Gm,
Bitcoin traded fairly low over the weekend as the $40,000 resistance level was unable to be breached. The immediate support level sits at $37,000 but the more realistic stronger support level is at $35,000.
The crypto and equities market reacted badly to the third round of failed talks between Russia and Ukraine. Negotiator Mykhalio Podolyak, tweeted that there was positive movements in improving logistics of humanitarian corridors along with a ceasefire and security guarantees.
The news, albeit somewhat positive, failed to cause any positive momentum for the stock market as US stocks trended down yesterday with the S&P 500 ending with a 2.95% loss.
$40,000 becomes the short term target for bitcoin, however, for low timeframe trades, the cryptocurrency looks fairly unappealing with limited upside on offer. Despite many supporters, we are now seeing a BTC correlation with stock movements, with many now questioning its safe haven abilities.
As we expect the US consumer price index data on Thursday and a decision in interest hikes next week, further disruption to market sentiment is expected.
Markets
As of 8th March 2022
(source: coinmarketcap)
Headline roundup
Temasek leads funding for immutable blockchain scaling solution at $2.5bn valuation (LI)
Crypto exchange FTX sets up European unit (CD)
Schwab files to launch a crypto ETF (LI)
Binance ses up fiat-to-crypto payments provider (CD)
Societe Generale launches security token competition (LI)
Coinbase says crypto markets resilient after Russian invasion of Ukraine (CD)
JP Morgan invests in blockchain intelligence firm TRM labs (LI)
Swiss city of Lugano to make bitcoin and tether ‘De Facto’ legal tender (CD)
Longer term impact of SWIFT ban on Russian banks (LI)
Avalanche users can now buy Polygon or BSC assets in a single transaction (CD)
US credit unions join R3’s digital currency sandbox (LI)
Nomura creates startup to target digital assets (LI)
CBDC
Why Singapore sees no pressing need for a CBDC (LI)
Visa, Aave, 7 other teams in Brazil CBDC challenge (LI)
Swiss DLT trading facilities can have central bank accounts, use SIC for payments (LI)
VC
NFT platform Immutable raises $200m att $2.5bn valuation (CD)
Espresso systems raises $32m to bring scaling and privacy to Web 3 (CD)
Griffin gaming partners raise $750m fund with eye on Web 3 (CD)
Praxis raoses $15m in Series A funding round (CD)
ArDrive raises $17m to make Areweave’s data storage blockchain more usable (CD)
A16z investing $70m in Eth staking provider Lido finance (CD)
Pantera capital leads $10m investment in NFT infrastructure startup Rarify (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.