The cryptocurrency market began 2023 with a strong upward trend and rising market capitalization, and Bitcoin’s (BTC) price gradually increased to reach US$29,000 at the end of March.
The current state of the world economy has an impact on this optimistic tendency. The first quarter of 2023 will see a number of significant developments in the cryptocurrency sector, according to Coinvestasi analysts.
January
1. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) recovers by US$20,000
For the first time since the FTX collapse, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has surpassed US$23,000. This surge is the first indication of a rally that is predicted to last until the end of March 2023 and increase by more than 70%.
2. Genesis, a cryptocurrency lender, declares bankruptcy
Genesis, a crypto lending firm, declared bankruptcy on January 23. The financial crisis brought on by the FTX collapse was what led to the bankruptcy.
Genesis reportedly ran into financial issues after its US$175 million worth of assets were locked on the FTX platform, according to bankruptcy case documents that the court received.
As a result, Genesis was compelled to incur debt totaling US$3.5 billion in order to get out of its current financial difficulties. However, Genesis was unable to settle these debts.
3. Trending BONK Tokens
The price of the BONK meme coin has increased by 3,300% since it was initially launched on the Huobi cryptocurrency platform, and it became quite popular in its first week. The first “dog” meme involving cryptocurrencies on the Solana network is BONK.
After the FTX collapse caused the Solana ecosystem to experience a drop in liquidity, BONK’s virality is seen as a saving grace.
4. Common Bitcoins
On January 21, 2023, Bitcoin released Ordinals, its first NFT protocol. This protocol enables NFTs, the Bitcoin network’s implementation of digital artifacts including photos, PDFs, movies, and audio files.
The Ordinals protocol has generated both benefits and drawbacks in the crypto world, but it has increased the value of Bitcoin transactions, which was estimated to approach millions of billions in the first quarter of 2023.
5. Artificial intelligence in crypto (Ai)
The price movement of cryptocurrencies based on artificial intelligence (AI) projects is positively impacted by ChatGPT’s popularity.
According to Coinvestasi analysis team monitoring, the price of AI tokens increased by more than 700%. The prices of SingularityNET (AGIX), Fetch AI (FET), Vetrospace AI (VXV), and Numerai tokens have spiked quickly. (NMR).
According to Andre Cronje, the surge in AI tokens is merely a component of a pump and dump scheme. JP Morgan, on the other hand, refers to AI as the trading industry’s future.
February
1. Paxos v. SEC
The BUSD stablecoin was allegedly not registered as a security, and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Paxos as a result. BUSD operations were subsequently suspended (12/2).
Prior to the stablecoin’s valuation skyrocketing, investors started to switch to USDT. USDT’s market value currently exceeds US$80 billion as of Thursday (6/4).
2. Blur NFTs
On February 14, 2023, NFT marketplace Blur conducted an airdrop for 300 million tokens. Blur’s trading volume surpassed that of its rival, OpenSea, as a result of the airdrop.
Blur once more signaled the second airdrop on Thursday (20/2). In order to increase public trust in his brand, Blur’s founder Pacman exposed his identify to the world on Sunday, February 23.
3. Chinese crypto
Chinese cryptocurrency assets saw a jump of thousands of percent in the third week. Meanwhile, Chinese cryptocurrencies like Neo (NEO), Alchemy Pay (ACH), Filecoin (FIL), Qtum (QTUM), and VeChain have seen fast price gains. (VET). This rise was allegedly brought about by US regulators’ efforts to tighten cryptocurrency regulations.
Most experts concur that the bull run will begin in Asia at the same time. China was a major factor in the Asian bull run, according to Bitmex CEO Arthur Hayes and co-founder of Mechanism Capital Andrew Kang.
March
1. American Bank Crisis
Major US banks have shut down for the second week in a row. Silvergate (8/3), Silicon Valley (SVB) (10/3), and Signature (13/3), all got things going.
Bitcoin-friendly banks After suffering a $1 billion loss due to the FTX collapse and being compelled to sell assets below market value, Silvergate stopped operating. As US interest rates increased, the value of SVB’s bond portfolio declined, contributing to the company’s bankruptcy.
The cost of Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies increased during the bank crisis. BTC saw a gain of +24.8% over the three days between March 10 and 13 in just three days. The liquidity of the cryptocurrency market also declined at that time.
2. Bitcoin is worth $28,000 USD.
The price of bitcoin soared above $28,600 on Sunday (30/3). For the first time in the previous year, Bitcoin holders saw positive average returns thanks to the price’s decline to as low as US$28,000.
3. Arbitrum Airdrop
After being made available for claim on March 23, 2023 by Arbitrum, the ARB token airdrop has reportedly been claimed by over 400k wallet addresses.
The largest airdrop profit for users is IDR 55 million. The number of 100+ DAOs that received airdrops and the achievement of crypto projects like GMX in the top 100 based on valuation further demonstrate the passion of the crypto projects on the Arbitrum network.
4. The arrest of Do Kwon
Do Kwon, the CEO of Terraform Labs, and Han Chang-joon, his former CFO, were detained on Thursday at the airport in Podgorica, Montenegro. (March 23).
According to reports, they were traveling to Dubai on phony Costa Rican passports. South Korean authorities have verified Do Kwon’s identity.
