Crypto markets on a firm footing as institutional interest continues to soar

Hola folks!

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a relaxing week. The crypto market is finding its legs again after the sell-off, with Bitcoin trading around the $69K mark and Ethereum trading steady at $3.5k. 

As the global crypto market steadies, this could be a good time to dip your toes in the crypto waters to experience the crypto market firsthand. Download the CoinSwitch app today as it is offering 30 days of free trading to new users!

Crypto markets had a strong rebound last week, as institutional adoption of the asset continues to gather steam, keeping the overall market cap to just below $2.8trn. Bitcoin bulls were back in action as BTC positive gains, ending the week trading just below the psychologically important $70k level. 

The past week saw a reversal in the net flows for the Spot BTC ETFs, with the continued outflows from Grayscale's GBTC ETF being overpowered by purchases from the other providers. The net inflows topped $12bn even after GBTC's mass exodus. 

BlackRock continues to emerge as crypto's biggest TradFi supporter, announcing that their tokenized Money Market Fund BUIDL, launched on Ethereum last week, is seeing strong inflows of over $250m since launch. This has resulted in a surge for the underlying tokenized US Treasuries market, blasting past the $1bn mark. 

Another development for the Ethereum ecosystem was that the active validator count for the network crossed 1 million, which although positive from a decentralization perspective, could bring about challenges in synchronizing future upgrades.

In a much-awaited verdict, we also saw a US court sentencing SBF to 25 years in prison after finding him guilty of fraud, eventually leading to the bankruptcy of the FTX exchange in late 2022. 

For the broader crypto markets, the week saw most token prices trading in the green, although there were pockets of price correction as well. 

The surge in meme coins was back in focus as particularly dog-themed tokens went ballistic. DOGE, SHIB, and BONK are higher, with DOGE, in particular, seeing a surge in volumes and open interest, trading at levels last seen in December 2021, as there's increasing chatter of X using it as a payment method. 

Another major announcement for the week was the proposed super-merger between 3 of the largest AI projects in crypto: Singularity Net, Fetch AI, and Ocean Protocol. The token holders of these projects will receive a new token ASI, which would become the largest Crypto AI project with FDV of over $7.5bn and will compete with centralized AI projects like OpenAI, Grok, etc

The excitement around the "halving event" is not limited to Bitcoin alone, as one of its hard forks Bitcoin Cash or BCH is already surging in price, on the back of its upcoming halving event. 

In the Layer 1 space, ICP is now trading at its highest price in 2 years on its increasing alignment with the AI narrative. 

• DOGE $0.2047 ⏫ 20.18%

• FET $2.94 ⏫ 15.67%

• BCH $666.38 ⏫ 37.98% 

• ICP $18.40 ⏫ 8.77%

(All data here is as of 2.50 p.m., 1 April 2024)

Before we conclude, here’s a quick look at some important news from around the crypto world.

• Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol agreed to merge tokens and create an alliance for decentralized artificial intelligence (AI). The three are seeking to create an AI collective, providing a decentralized alternative to the existing projects that are controlled by large technology companies, according to an emailed announcement on March 27. Read more here. 

• BlackRock’s first tokenized asset fund is off to a strong start, garnering a significant market share of the blockchain-based tokenized US Treasury market just a week following its debut. Blockchain data shows that BlackRock’s BUIDL raked in $245 million of deposits as of Wednesday. Read more here.  

Before you get on with your day, don’t forget to flex those brain muscles with our weekly crypto crossword.

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

See you later, folks! 👋

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