This week marked the strongest performance for Bitcoin since October when BTC surged past the $30k mark. Rebounding to $47k, Bitcoin benefited from favorable conditions in the market for risk assets and a notable increase in ETF inflows. Looking ahead, the trajectory of Bitcoin’s value probably hinges largely on demand dynamics. If ETF inflows can withstand profit-taking and short selling pressures typically associated with these price levels, the next significant milestone beyond $47k could be north of $50k.
Recent ETF data reveals a substantial net inflow within the US spot ETF domain, with BlackRock and Fidelity leading the charge, each boasting assets under management (AUM) well exceeding $3B. This trend contrasts with the outflows observed in GBTC, which have surpassed $6.3B, albeit showing signs of deceleration but still averaging around $100M per day. Overall, spot Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated more than $2.2B since their inception. Elsewhere, both futures-based US ETFs and Canadian spot ETFs continue to experience asset declines, with combined outflows totaling $600M.
Meanwhile, various on-chain fundamental metrics also indicate widespread strength in Bitcoin’s ecosystem currently. According to Glassnode analyst James Check, Bitcoin’s “Realized Cap,” a metric gauging Bitcoin’s market cap based on the price at which all coins last moved, has surged by $50 billion since October. He also highlighted that over 90% of all BTC units are currently held by investors with a cost basis below the prevailing spot price. The number of Bitcoin addresses holding over $10,000 USD worth of BTC has now surpassed 2.8 million – only 68,000 addresses shy of a new all-time high.
In Ethereum-related developments, core developers have finalized a deployment date for the Dencun upgrade (see headlines below). This upgrade will integrate the much-anticipated proto-danksharding feature via EIP-4844, introducing blob transactions and transient storage, among other things. These improvements aim to bolster support for Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and zkSync by reducing transaction costs.
Market Overview
The global cryptoasset market capitalization currently amounts to roughly $1.87 trillion – up from $1.73 trillion last week, with bitcoin accounting for about 49.6%. Among the Top 30 cryptoassets by market cap, Bittensor (TAO) outperformed, gaining about 33.5% over the week. The price of bitcoin (BTC) rose by 9.4% to $47,258 while the price of ether (ETH) increased by 7.8% to $2,488. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is sitting at roughly $66.3 billion, with Ethereum (excluding Layer 2s) currently accounting for about 59% of TVL.
This Week’s Headlines
- Rep. Maxine Waters: Lawmakers “very, very close” on US stablecoin deal, Politico reports
- New spot Bitcoin ETFs amass 200,000 BTC in less than one month of trading
- Fidelity Canada allocates 1% to Bitcoin inside its “All-In-One Conservative ETF”
- Genesis seeks approval to sell $1.6 billion in BTC, ETH trust holdings
- Dencun upgrade expected on March 13 to bring “blobs” to Ethereum mainnet
- The Solana blockchain experiences a 5-hour outage on Tuesday
- TradeStation Crypto, Inc. settles with the SEC and state regulators, agrees to pay $3 million in penalties
- Thailand waives value-added tax on crypto gains, according to a report
- Binance to delist Monero after previously adding “monitoring tag” – XMR drops 15%
- Ryder Ripps must pay Yuga Labs $9 million after lawsuit’s final judgment
Notable Deals and Fundraising
- Crypto mobile payments firm Oobit raises a $25 million Series A round with participation from Tether and Solana’s Antatoly Yakovenko
- Nibiru Chain secures $12 million to fuel developer-focused L1 blockchain
- Crypto yield marketplace Superform, built by former BlockTower investors, raises $6.5 million
- Ethereum-focused DEX aggregator Flood raises a $5.2 million seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto
- Layer 2 startup LightLink secures $4.5 million in seed round led by T&B Media Global and MQDC
- Filecoin liquid leasing protocol Glif raises $4.5 million, offers reward points ahead of token launch
