U.S. inflation, Polkadot upgrade, Solstice-Kamino announcement: Crypto Week Ahead

U.S. inflation data is the major catalyst to watch this week, as it could move the needle on market sentiment and Federal Reserve interest-rate expectations.

The war in the Middle East and other geopolitical risks have kept commodity markets volatile, with bitcoin BTC$68,153.83 last week failing to remain above the $70,000 mark.

The U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran is escalating, and the odds of a near-term ceasefire on prediction markets appear slim. Traders will be monitoring the price of crude oil for potential signs of its impact on inflation.

Against that background, there are some specific crypto events to catch the eye. Solstice and Kamino have teased a new product announcement, without giving any details, and Succinct also said it will make an announcement.

What to Watch

(All times ET)

• Crypto
  • March 9: Solstice and Kamino to announce a new product or feature. No details were provided.
  • March 10: Succint will make an announcement. No details were provided.
  • March 12: Polakdot’s economic upgrade to start rolling out, featuring a DOT supply cap, an emissions cut and unbonding reduction.
  • March 12: BOB mainnet to undergo its Jovian hardfork.
• Macro
  • March 9, 6:50 p.m.: Japan GDP growth annualized final for Q4 est. 1.2% (Prev. -2.6%)
  • March 9, 10:00 p.m.: China balance of trade for January-February (Prev. $114.1B)
  • March 11, 7:30 a.m.: U.S. inflation rate YoY for February (Prev. 2.4%); core rate YoY (Prev. 2.5%)
  • March 11: OPEC monthly report
  • March 12, 7:30 a.m.: U.S. initial jobless claims for week ending March 7 (Prev. 213K)
  • March 12, 7:30 a.m.: U.S. balance of trade for January (Prev. -$70.3B)
  • March 12, 3:30 p.m.: Fed balance sheet for week ending March 11 (Prev. $6.63T)
  • March 13, 7:30 a.m.: U.S. GDP growth rate QoQ second estimate for Q4 (Prev. 4.4%)
  • March 13, 7:30 a.m.: U.S. core PCE price index MoM for January (Prev. 0.4%)
  • March 13, 9:00 a.m.: U.S. JOLTS job openings for January (Prev. 6.542M)
  • March 13, 9:00 a.m.: U.S. Michigan consumer sentiment preliminary for March (Prev. 56.6;)
• Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
  • March 9: Sharplink (SBET), pre-market, $0.31
  • March 11: Exodus Movement (EXOD), pre-market, $0.14
  • March 12: Cango (CANG), post-market, -$0.34
  • March 13: Bit Digital (BTBT), pre-market, -$0.01

Token Events

• Governance votes & calls
  • Convex Finance is voting on Curve Ownership DAO Vote ID: 1358, which would onboard GHO as a Pegkeeper with a 3 million crvUSD debt ceiling. Voting ends March 9.
  • Lido DAO is voting to make the delegate incentivization program (DIP 2.0) a permanent governance mechanism. Voting ends March 9.
  • Lido DAO is voting to authorize a one-time $5 million DAO Treasury allocation into the Lido Earn ETH and USD vaults. Voting ends March 9.
  • Lido DAO is voting on whether Stakin (recently acquired by The Tie) should continue operating as a node operator and whether to approve updating Stakin’s onchain name and reward address. Voting ends March 9.
  • Aavegotchi DAO is conducting ballots 1 and 2 of a multi-sig signer election, asking token holders to choose one signer from among the nominees. Voting ends March 10.
  • Ssv.network DAO is voting to cancel DIP-46 and reallocate the originally approved $15 million development budget, splitting it into $14.9 million for DVT and $100,000 as a retroactive research grant. Voting ends March 10.
  • Realtoken Ecosystem Governance DAO is voting to temporarily drop interest rates on the RMM (Real Estate Monetary Fund) to zero for 15 days. Voting ends March 10.
  • Unlock DAO is voting to approve the Unlock Protocol DAO budget for Q1–Q2 2026, totaling approximately $30,768. Voting ends March 11.
  • Arbitrum DAO is voting to establish an operational directive that automatically consolidates idle and surplus non-ARB funds from DAO initiatives directly into the Arbitrum Treasury Management Company (ATMC) portfolio. Voting ends March 12.
  • CoW DAO is voting on a CoW Swap Affiliate Program to reward affiliates who refer new retail traders and those traders upon reaching qualifying volume milestones, with up to 500,000 USDC allocated over a six-month pilot. Voting ends March 12.
  • World Liberty Financial DAO is voting to introduce a WLFI governance staking system requiring unlocked token holders to stake (minimum 180-day lock) to participate in governance. Voting ends March 12.
  • Arbitrum DAO is voting to implement a delegated voting power (DVP) quorum model, update its constitution, and enable onchain proposal cancellation. Voting ends March 12.
• Unlocks
  • March 12: Aptos APT$0.9488 to unlock 0.69% of its circulating supply worth $11.21 million
  • March 13: WhiteBit Coin (WBT) to unlock 27.77% of its circulating supply worth $4.59 billion.
  • March 15: Connex (CONX) to unlock 1.54% of its circulating supply worth $15.79 million.
• Token Launches
  • March 9: Nexira’s (NEXI) token generation event occurs. Token to be listed on KuCoin.
  • March 12: ForU AI’s (FORU) token generation event occurs.

Conferences