Bitcoin and other major crypto assets broadly traded sideways this week, experiencing less volatility compared to previous weeks. However, BTC briefly dipped below $95,000 on Wednesday amid a leverage flush but quickly reclaimed the $100,000 level shortly thereafter. The drop also coincided with Google’s announcement of Willow, its first quantum chip, which reignited concerns that the progress in quantum computing could potentially pose a threat regarding the decryption of private keys. However, while Google’s Willow chip marks a significant leap in quantum computing with its 105 qubits, it remains far from the millions of qubits required to practically compromise Bitcoin’s Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) or secure hash algorithm (SHA-256). As such, cryptocurrencies and other industries likely have sufficient time to develop and implement quantum-resistant algorithms.
Elsewhere, Donald Trump reiterated his intention to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve. In an interview with CNBC‘s Jim Cramer on Thursday, Trump expressed his belief that a strategic cryptocurrency reserve could be essential if the United States seeks to maintain its leadership in digital assets. When Cramer asked, “Strategic petroleum reserve-like for crypto?” Trump responded, “I think so,” adding, “We’re gonna do something great with crypto, ’cause we don’t want China, or anybody else—not just China, others are embracing it—and we want to be the head.” The president-elect also stated he would “love” for Bitcoin to reach $150,000 during his presidency, according to a report from Axios this week. Since the election, Bitcoin has surged from around $68,000 to as high as $103,000.
In a related development, BlackRock, the world’s largest investment firm with $11.5 trillion in assets under management and issuer of the largest spot Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, recommended allocating a small portion of multi-asset portfolios to Bitcoin. In a report for institutional investors, BlackRock suggested a 1% to 2% allocation as a “reasonable range for Bitcoin exposure,” according to Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas. BlackRock’s IBIT exchange-traded fund now manages over $50 billion in assets, according to data from The Block
Market Overview
The global cryptoasset market capitalization currently amounts to roughly $3.8 trillion – little changed from the $3.86 trillion last week, with bitcoin accounting for 52.6%. Among the Top 30 cryptoassets by market cap, Chainlink (LINK) outperformed, gaining 17% over the week. The price of bitcoin (BTC) rose by 1.5% to $100,913 while the price of ether (ETH) decreased by 2.3% to $3,916. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is sitting at $136 billion, with Ethereum (excluding Layer 2s) accounting for about 57% of TVL. Arbitrum One remains the largest Layer 2 by value locked, accounting for about 36% of the $58 billion in assets.
This Week’s Headlines
- Trump-backed World Liberty Financial swaps stablecoins for ETH, onchain data shows
- Billionaire investor Ray Dalio recommends bitcoin as “hard money” amid sovereign debt increases
- Goldman Sachs CEO says firm could consider bitcoin, ether trading if US regulations shift
- Activist investor Starboard has built stake in Bitcoin miner Riot, WSJ reports
- Circle and Binance partnership seeks to boost global adoption of USDC
- Ripple stablecoin RLUSD gains approval from New York’s Dept. of Financial Services
- Coinbase Europe delists USDT and other stablecoins citing EU compliance
- Solana surpasses Ethereum as fastest growing crypto ecosystem in terms of new developers, according to Electric Capital’s developer report
Notable Deals and Fundraising
- Avalanche raises $250 million locked token sale to support the Avalanche9000 upgrade, led by Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly and others
- Crypto-AI startup Exabits reaches $150 million valuation with $15 million seed round
- Web3 AI cloud firm Hyperbolic raises $12 million in Series A funding led by Variant and Polychain Capital
- Bitcoin investment app Relai hits $72 million valuation after new $12 million funding round
- Commonware raises $9 million in a round led by Haun Ventures and Dragonfly
- Decentralized trading card game Fantasy announces a $4.25 million seed funding round led by Dragonfly
- Solana-based tokenization platform AgriDex raises $4 million in strategic funding
- Neptune Protocol raises $3.9 million in seed funding to launch USDN, Eclipse’s native stablecoin
- DeFi protocol Synthetix acquires leveraged token platform TLX
- Japanese trading platform Coincheck becomes second crypto exchange to go public on Nasdaq
- Diversified crypto-holding company COSIMO discloses $25 million investment round being led by former Bridgewater executive
- Interchain Foundation acquires Skip to refocus Cosmos Hub at ecosystem’s core
- Magic Eden airdrops ME token to NFT users across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Polygon ecosystems
