By Darren Parkin
Data from CryptoCompare shows that the price of Bitcoin surged from around $22,000 at the beginning of last week to now change hands above the $28,000, with the cryptocurrency market having outperformed other assets over the last few days.
Ethereum’s Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, moved similarly to BTC, jumping from around $1,580 to $1,780. Ethereum has briefly surpassed the $1,800 mark over the week, but failed to remain above it.
This past week was initially dominated by headlines surrounding the depeg of major stablecoins, including Circle’s USDC and Maker’s DAI. USDC lost its peg to the US dollar earlier this month after it was revealed that $3.3 billion of its reserves were at the collapsed financial institution Silicon Valley Bank.
DAI was subsequently affected, as a large portion of the decentralized stablecoin’s reserves are held in USDC. The peg of both was restored after US regulators announced measures to safeguard all depositors at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank after their recent closures.
As a result, decentralised exchanges Uniswap and Curve both recorded lifetime high trading volumes. These exchanges rely on smart contracts instead of middlemen to provide financial services to users. Users deposit their tokens to pools to provide liquidity to the platform for rewards, which are typically a cut of fees paid by traders who use these services.
MakerDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind DAI, has since passed a proposal to increase the allocation of its portfolio holdings to United States Treasury bonds by 150%, from $500 million to $1.25 billion.
The $750m debt ceiling hike was approved by 77% of Maker’s delegates. Under the new deployment, MakerDAO will use $750m of USD Coin (USDC) to purchase more US Treasury bonds, diversifying its liquid assets that back DAI.
While the stablecoin crisis was quickly resolved, a banking crisis has been putting pressure on equities markets. Bitcoin and other digital assets have been outperforming these significantly over the past few days, even as negative headlines plague the sector.
Over the week, it was revealed that less than a year after launch Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has decided to remove non-fungible token (NFT) support from its social media platforms.
The decision to drop NFT support comes at a time when Meta is preparing to implement another round of layoffs that will impact thousands of employees. In November, the company cut 13% of its workforce.
These setbacks were accompanied by a Binance announcement revealing that it will no longer support GBP deposits and withdrawals over a decision from its payments partner, Paysafe, to withdraw its support.
Starting from March 13th, the suspension became effective for new users, while all users will be impacted from May 22nd. However, Binance has confirmed that users holding GBP balances will still have access to them, and the suspension will impact less than 1% of users.
Staked Ethereum withdrawal upgrade scheduled
On April 12, Ethereum’s core developers plan to release the Shanghai-Capella upgrade, also known as Shapella, on the mainnet. The primary feature of this upgrade is the implementation of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895, which will enable users to withdraw staked Ether on the network.
The feature that was missing after the merge with the Beacon Chain that led to a switch to a proof-of-stake consensus. The upgrade will also include three other enhancements that aim to optimize gas costs for specific activities.
Shapella is set to occur at epoch number 620,9536 and has undergone public testing phases on three testnets, including Sepolia, Zhejiang, and Goerli.
While staked Ether withdrawals are closer to becoming a reality, the leading decentralised exchange Uniswap has been expanding its reach. Over the past week, it was launched on the BNB Chain, a smart contract blockchain developed by leading cryptocurrency trading platform Binance. The move means Uniswap is now live on six blockchains.
Fidelity crypto quietly goes live
Over the week, Fidelity Digital Assets has quietly expanded access to Fidelity Crypto, enabling millions of users to trade Bitcoin and Ether on the platform without commission fees. Previously, access to the platform was limited to a waitlist.
To set up a Fidelity Crypto account, first-time users must create a Fidelity Brokerage account. The platform currently supports commission-free trading of Bitcoin and Ether, with a spread of no more than 1%.
Although withdrawals are not yet possible and the service is not yet available in all states, Fidelity has moved quickly compared to its competitors in the U.S. by offering cryptocurrencies to retail clients. Fidelity has a total of 37.1 million retail accounts.
Francisco Memoria is a content creator at CryptoCompare who’s in love with technology and focuses on helping people see the value digital currencies have. His work has been published in numerous reputable industry publications. Francisco holds various cryptocurrencies.
Featured image via Unsplash.
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