Last week in the news
Economic indicators in the U.S. are still not providing a clear picture to investors whether the economy might slip into recession in the coming period. US equities finished the week in red, while EU stocks moved to green territory after the ECB raised interest rates for the first time after 11 years. Crypto market gained during the previous week, with Bitcoin testing $23K resistance, while Ether rose for additional 14% as a market reaction to the forthcoming “Merge” fork.
Long awaited interest rate hike by the ECB finally occurred. At ECB`s regular meeting held on Thursday, the ECB officials agreed to raise reference interest rates by 50bps, for the first time after 11 years. It was above market expectations, where consensus was standing at 25bps. In case that prices continue to rise within the EU area, there is possibility for another rate hike in September this year. Another interesting point from ECB`s meeting is the so-called “anti-fragmentation” tool, whose aim would be to support EU member states with already high levels of debt. As it has been noted, the ECB continues to target medium turn inflation rate at 2%. Some economists and analysts are not welcoming such ECB`s move, as they think that rising interest rates in a stagflation economy will not assist the economy which is already on the edge of recession.
During the previous week surprising news hit the crypto community, when it has been made official that Tesla has sold 75% of the company's BTC holdings. This lights a shadow on all tweets made by Tesla`s owner Elon Musk, who was persuading his followers that Tesla will not sell any of BTC holdings. The company did not post the sale price, but by some estimates of analysts involved in a matter, approximation is at $460 million in loss for the company after the sale. Elon Musk commented that Tesla is still open for purchases of BTC in the future.
As per news reports, another collateral damage of collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital is firm Blockchain.com. As it has been reported, this company will decrease headcount by 150 employees, which is around 25% of the firm's total staff. Majority of employees will be laid off in Argentina, and less in the U.S. and U.K. offices.
Coinbase initiated a petition, calling the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a more effective regulatory framework around crypto businesses. Company's Chief Policy Officer, Faryar Shirzad criticised SEC`s view to make equitation between securities and crypto assets, as there is no clear guidance which coins should be placed at securities threshold. As he thinks, this might significantly impact future innovation in the field of crypto assets.
Crypto market cap
It was a relatively good week on the crypto market, during which, some of the previous losses have been erased. Total crypto market capitalization increased by 6% during the week, reaching $997 billion, and increasing expectations that $1 trillion might easily be the next target of the crypto market. Daily trading volumes were further decreased and were moving between levels of $98B down to $68B on a daily basis. Total funds outflow from the beginning of this year has been modestly improved to the level of $1.184B, which is a drop of 54%.
Although it was a good week for the crypto market, still not all coins gained during the week. Market cap increase during the week was led by the major coins, BTC and ETH. This time, Ether outperformed BTC, gaining $23B or 14%, versus BTC`s $20B and 5% increase on a weekly basis. ETH is currently supported by the forthcoming “Merge” fork, which is also the reason for increase of the market cap of Ethereum Classic by incredible 63% on a weekly basis, adding additional $1.4B to coins market value. In relative terms, Bitcoin Gold had a good week with increase in value of 44%. Other altcoins had a solid performance, however, few of them ended the week in a negative territory, like Uniswap, with drop in market cap of 7%, or Zcash which decreased its cap by 6%. BNB remained relatively flat in value, but its coins in circulation decreased by 1.2%. On the other hand, Filecoin continues to increase circulating coins, last week by 2.2%.
Crypto futures market
The crypto futures market is back on the road, after a period of poor performance influenced by the general bearish sentiment on financial markets. Closing prices of the futures on Friday were modestly higher from spot prices. In this way, BTC July futures were up by 8%, December this year was closed above $23K, while futures maturing as of the end of the next year were up by 12%, holding above $25K.
On the other hand, ETH futures had a strong push to the upside, where July futures were up by almost 22%, reaching the price of $1.500. Futures with longer maturities ended the week higher by some 30% from the week before. Futures maturing in December this year reached prices close to $1.6K, while maturities in December next year are closed above this level.
Economic indicators in the U.S. are still not providing a clear picture to investors whether the economy might slip into recession in the coming period. US equities finished the week in red, while EU stocks moved to green territory after the ECB raised interest rates for the first time after 11 years. Crypto market gained during the previous week, with Bitcoin testing $23K resistance, while Ether rose for additional 14% as a market reaction to the forthcoming “Merge” fork.
Long awaited interest rate hike by the ECB finally occurred. At ECB`s regular meeting held on Thursday, the ECB officials agreed to raise reference interest rates by 50bps, for the first time after 11 years. It was above market expectations, where consensus was standing at 25bps. In case that prices continue to rise within the EU area, there is possibility for another rate hike in September this year. Another interesting point from ECB`s meeting is the so-called “anti-fragmentation” tool, whose aim would be to support EU member states with already high levels of debt. As it has been noted, the ECB continues to target medium turn inflation rate at 2%. Some economists and analysts are not welcoming such ECB`s move, as they think that rising interest rates in a stagflation economy will not assist the economy which is already on the edge of recession.
During the previous week surprising news hit the crypto community, when it has been made official that Tesla has sold 75% of the company's BTC holdings. This lights a shadow on all tweets made by Tesla`s owner Elon Musk, who was persuading his followers that Tesla will not sell any of BTC holdings. The company did not post the sale price, but by some estimates of analysts involved in a matter, approximation is at $460 million in loss for the company after the sale. Elon Musk commented that Tesla is still open for purchases of BTC in the future.
As per news reports, another collateral damage of collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital is firm Blockchain.com. As it has been reported, this company will decrease headcount by 150 employees, which is around 25% of the firm's total staff. Majority of employees will be laid off in Argentina, and less in the U.S. and U.K. offices.
Coinbase initiated a petition, calling the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a more effective regulatory framework around crypto businesses. Company's Chief Policy Officer, Faryar Shirzad criticised SEC`s view to make equitation between securities and crypto assets, as there is no clear guidance which coins should be placed at securities threshold. As he thinks, this might significantly impact future innovation in the field of crypto assets.
Crypto market cap
It was a relatively good week on the crypto market, during which, some of the previous losses have been erased. Total crypto market capitalization increased by 6% during the week, reaching $997 billion, and increasing expectations that $1 trillion might easily be the next target of the crypto market. Daily trading volumes were further decreased and were moving between levels of $98B down to $68B on a daily basis. Total funds outflow from the beginning of this year has been modestly improved to the level of $1.184B, which is a drop of 54%.
Although it was a good week for the crypto market, still not all coins gained during the week. Market cap increase during the week was led by the major coins, BTC and ETH. This time, Ether outperformed BTC, gaining $23B or 14%, versus BTC`s $20B and 5% increase on a weekly basis. ETH is currently supported by the forthcoming “Merge” fork, which is also the reason for increase of the market cap of Ethereum Classic by incredible 63% on a weekly basis, adding additional $1.4B to coins market value. In relative terms, Bitcoin Gold had a good week with increase in value of 44%. Other altcoins had a solid performance, however, few of them ended the week in a negative territory, like Uniswap, with drop in market cap of 7%, or Zcash which decreased its cap by 6%. BNB remained relatively flat in value, but its coins in circulation decreased by 1.2%. On the other hand, Filecoin continues to increase circulating coins, last week by 2.2%.
Crypto futures market
The crypto futures market is back on the road, after a period of poor performance influenced by the general bearish sentiment on financial markets. Closing prices of the futures on Friday were modestly higher from spot prices. In this way, BTC July futures were up by 8%, December this year was closed above $23K, while futures maturing as of the end of the next year were up by 12%, holding above $25K.
On the other hand, ETH futures had a strong push to the upside, where July futures were up by almost 22%, reaching the price of $1.500. Futures with longer maturities ended the week higher by some 30% from the week before. Futures maturing in December this year reached prices close to $1.6K, while maturities in December next year are closed above this level.
