Last Week in Review: Bitcoin breaks $28k, US banking woes continue, and new research reveals trading rhythms

by Team Luno
· 3 minute read

The highlights from last week’s headline grabbers. All the important news, numbers and events from the crypto industry in easy-to-read, digestible news bites. 

News from the block

🟠 Bitcoin peaked at levels seen in June last year

  • Bitcoin has experienced one of the best performing weeks of price action in history, closing up 35.8% on the week, according to Glassnode. Only 124 trading days in history have seen a larger 7-day upside rally, with just 16 of those days coming after 2015.
  • The rally in Bitcoin and the wider crypto market comes as the US struggles to contain the fallout from two banks closing in as many weeks.
  • Some analysts charge the Bitcoin price action to a move of money from central banks to Bitcoin as uncertainty around the banking sector continues. 
  • “The momentum is all driven by liquidity, as Bitcoin is an alternative liquidity vehicle,” Markus Thielson, head of research and strategy at digital asset financial services firm Matrixport, commented to Reuters. Thielson sees a continued flow of liquidity from central banks into crypto assets.
  • “The majority of this flow is hedge funds and other large market players positioning themselves in anticipation of a flight to safety more so than the actual flight to safety itself,” Kurt Grumelart, a trader at Zerocap told Blockworks.

🇺🇲 Troubles continue in US and global banking sector 

  • First Republic Bank received a $30 billion lifeline from a consortium of large US banks last week, not long after the closing of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. 
  • Meanwhile in Europe, troubled Swiss bank Credit Suisse was acquired by rival bank UBS after a $54 billion cash injection by the Swiss central bank earlier in the week. 
  • These measures have restored confidence in the sector to an extent, say the analysts, but many are asking at what future cost to the US economy? 

📱 Crypto app downloads in US increase amid banking sector uncertainty

  • Apptopia, a real-time app data provider, noted a 15% increase in downloads of the top crypto apps last week. 
  • Downloads for the top 10 banking apps, on the other hand, have dropped by 5% during the same period. 
Source: Apptopia
  • “The divergence in downloads points to general concern across the U.S. from customers amid the recent banking crisis,” TechCrunch reported. 

🌅 Crypto’s circadian rhythms revealed in new research 

  • Crypto markets are generally most active, or most volatile, during the 9 am start of the day across Asia and the US, according to researchers at The Risk Protocol (TRP), a risk management and trading company. 
  • “If you look at the volatility pattern in the US financial markets, it is typically U shaped, in the sense that it is higher at market opening and closing, and lower in the middle,” TRP CEO Karamvir Gosal told Blockworks. “[The] findings are not too surprising given the regular working hours around the world,” TRP said. 
  • The study also found that crypto markets were significantly more volatile on Fridays, with volatility dropping sharply on weekends. 

TL;DID read

5 things to consider when investing in cryptocurrency

  • Investing is mostly about developing an approach to achieve your goals and keeping your head.
  • HERE are a few key considerations for planning your crypto investment journey. 

Crunching the numbers

18.5% – The percentage increase in the price of Bitcoin over the last week.

$300 billion – The amount of money US banks borrowed from the US government last week. 

16 – The number of trading days between 2015 and now that outperformed last week’s 7-day upside rally in Bitcoin, one of the most significant rallies in the market leader’s history. 

– 0.45% – Ethereum’s current negative inflation rate, post-Merge. This means that more Ethereum is currently being burned than created, leading to it becoming deflationary and possibly more valuable in future. 

14.7% – The percentage of Ethereum staked in relation to all Ethereum in circulation. Analysts expect this number to increase and move in line with other proof of stake networks after the Shanghai Upgrade, scheduled for 12 April. Staked Ethereum will no longer be locked on the network after the upgrade. 

The crypto time capsule

Crypto trivia

The long and short of it

What does it mean when investors take a short position on Bitcoin? And what happens to the price of Bitcoin when it doesn’t go as planned for these investors? 

Find out HERE. 

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