BTC is currently trading around $24,000 and ETH around $1,650. Notable gainers in the last 24 hours are OP, ENJ, and STX. The global crypto market cap is ~$1.15T, up ~0.3% over the last day. DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$50b and BTC dominance is around 44%.
Equities opened higher as they look to end the recent downtrend, while crypto performance is mixed but relatively flat in aggregate. Yesterday’s Fed minutes brought few surprises, and the general interest rate narrative remains “higher for longer.” While the vote to hike interest rates by 25 bps in early Feb was unanimous, the minutes noted that “a few” members preferred a 50 bp hike. Fed Funds futures did not move materially, and markets are pricing in a ~73% likelihood that another 25 bp hike will follow in March.
Notable news includes: The SEC, NYDFS, and NY AG objected to Binance.US’s amended plan to acquire Voyager; a self-hosted wallet ban was avoided in the EU’s latest draft AML bill; Canada gave a 30-day ultimatum for crypto exchanges to register with regulators; crypto analytics firm Messari cut head count by 15% while stablecoin issuer Circle reiterated its plans to grow headcount by ~25% in the year; Gate revealed plans to apply for a Hong Kong trading license; Coinbase declared it has outstanding subpoenas from the SEC in its latest filing; Obol Labs announced that it has successfully run a distributed validator on Ethereum mainnet for nearly two months with a top ~1% effectiveness rating; Synthetix deployed its v3 contract on Ethereum; Frax proposed a gradual reduction in the algorithmic backing of its protocol; TON Blockchain froze ~$2.6b worth of inactive tokens; Bitcoin mining pool Luxor acquired the OrdinalHub platform for trading Bitcoin-based NFTs; Bitcoin mining consulting firm Sabre56 raised $35m to build a new 150MW hosting facility; JPMorgan opened a crypto lab in Athens to foster blockchain innovation; the pseudonymous Blur founder known as Pacman doxxed himself as he outlined Blur’s plans to become the Binance of NFTs; 3AC’s liquidator revealed it would begin selling some NFTs, noting that the prized Starry Night collection won’t be included yet; Spotify began testing ways to access music via NFTs; Chain Reaction raised $70m to develop a fully homomorphic encryption chip; and, U.S. Congressman Emmer proposed a bill that would prevent the Fed from issuing a CBDC.
Authors:
Matt Kunke, Junior Strategist | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
Brian Rudick, Senior Strategist | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
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