Last week in the news
The markets closed higher on Friday in a wake of Easter holiday and US latest job market figures. At the same time, the crypto market slowed down, after strong resistance at levels from the last two weeks. Bitcoin is ending the week testing $28K short term resistance, Ether was supported by Shepella upgrade, which pushed the price above $1.8K.
The important data was released just before the Easter holiday started on Friday. The US non-farm payrolls grew by 236K in March, which was in line with market expectations of 238K. This is also an decrease from 326K in February. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in March, from 3.6% during the previous month, which was not in line with the figure which the market was anticipating, while payrolls were increased by 0.3% in average hourly earnings, which was the lowest increase within two last years. Latest figures were perceived positively by economists, as they show that the year-long FED`s fight with inflation is finally starting to reflect in real figures. This is also pointing to the possibility of FED`s further slowdown in monetary tightening, and potential halt in raising interest rates by the end of this year. The Consumer Price Index will be released on Wednesday next week, which will add to the picture about the current state of the economy and FED`s measures.
During this week Ether price was strongly supported by the news that the major upgrade called “Shepella '' will be released. The aim of this upgrade is to allow for the owners of the staked coins to withdraw them, without using centralized exchanges or DeFi protocols. After the Merge fork released in September last year, this is perceived as another important upgrade of the Ethereum network, perceived highly positively by the market. The major upgrade is scheduled to occur on April 12th, called Shanghai fork, which also might imply higher volatility of ETH`s price.
Elon Musk`s and Dogecoin`s “love story” continues even after Musk`s purchase of Twitter. Namely, the price of DOGE surged by almost 30% after Elon Musk replaced the logo of the company with an image of a shiba-inu. This change was not visible for all Twitter users. Although Twitter did not comment on this short change of logo, still the analysts are commenting on the possibility that it comes in response to an ongoing lawsuit of federal agencies in the US who are accusing Musk for manipulation of DOGE price.
The latest issues in the banking industry strongly supported crypto currencies, and brought stablecoins into stoplight. The USDT, largest stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, reached a market capitalization of 80 billion, surging 20% within a single week. Just as a reminder, the highest USDT capitalization was
83B
right before the crypto winter.
India is another country which is currently in a testing phase of its central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The pilot program, which started in December, reached 100K users as of the end of March. India`s central bankers targeting 500K users in July.
Crypto market cap
Although both EU and US markets were closed higher on Friday, as fears of banking contingencies slow down and in the wake of Easter holiday, still, the crypto market was traded relatively flat during the previous week. Posted job figures for the US on Friday gave some confidence to investors that FED`s potential slow down with further increase of interest rates might be just around the corner. At the same time, it is evident that correlation between equity and the crypto markets are at minimum. The crypto market is slowing down, after an excellent start of the year, which is evident on charts and prices of the crypto assets. Total crypto market capitalisation remained relatively flat compared to the week before, losing some $5B on a weekly basis. Major coins on the market were also traded in a mixed mode. Daily trading volumes dropped significantly during the week, to
41B
on a daily basis, from $72B a week before. This could be a result of forthcoming holiday weekend, and not general trend on the crypto market. Total crypto market capitalization increase from the beginning of this year remained at 52% , where it has added a total $390B to the market cap.
It was a relatively mixed week on the crypto market, with evident slowdown in daily trading volumes. Ether was certainly a star of the week, considering that its price was strongly supported by the so-called Shepella upgrade of Ethereum network. Ether`s market capitalization was increased by more than 2% on a weekly basis, which added almost $5B to its value. Bitcoin slowed down, losing 1.4% as of the weekend, which is a drop of almost $8B on a weekly basis. DOGE was one more time supported by Elon Musk, so the coin ended the week with a gain of 9% w/w or $1B in market cap. Other altcoins were traded more or less flat compared to the week before. As for coins in circulation, it was a good week for Tether, whose circulating coins were up by 0.6% w/w, but reaching a significant milestone, as it managed to move above $80B in market cap for one more time in the history of this coin.
Crypto futures market
In line with spot market movements, the crypto futures market had a mixed trading week. BTC short term futures ended the week down by more than 2%, while longer term futures were relatively flat compared to the week before. There has not been much changes in levels of futures maturing as of the end of this year, which were closed on Friday at the price of $28.745, and those maturing in December next year, which were traded at price $29.725.
ETH futures were traded higher compared to the end of the previous week, supported by the news on successful upgrade of Ethereum network. In this sense, short term futures were traded higher by some 1.7% on average, while longer term futures ended the previous week 5% higher. It is positive that both maturities in December this year and next year closed the week above $1.9K level.
The markets closed higher on Friday in a wake of Easter holiday and US latest job market figures. At the same time, the crypto market slowed down, after strong resistance at levels from the last two weeks. Bitcoin is ending the week testing $28K short term resistance, Ether was supported by Shepella upgrade, which pushed the price above $1.8K.
The important data was released just before the Easter holiday started on Friday. The US non-farm payrolls grew by 236K in March, which was in line with market expectations of 238K. This is also an decrease from 326K in February. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in March, from 3.6% during the previous month, which was not in line with the figure which the market was anticipating, while payrolls were increased by 0.3% in average hourly earnings, which was the lowest increase within two last years. Latest figures were perceived positively by economists, as they show that the year-long FED`s fight with inflation is finally starting to reflect in real figures. This is also pointing to the possibility of FED`s further slowdown in monetary tightening, and potential halt in raising interest rates by the end of this year. The Consumer Price Index will be released on Wednesday next week, which will add to the picture about the current state of the economy and FED`s measures.
During this week Ether price was strongly supported by the news that the major upgrade called “Shepella '' will be released. The aim of this upgrade is to allow for the owners of the staked coins to withdraw them, without using centralized exchanges or DeFi protocols. After the Merge fork released in September last year, this is perceived as another important upgrade of the Ethereum network, perceived highly positively by the market. The major upgrade is scheduled to occur on April 12th, called Shanghai fork, which also might imply higher volatility of ETH`s price.
Elon Musk`s and Dogecoin`s “love story” continues even after Musk`s purchase of Twitter. Namely, the price of DOGE surged by almost 30% after Elon Musk replaced the logo of the company with an image of a shiba-inu. This change was not visible for all Twitter users. Although Twitter did not comment on this short change of logo, still the analysts are commenting on the possibility that it comes in response to an ongoing lawsuit of federal agencies in the US who are accusing Musk for manipulation of DOGE price.
The latest issues in the banking industry strongly supported crypto currencies, and brought stablecoins into stoplight. The USDT, largest stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, reached a market capitalization of 80 billion, surging 20% within a single week. Just as a reminder, the highest USDT capitalization was
83B
right before the crypto winter. India is another country which is currently in a testing phase of its central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The pilot program, which started in December, reached 100K users as of the end of March. India`s central bankers targeting 500K users in July.
Crypto market cap
Although both EU and US markets were closed higher on Friday, as fears of banking contingencies slow down and in the wake of Easter holiday, still, the crypto market was traded relatively flat during the previous week. Posted job figures for the US on Friday gave some confidence to investors that FED`s potential slow down with further increase of interest rates might be just around the corner. At the same time, it is evident that correlation between equity and the crypto markets are at minimum. The crypto market is slowing down, after an excellent start of the year, which is evident on charts and prices of the crypto assets. Total crypto market capitalisation remained relatively flat compared to the week before, losing some $5B on a weekly basis. Major coins on the market were also traded in a mixed mode. Daily trading volumes dropped significantly during the week, to
41B
on a daily basis, from $72B a week before. This could be a result of forthcoming holiday weekend, and not general trend on the crypto market. Total crypto market capitalization increase from the beginning of this year remained at 52% , where it has added a total $390B to the market cap. It was a relatively mixed week on the crypto market, with evident slowdown in daily trading volumes. Ether was certainly a star of the week, considering that its price was strongly supported by the so-called Shepella upgrade of Ethereum network. Ether`s market capitalization was increased by more than 2% on a weekly basis, which added almost $5B to its value. Bitcoin slowed down, losing 1.4% as of the weekend, which is a drop of almost $8B on a weekly basis. DOGE was one more time supported by Elon Musk, so the coin ended the week with a gain of 9% w/w or $1B in market cap. Other altcoins were traded more or less flat compared to the week before. As for coins in circulation, it was a good week for Tether, whose circulating coins were up by 0.6% w/w, but reaching a significant milestone, as it managed to move above $80B in market cap for one more time in the history of this coin.
Crypto futures market
In line with spot market movements, the crypto futures market had a mixed trading week. BTC short term futures ended the week down by more than 2%, while longer term futures were relatively flat compared to the week before. There has not been much changes in levels of futures maturing as of the end of this year, which were closed on Friday at the price of $28.745, and those maturing in December next year, which were traded at price $29.725.
ETH futures were traded higher compared to the end of the previous week, supported by the news on successful upgrade of Ethereum network. In this sense, short term futures were traded higher by some 1.7% on average, while longer term futures ended the previous week 5% higher. It is positive that both maturities in December this year and next year closed the week above $1.9K level.
