Last Week in Review: More rate hikes, Bitcoin’s reaction, and US home sold on Ethereum

by Team Luno
· 3 minute read

The highlights from last week’s headline grabbers. All the important news, numbers and events from the world of crypto in one place. 

News from the block

🏦 The Federal Reserve raised interest rates even as banks struggle

  • Jerome Powell, the Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank, announced another 0.25% interest rate hike last week Wednesday, the ninth rate hike in this hiking cycle. 
  • Bitcoin being sensitive to interest rate movements, its price briefly dipped below $28,000 on the news before reclaiming this key level a day later. 
  • Financial professionals were speculating whether the Fed would go ahead with the rate hike, seeing that the sharp rise in interest rates has contributed to the current banking crisis. As Bloomberg columnist and former investment banker Matt Levine explained the situation at shuttered Silicon Valley Bank, “…since interest rates went up, the market value of the bonds declined, the bank became insolvent on a mark-to-market basis, depositors noticed, and there was a run on the bank.” SVB had about $120 billion invested in Treasury and agency bonds. 
  • “Mr. Powell signaled that officials are still very focused on fighting inflation, but are also watching to see how much recent bank failures slow lending in the economy and cool demand,”  a New York Times writer reported from Powell’s press conference. 
  • The Federal Reserve raises interest rates for this very reason, to deter lending and spending, therefore driving down demand and the prices of goods and services along with it. 

🏡 Tokenised brick and mortar home fetches $214,000 on Ethereum

  • A US home tokenised as an NFT was sold on OpenSea, an NFT marketplace on Ethereum, last week.
  • The home was fractionalised, an NFT broken up into many tokens, and was bought by 670 unique token holders. The average purchase per token, paid for in ETH, was about $298, as reported by Blockworks. 
  • This was only the first round of the transaction and a second is to follow. 

🛍️ NFTs coming to Amazon?

  • The industry has been rife with rumours of Amazon planning to launch a digital marketplace where users can buy and sell NFTs. 
  • The rumours were further fueled by an email sent to CoinDesk’s managing editor for global policy and regulation from an official Amazon account, apparently confirming the existence of the marketplace. 
  • If it were true, it would be a huge boost for Web3 adoption. 

💵 Nasdaq looking to launch crypto services 

  • In another move by traditional finance into crypto, online global securities marketplace Nasdaq is making a move into crypto custody services sometime around June this year. 
  • “Should appetite for crypto among the likes of Nasdaq remain strong, it may prove a positive signal for mainstream cryptocurrency adoption, CoinDesk noted. 
  • “Demand among institutional investors for engaging in digital assets has increased in recent years, and Nasdaq is well-positioned to accelerate broader adoption and drive sustainable growth,” Tal Cohen, head of North American markets at Nasdaq, said in September last year. 

TL;DID read

Will Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade affect the price? 

  • Analysts are mainly looking at how many stakers withdraw their Ethereum. 
  • How many of these stakers withdraw their rewards earned versus how many withdraw rewards and the base amount staked. 
  • And how many new investors will stake Ethereum now that there’s no longer uncertainty around locked coins.  
  • Get the full story HERE.

Crunching the numbers

📉 14.9% – By how much the price of a Deutsche Bank share fell amid continued concerns around the health of the global banking industry. 

📈 304,896 – The number of validators (stakers) on Ethereum in March 2022. 

💎 560,144  – The number of validators in March this year. The Shanghai upgrade is set for 12 April and will unlock staked coins on Ethereum. 

💸 205,515 – The estimated number of Bitcoin held by the US government, obtained during raids on illegal marketplaces and arrests of hackers.  

💰 $5.728 billion – The estimated current Dollar value of the Bitcoin seized in raids and held by the US government.

The crypto time capsule

If only… Although, a decade or more ahead of most is a solid head start. 

Crypto trivia

What is Avalanche? 


  • The ultimate goal of the Avalanche team is to build a platform that hosts all of the world’s digitised assets. 
  • Founder Emin Gün Sirer explained his vision for Avalanche in an interview: “Everything we buy and sell has to be backed by a token and asset identifier on a blockchain. This certainly goes for every virtual asset, every financial asset, every piece of commercial paper, every single loan… But it also goes for all of the machines and so forth that we buy. My car should be something that I authenticate on the blockchain.”
  • How is the Avalanche team aiming to achieve this ambitious goal? All you need to know about Avalanche 👉 HERE. 

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