Author: Aaron Wood, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

March is a tough month for the market—U.S. President Donald Trump’s uncertain tariffs have caused turbulence in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets; meanwhile, decentralized finance (DeFi) is struggling due to security issues.

and the EU's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods hit the market on March 10 and 12, respectively. Amid tensions between the U.S. and its largest trading partner, Bitcoin successfully rebounded to $88,000 on March 24, before falling again to around $82,000 at the time of writing.

Many state legislatures are considering legislation related to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, from bills that establish Bitcoin reserves to crypto tax mandating and exploring pension fund investments. This month, such bills were passed by votes or committees in 13 U.S. states.

The cooling of the Memecoin market has had a significant impact on Solana’s revenue. After reaching a staggering $34 billion high in January, Solana's trading volume on decentralized exchanges plummeted. In March, transaction volumes rarely exceeded $1 billion.

The following are the data for March.

Trump's trade war caused Bitcoin to fall 5% this month

After Trump's first month in office, some controversial trade has undergone multiple reversals, even confusing and angering the president's allies.

After a month of delay, the tariffs came into effect on March 4—a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian goods and a 20% tariff on goods. Just one day later, Trump delayed the imposition of tariffs on automakers; on March 6, it announced the postponement of tariffs on most Canadian and Mexican goods.

The retaliatory tariffs heated up the situation, and on March 12, Trump announced a 24% tariff on aluminum and steel. On March 18, the U.S. Treasury Department, which is affiliated with the President's Office, announced that tariff rates in various countries can be negotiated.

Bitcoin prices and major U.S. stock indexes have been hit due to the impact of tariff estimates changing week by week. On March 24, Bitcoin successfully rebounded to $85,000, briefly surpassing the beginning of the month.

The trade war has affected the Trump family’s cryptocurrency investment through World Liberty Financial (WLFI). The fund performed mixed in March, with many altcoins in its portfolio, such as Mint (MNT) and Tron (TRX), trading at or below the beginning of the month.

As traders prepare to welcome AprilOn the 2nd “Liberation Day”, cryptocurrencies and traditional finance have been on a downward trend at the end of March, when Trump promised to impose equal tariffs on all tariffs on US goods.

Two states enact cryptocurrency legislation

Utah and Kentucky in the United States issued legislation on cryptocurrencies in March. Both laws define different aspects of digital assets and blockchain technology. They also provide partition definitions and protections for cryptocurrency miners and set guidelines for businesses to accept cryptocurrencies.

In March, 13 other states have also advanced several crypto bills. The three states, Texas, Georgia and Illinois, have introduced new bills in their respective legislatures.

The Illinois bill will create regulations and consumer protections for the industry, while Georgia senators seek to form a Senate research committee on digital assets and artificial intelligence.

Texas has been very busy. In March alone, it proposed three separate bills that would create an oil-backed stablecoin that would allow state officials to invest state funds in cryptocurrencies and set up a blockchain pilot program for the state’s Department of Information Resources.

Solana ecosystem faces a 99% decline in revenue

The multiple high-profile scandals including Argentina President Javier Milei have begun to panic investors in the memecoin sector.

As most releases occur on the Solana network, the massive churn of traders has caused revenue to drop 99% from its Jan. 19 high of $15 million to just $119,000 as of press time.

In March, the on-chain trading volume and daily active addresses of decentralized exchanges also continued to decline. In March, DEX trading volume fell steadily from $3.9 billion on March 2 to $782 million at press time.

In late February, Messari analyst Sunny Shi emphasized that the “meme currency economy” constitutes much of the value of the Solana ecosystem. He added: "A sharp shrinkage in memecoins trading volumes could lead to a significant decline in revenue."

The future of Memecoins is still uncertain, but Sythnetix founder Kain Warwick pointed out that the network is better for them.

“A highlight of Memecoin speculation is that it drives huge investments in Solana infrastructure,” Warwick said. “Solana is 100 times better as a chain than before memecoin.”

DeFi suffered $22 million in damages by hackers, analysts warned about security

2The largest DeFi hack ever occurred in the month, with North Korean affiliate Lazarus Group stealing $1.4 billion from Bybit. March, by comparison, pales in comparison—four hacks stolen $22 million in total (note that these attacks are different from exploits or short squeezes).

Blockchain security firm Lookonchain said the Bybit incident is still ongoing, and hackers are reportedly able to successfully transfer “100%” of funds — mainly through THORChain.

The ever-increasing DeFi hacking has led to a post on its Telegram channel by blockchain detective ZachXBT on March 18 that DeFi “does incredible in vulnerability/hacking, and unfortunately, unless the regulations that harm the entire industry are forced to pass, I don’t know if the industry will solve this problem on its own.”

He said that many of the protocols have “nearly 100%” monthly fees or transaction volumes come from Lazarus and “refusing to assume any responsibility”.

With concerns about security and macroeconomic factors aside, the crypto industry continues to grow and gathers at international conferences. In March, Europe and North America held six large international crypto conferences.

Overall, March was a turbulent month. Major currencies may fall sharply sideways - Ethereum.

In April, the market will be tested as Trump will launch massive tariffs on April 2 (known as “Liberation Day”). However, the capricious past tariffs mean that the impact may not be as obvious as expected.

Next month, the House Financial Services Committee will also debate the U.S. stablecoin bill. Many in the industry believe that the bill is the green light needed for cryptocurrencies to grow in the United States.

On April 18, Avraham Eisenberg, who was convicted of fraud and market manipulation for utilizing Mango Markets DEX, will face a sentencing.