Friday Wrap: Markets On Track For Second Week Of Gains

Crypto markets are consolidating their gains from Thursday, buoyed by global risk-on sentiment and news that Russia may turn to Bitcoin as a payment option for gas and other commodities as Western sanctions bite.

Bitcoin is trading at $44,305, up 8% in the past seven days. Ether is on track to notch up a fifth day of gains, up 11% on the week and trading at $3,150 as of 730AM ET.

Total crypto market capitalization has climbed back above $2T, a level last seen in early February.

UST Bitcoin Reserve

Terra’s ambitious plan to accumulate $10B of Bitcoin in a reserve backing its UST stablecoin has been another tailwind for Bitcoin sentiment. Anchor protocol, the popular fixed-rate savings app on the Terra blockchain, is now DeFi’s largest lending protocol with $14B in TVL.

The Luna Foundation Guard reportedly purchased 2900 BTC worth $128M earlier today.

Terra founder Do Kwon called out the bears, saying their “days are numbered”.

‘Wholecoiners’ On The Rise

According to data from blockchain analytics provider Glassnode, the number of addresses holding at least one Bitcoin has increased steadily since the February sell-off and stands at 826,517 as of Mar. 24, a one-year high.

At the same time, the percentage of Bitcoin supply held on exchanges continues to trend lower and has hit a four-year low, indicating that holders remain bullish, at least for now.

ETH Outperforms

Ether has outperformed Bitcoin since the Feb. 24 lows, driven by bullish sentiment around the blockchain’s long-awaited transition to Proof-of-Stake, called The Merge.

Over 10.7M ETH is currently staked, an all-time high.

Another 7.7M ETH is locked in DeFi, according to DefiPulse, and the percentage of Ether held on exchanges has continued to drop to levels last seen in May 2018.

Top Gainers

• Loopring is up 60% this week after Gamestop’s beta NFT marketplace went live on the Layer 2 platform.
• P2E leader Axie Infinity saw its AXS token rise 45%.
• Cardano’s ADA token soared 40% after Coinbase added support for ADA staking.
• Yield optimizer Convex Finance is up 25% this week.

XCOPY Raises $23M in 10 Minutes

Noted NFT artist XCOPY released an open edition yesterday. The sale was open for ten minutes with no supply cap.

Despite the relatively steep mint price of 1 ETH ($3108 at the time), 7,394 copies of the NFT were minted in the 10-minute window.

Amid a cooldown in NFT interest, the sale shows that collectors continue to have an appetite for projects from established artists.