Bitcoin rebounded back above $70K last week and finished higher, along with the broader crypto market. Bitcoin was up 8.68%, while Ethereum was up 5.04% over the last 7 days. Bitcoin’s market capitalisation rose to US$1.37 trillion, with the total crypto market cap at US$2.63 trillion and bitcoin’s market dominance sitting at 52%.
| Price | High | Low | Change from previous week | |
| BTC (in US$) | $69,828 | $71,647 | $64,762 | 8.68% |
| ETH (in US$) | $3,515 | $3,674 | $3,341 | 5.04% |
Source: CoinMarketCap. As at 31 March 2024. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Performance is shown in US dollars and does not take into account any USD/AUD currency movements.
Source: Glassnode. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.
Crypto news we’re watching
Sam Bankman Fried sentenced
Sam Bankman Fried (SBF), co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison last Thursday. SBF was convicted last year by a New York jury on charges including wire-fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors of the case were pushing for at least 40 years while SBF’s team had argued for a much lighter 5 to 6.5 years.
Judge Lewis Kaplan did not deem it necessary for SBF to be placed in a maximum security jail, as the court had no reason to believe that SBF posed a threat of violence. The judge recommended a medium or low-security federal prison, taking into account that his autism and notoriety may make him vulnerable in a max security facility.
SBF’s legal team is expected to file an appeal, and has 14 days to do so1.
Blackrock builds on Ethereum
BlackRock’s first tokenised fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, which trades under the ticker BUIDL, raised US$245 million in deposits in its first week of trading, according to blockchain data. The fund, which is built on the Ethereum network, seeks to offer a stable value of $1 per token and pays accrued dividends directly to investors’ wallets as new tokens each month. BUIDL invests 10% of its total assets in cash, US Treasury Bills and repurchase agreements. Investors have the potential to earn a yield while holding the token on the blockchain2.
By offering the fund in a tokenised manner, benefits to investors include issuance and trading of ownership on a blockchain, access to on-chain offerings, providing instantaneous and transparent settlement, and allowing for transfers across platforms.
Cipher Mining hits 1-year high
Recently hitting a 1-year high, bitcoin miner Cipher Mining has been upgraded by a number of equities analysts. In its most recent business update, Cipher indicated that it had ‘achieved record revenues and net profits on both a GAAP and Non-GAAP basis in the first quarter of operations since inception with fully deployed data centres’3.
Cipher Mining is currently held in Betashares Crypto Innovators ETF (ASX: CRYP)4. The technology company develops and operates industrial-scale bitcoin mining data centres in the United States.
Bitcoin (BTC): Realised Price [USD]
Realised price is the average price of the bitcoin supply, valued at the day each coin last transacted on-chain.
According to data from Glassnode, the realised price is sitting at an all-time high, having gone from ~$23K in February to almost $28K at the end of March, suggesting that coins have been moving at higher prices more recently, i.e. profit-taking from longer-term investors and purchasing from newer investors.
Source: Glassnode. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.
This metric shows the percentage of unique addresses whose funds have an average buy price that is lower than the current price. ‘Buy price’ is here defined as the price at the time coins were transferred into an address.
According to data from Glassnode, the percent of addresses in profit is over 97%, so most holders of bitcoin are currently sitting on a profit at the current price level.
Source: Glassnode. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.
Altcoin news
The top performing altcoin over the past week was Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The altcoin returned over 32% in the last 7 days to March 31, and is up 388% over the last year. One of the reasons for the recent uptrend is the halving that took place on 3 April. The halving takes the current 6.25 BCH mining reward down to 3.125 BCH. In addition, Coinbase is expected to launch Bitcoin Cash futures contracts5.
BCH was created through a hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain in 2017. Similar to Bitcoin, BCH has its own community and developers, and is accepted at certain merchants. It was created to solve some limitations that developers saw in Bitcoin, such as long transaction times and high transaction fees6.
Investing in crypto assets or companies servicing crypto-asset markets should be considered very high risk. Exposure to crypto assets involves substantially higher risk when compared to traditional investments due to their speculative nature and the very high volatility of crypto-asset markets.
Investing in crypto assets or crypto-focused companies is not suitable for all investors and should only be considered by investors who (i) fully understand their features and risks or after consulting a professional financial adviser, and (ii) who have a very high tolerance for risk and the capacity to absorb a rapid loss of some or all of their investment. Any investment in crypto assets or crypto-focused companies should only be considered as a very small component of an investor’s overall portfolio.
References:
1. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68677487
2. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240320771318/en/BlackRock-Launches-Its-First-Tokenized-Fund-BUIDL-on-the-Ethereum-Network
3. https://investors.ciphermining.com/news-releases/news-release-details/cipher-mining-provides-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2023
4. As at 31 March. No assurance is given that this company will remain in the portfolio or will be a profitable investment.
5. https://dailycoin.com/bitcoin-cash-up-55-whats-behind-unlikely-comeback/
6. https://cointelegraph.com/learn/what-is-bitcoin-cash-and-how-does-bch-work-a-beginners-guide
Off the Chain is published every second Tuesday. It provides the latest news on bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market, along with analysis and insights into the world of crypto.
It provides general information only and is not a recommendation to invest in any crypto asset, crypto-focused company or investment product.
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Written by
Justin Arzadon
Director, Adviser Services & Head of Digital Assets.
C4 Certified Bitcoin Professional (CBP) and Blockchain Council Certified Bitcoin Expert™ with over 18 years’ experience in the ETF market. Passionate about the future of money.
Read more from Justin.