Weekly recap: investors are seeking salvation in cryptocurrency

Crypto market in numbers

Until 28th February, the crypto market cap continued to move sideways, ranging between $1.7 trillion and $1.8 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. Then, it began to grow sharply, approaching the $2 trillion mark on 1st March 2022. This increase coincided with the start of the trading week on traditional American stock exchanges. On 3rd March, the market began to roll back, and on 4th March, its capitalisation returned to the level of $1.8 trillion.

Crypto market trading activity has increased slightly. Between 25th February and 3rd March, the average daily trading volume stood at about $91 million. Between 16th and 22nd February, the indicator amounted to $77 million. The biggest recovery was observed on 24th February when trading volumes reached $150 million.

Market sentiment is changing rapidly. On 1st March, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index moved from the “Extreme Fear” zone (20 points) to the “Neutral” zone (51 points), but on 3rd March, it fell to the “Fear” zone (39 points). On 4th March, the value of the index stood at 33 points.

Bitcoin’s volatility has risen sharply since 28th February. Just the day before, the 30-day volatility index stood at 3.47%, according to CryptoCompare, but on Monday it rose to 4.36% and continues to remain at above 4.3%. Such high volatility has not been observed for more than four months since mid-October. However, this is not the highest index value ever recorded.

Gainers of the week (24th February – 4th March 2022)

Losers of the week (24th February – 4th March 2022)

Easily track gainers and losers within the Simple trade section on EXMO. Check real-time updates in the last 24 hours, week and month.

Most traded coins (23rd February – 3rd March 2022)

Top crypto market driving factors

Overall crypto market

▲ 23.02.2022 – New York Times: Russia сould use cryptocurrency to blunt the force of the U.S. sanctions.

▼▲ 24.02.2022 – Interfax: The Russian Defence Ministry stated that Ukraine’s military infrastructure has been subjected to strikes.

▼ 24.02.2022 – CoinDesk: Russian residents will be limited to conducting digital currency transactions through licensed operators, a restriction that in effect renders peer-to-peer trades illegal. Only certified cryptocurrency wallets will be allowed.

▼ 24.02.2022 – China’s highest court amended its interpretation of the country’s Criminal Law to make raising money from the public through “virtual currency” illegal. The amendment comes into force from 1st March 2022.

▲ 24.02.2022 – Bloomberg and Elwood Technologies have partnered to enable Bloomberg Asset and Management Investment Manager (AIM) clients to trade digital assets.

▲ 25.02.2022 – Bloomberg: State Street, the second oldest bank in the U.S., is working with U.S. regulators to ensure it is in a position to roll out custodial services for cryptocurrencies.

▲ 26.02.2022 – The U.S., European allies and Canada agreed to disconnect specific Russian banks from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT, as part of the latest sanctions.

▲ 26.02.2022 – The National Bank of Ukraine ordered electronic money issuers to suspend the issuance of e-money and the replenishment of electronic wallets with e-money. Some Ukrainians are instead turning to cryptocurrencies.

▲ 27.02.2022 – EU will ban the transactions of Russia’s central bank and freeze all its assets.

▲ 27.02.2022 – The Street: eBay is about to accept crypto payments. The firm could make an announcement on 10th March, its CEO Jamie Iannone told TheStreet.

▲ 28.02.2022 – Kaiko: trading volumes between the Russian ruble and bitcoin increased to a nine-month high of nearly 1.5 billion RUB as the country’s fiat currency plunged to record lows. Data shows that USDT/RUB trading volume also rose to an eight-month high of 1.3 billion RUB. Bitcoin-Ukrainian hryvnia volume has also spiked, but not as high as October 2021 levels.

▲ 28.02.2022 – Bank of America: there will be no crypto winter given the level of user adoption and growth in the development activity. The ​​crypto market upside will likely be limited for the next six months, but it will keep growing.

▲ 28.02.2022 – CoinShares: despite the ongoing turmoil in Eastern Europe, digital asset investment products saw inflows totaling $36 million between 21st and 25th February, which is three times less than the previous week.

▼ 28.02.2022 – CoinShares: between 21st and 25th February, most altcoins, with the exception of Ethereum and Tezos, recorded a small outflow of funds.

▲ 28.02.2022 – CoinShares: between 21st and 25th February, multi-asset investment products saw inflows totaling $14 million. They have been a stalwart this year, with year-to-date inflows surpassing Bitcoin: $83 million and $71 million, respectively.

▲ 01.03.2022 – The EU authorities have refused to ban the mining of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies based on Proof-of-Work.

▲ 01.03.2022 – Citadel, the largest US market maker, could start investing in digital assets in the coming month.

▲ 02.03.2022 – Santiment: high-tier addresses holding between 10,000 and 10 million USDT now own the largest ratio of Tether supply in three months (almost 40%). This generally acts as a bullish signal due to increased buying power.

▼ 02.03.2022 – Fed’s Chair Jerome Powell said that he supports an increase in the Federal Reserve’s benchmark short-term interest rate when the Fed meets later in March.

▲ 02.03.2022 – Digital Currency Group announces $250 million share repurchase program for Grayscale Litecoin Trust ($30 million), Grayscale Horizen Trust ($10 million), and Grayscale Zcash Trust ($10 million), and other Grayscale products. Up to $200 million could be used to purchase shares of other six publicly quoted Grayscale products based on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and Stellar Lumens.

▼ 02.03.2022 – Financial Times: the EU is discussing measures to prevent the use of cryptocurrencies to circumvent the sanctions on Russia.

▼ 03.03.2022 – Chainalysis: Russia’s crypto volumes are stalling across the major exchanges. On 3rd March 2022, trading activity in rubles amounted to $34.1 million. For comparison, on 3rd March 2021, it exceeded $150 million.

▼ 03.03.2022 – The U.S. Treasury will continue to monitor how the sanctions placed on Russia work, as well as Russian efforts to evade the bevy of sanctions with cryptocurrency.

▲ 03.03.2022 – Japanese business giant, Nomura, will establish a new digital company to explore crypto and NFTs.

▲ 03.03.2022 – Tether: Bitcoin, Tether and the city’s LVGA token will become de facto legal tender in Lugano (Switzerland).

Bitcoin (BTC)

▲ 27.02.2022 – Santiment: over the past week, Bitcoin’s circulation in the blockchain has reached a nine-month high. This surge is similar to that of March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

▲ 28.02.2022 – CoinShares: Bitcoin saw inflows of $17 million between 21st and 25th February, entering its fifth consecutive week of inflows totaling $239 million.

▲ 28.02.2022 – Glassnode: on 28th February, the number of BTC addresses holding at least 1,000 BTC (~ $43.63 million) increased by more than 6%, reaching 2,226. The figure has not reached a similar level since March 2021.

▲ 28.02.2022 – The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) announced plans to launch micro bitcoin and micro ether futures on 28th March. The options will be sized at 1/10 of one bitcoin or one ether, respectively.

▲ 02.03.2022 – Arcane Research: after the start of the Russian military hostilities in Ukraine, real daily BTC trading volumes spiked to levels not seen since the beginning of December 2021.

Ethereum (ETH)

▲ 23.02.2022 – The Matter Labs team has introduced zkSync 2.0 on Ethereum testnet as the first layer 2 EVM-compatible solution based on ZK Rollup technology. The system will allow the creation and deployment of decentralised applications with low fees.

▲ 28.02.2022 – CoinShares: between 21st and 25th February, Ethereum saw minor inflows totaling $4.2 million. This is just the second week since the beginning of the year when Ethereum investment products recorded inflows.

▼ 28.02.2022 – Amid the declining transactional activity, the average gas price on the Ethereum network reached a six-month low – 46 Gwei.

▲ 28.02.2022 – The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) announced plans to launch micro bitcoin and micro ether futures on 28th March. The options will be sized at 1/10 of one bitcoin or one ether, respectively.

▲ 01.03.2022 – IntoTheBlock: ETH has seen seven days of consecutive outflows from exchanges. Over 327,000 ETH left exchanges during this time.

▲ 03.03.2022 – Ethereum developers are getting ready to launch the final merge testnet before switching to the Proof-of-Stake algorithm.

Cardano (ADA)

▼ 23.02.2022 – Santiment: over the past three months, the number of wallets holding between 100,000 and 1 million ADA (between $91,000 and $910,000) has dropped from 37% to 17.7% of the total ADA supply. Presumably, since August 2021, large investors have been liquidating their positions.

▲ 23.02.2022 – IntoTheBlock: addresses holding ADA for more than a year increased their positions to $10.12 billion – the largest balance since 11th December 2019.

Solana (SOL)

▼ 28.02.2022 – CoinShares: between 21st and 25th February, most altcoins, with the exception of Ethereum and Tezos, recorded a small outflow of funds. Solana saw the largest outflows of $2.6 million.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

▲ 02.03.2022 – The Dogecoin Foundation announced that it had registered “Doge,” “Dogecoin” and its associated logos as trademarks in the European Union.

Shiba Inu (SHIB)

▲ 03.03.2022 – ​​Shiba Inu ‘glamourized’ the streets of Milan for the Milan Fashion Week as a part of the Shiba Inu and John Richmond fashion collaboration.

Litecoin (LTC)

▼ 28.02.2022 – CoinShares: between 21st and 25th February, Solana saw outflows totaling $0.5 million.

Near (NEAR)

▲ 24.02.2022 – Near Foundation launches its first tribal role-playing game (RPG) called NF: Primal, which aims to evolve the Near NFT ecosystem.

▲ 01.03.2022 – The developers of the NEAR protocol reported on the work undertaken in February.

Chainlink (LINK)

▲ 23.02.2022 – IntoTheBlock: the number of LINK holders is increasing. Almost 280,000 addresses are now holding Chainlink for over a year. They represent 43.9% of the total holder composition.

Uniswap (UNI)

▼ 03.03.2022 – Uniswap trading volumes continued to decline and dipped to a five-month low in February.

Tezos (XTZ)

▲ 28.02.2022 – CoinShares: between 21st and 25th February, Tezos was the only altcoin investment product to see inflows, which totaled $4.4 million. This represents 14% of assets under management.

EOS (EOS)

▲▼ 04.03.2022 – EOS Network Foundation is seeking the help of the community in gathering evidence against Block.one to strengthen the ongoing lawsuit.

yearn.finance (YFI)

▼ 27.02.2022 –Yearn Finance developers: all projects that were taken over at the end of 2020 will now work independently.

EXMO news

Save Ukraine Relief Fund and $1M (25 BTC) for humanitarian aid: everyone can contribute. We have created a ‘Save Ukraine Relief Fund’ to support those suffering from military operations on the territory of Ukraine.

That’s all for this week! Follow EXMO on YouTube, Twitter and Telegram to stay tuned to the main events and trends in the crypto market.