TL;DR
- U.S. February nonfarm payrolls declined sharply, with part of the weakness attributed to statistical distortions and temporary external factors.
- Key macro data releases this week include consumer inflation expectations, home sales, CPI, PCE, GDP estimates, personal income, and University of Michigan sentiment.
- BTC and ETH traded largely sideways last week, rising 0.3% and declining 0.1%, respectively. BTC spot ETFs recorded $568.45M in net inflows, while ETH spot ETFs saw $82.85M in net outflows.
- Across the top 30 digital assets, prices declined by approximately 1.2% on average. TON was the top performer (+10.2%), supported by the launch of TON Pay, enabling crypto payments across Telegram Mini Apps.
- SoFi partnered with BitGo to develop bank-issued stablecoin infrastructure, signaling deeper collaboration between traditional financial institutions and digital asset infrastructure providers.
- Crossover Markets raised $31M in a Series B round to expand its institutional crypto trading infrastructure.
Macro Overview
February 2026 U.S. nonfarm payrolls decline sharply, impacted by statistical distortions and external factors.
In February 2026, the United States reported a decline of 92,000 in nonfarm payroll employment, significantly below Bloomberg’s consensus estimate of an increase of 55,000, with cumulative downward revisions of 69,000 for the prior two months. The unemployment rate rose above expectations by 0.1 pp to 4.4%, while the labor force participation rate fell by 0.1 pp to 62.0%. Hourly wage growth remained at a month-on-month rate of 0.4%, while year-over-year growth marginally accelerated by 0.1 pp to 3.8%, both exceeding expectations. The average weekly working hours were in line with expectations, remaining steady at 34.3 hours. The sharp decline in nonfarm payrolls this month was likely due to statistical distortions, with additional contributions from strikes in the healthcare sector and adverse weather conditions.
Industry-specific employment data suggests that the February payroll decline was primarily driven by statistical distortions. Typically, nonfarm payroll employment by industry is positively correlated between consecutive months, meaning that industries performing well in one month are likely to continue doing well the following month. However, in February, industry-level payrolls were strongly negatively correlated with January figures: industries such as healthcare, construction, and manufacturing, which performed well in January, saw significant declines in February. Healthcare employment fell by 135,000 to a net decline of 19,000, construction jobs dropped by 59,000 to a net decline of 11,000, and manufacturing employment contracted by 12,000. Contributing factors include the Kaiser healthcare strike, which reduced February nonfarm payrolls by 31,000, and adverse weather conditions, which likely weighed on leisure and hospitality employment.
This week’s incoming data includes consumer inflation expectations, home sales data, Feb CPI, PCE Index, 2025Q4 GDP 2nd estimation, personal income data, UoM sentiment, etc. The developing situation in the Middle East will dominate the markets this week. Reports by the IEA and OPEC will unveil how the institutions see the energy supply shock. The spotlight on US economic data will be on consumer inflation for February and PCE for January. The CPI is expected to show the annual inflation rate edging up to 2.5% from 2.4%, while the monthly increase is projected to remain at 0.2%. Core inflation is also seen holding at 2.5%. The second estimate of GDP is likely to confirm the economy expanded at 1.4% annualized pace in Q4. Meanwhile, the PCE report for January is expected to show headline prices rising 0.3% MoM, while the core PCE measure is forecast to remain at 0.4%.. (1)
DXY
The US dollar index has been pushed up to approaching $100 level due to oil price soaring and unexpected U.S. job loss numbers. (2)
US 10-Year and 30-Year Bond Yields
Due to the compounded effect from U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and weaker-than-expected U.S. employment data, the price of U.S. Treasuries went choppy and there were significant hikes for both long- and short-term bond yields. (3)
Gold
Last week the gold price retreated from hitting a local high, with the market betting the gold price entering into a potential consolidation phase due to the mix effect of strong dollar, U.S. payroll data and geopolitical tensions. (4)
Crypto Markets Overview
1. Main Assets
BTC Price
ETH Price
ETH/BTC Ratio
BTC traded broadly flat last week, edging up just 0.3%, while ETH was also largely unchanged, slipping only 0.1%. On the flows side, BTC spot ETFs recorded a net inflow of $568.45M, whereas ETH spot ETFs saw a net outflow of $82.85M. (5)
Meanwhile, the ETH/BTC ratio rose 1.9% to 0.029. Overall, market sentiment remained deeply pessimistic, with the Fear & Greed Index staying in Extreme Fear territory at 8. (6)
2. Total Market Cap
Crypto Total Marketcap
Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding BTC and ETH
Crypto Total Marketcap Excluding Top 10 Dominance
Total crypto market cap also stayed mostly flat last week, rising just 0.05%. However, market cap excluding BTC and ETH fell 0.4%, and the broader altcoin market weakened further, with market cap excluding the top 10 dropping 1.28%.
Source: Coinmarketcap and Gate Ventures, as of 9th Mar 2026
Among the top 30 assets, prices declined ~1.2% on average, TON led the gain.
TON rose 10.2%, likely driven by the launch of TON Pay, a wallet-agnostic SDK that enables crypto payments in Telegram Mini Apps. The update strengthens TON’s payment use case by making Toncoin and USDT transactions faster, cheaper, and easier to integrate across Telegram’s ecosystem. (7)
4. New Token Launched
Opinion ($OPN) is a prediction exchange built on BNB Chain that allows users to directly trade macroeconomic data, forecasts, and news events as standardized assets. The token has multiple utilities across the ecosystem, including access to premium oracle data and analytics dashboards, payment for application fees, unlocking VIP benefits, and participation in protocol parameters and oracle governance. (8)
The token began trading at $0.50 and is currently hovering around $0.29 after its initial listing. OPN is listed on major centralized exchanges including Binance, Bybit, and Gate.
The Key Crypto Highlights
1. SoFi partners with BitGo to launch bank-issued stablecoin infrastructure
SoFi Technologies has selected BitGo to provide infrastructure for its bank-issued stablecoin SoFiUSD, a US dollar-pegged token issued by SoFi Bank, a nationally chartered and insured depository institution. BitGo will deliver issuance and operational support through its “stablecoin-as-a-service” platform, enabling SoFiUSD to connect with payment providers, market participants and crypto exchanges. The initiative marks one of the first stablecoins issued by a US nationally chartered deposit bank on a public permissionless blockchain and reflects accelerating momentum around regulated digital dollar infrastructure following the passage of the GENIUS Act, which established a federal framework for payment stablecoins. (9)
2. Kraken launches onchain engine to support tokenized stock trading
Crypto exchange Kraken has launched xChange, an onchain trading engine within its xStocks platform designed to facilitate trading of tokenized equities across the Ethereum and Solana networks. The system supports more than 70 tokenized stocks backed 1:1 by underlying shares held in custody, with prices intended to track their corresponding public market equities. Since launching xStocks in June, the platform has recorded about $3.5 billion in onchain transaction volume and roughly $25 billion in total exchange trading volume. The move reflects growing momentum around tokenized securities infrastructure as both crypto exchanges and traditional market operators explore blockchain-based trading and settlement systems for equities and other real-world assets. (10)
3. Bank of Canada pilot issues country’s first tokenized bond
The Bank of Canada has completed Project Samara, a pilot program that issued Canada’s first tokenized bond and tested whether distributed ledger infrastructure could improve bond issuance, trading and settlement. The project involved Export Development Canada, RBC and TD, with Export Development Canada issuing a C$100 million short-term bond on a Hyperledger Fabric-based platform. The pilot used wholesale central bank deposits for settlement and demonstrated how blockchain-based infrastructure could support the full bond lifecycle more efficiently. (11)
Key Ventures Deals
1. ARQ raises $70M Series B to expand stablecoin banking in Latin America
ARQ has raised $70 million in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund to expand its stablecoin-based digital banking platform across Latin America. The company offers cross-border transfers using USDC, linking traditional banks with digital wallets, multi-currency accounts and debit cards, and has already reached 2 million users with over $10 billion in annualized transaction volume. The new funding will support ARQ’s rebrand and expansion into a broader financial product suite, including wealth management services, high-yield local currency accounts and credit products, positioning the platform as a full-service digital bank built on stablecoin payment rails for the region. (12)
2. Crossover Markets raises $31M Series B to expand institutional crypto trading infrastructure
Crossover Markets, the digital asset trading technology firm behind the CROSSx execution-only crypto ECN, has raised $31 million in a Series B round led by Tradeweb, valuing the company at $200 million. The round included participation from DRW Venture Capital, Ripple, Virtu Financial, Wintermute Ventures, XTX Markets and Illuminate Financial. The funding will support expansion of CROSSx’s institutional trading infrastructure, which offers ultra-low-latency matching, anonymous liquidity pools and FIX connectivity for high-frequency trading. As part of the partnership, Tradeweb plans to integrate Crossover’s institutional crypto liquidity into its global electronic trading network, reflecting increasing convergence between traditional financial market infrastructure and digital asset trading. (13)
3. Utexo raises $7.5M seed to launch native USDT settlement on Bitcoin
Utexo has raised $7.5 million in a seed round co-led by Tether, Big Brain Holdings and Portal Ventures, with participation from Franklin Templeton, Maven11, Gate Ventures and others, to build Bitcoin-native settlement infrastructure for USDT. The company is developing an API-based payment stack that combines Bitcoin, Lightning Network and RGB to enable instant, private and predictable-cost USDT transfers directly on Bitcoin rails, including support for USDT over Lightning. Utexo is targeting payment providers, exchanges, wallets and trading firms, positioning its infrastructure as a way to make Bitcoin a practical settlement layer for dollar-denominated payments and stablecoin flows. (14)
Ventures Market Metrics
The number of deals closed in the previous week was 9, with Infra having 8 deals, representing 89% of the total number of deals. Meanwhile, Defi had 1 deal.
Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 9th Mar 2026
The total amount of disclosed funding raised in the previous week was $127.5M, 3 deals in the previous week didn’t announce the raised amount. The top funding came from the Infra sector with $118M. Most funded deals: ARQ ($70M).
Weekly Venture Deal Summary, Source: Cryptorank and Gate Ventures, as of 9th Mar 2026
Total weekly fundraising surged to $127.5M for the second week of Mar-2026, an increase of 67% compared to the week prior.
About Gate Ventures
Gate Ventures, the venture capital arm of Gate.com, is focused on investments in decentralized infrastructure, middleware, and applications that will reshape the world in the Web 3.0 age. Working with industry leaders across the globe, Gate Ventures helps promising teams and startups that possess the ideas and capabilities needed to redefine social and financial interactions.
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Reference:
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S&P Week Ahead Economic Preview, https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/research-analysis/week-ahead-economic-preview-week-of-9-march-2026.html
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DXY Index, TradingView, https://www.tradingview.com/chart/z1UD772v/?symbol=TVC%3ADXY
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US 10 Year Bond Yield, TradingView, https://www.tradingview.com/chart/z1UD772v/?symbol=TVC%3AUS10Y
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Gold Price, TradingView, https://www.tradingview.com/chart/z1UD772v/?symbol=TVC%3AGOLD
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BTC & ETH ETF Inflow, https://sosovalue.com/tc/assets/etf/us-btc-spot
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BTC Greed and Fear Index, https://alternative.me/crypto/fear-and-greed-index/
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TON Pay Launches Crypto Payments in Telegram Mini Apps, https://coinmarketcap.com/community/articles/698ef67740c8665b133e6f76/
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OPN tokenomics, https://phemex.com/news/article/opinion-opn-token-expands-utility-in-multiparty-internet-ecosystem-63665
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SoFi partners with BitGo to launch bank-issued stablecoin infrastructure, https://cointelegraph.com/news/sofi-bitgo-bank-issued-stablecoin-sofiusd
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Kraken launches onchain engine to support tokenized stock trading, https://cointelegraph.com/news/kraken-xstocks-platform-xchange-engine-tokenized-stock-trading
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Bank of Canada pilot issues country’s first tokenized bond, https://cointelegraph.com/news/canada-first-tokenized-bond
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ARQ raises $70M Series B to expand stablecoin banking in Latin America, https://ventureburn.com/arq-raises-70m-stablecoin-banking-latin-america/
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Crossover Markets raises $31M Series B to expand institutional crypto trading infrastructure, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/crossover-markets-secures-31-million-series-b-funding-at-200-million-valuation-led-by-tradeweb-302703224.html
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Utexo raises $7.5M seed to launch native USDT settlement on Bitcoin,https://thedefiant.io/news/press-releases/utexo-raises-7-5m-led-by-tether-to-launch-native-usdt-settlements-on-bitcoin
