Newsletter

CCM Blockchain Newsletter (March 17, 2025)

The stock market is officially in correction territory, while bitcoin recovers above $80,000.

Christian Lopez

17 Mar 2025 — 7 min read

Happy Monday everyone, and welcome back to this week’s market newsletter. Please see below this week’s market data.

CCM Digital Weekly Market Update (2025.03.14)

CCM Digital Weekly Market Update (2025.03.14).pdf

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Bitcoin Market Update and News

Bitcoin gains slightly on the week : Bitcoin rose by a hair last week from its brief stint below $80,000 last weekend. At the time of publication, bitcoin is trading at ~$83,000.
Bitfarms completes acquisition of Stronghold: Bitfarms has closed its acquisition of Stronghold, a deal that was first announced in August of last year. With the purchase, Bitfarms will expand its footprint in Pennsylvania, adding 165 MW of active capacity, with an option to import an additional 142 MW. The acquisition bumps Bitfarms total capacity under management to 623 MW and also gives it the option to participate in the PJM power market with Stronghold’s two fully-owned power plants in Panther Creek and Venango County, Pennsylvania. Bitfarms has also signaled that the acquisition opens the door for it to develop nearly 1 GW of HP/AI sites.
Bitcoin ETF inflows and outflows moderate as market slows: Bitcoin ETF outflows have surpassed inflows in the latter half of Q1 so far, but both buying and selling pressure have slowed in recent months compared to 2024’s roaring activity. Since launching in January 2024, bitcoin ETFs recorded a record daily inflow of $2.6 billion on July 19, 2024 and record outflows of $2.3 billion on July 26, 2024.

Wall Street analysts expect Q2 bitcoin rally: Despite Q1’s market woes, some Wall Street analysts are forecasting a positive Q2 for bitcoin, if its correlation to the M2 money supply and inverse correlation to the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) holds. The M2 increased by $12.1 billion in January and economists generally expect it to rise modestly in February and March; meanwhile, the DXY has declined 4.4% year-to-date. As cited by CNBC, Wells Fargo analyst Christopher Harvey wrote to investors last week that “Bitcoin has consistently tracked the inverted DXY on a ~10-week lag…the relationship suggests the current drawdown is a reaction to [Q4’s] strong dollar environment … the weak dollar environment we have seen since the DXY peaked on January 13 (eight weeks ago) may be more constructive for the asset going forward.”

Interesting Reads and Videos

Bitcoin Mining Market News and Trends

Canaan Inc. Raises $200 million, eyes North American expansion: ASIC manufacturer and publicly traded bitcoin miner Canaan has raised $200 million through series A-1 preferred shares financing. The first $100 million tranche closed on March 10, and the company stated in a press release that it may use the financing for “research and development, expansion of production scale, manufacturing or investing in digital mining sites and equipment for deployment in North America and sales globally,” further specifying a target to support 10 EH/s of self-mining in North American mining sites by the middle of 2025.
Cango receives buyout proposal from Enduring Wealth Capital: Newly minted public bitcoin miner Cango – a Chinese auto fintech company that burst onto the scene with 32 EH/s in November 2024 – has received a non-binding letter of intent for a buyout from Enduring Wealth Capital Limited. The acquisition proposal includes a suggestion to sell the company’s Chinese auto finance business to focus exclusively on bitcoin mining.
British Columbia Court Upholds Bitcoin Mining Power Limits: The British Columbia Court of Appeals upheld a directive from B.C. Hydro, the province’s state-run power authority, to limit electricity supply to bitcoin miners. Conifex Timber, which hosts ASICs for publicly traded Greenidge Generation, originally appealed the restrictions. B.C. Hydro’s mandate follows in the footsteps of similar restrictions or moratoriums from Quebec, New Brunswick, and Manitoba.

Market Overview

Stocks enter into correction phase despite Friday's rebound: The stock market continued to decline last week, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq officially entering into a correction since falling 10% from their all-time highs. Small-capped stocks inched closer to bear market territory, with the Russell 2000 having declined 16% since its record high. Markets recovered marginally on Friday, but not enough for each major index to end the week in the green. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have fallen for four consecutive weeks and the Dow for two weeks.
- S&P 500: 5,638.94 (-2.27%)
- Dow: 41,488.19 (-3.07%)
- Nasdaq: 17,754.09 (-1.74%)
- Russell 2000: 2,044.10 (-1.5%)

Oil snaps losing streak:
- U.S. oil prices closed in the green last week, changing course from seven weeks of consecutive losses in the weeks prior. WTI Crude increased 1.16% week-over-week as of Friday’s close of $67.18/barrel.
Inflation cooled in February but was still above 2% mandate: The Consumer Price Index report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for February came in below consensus expectations but still well above the Fed’s 2% mandate. The all-items index rose 2.8% year-over-year, driven by a 4.5% annual increase to shelter and 0.8% to energy, and core CPI rose 3.1%, versus 3.3% for January. The bureau’s all-in producer price index was unchanged in February from January but up 3% annually, with goods and services increasing year-over-year 2.7% and 3.2% respectively. Core PPI came in at 3.4% year-over-year.
Labor demand rebounded in January: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Survey revealed that January’s labor market was more resilient than previously anticipated. Job openings increased by 232,000 to 7.74 million at the end of January, up from December’s revised figure of 7.508 million. Leading the increase, retail gained 143,000 job openings, followed by professional and business services at 122,000. Financial activities and leisure and hospitality had 122,000 and 46,000 vacancies respectively.
U.S. trade deficit hits record high in January, driven by gold repatriation: The United States’ trade deficit widened to $131 billion in January, the largest delta ever recorded. Exports stayed relatively unchanged at 1% month-over-month, but imports increased 10% as business pulled foreign orders forward in an attempt to front-run the Trump administration’s mercurial tariff policies. Industrial supplies and metals led the increase, up 34% on the month, and non-monetary gold and finished metals accounted for nearly two thirds of the goods deficit increase. In other news, the price of gold hit a new record last week just above $3,000/ounce as domestic banks continue to call in gold reserves from overseas.

Small business optimism continues to retreat from December peak: The National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Optimism Index fell 2.1 points in February from 102.8 to 100.7. This is still above the 51-year average of 98 but 4.4 points below December’s 105.1 figure. The survey’s uncertainty index rose 4 points to 104, the second highest level recorded. Labor quality and inflation were the top concern of respondents, with 32% saying they raised selling prices over the month, a 10 point leap from January, which is the largest since April 2021. 38% of respondents reported unfilled job openings (up 3 points from January, the highest since August 2024), with 89% of employers receiving few or no qualified applicants.
Looming market uncertainty weighs on IPO chances: To date, 2025 has furnished 41 IPOs in U.S. markets for total proceeds of $6.9 billion. This is more than the 30 IPOs launched in the first three months of 2024, but 2025’s market turmoil and investor jitters around the economy could presage a less fruitful year for IPOs in total.

Bonds have outperformed stocks so far in 2025: As investors flee to safety, bonds have outperformed other asset classes. Treasury yields have retreated since the beginning of the year as the market anticipates rate cuts from the Fed amid market uncertainty, and the drop in yields have produced higher bond prices.