Gm,
Bitcoin managed to reach its highest weekly close since February removing doubts that a move below $40,000 could occur.
Market conditions are starting to point toward a more bullish perspective on shorter timeframes. Increasing activity in stablecoin markets would suggest that things are becoming more bullish as well as global markets looking to continue the road to recovery after weeks of geo-political nerves.
$29,000 and $69,000 are the limits of the BTC price range, anything in between is just consolidation. After almost a year and a half, many are raising questions about whether Bitcoin needs to be re-examined within the context of the four year price cycle. Halving usually occurs after every 210,000 blocks and has always had a predictable impact on price performance.
Bull market peaks usually occur the year after a halving, with bearish corrections following before the process gradually repeats. This time round has a been a bit different, as the end of 2021 did not see the same blow off top seen in 2013 and 2017.
We could well be seeing the first signs of the ‘The Last Cycle’ thesis playing out as we have seen 3 relatively short bull and bear markets since the 2019 bottom - meaning that there may be no more 4 year cycles. Measuring BTC against its latest all time high and its potential to beat it may not be an accurate depiction of market strength anymore.
The crypto market moved from ‘extreme fear’ to ‘fear’ over the weekend which would suggest more positive market sentiment. Despite the market recovery, we need to see the bulls coming in numbers to drive price above the $42,600 level to guarantee more momentum upwards.
Markets
As of 21st March 2022
(source: coinmarketcap)
Headline roundup
TransUnion credit score data to be used for cryptocurrency loans (LI)
Hubspot hack leads to data breaches at BlockFi and others (CD)
Blockchain interoperability framework Hyperledger Cactus goes into production (LI)
GameStop says it plans to launch NFT marketplace by end of July (CD)
Apex Group takes majority stake in blockchain startup FundAdminChain (LI)
Binance CEO says firm is looking into buying banks and payment processors in Brazil (CD)
Sberbank receives digital assets (not crypto) licence from Central Bank of Russia (LI)
Instagram to add NFTs (CD)
HSBC buys NFT land in Sandbox metaverse game (LI)
FTX Europe becomes first exchange to receive crypto licence in Dubai (CD)
UK regulator FCA seeks leader for new digital assets division (LI)
CBDC
Euroclear invests in Fnality, blockchain-based synthetic CBDC (LI)
Bank of Canada announces CBDC project with MIT (LI)
Ugandan central bank explore CBDC issuance (LI)
VC
Animoca co-leads $88m funding for Hex Trust digital asset custody (LI)
Microsoft, SoftBank, Temasek back ConsenSys $450m funding (LI)
Web3 gaming platform on Terra blockchain raises $25m in token sale (CD)
A16z, Paradigm lead $159m round for ethereum scaling solution Optimisim at $1.65 valuation (CD)
Mina foundation raises $92m to accelerate adoption of ZKPs (CD)
Luno spins out investment arm to pump $15m to $75m a year into crypto companies (CD)
Meme of the week
About me
My name is Michael Burke, and I started working in the blockchain space 5 years ago, firstly with Deloitte, now with R3, where I help our customers build enterprise solutions utilising the Corda platform. My interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency stems from the sheer potential of the technology to completely transform industries and value chains for the better