Bits + Bips: What Iran, Oil Shocks, and No Rate Cuts Mean for Crypto

Unchained

Laura Shin

Business News, News, Tech News

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bitcoin dropped under $69K even as the SEC and CFTC create more clarity for crypto, and agentic commerce looks like it will reshape the sector. --- Thank you to our sponsor, MultiChain Advisors --- Bitcoin dropped under $69K after the Fed, ECB, and Bank of England all held rates steady this week, while Australia hiked. Kaiko's Laurens Fraussen joins to explain what's actually happening beneath the surface, from collapsing liquidity to a quiet geographic shift in who's buying. He also makes the case that agentic commerce could reshape how crypto payments work entirely and we break down why the market mostly shrugged at the latest crypto guidance from the SEC and CFTC. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠, Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview Guest: ⁠Laurens Fraussen, Research Analyst at Kaiko Links: Bitcoin, Markets, and the Iran Conflict Bitcoin Holding at $70,000 as Iran War Stokes Inflation Concerns — Bloomberg These 3 Charts Show Bitcoin’s War-Linked Selloff Keeps Shrinking as Iran Conflict Worsens — CoinDesk What Bitcoin’s Falling Hash Rate Might Mean for Prices — CoinDesk What’s Next for Bitcoin Price Amid Iran War and Oil Prices Surge — DL News Central bank rate decisions Fed Interest Rate Decision March 2026: Holds Rates Steady — CNBC Fed Meeting Recap: Powell Says Inflation Isn’t Coming Down as Much as ‘Hoped’ — CNBC Bank Rate Maintained at 3.75%, March 2026 — Bank of England ECB, BOE, Swiss National Bank, Riksbank Interest Rate Decisions — CNBC ECB Holds Rates, Predicts 2.6% Inflation for 2026 — Central Banking SEC/CFTC Interpretive Guidance SEC Clarifies the Application of Federal Securities Laws to Crypto Assets — SEC.gov Joint Interpretation From the SEC and CFTC on Certain Types of Crypto Assets — Free Writings & Perspectives SEC Names Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and 13 More Crypto Assets Digital Commodities — FinTech Weekly Agentic Commerce and Payments Stripe-Led Payments Blockchain Tempo Goes Live With AI Agent Protocol — CoinDesk Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo Mainnet Goes Live for Machine Payments — Crypto.news Coinbase-Backed AI Payments Protocol Wants to Fix Micropayments but Demand Is Just Not There Yet — CoinDesk Google Agentic Payments Protocol + x402: Agents Can Now Actually Pay Each Other — Coinbase Google Debuts ‘Universal’ Protocol for Agentic Commerce — PYMNTS Coinbase and Cloudflare Will Launch the x402 Foundation — Coinbase World Launches AgentKit With Coinbase-Backed x402 to Verify Human Identity Behind AI Agents — CoinDesk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When the tax year ends on the 5th of April, valuable tax allowances may be lost simply because people left things too late.
0:08.0	Thankfully, Vanguard is here to help you make well-consider decisions, not rushed ones.
0:14.0	Their tax year-end hub is full of clear guidance, helpful tools and timely reminders to help you understand your allowances and give your investments
0:22.5	the best chance to grow. Search Vanguard investor to learn more. When investing, your capital is at risk.
0:28.4	Tax rules apply.
0:29.4	Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Bits and Bips the interview, the show where
0:34.8	crypto and macro collide one basis point at a time. My name is
0:38.9	Steve Erlich, head of research at Sharplink and also your host. We've got a terrific episode
0:43.6	for you today, but before we begin, let's take a brief moment to hear from some of the sponsors
0:48.4	who make the show possible. Multi-chain Advisors is an emerging technology growth firm that has helped create $50 billion
0:57.0	in enterprise value for 80-plus clients over the past four years.
1:02.0	They're the partner to help navigate markets.
1:05.0	Build real traction today at multi-chain ADV.com.
1:10.0	Quick note before we get into today's episode. Bits and Bips now has its dedicated feed. We're spinning off from the Unchained Feed and moving to a new podcast and YouTube channel. So if you want to keep up with our weekly live streams and macro meets, crypto breakdowns. Make sure to subscribe to Bits and Bips directly. We won't publish there until March, but subscribe today so you can be ready
1:27.8	for launch. Be sure to subscribe to the new feeds at unchained crypto.com slash bits and bips.
1:36.0	All right, welcome back. So my guest today is Lawrence Frauson. He is a research analyst at Kiko,
1:41.7	and we're going to discuss everything from markets collapsing
1:46.2	across all asset classes in light of the surge in energy pricing, as well as some news
1:53.0	that has popped up over the last couple of days that actually should be bullish for crypto,
1:57.9	namely the launch of Tempo's main net and sort of the agenda of commerce wars that are coming.
2:03.2	And we're also going to touch on tokenization, NASDAQ, getting its long-awaited clearance from the SEC
2:08.1	to begin offering tokenized versions of stocks alongside its traditional order book.
	...

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