Crypto market recap: What happened today?

Crypto markets closed the weekend with activity spread across derivatives, token sales, regulation and ETF flows. 

Onchain commodity trading kept growing, World Foundation disclosed a new WLD sale, Washington sued Kalshi, and spot Bitcoin ETFs ended the week with net outflows.

Onchain commodity trading stayed in focus after Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 market posted a new record on March 23. The venue handled about $5.4 billion in perpetual futures volume across commodities and macro assets. Silver led with $1.3 billion, followed by WTI crude at $1.2 billion, Brent crude at $940 million and gold at $558 million. Equity index products tied to the Nasdaq and S&P 500 also drew volume.

Market participants said the trend is moving beyond crypto-native traders. Theo chief investment officer Iggy Ioppe said weekend oil futures volume onchain is now above $1 billion a day, adding that “geopolitics does not stop on Friday afternoon.” 

At the same time, liquidity remains a constraint, with 1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz saying traditional venues still lead on depth and execution quality.

World Foundation discloses new WLD token sale

World Foundation said its token issuance unit, World Assets, completed $65 million in over-the-counter WLD sales with four counterparties. The first settlement took place on March 20, and the average sale price was about $0.2719 per token, which puts the total at roughly 239 million WLD sold. The foundation also said $25 million worth of those tokens carry a six-month lockup.

The disclosure arrived as WLD traded near recent lows. Reports on March 29 said the token was near $0.27 after touching a record low around $0.2444, and a July 23, 2026 unlock is scheduled to cover about 52.5% of total supply. World Foundation said the proceeds will support core operations, research and development, orb manufacturing and ecosystem growth.

Kalshi faces a new state lawsuit

In regulation, Washington state sued Kalshi on March 27. Attorney General Nick Brown said the prediction market operator violated state gambling and consumer protection laws by offering contracts tied to sports, elections and other events. The civil suit seeks to stop Kalshi’s operations in Washington, recover money lost by residents and pursue civil penalties.

Kalshi pushed back and said it operates under federal oversight as a CFTC-regulated exchange. Reports said the company moved to shift the case to federal court and argued there had been “no warning or dialogue” before the lawsuit. The case adds to a wider legal fight, with Nevada and Arizona also taking action against Kalshi in recent weeks.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs reverse course

US spot Bitcoin ETFs closed the week with $296.18 million in net outflows, ending a four-week inflow streak. The reversal followed more than $2.2 billion in inflows across the prior four weeks, according to SoSoValue data.

The weekly outflow came after two straight days of withdrawals on Thursday and Friday, including $225.48 million on Friday alone. Total net assets for spot Bitcoin ETFs slipped to $84.77 billion, down from more than $90 billion a week earlier, while weekly trading volume fell to $14.26 billion from $25.87 billion earlier in March.