Artemis Weekly Digital Finance Fundamentals 2026.3.14
This week we cover HIP-3’s breakout, renewed ETF inflows, tokenized gold, and prediction markets.
Market Overview: The Weekly Recap
Welcome back to Artemis’ Weekly Digital Finance Fundamentals!
This week, crypto clearly led returns. HYPE was the standout, rallying +18.8% over the past 7 days, while Figure Technologies (+13.1%) and Circle (+11.7%) also posted strong gains. Among majors, Ethereum (+5.2%), Solana (+4.7%), and Bitcoin (+4.7%) all moved higher, with Uniswap (+4.2%) and SKY (+8.3%) adding to the broad-based strength across digital assets.
Notably, crypto outperformed traditional equities this week. While digital assets and crypto-linked names were broadly green, Coinbase (-0.9%) and Robinhood (-5.0%) lagged, showing that equity performance was more mixed beneath the surface. Meanwhile, traditional benchmarks finished lower, with the S&P 500 down -1.5% and the Nasdaq 100 down -1.0% on the week. Overall, the tape suggests risk appetite rotated back toward crypto, with tokens and select crypto-adjacent names materially outperforming broader public markets.
Today We Highlight:
HIP-3 hits record high OI and Volume, Driven by oil futures
Two Consecutive Weeks of Positive Crypto ETF Flows
Tokenized Gold Supply hits 1.2M oz onchain
1. HIP3 Hits Record OI and Volume, Driven by Oil Futures
HIP-3 markets hit a fresh record in open interest this week, with total OI reaching roughly $1.3 billion on March 12. The move was overwhelmingly driven by trade.xyz, which alone accounted for about $1.2 billion of OI, while smaller venues like Dreamcash and HyENA added incremental depth.
More important than the headline number is what drove it. Oil’s share of total HIP-3 open interest rose to 31% by March 14, after sitting near negligible levels for much of January and February. In less than two weeks, oil went from being a minor driver of activity to one of the ecosystem’s largest sources of demand.
That shift suggests HIP-3 is evolving beyond a crypto-native long-tail experiment into a real venue for permissionless macro expression. When offshore traders want fast exposure to oil, indices, and event-driven volatility, capital is increasingly showing up onchain. If that trend continues, HIP-3 could become one of the clearest examples yet of onchain markets beginning to absorb global commodity flow.
2. Two Consecutive Weeks of Positive Crypto ETF Flows
Crypto ETF flows stayed positive for a second straight week, adding another sign that institutional demand is rebuilding. In the week ending March 8, net inflows totaled $609.9 million, led by Bitcoin ETFs (+$568.5 million), while Ethereum (+$23.5 million) and Solana (+$22.0 million) also saw healthy demand. Aside from a small -$4.1 million outflow from Ripple products, flows were broadly constructive.
The bigger takeaway is that this no longer looks like a one-week bounce. After weeks of pressure, back-to-back positive prints point to a market where allocators are gradually stepping back into crypto exposure.
The macro case for why those flows could sustain runs directly through the Iran conflict.
(Hayes’ iOS Warfare is the most detailed articulation.)
The macro backdrop may also remain supportive. Geopolitical stress, higher oil prices, and shifting expectations around Fed easing are pushing investors to think more seriously about hard assets and alternative stores of value. If that macro uncertainty persists, ETF demand could remain firm as allocators continue rebuilding crypto exposure.
3. Tokenized Gold Supply Hits 1.2M oz onchain
Tokenized gold supply continued its breakout this week, reaching roughly 1.2 million ounces onchain, equivalent to about $6.1 billion in supply. The move marks a sharp acceleration from levels below $2 billion less than a year ago, underscoring how quickly investor demand for blockchain-based hard asset exposure is scaling.
In a market increasingly shaped by macro uncertainty, tokenized gold appears to be benefiting from both sides: the traditional safe-haven bid into gold itself, and growing comfort with onchain wrappers as a distribution rail.
The bigger takeaway is that tokenization is no longer just a payments or stablecoin story — it is now extending meaningfully into store-of-value assets, with gold emerging as one of the clearest real-world winners.
Charts of the Week
Rapid-fire visual data points.
Prediction markets continued to gain traction this week, with total open interest reaching roughly $1.3 billion, led by Kalshi and Polymarket. Traders increasingly used event markets to express views on politics, macro, and geopolitical volatility in real time. The setup is notable because it shows demand expanding beyond pure crypto price speculation and into a broader market for real-world information and probabilities.
Other Notable News
Mastercard launches a broad crypto partner program. On March 11, Mastercard rolled out a new crypto partner initiative spanning more than 85 firms, including Binance, Circle, Ripple, PayPal, Gemini, and Paxos. The program is designed to support cross-border payments, B2B transfers, and global payouts using stablecoins and digital assets across networks like Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, and Aptos. It marks another step toward plugging blockchain-based payment rails directly into mainstream financial infrastructure.
Coinbase explores a potential investment partnership with Bybit. Reports on March 14 indicated that Coinbase is in talks with Bybit on a possible investment or strategic partnership. If completed, the relationship could help Bybit move closer to the compliant U.S. market while giving Coinbase exposure to one of the largest offshore exchanges. More broadly, the discussions reinforce a growing trend: major global exchanges are increasingly aligning with regulated counterparts as market structure matures.
BitGo was selected by SoFi to power infrastructure and institutional distribution for SoFiUSD. The partnership makes BitGo a core provider for issuance, custody, and distribution of SoFi’s bank-issued dollar stablecoin, giving institutional clients direct access to SoFiUSD through BitGo’s platform. It is another sign that regulated banks are moving from stablecoin experimentation toward live deployment, with crypto-native infrastructure providers supplying the backend rails.
Kraken’s banking arm moves closer to direct U.S. payment rail access. Kraken Financial’s Fed master account win continued to stand out as one of the more important infrastructure developments in the space. Direct connectivity to Fedwire and related payment rails would lower fiat transfer frictions for institutions and represents another example of crypto firms gaining access to core financial plumbing rather than building entirely outside of it.
Thanks for reading! Stay ahead this week by using the Artemis Terminal or pulling live data with =ART() in Excel.
Disclaimer: The authors of this content, as well as affiliates of Artemis Analytics, may have financial interests in the protocols or tokens mentioned. This does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. The information provided is for educational purposes only and should not be relied upon for financial, legal, or tax decisions. Readers should assess their own circumstances before making any financial choices. Views expressed may change without notice, and Artemis Analytics is not liable for any losses resulting from the use of this content.