News recap: crypto hits a sideways slump following January’s rally

Crypto market in numbers

Between 17th and 21st February 2023, the crypto market cap stood at above $1.1 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. However, on 22nd February, the indicator started correcting, eventually falling to $1.039 trillion on 24th February. The market then recovered slightly, rising to the $1.050-$1.080 trillion range. At the end of the month, a sideways market movement was observed. Capitalisation returned to the levels of late January 2023.

Trading activity decreased sharply. Between 17th and 22nd February 2023, the average daily trading volumes stood in the range of $70-$80 billion. But starting on 23rd February, the indicator began to gradually decline to $33.7 billion, falling by 61% on 26th February. Since 28th February, average daily trading volumes have returned to the range of $40-$50 billion.

The Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index moved down to the “Neutral” zone. Since mid-February, the sentiment of crypto investors has been steadily declining. However, the indicator managed to gain a foothold in the range of 50-53 points. The last time such values were observed was in mid-January 2023.

Bitcoin’s 30-day volatility index remained relatively high. Between 17th and 19th February, the indicator increased by 33% – up to 2.53%, but then slightly decreased to the range of 2.17%-2.30%. The same indicator for ETH rose by 12% to 2.72%. However, at the end of the month, it dropped back to the range of 2.40%-2.55%.

In February, the crypto market failed to continue its bull run. Bitcoin ended the month in the green zone, but the growth recorded was only 0.03%. Historically, March has rarely been a positive month for digital currencies. Throughout its entire history, in March, crypto produced negative returns for 60% of cases.

Despite the lull, the volatility of cryptocurrencies has shown only a slight drop. So sharp price movements in any direction are possible. To grow, the crypto market needs a driver in the form of good news. One of these may be the U.S. inflation data for February. However, there is some doubt about whether or not the indicator will act as a growth factor.

Gainers (17th February – 01st March)

Losers (17th February – 01st March)

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Most traded coins (17th February – 01st March)

Top crypto market driving factors

Overall crypto market

▼ 17.02.2023 – WSJ: banks are backing away from crypto companies, spooked by a regulatory crackdown.

▲ 21.02.2023 – Bloomberg: Hong Kong’s crypto hub ambitions are getting soft backing from authorities in Beijing.

▲ 21.02.2023 – Microsoft has partnered with Web3 infrastructure provider, Ankr, to offer node services for enterprises.

▲ 23.02.2023 – German asset manager, DZ Bank, collaborates with Swiss technology firm, Metaco, to add digital asset management into its services.

▼ 24.02.2023 – SEC Chair, Gary Gensler, hinted at the recognition of cryptocurrencies as securities.

▲ 27.02.2023 – IMF prefers to regulate crypto rather than ban it.

▼ 27.02.2023 – Blockdata revealed that the last quarter of 2022 saw a 34% drop in venture capital blockchain and crypto funding compared to Q3 2022.

▲ 27.02.2023 – Glassnode: 30-day crypto capital flows return to positive levels.

▲ 28.02.2023 – Bernstein analysts noted a decrease in the correlation of cryptocurrencies with the U.S. stock market. The indicator fell from 0.94 to 0.58 in early February.

▲ 28.02.2023 – NFT weekly trading volumes rose to the highest level since May 2022.

▼ 28.02.2023 – Visa and Mastercard have decided to push back the launch of certain products and services related to crypto until market conditions and the regulatory environment improve.

▲ 01.03.2023 – American payments giant, Visa, is not slowing down its plans for crypto products, despite the challenges and uncertainty in the crypto ecosystem.

Bitcoin (BTC)

▼ 17.02.2023 – Mike Novogratz says that bitcoin could return to $30,000 by the end of March 2023.

▲ 21.02.2023 – CryptoQuant has noticed a significant outflow of BTC from exchanges.

▲ 21.02.2023 – According to Glassnode, over 50.4% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply hasn’t moved in at least two years.

▼ 21.02.2023 – Glassnode: BTC wallet addresses holding 1,000 or more BTC numbered 2,024, hitting their lowest level since August 2019.

▲ 25.02.2023 – Bitcoin’s mining difficulty increased by 9.95%. The indicator hit a new all-time high of 43.05 T.

▲ 02.03.2023 – Bitcoin’s supply on exchanges continues to decrease. Investors are turning to the “HODL” wave.

Ethereum (ETH)

▲ 22.02.2023 – The Shanghai-Capella Ethereum upgrade on the Sepolia test network was officially scheduled for 28th February 2023.

▲ 23.02.2023 – Only 0.04% of validators that have staked ETH have been slashed, according to Ethereum core developer Superphiz.

▲ 24.02.2023 – Ethereum developers want to build a new testnet called “Holli” by the end of 2023.

▲ 27.02.2023 – According to IntoTheBlock, 39% of Ethereum’s total supply is held by whales.

▲ 28.02.2023 – The Shapella upgrade was successfully implemented on the Ethereum testnet.

▼ 01.03.2023 – Vitalik Buterin published a blog post in which he described several problems with ETH payments and documented the continued need to improve network scalability.

▲ 02.03.2023 – According to Glassnode, ether held on crypto exchanges hit a four-year low.

▲ 02.03.2023 – Ethereum has deployed the ERC-4337 key upgrade that helps users quickly recover crypto if they lose private keys to an online wallet.

Cardano (ADA)

▲ 21.02.2023 – Santiment analytics platform highlighted the rise of whale-tier transactions on Cardano.

Solana (SOL)

▼ 22.02.2023 – Solana announced the closure of two stores in the United States.

▲ 26.02.2023 – Solana validators restarted the network twice, due to a validator software update error.

▲ 26.02.2023 – Solana validators twice restarted the network after a validator software update error.

▲ 01.03.2023 – Solana released plans to improve its latest network upgrade.

Litecoin (LTC)

▲ 21.02.2023 – An analog of the Ordinals protocol appeared in the Litecoin blockchain, which allowed users to place various objects in the form of images, text, videos and other formats.

▲ 24.02.2023 – Litecoin Foundation partners with the digital asset manager, Metalpha, to develop hedging products for LTC miners.

▲ 02.03.2023 – According to CoinGate’s report, Litecoin ranked among the most popular cryptocurrencies for online shopping in 2022.

Toncoin (TON)

▲ 22.02.2023 – Decentralized Layer 1 blockchain, The Open Network, launched its governance platform, dubbed Ton.vote.

▲ 22.02.2023 – More than 75% of all validators voted in favor of temporarily freezing dormant early mining wallets. 171 wallets were deactivated with a balance of 1,081,389,417 $TON (more than 20% of the total coin supply).

Tezos (XTZ)

▲ 22.02.2023 – Google Cloud will now become a validator on the Tezos network.

yearn.finance (YFI)

▲ 22.02.2023 – Yearn Finance developers will soon introduce a product that allows users to gain exposure to a basket of liquid staking derivatives in a single token.

EXMO news

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