Biweekly Headlines 2024 Mar W1 – W2
“The biggest mistake I’ve ever made was not buying Bitcoin when it was nothing; that’s the biggest mistake I’ve made. […] It cost nothing at some point.” – Trevor Noah, comedian and entertainer
Biweekly News Roundup
1. Market Movements and Records
● Bitcoin and Ether’s price movements, including new all-time highs: Bitcoin has risen about 60% in just two months and even surged to a record high of $69,325 on Mar. 5, nearing silver’s $1.4T market cap. On Mar. 8, BTC took out the Tuesday record and rose to $70,136. On the same day, Ether hit $4,000 for the first time in more than two years. Ether has outperformed bitcoin over the past 30 days, climbing 67%, while bitcoin rallied 57% and the CoinDesk 20 Index added 53%. The Ethereum network’s revenue surged to nearly two-year highs this week as the speculative frenzy with meme coins boosted blockchain activity. Ethereum mainnet’s revenue from network fees reached $193M this week, the highest figure since May 2022 and a 78% increase from last week.
● Bitcoin ETFs’ impact on market dynamics and record inflows: Overall, ETF volumes broke the $10 billion mark on Mar. 5, topping last week’s record. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF IBIT’s total inflows surpassed the $9B mark.
● Ether’s potential run and the influence of upgrades and ETF applications: Bitwise said that Ether could run to $10,000 or higher this year This month’s Dencun upgrade will make transactions cheaper on layer 2 networks. Another catalyst is the spot ether ETF applications, with a regulatory decision deadline approaching in May.
● Solana’s performance and DEX volume: SOL has gained 37% this year, with the dollar value locked in active futures contracts tied to SOL hitting a new record high of over $2B. Solana recorded about $15B in DEX volume in the past seven days, translating to a +153% weekly change.
● SHIB and AI cryptocurrencies’ dramatic increase in value: SHIB’s 106% move higher led CoinDesk 20 gainers last week and open interest in SHIB futures has crossed above $100M. AI cryptocurrencies double in value, skyrocketing from around $10B to $25B market cap in just 20 days.
2. Investment and Asset Management
● BlackRock, Fidelity, and MicroStrategy’s investments in Bitcoin: BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF IBIT’s total inflows surpassed the $9B mark and added a record 12.6K BTC. The BlackRock ETF now holds more than 183,000 Bitcoin, closing in on MSTR’s 193,000 stack. Its assets under management are now about $12B, the most among its counterparts, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC at $7.2B. MicroStrategy upsized its convertible debt offering to $700M from $600M to buy even more Bitcoin.
● Bitcoin miner revenue and retail investor participation: Bitcoin miner revenue reached $75.9M on March 6. The number of addresses with at least $10 worth of Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high of over 35M.
● Total AUM for Bitcoin compared to other digital assets: Of the $7.6B pushed to crypto assets in 2024, over $7.3B has flowed to Bitcoin specifically. The total AUM for Bitcoin dwarfs other digital assets, with $62.71B currently deployed. Peter Brandt raised his Bitcoin bull market target for Aug/Sep 2025 from $120K to $200K.
● Predictions by market experts on Bitcoin’s future value: Physicist Giovanni Santostasi predicted that Bitcoin could potentially reach an astonishing $10M per coin by 2045.
● VanEck Europe’s projection on assets under management in crypto: VanEck Europe, the European division of the global asset manager, expects half of its assets under management to come from crypto in the future.
3. Stablecoins and Market Capitalization
● Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) market cap growth and liquidity: Benefiting from the crypto trading frenzy, Tether’s USDT touched the $100B market cap threshold for the first time in its history. Meanwhile, the supply of USDC has increased by 14.3% or over $3.5B since December 1, 2023, taking its total market cap to $28B compared to a smaller 8.7% growth for USDT over the same period.
4. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Exchanges
● DeFi’s leading role in the crypto market recovery: Bernstein expects the crypto market recovery is expected to be broad-based with DeFi leading the charge.
● Uniswap’s potential annualized revenues: Uniswap is the largest decentralized spot exchange. “At today’s run rate, Uniswap on an annualized basis could have revenues crossing $1B,” the report added, noting that the UNI already has a floating market cap of $9.3B.
5. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse
● Bitcoin NFT collections’ trading volumes: Bitcoin NFT collections traded the most volumes in 24 hours at $35M. Called NodeMonkes, the collection crossed over $11M in sales volumes, setting an all-time high.
● The growth of Ethereum and Bitcoin NFT sales: The sales of Bitcoin NFTs recorded $169.5M in volume, going up by 80% week-over-week, surpassing Ethereum NFTs in weekly sales of $162M.
● Projections for the metaverse in healthcare: Metaverse for healthcare market is expected to reach almost $500B by 2033.
6. Institutional Adoption
● Spot bitcoin ETF additions by major brokerage platforms: Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo are adding spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds to their brokerage platforms.
● El Salvador’s Bitcoin holdings and profits: El Salvador’s Bitcoin holdings hit the record of $164M as BTC profits pass $50M.
● Arizona’s plan to integrate Bitcoin ETFs into state pension funds
● Wyoming’s legal framework for DAOs
7. Regulatory and Legal Developments
● Binance’s withdrawal from Nigeria due to regulatory scrutiny
● FBI report on losses from crypto investment scams: Losses from crypto investment scams in the U.S. totaled $3.94B in 2023, an increase of 53% compared to $2.57B in 2022.
8. Operational Challenges in the Crypto Industry
● Hut 8’s closure of its mining site in Canada due to power disruptions and surging energy costs.
March 9, 2024