BTC & co face macro opposition on all fronts - Crypto Investor's Weekly - 5.03-12.03

Could this be the week that stopped crypto’s strong start to the year? Read on to find out.??

Crypto is on the ropes. But it’s going down swinging.??

We won’t lie to you, it’s not been a great week. We started off with more legal nonsense from American regulators. Familiar territory, right? If only it had stopped there. Silvergate Bank, one of the pionerering crypto banks and a publicly listed company folded. Despite such a strong start to 2023, it looks like we’re still being haunted by the ghost of FTX, with more contagion likely still to come.??

But, despite what some opportunistic politicians might have you believe from their sneaky briefings, this isn’t uniquely a cryptocurrency problem. The macro isn’t looking good outside the sector either. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is one of the US’ biggest lenders and sold off a $21 billion bond portfolio for a huge loss in an effort to raise capital. But it wasn’t FTX to blame this time. SVB said that Federal Reserve policies had sucked up too much liquidity, putting pressure on risk assets.??

But it’s not all bad news! Read on to see which token SMART VALOR customers chose for us to list, which countries are the biggest crypto bag holders and to see whether USD denominated pairs are getting a run for their money.??

Let’s get into it!?

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Optimism (OP) – the faster way to use Ethereum?

Optimism aims to address one of Ethereum's biggest problems. As a layer 2 protocol, Optimism significantly improves scalability. The increasing popularity of the still young project is reflected, among other things, in the price performance of its native token OP. Since the beginning of the year, the price of the token has increased by more than 300%. OP is now tradable on the SMART VALOR platform.?

Full blog article in English and German?

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Chart of the week ?

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Source: Coinshares via Twitter ?

In 2022, the number of new dollar-denominated trading pairs fell from 400 to 326 across all exchanges while the number of new euro-denominated pairs increased from 96 to 165.?

The euro certainly presents an opportunity, but when looking at the market share of volume for USD-denominated pairs, we see a broader story emerge: that of the declining use of the dollar in crypto. Since the FTX collapse, USD market share has fallen consistently relative to USDT, USDC, and euro trading pairs.?

For now, the dollar and dollar-pegged stablecoins remain the foundation of the crypto-economy, but growing complications with USD payment rails could upend this trend.?

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This week’s crypto prices ?

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Whenever the Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, makes a statement about inflation rates in the United States, Bitcoin usually has a rough ride. But the decoupling from traditional markets initially seemed to be holding out, because Bitcoin stayed relatively calm on the news that interest rates could remain higher for longer than originally thought.??

However, the mood soon changed after a double-whammy of bad news mid-week. Silvergate, the first proper crypto bank announced voluntary liquidation, BTC stumbled and transaction volumes dropped. Then, late on Thursday, Silicon Valley Bank also announced it would try to raise $2.2 billion and sell its entire securities portfolio. Bitcoin dipped below the $20,000 mark and it looks like it could re-test in the $18,000s before we see an end to this period of skittishness.??

Ether started the week bouncing up and down within a fairly narrow range, only to slip towards the end of the week under growing macro pressure. If bulls don’t manage to push the price back above $1,500 then we could see a consolidation somewhere in the mid $1400s. ?

Tweet of the week ?

Source: Twitter?

Who’s the biggest Bitcoin whale you can think of???

Early adopters, Bitcoin maximalists and institutional investors probably all come to mind. But did you know that the United States’ Justice Department is actually one of the biggest holders around???

That’s right! In fact, they confiscated 50,000 BTC from a hacker back in November 2021. Those coins are worth over $200m today. But the Justice Dept just moved nearly 10,000 BTC to a new address on an exchange, which signals that they could soon sell off their stash.??

Now, this isn’t a big deal in itself, but if the department choose to sell off everything, they could be releasing around 1% of the supply onto the market. It might make an impact short term, but it’s worth remembering that over $30bn of BTC is traded every day, with a market cap of over $425bn. But U.S. isn’t alone in holding big bags. Here are the countries with a membership to the whale club:??

• China: 194,000 BTC?
• Bulgaria: 200,000 BTC. Until they bought fighter jets with it. We’re all about holding, but this is a boss move.??
• Ukraine: 45,351.?
• El Salvador: 9,500.??
• Finland: 1,981?
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Crypto news ?

Crypto Bank Silvergate Announces 'Voluntary Liquidation?

Crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank will "voluntarily liquidate" its assets and wind down operations, its holding company, Silvergate Capital Corp. (SI), said Wednesday.?

Full article: Coindesk?

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Judge signs off on Voyager agreement to reserve $445 million after Alameda suit?

A federal judge approved a stipulation between Voyager Digital and FTX, which includes an agreement that Voyager will set aside $445 million after an FTX entity sued it for loan repayments.?

Full article: The Block?

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Thailand to offer tax breaks to firms issuing investment tokens?

The Thai finance ministry will waive corporate income tax and value-added tax for firms that conduct initial coin offerings, according to a government spokesperson cited by a Reuters report on Tuesday.?

Full article: Yahoo Finance?

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US bank woes? Silicon Valley Bank stocks plunge 1 day after Silvergate downfall?

Fears have been heightened over the future of another United States bank this week after Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) announced a significant sale of assets and stocks aimed at raising additional capital.?

Full article: Cointelegraph?