The recent surge in bitcoin prices, driven by ETF activity, has stalled in the past three weeks. Economic indicators suggesting higher-than-expected interest rates and some weakness in US equities have contributed to this stall. On Tuesday, BTC experienced a dip to $65,000, but it briefly managed to rebound to $69,000. The ensuing volatility in the crypto markets triggered over $400 million in liquidations within a day, predominantly affecting long positions. Despite the correction, March emerged as a notable period for trading volume in the fledgling spot Bitcoin ETF space. The combined monthly trading volume for spot bitcoin ETFs nearly tripled compared to February, surging to $111 billion in March from $42 billion in the previous month. In other positive news, monthly spot volume on centralized exchanges more than doubled in March, hitting almost $2.5 trillion for the first time since November 2021, according to data from The Block.
The US jobs report was also in the spotlight this week. Today, traders further reduced the probability of the Federal Reserve starting its policy easing cycle in June amid strong US labor market data. March saw job growth reaching 303,000, surpassing expectations of 200,000, and pushing the unemployment rate down to 3.8%, lower than the anticipated 3.9%. Consequently, US government bond yields climbed post-release as investors tempered expectations of three interest rate cuts this year. Fed chair Jay Powell indicated earlier this week that while the economic outlook hadn’t significantly shifted, he required “greater confidence” that inflation’s was falling to the central bank’s 2% target before considering rate adjustments, suggesting there was “time” to weigh the decision. Meanwhile, stock markets displayed resilience, with the S&P 500 rising by 1.3% midday in New York, recuperating from a notable downturn on Thursday, which marked its most significant drop since February.
Market Overview
The global cryptoasset market capitalization currently amounts to roughly $2.64 trillion – compared with $2.77 trillion on Friday last week, with bitcoin accounting for about 50.3%. Among the Top 30 cryptoassets by market cap, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) outperformed, gaining about 10.5% over the week. The price of bitcoin (BTC) fell by 2.6% to $67,600 while the price of ether (ETH) decreased by 4.6% to $3,325. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is sitting at $96 billion, with Ethereum (excluding Layer 2s) accounting for about 56% of TVL.
This Week’s Headlines
- SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce denounces SAB 121 and criticizes her agency’s regulatory approach
- SEC asks for public comment for Grayscale, Bitwise and Fidelity spot Ethereum ETFs
- SEC’s Gurbir Grewal criticizes crypto industry’s noncompliance, “creative attempts” to avoid rules
- Coinbase celebrates Canadian registration eight months after launch
- US PayPal customers will be able to use stablecoin for international payments
- Ripple to launch USD-pegged stablecoin later this year
- Coinbase, Circle challenge Basel committee‘s stablecoin requirements
- FTX bankruptcy estate aiming to begin repaying creditors by the end of 2024
- Decentralized exchange Uniswap hits a historic $2 trillion in trading volume
- Ethena’s “synthetic dollar” crosses $2 billion supply within two months of public launch
- KuCoin market share halves alongside $1.2 billion in outflows after DOJ indictment and CFTC charges
- Binance set to end Bitcoin NFT support despite recent surge in interest
Notable Deals and Fundraising
- Crypto investments reach an 18-month high, with an increase in early-stage deals
- Paradigm in talks of raising up to $850 million for new crypto fund, Bloomberg reports
- Brevan Howard Digital, Galaxy Digital invest in crypto accelerator Alliance aiming to raise $100 million for new fund
- Investment firm 1kx raises $75 million in latest funding round
- Web3 infrastructure firm Xion raises $25 million in funding from Animoca and others
- Ellipsis Labs raises $20 million in Series A funding led by Paradigm
- Stablecoin issuer Agora raises $12 million in a seed round led by Dragonfly
- Solana interoperability layer Zeus Network raises $8 million in a token round at a $100 million valuation
- Web3 AI firm Raiinmaker raises $7.5 million in a seed round from Jump Capital and others
- Minecraft-inspired crypto game Hytopia launching beta after $8 million node sale
- Gasp (formerly Mangata Finance), a cross-chain swap protocol building on EigenLayer, raises $5 million in a private funding round
- Layer 2 blockchain Camp Network raises $4 million in seed funding round
- RootData raises $1.25 million in a seed round to build a more interactive Web3 asset data layer
- GoldenTree Asset Management sells crypto unit to investment firm Republic
