Weekly Crypto Market_ March 30, 2023

ANIVERSE

9 min readMar 30, 2023

1. Week in Review

Crypto groups expand in Hong Kong in bid to tap mainland China demand. Cryptocurrency companies are rushing to Hong Kong in the hope that the city’s high-profile push to become a hub for digital assets will help them to capture demand from mainland China to buy and sell tokens.
The UK Has Created Crypto Banking Problems. Many U.K. crypto companies are finding it difficult to obtain banking services because numerous banks are limiting their interaction with the sector altogether.
Nasdaq Readies To Launch Crypto Custody. Nasdaq announced its foray into the digital assets business in September and will join traditional financial institutions such as Fidelity and BNY Mellon in offering crypto custody.
G7 to collaborate on tighter crypto regulation. Together, leaders from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, and the European Union will outline a cooperative strategy to increase crypto transparency and enhance consumer protections, as well as address potential risks to the global financial system.
Crypto asset management platform Haru Invest obtains VASP authorization. Haru Invest today announced that its EU incorporated subsidiary has become an authorized Virtual Asset Service Provider. They can now provide crypto exchange and wallet/custody service, opening up a pathway to becoming a fully-fledged cryptocurrency exchange with a fiat gateway.
US Crypto Firms Eye Overseas Move Amid Regulatory Uncertainty. Citing an ongoing regulatory crackdown, crypto companies are considering shifting to more favorable jurisdictions such as Paris, as they are increasingly seen as a leader in crypto.
Burger King in Paris now accepts Bitcoin and crypto payments. Burger King has introduced bank rental machines that accept cryptocurrency payments at its Paris locations. The machines are connected to crypto payment services Alchemy Pay and Binance Pay.
Crypto giant Binance charged with violating US trading and derivatives laws. The company supposedly offered unregistered crypto derivatives, didn’t ask users for mandatory identity verification, structured itself to avoid US regulation and even told customers how to dodge its own compliance system for US-based customers.
Canada to Ask Pension Funds to Disclose Crypto Exposure. The government budget for 2023 indicates the OSFI will consult with federally regulated financial institutions on guidelines for publicly disclosing their exposure to crypto-assets.
UK Crypto Promotions Laws Hoped to Be in Place by Late 2023. The Financial Services and Markets Act amendment, which would enable the new rules, will soon be discussed in Parliament.

2. Cryptocurrency Price Trend

1)Cryptocurrency Market State Visualization (1W)

Bitcoin is down -3.6% from last week. This is because the SEC has recently maintained its stance that it will tighten regulations on virtual asset-related companies and personnel, and the CFTC is also suing Binance and CZ for alleged violations of trading and derivatives regulations. In addition to the price index scheduled for release this week and the remarks of Fed officials, it is worth noting the regulator’s move to regulate the virtual asset market. Major altcoins reported declines in most virtual assets, including ETH -2.2%, BNB -8.3%, and SOL -11.9%, while XRP rose as high as +25% on expectations of winning SEC litigation. Meanwhile, the Virtual Asset Fear & Greed Index fell 9 points from last week, but still remains in the ‘greed’ phase.

Bitcoin is on the rise this week.

The price of Bitcoin has risen by 6.45% in the past 7 days. The price increased by 5.61% in the last 24 hours. In just the past hour, the price shrunk by 1.16%. The current price is $28,311.69 per BTC. Bitcoin is 58.84% below the all time high of $68,789.63.

The current circulating supply is 19,331,987 BTC.

Ethereum is also on the rise this week.

The price of Ethereum has risen by 4.94% in the past 7 days. The price increased by 1.95% in the last 24 hours. In just the past hour, the price shrunk by 0.94%. The current price is $1,775.58 per ETH. Ethereum is 63.70% below the all time high of $4,891.70.

The current circulating supply is 122,373,866.218 ETH.

Events that may affect the markets this week:

Key events of the coming week:

Tue, March 28

⭐️20:00 — CB Consumer Confidence Index

Thu March 30

⭐️18:30 — Q4 GDP data

⭐️00:45 — Secretary of the Treasury John Yellen

Fri, March 31

⭐️15:00 — European Consumer Price Index

⭐️18:30 — Basic price index for personal consumption expenditures

2) Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap (W)

The global cryptocurrency market cap today is $1.22 Trillion, a 2.55% change in the last 24 hours and -45.44% change one year ago. As of today, the market cap of Bitcoin (BTC) is at $548 Billion, representing a Bitcoin dominance of 44.77%.

Meanwhile, Stablecoins’ market cap is at $134 Billion and has a 10.91% share of the total crypto market cap.

Arbitrum (ARB) was the most trending cryptocurrency, with a gain of 8.68 per cent to $1.25.
Mask Network (MASK) was the top gainer, with an increase of 25.38 per cent to $7.01, while its 24-hour trading volume was $34,67,32,746.

Source:CoinMarketCap

3)Weekly Crypto Asset Flows (US$ M)

Inflows of US$160m as investors express concerns for Traffic.

Digital asset investment products saw inflows totalling US$160m, the largest since July 2022. A marked turnaround following 6 weeks of outflows that totalled US$408 M.

Bitcoin was the primary beneficiary, seeing inflows of US$ 128m, and expressed recently by some of our clients as a safe haven for the first time. Although not all share this view as short-bitcoin also saw inflows of US$31m.

Source:Coinshares

4) TVL Trends (1W)

TVL decreased by -3.8% compared to last week. In recent years, the bank’s decline has weighted the market’s turmoil, but the Fed’s quick response has eased market anxiety.

The CFTC is also suing Binance and CZ, which has caused anxiety in the market, and most cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, and TVL for each chain, have also been declining.

Weekly TVL increments by chain were ETH -5.5%, BSC -2.2%, Tron -3.1%, Arbitrum +5.2%, indicating TVL reductions across most chains. Last week, news of Avitram’s own token issuance and DAO operations saw TVL rise and share increase, and this week, Avitram token airdrops were carried out and listed on a number of exchanges, leading to positive trends such as record highs in daily trading volume.

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TVL Change (1W) ($ Billion_)

Source: defillama

3.VC Investment Trends

1)Crypto Funds AUM

Digital asset investment products saw inflows totalling US$160m, the largest since July 2022. A marked turnaround following 6 weeks of outflows that totalled US$408m. While the inflows came relatively late compared to the broader crypto market, we believe it is due to increasing fears amongst investors for stability in the traditional finance sector. The inflows came from many countries, suggesting a broad improvement in sentiment in the asset class. The most notable of which came from the US, Germany and Canada with inflows of US$69m, US$58m and US$26m respectively.

2)Flows by Asset

Digital asset investment products saw inflows totalling US$160m, the largest since July 2022. A marked turnaround following 6 weeks of outflows that totalled US$408m. While the inflows came relatively late compared to the broader crypto market, we believe it is due to increasing fears amongst investors for stability in the traditional finance sector. The inflows came from many countries, suggesting a broad improvement in sentiment in the asset class. The most notable of which came from the US, Germany and Canada with inflows of US$69m, US$58m and US$26m respectively.

2)Flows by Asset

Bitcoin was the primary beneficiary, seeing inflows of US$ 128m, and expressed recently by some of our clients as a safe haven for the first time. Although not all share this view as short-bitcoin also saw inflows of US$31m, remaining the investment product with the most inflows this year so far, but not the best performing from a price perspective. Ethereum suffered outflows of US$5.2m last week, its 3rd consecutive week to do so. We believe investor jitters around the Shanghai upgrade (expected 12th April) are the most likely reason. A broad set of altcoins saw inflows, most notable were Solana, Polygon and XRP with US$4.8m, US$1.9m and US$1.2m respectively.

Source:Coinshares

3) Major VC Fund Raisings

-Total Funding Rounds — 4275
-Total Funding Amount- $93.72B

Crypto funds and investment products stopped the trend of outflows for six consecutive weeks, recording the largest inflows of $160M since July 2022. This is understood to be due to an increase in investors who felt uneasy about the stability of the traditional financial sector. In particular, Bitcoin has a large inflow of funds of $128M.

Best deals of the Week

-Crypto exchange Bitget acquired a controlling stake in crypto wallet BitKeep with an additional $30M investment at a $300M valuation.The crypto exchange is now the controlling stakeholder of the wallet provider.

-Staking protocol developer EigenLabs has raised $50M in a Series A round led by Blockchain Capital. The funding comes as EigenLabs prepares to launch the initial version of its EigenLayer protocol in phases throughout the year. The size of the round is notable during a protracted crypto winter that has seen investors focusing more on smaller, early-stage rounds.

-Artificial intelligence-focused crypto protocol Fetch.ai has raised $40M from market maker and investment firm DWF Labs.

Fetch will use the investment to deploy decentralized machine learning, autonomous agents and network infrastructure on its platform, the firm said in a statement on Wednesday.

The aim of Fetch.ai is to provide the tools for developers to deploy and monetize applications by providing an autonomous machine-to-machine ecosystem.

Source: Defillama, The Block, Coindesk

4. Weekly Macro Economy Review

1. US consumer confidence rises as Americans shrug off bank failures.

- Consumer confidence index increases to 104.2 in March. Labor market differential falls to 38.8 from 40.7. Goods trade deficit rises to 0.6% to $91.6 bln in February. Annual house price growth slows further in January

2. National Australia Bank lowers peak rate call for Australia to 3.85%, from 4.1%.

- National Australia Bank said on Thursday it expects Australian interest rates to peak at 3.85%, down from a previous estimate of 4.1%. NAB added it still expects the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise its official cash rate by 25 basis points in April for a final time, beginning rate cuts in the first half of 2024.

3. For Battered U.S. Bank Shares, Earnings May Make or Break.

- Bank shares rebounded Monday after First Citizens BancShares Inc said it would acquire the deposits and loans of Silicon Valley Bank, whose meltdown sparked the selloff in the sector earlier this month. The S&P 500 bank index is down 16% since March 8, two days before Silicon Valley’s collapse, with the failure of Signature Bank and problems at other banks adding to the turmoil.

4. Bank of Canada ‘ready to act’ in event of extreme market stress.

- Bank of Canada (BOC) Deputy Governor Toni Gravelle said on Wednesday that the BOC is ready to act in the case of severe market-wide stress and provide liquidity support to the financial system. “Quantitative tightening program will likely end sometime around the end of 2024 or first half of 2025; QT is working but will take some time to run its course.”

5. Bank relief and Alibaba plans nudge stocks higher.

- Asian stocks rose on Thursday with fears easing on the banking front and the prospect of a break-up at Chinese conglomerate Alibaba offering an encouraging sign that Beijing’s regulatory storm focused on tech companies might finally be clearing.

6. China’s Economy Improves in March, Will Consolidate Recovery, Says Premier Li.

- China’s economic performance has improved in March from the first two months and the country will expand domestic demand and consolidate its economic recovery, Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday at an economic forum in Boao.

Source: Economictimes, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Reuters.