Crypto Market Overview
- BTC (+0.77% | Price: 68,619 USDT): Over the past 24 hours, BTC has maintained a consolidation pattern, fluctuating narrowly around the $68,000 level after the previous rebound. From a moving average perspective, MA5, MA10, and MA30 are gradually converging, with price trading near these levels, indicating that short-term direction remains undecided as the market waits for a clearer signal. The MACD is hovering near the zero line, with slightly expanding positive histogram bars, suggesting mild recovery in short-term bullish momentum but still limited strength. Key resistance is located in the $69,800–$70,100 range; failure to break above may lead to a pullback toward the $67,200–$66,500 support zone.
- ETH (+0.75% | Price: 1,991 USDT): ETH has shown a gradual stabilization over the past 24 hours, holding above $1,950 after the recent pullback and consolidating within the $1,980–$2,000 range. Within the moving average structure, MA5 and MA10 are largely flat, while price trades near MA30, indicating a neutral short-term trend and limited continuation in rebound momentum. The MACD has formed a mild bullish crossover near the zero axis, with histogram bars turning slightly positive, reflecting improving sentiment but still cautious buying interest. Resistance is seen at $2,020–$2,080; failure to break through may lead to a retest of the $1,940–$1,900 support area.
- Altcoins: The Crypto Fear & Greed Index has dropped to 10, entering the “Extreme Fear” zone and declining further compared with both yesterday and last month. This suggests overall market sentiment remains weak. Under such conditions, capital tends to stay cautious or reduce risk exposure, and intermittent selling pressure may continue in the short term.
- Macro: On March 3, the S&P 500 fell 0.94% to 6,816.63, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.83% to 48,501.27, and the Nasdaq dropped 1.02% to 22,516.69. As of 2:15 AM (UTC) on March 4, spot gold is trading at approximately $5,178 per ounce, up 1.76% over the past 24 hours.
Trending Tokens
PHA Phala (+49.22%, Circulating Market Cap: $31.05M)
According to Gate market data, the PHA token is currently priced at $0.03823, up 49.22% over the past 24 hours. Phala Network is positioned as a privacy-preserving computing infrastructure for AI and Web3, leveraging Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) hardware to provide confidential computing capabilities for on-chain applications and AI models.
Recent narrative and technical developments have drawn increased market attention. The team continues to strengthen its positioning around “Confidential AI” and privacy-focused infrastructure, deploying multiple AI models within ecosystems such as OpenRouter. Phala also announced a collaboration with Zeko Labs to introduce Confidential Rollups into AI Agent scenarios, enabling AI execution, sequencing, and key management to operate within a secure TEE environment. In addition, growing discussions around private data and trusted computation as core advantages in the AI race have further reinforced Phala’s narrative within the AI security infrastructure sector.
AIXBT aixbt by Virtuals (+23.6%, Circulating Market Cap: $25.34M)
According to Gate market data, the AIXBT token is currently trading at $0.02943, rising 23.6% over the past 24 hours. AIXBT is an AI Agent project within the Virtuals ecosystem, positioned as an automated market intelligence and trading insight agent. By integrating on-chain data, market information, and social media signals, the system interprets crypto market dynamics in real time and generates analytical insights.
From a technical perspective, the recent price movement appears to be driven primarily by technical recovery and a short-term trend reversal. After an extended period of decline and sideways consolidation, AIXBT has rebounded sharply from local lows with increased trading volume. The MACD histogram has gradually turned positive, while short-term moving averages have begun to slope upward, indicating signs of capital returning to the market in the near term.
AKT Akash Network (+15.72%, Circulating Market Cap: $99.14M)
According to Gate market data, AKT is currently priced at $0.3489, up approximately 15.72% in the past 24 hours. Akash Network is positioned as a decentralized cloud computing and GPU marketplace, matching idle computing resources with developers who require computational power. The network provides cost-efficient infrastructure for AI, machine learning, and high-performance computing workloads.
Recent market attention has been driven by technical upgrades and renewed interest in AI computing infrastructure narratives. Akash announced that Mainnet 16 will be launched soon, introducing improvements such as optimized lease-termination mechanisms, security patches, and partial infrastructure migration. At the same time, the team continues to promote the Akash HomeNode concept, which aims to integrate home-based GPU resources into the network to support AI workloads.
Alpha Insights
AI Models Show Financial Preference: 48.3% of Scenarios Choose Bitcoin as a Monetary Tool
A study conducted by the Bitcoin Policy Institute examining 36 frontier AI models found that, across 9,072 financial scenario tests, AI systems showed a clear preference for Bitcoin when selecting a medium of exchange or store of value. The results indicate that approximately 48.3% of decision scenarios selected Bitcoin as the primary monetary instrument, significantly higher than stablecoins (33.2%) and fiat or bank deposits (8.9%). This suggests that within algorithmic evaluation frameworks, Bitcoin’s characteristics—such as decentralization, security, and global liquidity—are widely interpreted by AI models as offering stronger robustness for value storage and payments.
From a structural perspective, stablecoins still maintain a relatively high usage share, mainly reflecting their advantages in price stability and transaction efficiency. In contrast, the share of traditional fiat systems in AI decision-making remains relatively low, indicating limited suitability in cross-border or permissionless financial environments. Meanwhile, emerging value carriers such as tokenized RWAs (1.1%) and computing-resource-based pricing (0.9%) account for only a small portion, suggesting that AI systems currently focus primarily on established crypto asset frameworks when selecting financial instruments. Overall, the research implies that in automated financial decision-making contexts, Bitcoin is increasingly being recognized by algorithmic systems as a digital asset with foundational monetary characteristics.
Circle Launches Nanopayments Testnet, Supporting USDC Microtransactions as Low as $0.000001
Circle announced the launch of the Nanopayments testnet, an ultra-micro payment service that supports USDC transactions as small as $0.000001, while enabling zero gas fee settlement. The solution aims to significantly lower the barrier to on-chain payments, making extremely small-value transfers technically and economically feasible. This infrastructure is designed to support use cases such as digital content payments, API call billing, and real-time service payments.
From an application perspective, Nanopayments also enables AI agents to participate in transactions, allowing automated programs to complete micro-value exchanges without human intervention. Such mechanisms are widely viewed as a key infrastructure layer for the emerging AI economy, supporting scenarios including model usage payments, data access authorization, and machine-to-machine transactions. As stablecoin settlement efficiency and cost structures continue to improve, on-chain micropayments may see broader adoption in business models combining Web3 and AI ecosystems.
Gate Launches TradFi Trading API and Multi-Leverage Mechanism with Incentive Campaign
Gate has announced the launch of its TradFi trading API, alongside an upgrade to the leverage framework within the TradFi trading section, further enhancing its multi-asset programmatic trading infrastructure. The new API supports automated trading for traditional financial assets such as metals, foreign exchange, and indices, allowing users to execute orders, retrieve market data, and manage accounts through automated interfaces, thereby improving strategy execution efficiency.
In terms of product mechanics, the Gate TradFi section has introduced adjustable leverage options, expanding beyond the previously available maximum leverage of up to 500x by offering multiple leverage tiers. This provides traders with more flexible risk and position management across different strategies. Combined with the platform’s unified account structure and USDT-based margin system, the upgrade also improves cross-market capital allocation efficiency.
In addition, Gate has launched a TradFi API trading incentive campaign with a total reward pool of 80,000 USDT. Users who register and activate TradFi trading access before March 15 at 8:00 (UTC) and complete designated trading tasks via the API will be eligible to share in the reward pool.
References
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Disclaimer
Investing in cryptocurrency markets involves high risk. Users are advised to conduct their own research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products before making any investment decisions. Gate is not responsible for any losses or damages arising from such decisions.
