12 April 2023 Rollup

Market Overview, Price Developments and Other News Highlights (2 min read)

Market Overview:

• Bitcoin (BTC) has experienced a significant increase, surpassing the US$30,000 mark for the first time since June 2022, following its outstanding performance as the top asset class in Q1 2023.

• Ethereum (ETH) is set to undergo the 'Shapella' upgrade on April 12, which has caused its price to soar above US$1,900 for the first time in eight months.

• In a noteworthy collaboration, Swiss bank PostFinance has partnered with Sygnum's B2B banking platform to provide digital asset services to their extensive customer base of 2.5 million people.

Price Developments:

Bitcoin (BTC):

Bitcoin (BTC) started slow but eventually broke past US$30,000 for the first time since June 2022. Despite no clear trigger, BTC benefited from increased institutional investments, with a US$370 million AUM growth in Bitcoin ETPs in March 2023—the strongest inflows since November last year. Consequently, BTC's 86.5% year-to-date increase makes it Q1 2023's top-performing asset class, with over 3x the returns of the Nasdaq100.

Source: Bloomberg

BTC enthusiast Michael Saylor announced Microstrategy's (NASDAQ: MSTR) acquisition of an additional 1,045 BTC at an average cost of US$28,016 per BTC. Now holding 140,000 BTC worth US$4.17 billion, Microstrategy becomes the public company with the largest Bitcoin holdings worldwide. BTC sustained its rise, closing the week at US$30,294, with a 7.3% weekly gain.

Ethereum (ETH):

ETH had a strong week compared to BTC, hitting the US$1,900 mark on Wednesday for the first time in eight months. With the 'Shapella' upgrade slated for April 12, the week saw high volatility. The upgrade will allow staked ETH withdrawals, which could impact its price in the coming weeks. ETH closed the week at US$1,896, up 1.5%.

Altcoins:

As BTC surged to US$30,000, all market sectors followed, with several altcoins achieving double-digit gains. DeFi led the pack with a 7.2% increase, followed by GameFi (5.6%) and Smart Contract Platforms (4.8%).

In the DeFi sector, THORChain (RUNE) and Curve DAO (CRV) were the top performers, rallying 10.0% and 11.3%, respectively. Layer-1 protocol Solana (SOL) climbed 10.8% week-on-week, fueled by the upcoming release of Saga, an Android smartphone powered by the Solana blockchain.

Render (RNDR) jumped 19.8% over the past seven days, following the approval of an improvement proposal to migrate its network from Ethereum to Solana for enhanced scalability. Conflux (CFX) posted a weekly gain of 14.3%, with its mainnet upgrade supported by Binance, contributing to investor optimism.

Other News Highlights:

Swiss Bank PostFinance Offers Crypto Services: Switzerland's state-owned PostFinance has partnered with Sygnum's B2B banking platform to provide over 2.5 million clients with authorized cryptocurrency services, including buying, storing, and selling leading digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Ralph Lauren Embraces Crypto: The US fashion brand Ralph Lauren plans to launch a luxury concept store in Miami, catering to the city's Web3 community. In partnership with BitPay, the store will accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, and Dogecoin as payment methods.

Binance Australia Derivatives AFSL Revoked: Australia's ASIC has revoked Binance Australia Derivatives' financial services license (AFSL) upon the company's request. Binance will now focus on a more targeted approach in Australia. The cancellation, effective April 14, will not impact Binance Australia's spot exchange product.