Huge arrest shocks crypto - Crypto Investor's Weekly 18.03-25.03

It’s been a great week for crypto. It’s been a terrible week for Do Kwon.??

Remember him? Let us help.?

Do Kwon is the supremely smug and exceptionally incompetent crook behind the $40 billion implosion of terraUSD and Luna, a cataclysmic event that started the 2022 bear market in earnest and kicked off a chain reaction of implosions that we are still witnessing today.??

Do Kwon was assumedly without his trademark smirk when he was arrested by authorities in Montenegro on Thursday. In case there’s any doubt about his innocence, he was reported to be travelling to Dubai using a fake Costa Rican passport. Authorities also found a set of Belgian passports in his luggage.??

The world is waiting to see where Do Kwon will end up. Will he serve time in the United States? Or will he be packed off back to South Korea, where the government put out an interpol red notice for his arrest???

We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled.??

In other news, Australian banks get jittery about crypto, Nasdaq updates on its custody service and Tether make some big claims about their reserves.??

Let’s crack on!?

Chart of the week ?

Source: Kaiko?

According to Kaiko’s latest report, The State of Liquidity in Crypto Markets, crypto markets are at their most volatile when liquidity is low. And as per the report, that’s exactly what’s happening right now. Kaiko analysts think that this could be behind BTC’s 17% charge upwards since the start of March.??

BTC is currently at the lowest level of liquidity in 10 months, which is even lower than just after the implosion of FTX. Kaiko analysts see the closure of SEN and Signet in the wake of the U.S. banking crisis, both prominent USD payment rails for crypto as contributing towards the current liquidity situation on the markets.??

Liquidity issues on exchanges is proving to be mostly a U.S. problem and levels are returning to where they were in early March. This means that reactions could be less severe, although it remains to be seen whether the loss of those on-ramps will have a more long-term effect.??

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This week’s crypto prices ?

It's been a good week for Bitcoin, where the top crypto has managed to stay above $25,000 level and even come within striking distance of $29,000 on Thursday and Friday.??

Bitcoin has spent a lot of time in the $28,000s, meaning that the bulls are in a dominant phase. If bulls can keep the momentum up, we could see BTC break through up to as far as $32,000. If a correction is on the cards and bulls can’t keep prices above $25,000, we could see prices drop all the way down to $20,000.??

Ether also bounced around within a fairly narrow range this week, with this kind of oscillations suggesting that bulls are buying dips and not waiting for larger corrections. Nevertheless, ETH bounced back from the high $1,800s. We could see a struggle between bulls and bears over the momentum from here, with a high target nearer $2000 for bulls and the mid $1600s for bears.??

Tweet of the week

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A lot of the time cryptocurrency-based newsletters can feel like a way to direct bad news into your inbox out of choice. So here’s a rare chance for all of you to enjoy some serious schadenfreude after the arrest of one of crypto’s most unsavoury characters: Do Kwon.?

We felt it was time to remember this little throwback to 2022. In this outake from Up Only, a cryptocurrency related show hosted by prominent crypto figure Cobie, Martin Shkreli was chatting with the host and Su Zhu, the figure behind failed investing firm 3AC when Do Kwon popped up in the call.??

Shkreli, who was sentenced to seven years in prison on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy took the opportunity to tell Do Kwon (then on the run) that prison was “actually not that bad.”??

P.S. Sam Bankman-Fried was edited in by the original poster of this video.??

Source: Twitter??

Crypto news ?

Crypto founder Do Kwon indicted in US after Montenegro arrest?

Do Kwon, the South Korean entrepreneur behind the $40bn collapse of the cryptocurrencies terraUSD and Luna, has been charged with fraud in the United States following his arrest in Montenegro.?

Full article: Al Jazeera?

SVB contagion: Australia purportedly asks banks to report on crypto??

Australia’s prudential regulator has purportedly asked local banks to report on cryptocurrency transactions amid the ongoing contagion of Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse.?

Full article: Cointelegraph?

Crypto firm Tether says it has around $1.6 billion in excess reserves to back its USDT stablecoin?

Cryptocurrency firm Tether estimates it will make $700 million profit in the March quarter, taking its total excess reserves to over $1 billion, the company’s technology chief told CNBC, revealing the latest figures for the first time.?

Full article: CNBC?

Nasdaq Aiming to Debut Crypto Custody Service by Q2 End: Bloomberg??

The stock exchange operator announced its intentions last September as it looked to respond to the demand from institutional crypto.?

Full article: Coindesk?

Bitcoin Investors Can Thank the Fed, Kaiko Researchers Say?

While equities struggle to bounce back from their banking crisis-induced slump, cryptos have been able to stay in the green — and it’s partially due to the Federal Reserve’s current course of action, analysts say.?

Full article: Blockworks?

Well done, you’ve made it to the end of the newsletter all on your own.??

It’s time for everyone to go home now, apart from Do Kwon. He’s not going home for a very long time. But maybe, as Shkreli said, prison’s not that bad after all???

Have a good weekend! ?