Cardano's Midnight network has entered its mainnet phase, marking the start of broader on-chain activity for the privacy-focused chain. The project is described by Cardano as a "fourth generation" blockchain built over more than eight years, with about six years spent on active development. The rollout is intended to let developers, partners and institutions deploy apps and migrate assets while introducing an architecture designed to make transaction costs more predictable.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) recorded an hourly "death cross" as an overnight sell-off triggered more than $441 million in liquidations across the crypto market. SHIB was last up 0.85% in 24 hours to $0.000005813, while CoinGlass data showed open interest rising 7.79% to $53.24 million and derivatives volume jumping 70% to $161.08 million.

Bitcoin slid to $65,498 on Friday, its lowest level since March 2, after the year's biggest options expiry and continued outflows from crypto ETFs. BTC was last down 2.28% over 24 hours to $66,322 and 6.11% on the week, while analyst Willy Woo cautioned that oversold signals can persist for months despite traders citing an extremely low monthly RSI.

Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet warned crypto users about relying on browsers for sensitive secrets after Google released a Chrome update addressing 26 vulnerabilities, including 4 critical issues. Separately, Binance issued an iOS alert urging immediate updates due to "DarkSword," an exploit chain affecting iOS 18.4 to 18.7 that could expose sensitive data on compromised websites.

Bitcoin mining difficulty fell 7.76% to 133.79T at block height 941,472, marking its second-largest decline so far in 2026. Bitcoin later traded back above $70,000 after dipping to $68,772 on Thursday; at the time of writing it was up 0.05% in 24 hours to $70,711.

In the last two weeks, on-chain analyst Ali reported that XRP whales accumulated 200 million tokens, alongside rising network activity and a five-week high in active addresses. XRP's price rallied from a March 8 low of $1.32 to touch $1.60 on March 17, forming a golden cross on the four-hour chart as the 50 MA moved above the 200 MA. The asset is now battling to hold above the key $1.449 level, with potential moves back to $1.50 and $1.60 if support holds, while a drop below $1.44 could return it to a sideways range.

Dogecoin pulled back after climbing for five consecutive days from March 12 to March 16, while on-chain spot flow data indicated a 423% negative net change. Over the last 24 hours, DOGE slipped 2.11% to $0.0986, with spot inflows at $167.49 million and outflows at $175.15 million, and traders are now watching resistance near $0.103 and $0.12 as well as a possible $0.09 to $0.12 range.

Ethereum's futures open interest has surged by more than 18% while ETH has risen for seven straight days since March 9 and is attempting an eighth green close. With ETH trading around $2,299 and open interest near $33.37 billion, leveraged bullish positioning and relatively expensive put options on Deribit highlight a divided market. Analysts note that holding above $2,036 could open the way toward $2,600–$2,800, while a failure may keep ETH range-bound between $1,750 and $2,200.

Dogecoin climbed about 2% to $0.096 over the last 24 hours, triggering $470,140 in liquidations equal to 4,897,291 DOGE from mostly short positions. After rebounding from a March 8 low of $0.086 and touching $0.101 on March 13, the meme coin is now consolidating in a narrow range around $0.094 to $0.097, with traders watching resistance near $0.12 and support around $0.09. Possible future moves include a push toward $0.16 on a decisive break above $0.12 or a slide toward $0.0799 if the $0.09 floor fails, while an upcoming payments feature on X is also being monitored as a potential catalyst.