March Madness in the Markets

Big funds continued to see significant losses in March.

The first few months of the new year saw extreme downturns across the stock and cryptocurrency markets. Due to the turbulence of the changing Presidency as well as concerns over President Trump’s tariffs, several key funds plummeted, with February being the worst month for market performance since 2022. The month of March saw continued losses, though not as steep as February. The S&P 500 (VOO) dropped 1.30% in value, Small-Caps (VB) dropped 2.10%, Dow Jones (DIA) 1.20%, and the Total Market (VTI) dropped a whopping 2.50%. As said before, these losses were not as bad as those in February, and the NASDAQ (QQQ) actually grew 1.20% in March.

The losses in the stock market have also been mirrored in the cryptocurrency market, partly due to the fear of investors of incurring further losses. In addition, the Bybit security breach in late February furthered the decline. During a transfer from the company’s internal database to its external database, a group of alleged North Korean hackers gained access to Bybit’s internal wallet and seized around $1.5 Billion worth of crypto coins. This shocking news left millions of crypto investors anxious about leaving precious assets in the form of a digital currency that can be hacked out of the blue, leading to a massive sell-off of virtually every coin and a dip in the overall market. In fact, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 12% in value during February, followed by an additional 4.50% drop in March.

These losses in both the stock and crypto markets had many economists and politicians declaring a “state of recession.”

Outlook for April

The beginning of the year has been rough for investors, but the losses were curtailed more in March. However, April 3, 2025, was one of the worst days for the stock market in recent memory: the S&P 500 fell 4.8%, Apple stock went down 9%, and the NASDAQ declined 6%. After this initial storm, however, we should see a slight resurgence as the stock and cryptocurrency markets begin to recover from the rough patch over the past few months. For an investor, this is the perfect time to cash in and build a portfolio that has a high chance of giving positive returns. Investors should buy into the recent dip in the market by purchasing funds such as the S&P (VOO), NASDAQ 100 (QQQ), and Dow Jones (DIA). Historically, a dip in the market has been followed by a strong resurgence, so buying in now will likely lead to a growth in value for almost all major funds within the coming months.