 1.9% to 0.029. Overall market sentiment remains extremely bearish, with the Fear & Greed Index at an extreme fear level of 8.(6)

Total Market Cap

Cryptocurrency Total Market Cap

Total Market Cap Excluding BTC and ETH

Total Market Cap Excluding Top 10 Assets

Last week, the total market cap remained nearly unchanged, up just 0.05%. Excluding BTC and ETH, the market cap declined by 0.4%, with the broader altcoin market weakening further. Excluding the top ten assets, the market cap fell by 1.28%.

Performance of Top 30 Cryptocurrencies

Source: CoinMarketCap and Gate Ventures, data as of March 9, 2026

Among the top 30 assets, prices declined on average by about 1.2%, with TON leading gains.

TON surged 10.2%, mainly driven by the launch of TON Pay. TON Pay is an SDK that enables crypto payments within Telegram Mini Apps without a wallet. This upgrade enhances TON’s application in payments, making USDT and other crypto transactions within Telegram faster, cheaper, and more integrated.(7)

New Token Listings

Opinion ($OPN) is a prediction trading platform built on BNB blockchain, allowing users to trade macroeconomic data, forecasts, and news events as standardized assets. The token has multiple uses within the ecosystem, including access to advanced oracle data and analytics dashboards, paying for services, unlocking VIP privileges, and participating in protocol parameter and oracle governance.(8)

OPN launched at an initial price of $0.50 and is currently trading around $0.29. It is listed on major centralized exchanges including Binance, Bybit, and Gate.

Major Crypto Industry News This Week

SoFi and BitGo Launch Infrastructure for Bank-Issued Stablecoins

SoFi Technologies partnered with BitGo to provide infrastructure for its bank-issued stablecoin, SoFiUSD. SoFiUSD is a dollar-pegged token issued by SoFi Bank, a licensed and insured U.S. depository institution. BitGo will support issuance and operation via its “Stablecoin-as-a-Service” platform, enabling SoFiUSD to connect with payment providers, market participants, and crypto exchanges. This project is among the first cases of a licensed U.S. bank issuing stablecoins on a public blockchain, reflecting the accelerated development of regulated digital dollar infrastructure following the passage of the GENIUS Act. The GENIUS Act establishes a federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins.(9)

Kraken Launches On-Chain Engine Supporting Tokenized Stock Trading

Crypto exchange Kraken introduced xChange, its on-chain trading engine within the xStocks platform, supporting tokenized stock trading on 以太坊 and Solana networks. The system supports over 70 tokenized stocks, each backed 1:1 by actual shares, with prices aligned to the open market. Since the launch of xStocks in June, on-chain trading volume has reached approximately $3.5 billion, with total exchange-traded volume around $25 billion. This move highlights rapid growth in tokenized securities infrastructure, as more crypto exchanges and traditional market operators explore blockchain-based trading and settlement of stocks and other real-world assets.(10)

Bank of Canada Pilots the First Nationwide Tokenized Bond

The Bank of Canada completed the Samara pilot, issuing Canada’s first tokenized bond and testing how distributed ledger infrastructure can improve bond issuance, trading, and settlement. The project involved Export Development Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, and Toronto-Dominion Bank. EDC issued a $100 million short-term bond on Hyperledger Fabric. The pilot used central bank wholesale deposits for settlement, demonstrating blockchain infrastructure’s potential to enhance bond lifecycle efficiency.(11)

Major Venture Capital Events This Week

ARQ Completes $70 Million Series B to Expand Latin American Stablecoin Banking

ARQ closed a $70 million Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund to expand its stablecoin-based digital banking platform in Latin America. The company uses USDC for cross-border transfers, connecting traditional banks, digital wallets, multi-currency accounts, and debit cards, serving 2 million users with over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume. The funding will support brand upgrades and expansion into wealth management, high-yield local currency accounts, and lending, aiming to build a full-featured digital bank based on stablecoin payments.(12)

Crossover Markets Completes $31 Million Series B to Expand Institutional Crypto Trading Infrastructure

Crossover Markets, a developer of digital asset trading technology (CROSSx), announced a $31 million Series B funding round at a $200 million valuation. Led by Tradeweb, with participation from DRW Venture Capital, Ripple, Virtu Financial, Wintermute Ventures, XTX Markets, and Illuminate Financial, the funds will be used to expand CROSSx’s institutional trading infrastructure, offering ultra-low latency matching, anonymous liquidity pools, and FIX connectivity to meet high-frequency trading needs. As part of the partnership, Tradeweb plans to integrate CROSSx’s institutional crypto liquidity into its global electronic trading network, reflecting the accelerating convergence of traditional finance infrastructure and digital asset trading.(13)

Utexo Completes $7.5 Million Seed Round to Drive Bitcoin-native USDT Settlement

Utexo raised $7.5 million in a seed round led by Tether, Big Brain Holdings, and Portal Ventures, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Maven11, and Gate Ventures. The company aims to build Bitcoin-native USDT settlement infrastructure, developing an API-based payment stack that leverages Bitcoin mainnet, Lightning Network, and RGB protocol for instant, private, and predictable-cost USDT transfers on Bitcoin, including support for USDT over Lightning. Utexo targets payment providers, exchanges, wallets, and market makers, positioning itself as the infrastructure backbone for Bitcoin as a USD-pegged payment and stablecoin settlement layer.(14)

Venture Capital Market Data

Last week, nine deals closed, with 8 in infrastructure and 1 in DeFi.

This week’s venture capital snapshot, from Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of March 9, 2026

Total disclosed funding last week was $127.5 million, with three deals undisclosed. Infrastructure received the largest share at $118 million. The biggest deal was ARQ’s $70 million round.

This week’s venture capital snapshot, from Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of March 9, 2026

In the second week of March 2026, weekly funding surged to $127.5 million, a 67% increase from the previous week.

About Gate Ventures

Gate Ventures is the venture capital arm of Gate.com, focused on investing in decentralized infrastructure, middleware, and applications to reshape the Web 3.0 era. Partnering with industry leaders worldwide, Gate Ventures supports innovative teams and startups driving social and financial transformation.

Official Website | Twitter | Medium | LinkedIn

This content does not constitute an offer, solicitation, or investment advice. Always seek independent professional guidance before making investment decisions. Note that Gate Ventures may restrict or prohibit access to some services in certain regions. For more details, see the user agreement.

References:

1. S&P “Next Week’s Economic Outlook,”

2. DXY Index, TradingView,

3. U.S. 10-Year Treasury Yield, TradingView,

4. Gold Price, TradingView,

5. BTC & ETH ETF Capital Flows,

6. BTC Fear & Greed Index,

7. TON Pay Launch, supporting crypto payments in Telegram Mini Apps,

8. OPN Tokenomics,

9. SoFi and BitGo Launch Infrastructure for Bank-Issued Stablecoins,

10. Kraken Launches On-Chain Engine for Tokenized Stock Trading,

11. Bank of Canada Pilot for Nationwide Tokenized Bond,

12. ARQ Completes $70M Series B for Latin American Stablecoin Banking,

13. Crossover Markets Completes $31M Series B for Institutional Crypto Trading,

14. Utexo Completes $7.5M Seed Round for Bitcoin-native USDT Settlement,