The Weekly Wrap: High-Level Partnerships, Crypto-Backed Mortgages & The Iran War Remains Dominant Force in the Markets

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This Week’s Top Stories

“Institutional Adoption in the U.S. Is Moving Forward Rapidly.” – This Week 

• The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) partnered with Securitize to develop a 24/7 tokenized securities trading platform. Securitize will act as NYSE’s first digital transfer agent, enabling shares of stocks and ETFs to be issued onchain.
• Franklin Templeton and Ondo Finance announced a partnership to launch tokenized ETFs tradable 24/7 via crypto wallets without brokerage accounts. The products will cover U.S. equities, fixed income, and gold, initially launching outside the U.S. only. Ondo issues tokens via an SPV representing return rights, usable as collateral and in DeFi.
• Coinbase partnered with Better to offer the first crypto-backed mortgages backed by Fannie Mae. This first-of-its-kind mortgage product expands access to homeownership while benefiting from the same backing of Fannie Mae as other conforming mortgages.
• Nasdaq and Talos announced a partnership to advance tokenized collateral management across TradFi and digital asset markets. The collaboration plans to connect Talos’ digital asset infrastructure with Nasdaq’s trade surveillance platforms to develop an integrated solution for managing tokenized collateral.

“Morgan Stanley Received an Official Listing Announcement from the NYSE.” – Wednesday, 25 March 2026 

• According to Eric Balchunas, Morgan Stanley’s spot Bitcoin ETF (MSBT) has received an official listing announcement from the New York Stock Exchange, typically signaling an imminent launch. He also noted that the fee will be closely watched and is expected to be around 0.24%, slightly lower than that of the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).

A Quick Crypto Overview: Turbulent Week Amid Trump’s Communication Chaos

This week was once again marked by U.S. President Trump’s communication tactics, or chaos, depending on how you want to interpret it. On Sunday, Trump threatened Iran with a 48-hour ultimatum over the Strait of Hormuz, saying that if Iran does not open the strait, the U.S. will hit Iranian power plants with force unseen before. On Monday, Trump then announced that the U.S. and Iran had held promising and constructive talks toward resolving the Middle East hostilities and that the U.S. would pause the strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. Shortly after, Iranian officials communicated that no such talks had been taking place and that the markets were left in confusion. 

Following Trump’s initial announcement of the pause, U.S. equities rallied, gold and silver rallied, crypto rallied, and oil sharply decreased on Monday morning. But with the contradictory comments from Iranian officials, risk-on assets were left in limbo and gave back most of their gains over the course of the week. 

Currently, the Strait of Hormuz appears to be open for at least some ships that are not associated with the U.S. and Israel, and Trump claims that multiple ships have crossed the passage over the last few days. Yesterday, Trump announced that he is prolonging the pause in the destruction of the energy plants until April 6 in an effort to open up the strait as soon as possible. 

Crude oil futures are currently up almost 15 percent from Monday’s lows, almost back at Sunday’s levels, and Bitcoin is currently trading below $68’000, pretty much at the same level as Sunday. 

It seems like it continues to be paramount to keep a close eye on Trump and his commentary about the war in Iran as it continues to be the driving force of the markets. 

Chart of the Week: The Price of Bitcoin in Barrels of Crude Oil (WTI)

As oil is among the most discussed and most traded commodities in the world currently, amid the war in Iran, we decided to take a look at Bitcoin priced in barrels of crude oil (WTI) in our chart of the week below. Bitcoin is down significantly compared to the price of oil. Of course, Bitcoin’s performance against the USD also played its part, but the increase in oil prices itself also contributed to this dynamic. Bitcoin is currently down 65 percent against oil since September, which is a lot worse than its 46 percent loss against the USD. There was a short sideways period from November to the end of January, and Bitcoin appears to be consolidating again right now. But this should be taken with a grain of salt, since it is currently impossible to predict what will happen between the U.S./Israel and Iran and how it could impact the oil market. It is certainly a chart to keep in mind over the coming weeks.

What’s Happening Onchain? Polymarket Expands its Fee Structure & HIP-3 Continues to Shine  

Polymarket announced this week that it is expanding its fee structure from crypto and sports to additional categories starting March 30, 2026. It will be very interesting to see the growth in revenue for Polymarket after the fee implementation. Kalshi is currently doing over $100 million in monthly revenue, and Polymarket could likely catch up and play in the top league when it comes to crypto protocol and application revenue. At present, only Tether and Circle have more than $100 million in monthly revenue. Current projections would leave Polymarket with around $30 million to possibly as much as $50 million in monthly revenue, which would place it in the top five revenue-generating crypto projects. 

Of course, in this regard it will also be very interesting to see whether Polymarket will launch its token anytime soon and whether it will implement a revenue flywheel mechanism through token buybacks or something similar. This would certainly put a potential POLY token into the spotlight, alongside projects with existing revenue flywheels such as Hyperliquid, Pump.Fun, and others. 

Speaking of Hyperliquid, the HIP-3 markets continue to attract record high trading volumes amid the Iran war. HIP-3 markets reached a new trading volume of $5.4 billion in March, with $1.3 billion in silver, $1.2 billion in WTI crude oil, $940 million in Brent crude oil, and $558 million in gold. 

Digital Asset Fund Flows: Another Week of Inflows, But Significantly Less 

Last week, digital asset investment products saw net inflows of $230 million, with Bitcoin attracting almost all of the flows, leading the pack with $219 million, followed by Solana with $17 million, while Ethereum saw almost $30 million in net outflows, ending its inflow streak. 

Both Bitmine and Strategy are continuing to buy up supply, with Bitmine significantly increasing its ETH holding by more than 65’000 Ether last week, while Strategy bought an additional 1’000 BTC last week.  

Strategy additionally filed to expand its capital-raising programs, launching new ATM offerings of up to $21 billion in MSTR common stock, $21 billion in STRC preferred stock, and $2.1 billion in STRK preferred stock. The company also increased authorized STRC shares to 282.6 million and cut authorized STRK shares to 40.3 million. Strategy is essentially setting up multiple new ways to raise a lot of fresh cash, up to around $44 billion in total across the above-mentioned three separate programs. At the same time, it adjusted how many shares of each preferred stock type it is allowed to have in circulation, increasing the cap on STRC and reducing it on STRK. The whole move is about giving the company maximum flexibility to keep raising capital, most likely to buy more Bitcoin. 

While Strategy is still buying more Bitcoin and looking at ways to get more cash to buy even more Bitcoin in the future, one of the largest Bitcoin miners, MARA Holdings, sold more than 15’000 BTC over the course of the past few weeks to buy back $1 billion of its own debt at a discount of roughly 9 percent below face value. While the recent move might make sense for the company, allowing it to retire over $1 billion in debt and cut its total outstanding debt by about 30 percent, looking at some of its Bitcoin purchases above $80’000 last year, the move also shows the increasing pressure on Bitcoin miners generally, with mining costs being significantly higher than the current price of Bitcoin. 

Market Sentiment: Extreme Fear in U.S. Stocks & Crypto Continues 

Both the crypto market and the U.S. stock market continue to remain in extreme fear territory, as the situation in Iran continues to weigh heavily on market dynamics. AAII members have not changed their stance on the markets either, with roughly 50 percent of all members feeling bearish about the stock market over the coming six months.

Other Relevant News 

• Grayscale has filed a Form S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch the Grayscale HYPE ETF.  – Link 
• U.S. Senators Adam Schiff and John Curtis plan to introduce a bipartisan bill that would prohibit CFTC-regulated platforms from offering contracts tied to sporting events. The legislation would affect prediction-market platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket’s U.S. platform. – Link
• Tether said it has formally engaged a Big Four accounting firm to conduct its first full independent financial audit, covering its digital asset reserves, traditional assets and tokenized liabilities. – Link
• Pudgy Penguins launched Pengu Card on Visa in Partnership with KAST. – Link
• Australia's $105B pension fund Hostplus is considering adding crypto investment options. – Link 

Looking Ahead: Eyes and Ears on Trump and the War in Iran 

We sound like a broken clock, but currently there is not much more to do than keep monitoring the situation in the Middle East, as it remains the primary driver of the markets, a dynamic which will likely persist for the time being. It remains to be seen how the current pause in strikes on Iranian power plants will play out and how many times U.S. President Trump will change his tone and opinion over the coming days and weeks. Over the past few weeks, weekends were often chosen for the release of significant news, and market participants are increasingly trading traditional financial assets onchain on venues such as Hyperliquid, where a lot of the price discovery action happens during such high-volatility weekends. 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading lower and oil prices are on the rise, as the market seems to be expecting additional negative news regarding the situation in Iran over the weekend, as has recently been the case. 

Below, you can find some of the key data releases and events to watch out for next week. 

Tuesday, 31 March 2026 

Japan – Unemployment Rate 

China – Manufacturing PMI 

UK – GDP 

Eurozone – CPI and Core CPI 

USA – JOLTs Job Openings 

Wednesday, 1 April 2026 

Eurozone – Unemployment Rate 

USA – Retail Sales 

USA – Crude Oil Inventories 

Thursday, 2 April 2026 

Switzerland – CPI 

USA – Initial Jobless Claims 

Friday, 3 April 2026 

Switzerland – Good Friday Holiday 

USA – Unemployment Rate 

USA – ISM Non-Manufacturing Prices 

USA – Nonfarm Payrolls