Weekly Update: 20th of March
What happened between the 13th and 20th of March?
Between March 14th and 20th, Bitcoin corrected by over 17%, retracing to approximately $61,000 before consolidating around $62,000 in anticipation of the FOMC meeting. Read more
The Ethereum network successfully implemented the Dencun Upgrade, providing increased scalability and low transaction costs to Layer 2 solutions building on top of Ethereum. Read more
U.S. prosecutors recommend a federal judge that Sam Bankman-Fried should spend 40-50 years in jail. Read more
Bitcoin has surpassed gold in investor portfolio allocation, according to a JPMorgan report. Read more
Bitcoin retraces after strong upward momentum
Between March 14th and 15th, Bitcoin corrected, dropping to $64,700. On March 15th, traders witnessed over $600M in liquidations, affecting about 200,000 traders. This decline was largely due to investor concerns regarding high inflation data, potentially decreasing the attractiveness of high-risk investments. As the week progressed, Bitcoin briefly dropped below the $61,000 level, consolidating after at $62,000.
Dencun Upgrade successfully integrated
On the 13th of March, the Ethereum networks successfully implemented the Dencun Upgrade, allowing Layer 2 solutions such as Optimism and Arbitrum to conduct more transactions at a lower cost. The effects are seen across the ecosystems as transaction costs decreased by ~75%. As Ether continues to attract more users, we expect that more will shift towards these ecosystems.
SBF can face a reckoning
In early March, U.S. prosecutors recommended to a federal judge that the founder and CEO of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange Sam-Bankman Fried (SBF) should have 40-50 years in jail plus a penalty of $11 billion and forfeiture. U.S. prosecutors see this as necessary due to his lying to investors, sharing fake documents, and making millions of illegal donations to the US political system.
Bitcoin surpasses Gold in investor portfolio allocation
A report from investment banking giant JPMorgan has indicated that Bitcoin, when adjusting for volatility, has surpassed gold in terms of investor allocation. Analysts attribute this trend to the approval and performance of spot ETFs. Moreover, another report by JPMorgan Securities predicts that the Bitcoin ETF market has a high likelihood of reaching $220 billion within the next two to three years.
In other digital asset news
The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) revealed that it had fined cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com 2.85 million euros for operating in the Netherlands for over two years without registration. Crypto.com announced that they have filed an objection to the decision.
Layer 2 network Base is experiencing strong adoption as Coinbase, the exchange behind the network, onboard new crypto users directly to the network. As a result, its total value locked has surpassed $2 billion.
During March, traders and investors were captivated by meme coins which experienced strong upward momentum. Furthermore, between the 15th and 18th of March memecoin presales hit $100M, a staggering number as most of these assets don’t have any utility.
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