March 18: Driven by Middle East conflicts pushing oil prices higher, Bitcoin hashrate declined approximately 8% to 920 EH/s, with the price falling below $72,000. Difficulty is expected to adjust down approximately 8%. Miners face profit pressure, with many enterprises beginning to diversify operations and increasing Bitcoin sales to maintain operations.
Gate News reported that on March 18, Ionic Digital released its February 2026 mining data report. The data shows that the company mined 32.95 BTC in February, with an average daily production of approximately 1.18 BTC. As of February 28, Ionic Digital's total Bitcoin holdings reached 2,787.4 BTC. The report disclosed that Ionic Digital did not sell any of its held Bitcoin during this period and published operational information including hash rate deployment, maintenance operations, and subsequent expansion plans.
Gate News reports that on March 18, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released data showing that U.S. crude oil inventories for the week ending March 13 increased by 6.156 million barrels, significantly exceeding market expectations of 380,000 barrels, with the previous value being an increase of 3.824 million barrels.
Gate News reported that on March 18, prediction market platform Polymarket announced the acquisition of crypto infrastructure startup Brahma. This acquisition aims to expand Polymarket's infrastructure scale in the cryptocurrency and DeFi sectors.
