Monday Market Report | March 11th-17th

Mar 18, 2024

byNDAX Labs

📢 Weekly TL;DR

Every Monday, we cover the latest developments and trends in the dynamic and ever-evolving world of cryptocurrency. From price movements, industry news and our favorite resources, we strive to provide our readers with a comprehensive overview of the crypto landscape.

NDAXers, new week, new ATH for BTC... now one month out from the halving. 😅

He who claimed to be Satoshi: The Trial of Craig Wright Concludes. 🤡
Sticky Inflation rears its ugly head but “honey badger don’t care”. And—
Which Canadian rapper retweeted a video of Bitcoin’s favourite evangelist? (Hint: He is often used in Bitcoin memes.) And who did he retweet? (Hint: At the beginning of last week they bought $800M BTC... And at the end of last week? $500M more... 😮‍💨)

"Craig Wright Is Not Satoshi, Didn't Author Bitcoin Whitepaper, Judge Rules” Phewf. For a minute there he had us convinced! 😥 (He did not.) The UK high court ruled that Australian computer scientist Craig Wright is not the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, as he had claimed for years. The judge said the evidence clearly showed Wright did not invent bitcoin, write the original software, or use the Satoshi pseudonym. The case was brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (Copa), accusing Wright of forging documents to back his claims and "terrorizing" those who questioned him. Copa called the verdict a "win for truth" after Wright's "lies" about being Satoshi. At stake was control of bitcoin's intellectual property rights, which Wright used his claimed identity to assert in lawsuits against bitcoin developers. This ruling will positively impact those cases and settle one of crypto's least interesting mysteries around Bitcoin genesis lore. Huzzah! Let it be timestamped on chain. Coindesk

Bitcoin's price stumbled around 3% on March 14th as concerning U.S. inflation data compounded the Federal Reserve's inflation battle. The Producer Price Index (PPI) for February exceeded expectations, joining recent elevated Consumer Price Index (CPI) and jobless claims reports. This data reinforces forecasts that the Fed will keep interest rates "higher for longer" to combat persistent inflation. While the next Fed meeting on March 20th is unlikely to deliver a rate cut, estimates show just a 6.2% chance of a cut at the subsequent meeting in May, as well... Despite Bitcoin's volatility around new all-time highs, analysts argue this is typical price discovery before a resolution and trend continuation. They’ve noted that Bitcoin has exhibited weakness around U.S. market opens but tended to strengthen later in the day. The inflation landscape raises the stakes for Bitcoin amid the Fed's monetary tightening cycle, even as the fiscal (treasury) side of the equation continues to play fast and loose with budgets. Cointelegraph

Are you tired of hearing about MicroStrategy yet? Well they’re launching another convertible notes offering, hot on the heels of an $800 million raise earlier this month, with the aim of acquiring... You guess it; more Bitcoin (this time, for only $500 million). The business intelligence firm recently pivoted to "Bitcoin development" company, helmed by executive chairman Michael Saylor, shows no signs of slowing its Bitcoin acquisition strategy. The new senior convertible notes will mature in 2031 and can convert into cash, MicroStrategy stock, or a combination. This proposed raise could allow MicroStrategy to purchase around 6,850 more BTC, bringing its total holdings to nearly 210,000—about 1% of Bitcoin's maximum supply. The company's current 205,000 BTC stake is worth $15 billion, up 117% on its investment (at an average cost-of-coin above $33K). MicroStrategy's aggressive Bitcoin accumulation has boosted its stock price 254% since early February, making it one of the Nasdaq's top performers this year amid Bitcoin's 46% monthly rally. Coindesk

📰 Other Community News

In the cryptocurrency community, there's always something going on. Here are a few events and happenings that you might be interested in:

Why most bitcoin mining stocks are down amid a persistent crypto rally Blockworks
Rapper Drake Posts Michael Saylor's Bitcoin Video to His 146M Instagram Followers Coindesk
Debating Dencun: Will Ethereum's Big Update Help or Harm the Network? Coindesk
As Bitcoin ETFs Gain $1 Billion in One Day, Analyst Warns of Liquidity Crunch Decrypt
Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, UK judge rules: report The Block
Federal Reserve Declares CBDC a ‘Key Duty’ to Congress Decrypt

For more new stories, visit our LinkedIn

📈 Weekly Moves

Market Summary

The global cryptocurrency market has reached a total market capitalization of CAD $2.6 Trillion.
Bitcoin continues to lead the market with a dominance of 51.9%, followed by Ethereum at 16.8%.

Performance

Solana is currently the top trading pair on NDAX, followed by Ethereum, Bitcoin, Shiba Inu, Render, XRP and Avalanche.
After attaining several new all-time-high this week, Bitcoin surged as high as CA$99.7K before ‘correcting’ to the 96K range on concerning PPI news. Still, the Bitcoin was up over another 5% on the week, now trading (comfortably) between the CA$93 and $99K levels (as always, at time of writing). Ether lost most of its weekly gains on the PPI data, ending the week relatively flat (down 0.8%). Ether is currently trading above $4.9K.

Top Weekly Movers @ NDAX

Who was the top performing asset on NDAX last week?

Week over week, layer one protocol Avalanche token AVAX gained healthily—by over 20%. AVAX is still down by 2/3s from its ATH, but is back trading around CA $78, with a market cap over $20B US, ranked #11.
Still down around 70% from its all-time high, Near Protocol’s token NEAR (now in spot #21 with a market cap of $8.3B) was up another almost 45% on the week, and is currently trading above CA$10.5.
But the top performer of the week, up by over half, was GameFi protocol Gala token GALA. It's market cap reached $2.4B (spot #58) trading above 9¢.

As of 03/18/2024 1:00 AM EST, values in CAD.

Keep an eye on the market here 👉 Cryptocurrency Prices

📅 Upcoming Events

Mark your calendars!

Mar 20 - FOMC Rate decision
Mid-April- At block height 840,000; The Bitcoin Halving
May – SEC Decision on BlackRock's Ether Spot ETF Decision

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide investment, legal, accounting, tax or any other advice and should not be relied on in that or any other regard. The information contained herein is for information purposes only and is not to be construed as an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of cryptocurrencies or otherwise.