Shanghai tailwinds propel crypto prices🚀

Crypto markets surge as Ethereum’s upgrade concludes

The crypto market traded in the green last week, with the overall market cap surging past $1.25 trillion. For most of the week, the rally was led by BTC, which finally broke the crucial $30,000 levels and traded close to 6% higher. However, all eyes were on Ethereum as the Shanghai + Capella upgrade, which concluded successfully. Soon after, the project’s native token ETH breached the $2,100 mark and was up ~13% during the week.

With the upgrade making withdrawals possible, some were expecting to see some mass withdrawals and possibly dumping, but thankfully none of that happened. There has been no immediate effect on staked ETH so far.

Meanwhile, macro conditions remained uncertain. The US monthly CPI data is lower than expected, suggesting inflation is finally peaking, but nothing is certain about the Fed rate hiking cycle. After all, minutes of a recent Fed meeting revealed that US governors are still not comfortable with the inflation numbers. The US dollar has been on a constant decline since the banking crisis.

Talking about token-specific actions, liquid staking tokens shot up post-Shapella Upgrade. LDO was up by ~9%, and RPL was up by ~33% last week.

The clear outliers were Layer-1 competitors SOL (up by ~26%), FTM (up by ~18%), AVAX (up by ~17%), and ADA (up by ~15%). They seem to be managing to attract both developer and investor interest. Layer-2 tokens like ARB (up by ~39%) and OP (up by ~16%) are also witnessing increased investor interest.

Stablecoins warrant a closer look as they seem to have something to do with the recent BTC price hike. How do we know this? Here’s what their on-chain metrics are suggesting.

The chart below shows that the Stablecoin Supply Ratio, or SSR, which is the Bitcoin supply in relation to the supply of stablecoins denominated in BTC, has reduced in April. If the SSR is low, it means stablecoins have more buying power to purchase BTC. So, little wonder that BTC’s price is moving towards $31K, perhaps?

Bolstering this view is the chart below. We can see the aggregate supply of stablecoins on exchanges has decreased. Meanwhile, BTC’s price has increased.

Ethereum (ETH)

Last week was Ethereum’s week. The project’s native token, ETH rose from $1,830 last Monday to $2,137 post-upgrade, and it is still gaining momentum.

The daily charts of ETH-INR on CoinSwitch Pro show that ETH is consolidating around the ₹1,80,000 level, after touching a high of ₹1,84,472.

ETH is likely to test for support before moving higher. So far as its chances of doing so successfully go, here’s what we know. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is above 70—meaning in overbought territory. But it is still showing signs on gaining strength.

Momentum strength indicator ADX is at 46 and also rising. If it keeps at it, the uptrend is likely to continue in the medium term.

The next major resistance is at ₹2,00,000 level.

If you are new to charts, read our beginner’s guide to TradingView charts. 

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is our of coin of the week because of the new strides it has been making in network development activity and its newest release.

Last week, Cardano released Lace, its first native wallet. Lace, like MetaMask, is a browser-based wallet that lets users directly connect to Cardano and access dApps on the network.

To date, Cardano’s R&D organization revealed last week, 124 projects have been launched on Cardano, and 1,225 projects are building. Besides, 64.6 million transactions have been executed on the network.

The price of Cardano’s ADA token has risen almost 100% year-to-date, rising up from $0.2456. ADA is hovering around $0.44 as of 10 am, 17 April.

Before we close, a quick look at the news to help you do your fundamental analysis.

Twitter and eToro team up

Twitter has partnered with online brokerage firm eToro to let its users trade on the platform. The feature went live on Thursday, according to a press release. Thanks to the new feature, users can view market charts and trade crypto, stocks, and other financial assets on the social media platform. With this move, Twitter cashtags covers a broader range of assets. (Source: CNBC)

AI platform CryptoGPT raises $10 million

Capitalizing on the recent surge in interest in AI, CryptoGPT, an AI-focused Layer-2 Zero-Knowledge (ZK) blockchain, has raised $10 million in funding. The Series A round led by DWF Labs put the network’s valuation at $250 million. CryptoGPT recently launched Alex, a Web 3.0-focused AI assistant. It is also working on a data-to-AI engine. (Source: CoinDesk)

Uniswap launches mobile wallet

Uniswap, a decentralized exchange, has launched a mobile wallet application to promote DeFi wallet adoption and on-the-go trading. The mobile wallet will allow users to purchase crypto for a competitive 2.55% fiat on-ramp fee. Users can also swap funds on well-known platforms such as Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. (Source: CoinDesk)

LSEG unit to clear BTC index futures, options

LCH, the clearinghouse arm of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), another traditional finance player, is making a fresh move in the digital assets space. It will provide clearing services for cash-settled BTC index futures and options. LCH DigitalAssetClear, a subsidiary of the company’s French arm, will finalize trades made on GFO-X, a UK-regulated exchange. (Source: CoinDesk)

US publishes draft bill on stablecoins

The US House Financial Services Committee recently released a draft version of what might be a landmark stablecoin bill. The proposal includes a moratorium on stablecoins backed by other cryptos. The bill is the first major piece of crypto legislation in the US in 2023. Among other things, it seeks to study the potential impact of a CBDC issued by the Federal Reserve. (Source: CoinDesk)

That’s it for now. Thanks for sticking around.

See you later, folks.👋

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