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The rejection that followed Bitcoin's (BTC) rally to $26,500 may appear to be a victory for bears, but $24,750 on March 14 was the highest daily close in nine months. Furthermore, Bitcoin has gained 26.5% since March 10, when the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation shut down Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

The recent price increase could be attributed to various factors, including the extraordinary $25 billion funding by the Federal Reserve and the United States Treasury on March 12, which reduced banks' systemic risks. Nonetheless, Bitcoin bulls are well positioned to profit up to $440 million when weekly options expire on March 17.

How Silicon Valley Bank triggered a stablecoin bank run

Before its downfall, SVB's total assets surpassed $200 billion, placing it among the top 20 financial institutions in the United States. Nonetheless, the most direct impact on the cryptocurrency market was the $3.3 billion deposit from Circle's USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin reserves. USDC's net redemptions totaled $3 billion between March 13-15, as the stablecoin traded below parity.

Signature Bank (SI), closed down on March 12 by the New York Department of Financial Services, added to the negative pressure on crypto markets. Silvergate was more important to the crypto industry because it provided services to many crypto-related businesses, including Coinbase, Celsius and Paxos.

This movement may explain why the $1.2 billion Bitcoin weekly options expiry on March 18 will almost certainly benefit bulls. However, a drop in commodity prices, particularly for oil, could have an impact on cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin (BTC) accounts for more of the total value of all cryptocurrencies than at any time since June 2022.

In the latest knock-on effect from this week’s surge above $26,000, data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin market cap dominance is nearing 46% — its highest in nine months.

New dominance “spike” hints at trend change to come

Up almost 3% since the weekend alone, Bitcoin dominance shows a trend-setting move by the largest crypto asset reminiscent of classic bull cycles.

“Every Bitcoin bull market has commenced with a spike in BTC dominance (as has every bear market),” markets commentator Tedtalksmacro noted on March 15.

An accompanying chart showed that such dominance “spikes” tend to precede significant trend shifts in BTC price action.

In this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Justin Kramer, CEO of Badgerland Home Crypto Mining and a long-time cryptocurrency investor. When he is not attending to his own mining rigs, Kramer provides consultation services to home-based operations and larger startups on how to set up mining farms.

We start things off with miner prices and how they have changed in the last few months. Have the prices gone up or down, and what kind of impact does Bitcoin (BTC) have on prices? Which miners are the most in-demand right now, and who is buying them — small-scale miners or larger operations?

Mining operations that paid extremely high prices for mining rigs, which are now not worth even close to the same amount, how are they managing in this market? What is their plan for getting their investments back? Is it a lost cause at this point since the prices of the coins they currently mine are not as high as they used to be? Is it still worth it to pay those high electricity costs and keep mining?

United States President Joe Biden announced a new budget recently that also includes a whooping 30% tax on the electricity used for cryptocurrency mining operations. We ask Kramer for his thoughts on this and what exactly the details are of this new tax. Could this be an attack on crypto?

Are miners gravitating more toward altcoin miners at this point because they might be able to make more of a profit as compared to Bitcoin mining? We ask Kramer if this is true, and if so, what is the reason behind it?