Despite rate increases by the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve (Fed), the cryptocurrency market remained positive last week. Both the national banks climbed their benchmark loan costs by 25 premise focuses (bps) each to control expansion. Despite this, the crypto market cap increased to $1.17 trillion on Friday, up from $1.14 trillion on March 17.
CoinMarketCap reported that bitcoin was up 5% and was trading at $28,051. On Friday, Ethereum was trading at $1,788 and up 2.7%.
Bitcoin has mostly remained above the $28,000 mark this week. It initially began trading above this level over the weekend and surged ahead of the FOMC meeting on interest rates of the US Federal Reserve. However, its value decreased to $27,000 following the announcement. However, Alankar Saxena, CTO and co-founder of crypto firm Mudrex, stated, “On Thursday, it made a sharp comeback as investors rallied, pushing its value back above $28,000.” – the founder said.
“The past week saw a continuation of the decoupling between cryptocurrency and traditional finance, as crypto asset prices reached higher levels. This occurred despite the fact that regional banks in the United States were severely affected and European giant Credit Suisse was saved by a merger with UBS. In another significant full scale improvement, the Fed climbed loan costs by 25 bps because of a little convention in stocks and some selling strain on bitcoin. However, Parth Chaturvedi, the lead for the crypto ecosystem at the cryptocurrency exchange Coinswitch, stated, “During the week, the broader crypto markets rose sharply with bitcoin and crossed the crucial $28,000 mark.”
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s notice to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase was another significant development in the cryptosphere this week. Following a “cursory investigation,” it received a “Wells notice” regarding an unspecified portion of its listed digital assets, including the staking services Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime, and Coinbase Wallet.
The notice informs the business that it may be subject to civil enforcement action. The Wells notice by and large expresses the supposed infringement of the protections regulations and indicates the cures looked for.
“We are confident in the legality of our assets and services, and we welcome a legal process, if necessary, to provide the clarity we have advocated for and to demonstrate that the SEC is talking about its engagement,” the company stated. Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal responded, “The timing has not been fair to digital assets.”
What are the next steps?
Next week, the market is expected to remain volatile.
“The Fed might go on with its moderate rate climbs to deal with the soundness of the economy and we can expect restricted potential gain in the business sectors because of higher getting costs,” said Dhruvil Shah, senior VP (SVP) of innovation at Liminal.