Crypto Market Update: Bitcoin Weakens Ahead of Easter, ETH’s Potential in Q2, and Top Altcoin Movers

Written by Van - Perfected by ChatGPT

Ahead of a long Easter weekend in many countries and the release of the U.S. jobs report for March on Friday, Bitcoin is displaying indications of fragility. In the past 24 hours, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has decreased by 2% and was trading at less than \(27,800 before recovering to \)28,100.

It came as crypto trading volume in the US has decreased by over 80% in less than three weeks, dropping from a four-month high in mid-March. The CFTC’s lawsuit against Binance on March 27th appears to be a significant factor in the drop, as Binance lost 16% of its global market share in Q1.

Bitcoin’s ROI in Q1 2023 was 170.32% more than the average of five major stock indexes due to the fallout in the banking sector, which motivated investors to seek refuge in Bitcoin. According to Finbold, the five major stock indexes’ rankings by return on investment (ROI) during the first quarter of 2023 were as follows: NASDAQ Composite (IXIC) had the highest ROI at 17.39%, followed by S&P 500 (SPX) at 6.36%, while US Small Cap 2000 (RUT) took the third spot at 2.51%. The fourth spot went to FTSE 100 (FTSE) with an ROI of 0.99%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) ranked fifth with an ROI of 0.56%.

Coinbase Institutional Team Discusses Potential Impact of Ethereum Shapella Upgrade

The Coinbase Institutional team discussed the potential impact of the Ethereum Shapella Upgrade on Ether and Bitcoin in a recent podcast. They noted that BTC purchases dominated the digital currency landscape, but Ether purchases are gaining on Bitcoin, often outperforming it. The firm also noted that ETH is making a strong case in the second quarter because BTC is slightly overbought.

The upcoming Shapella upgrade of Ethereum allows stakers and validators to withdraw assets from the Beacon Chain, leading to fears of increased selling pressure. However, a profit and loss analysis by CryptoQuant suggests that the selling pressure may be lower than expected due to over half of staked ETH operating at a loss, leading holders to be hesitant to sell.

Tether’s Market Capitalization Soars to $80 Billion, Circling Way Ahead of USDC and BUSD Stablecoins

Tether’s market capitalization has increased by over 20% to \(80 billion this year, with its valuation surging by 12% in the past four weeks alone, putting it close to its record high of \)83 billion reached in May last year. Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy at crypto services provider Matrixport, said the valuation had been driven higher by “aggressive minting and issuance” on Tron Network.

Meanwhile, the market capitalization of Circle’s USDC stablecoin has dropped by 27% to \(32.5 billion, and the market value of Paxos' [BUSD](https://coin360.com/coin/binance-usd-busd) stablecoin has declined by 58% to \)7 billion this year.

Coinbase Backs Lawsuit Against Sanctions on Tornado Cash; Plunges TORN up 7.3%

Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer supports the reopening of crypto privacy tool Tornado Cash, and the company is backing a lawsuit against the sanctions imposed on the tool. The plaintiffs have filed a motion for partial summary judgment, claiming that the sanctions against Tornado Cash are unlawful. They argue that Tornado Cash is not a foreign ‘National’ or a ‘Person’ and that immutable smart contracts are not ‘property.’ In response to the news, TORN posted a 7.3% increase in the past 24 hours to reach $7.43.

Dogecoin Dips After Musk Hype Wave, Still Up For The Week

Dogecoin has fallen by 4.4% in the past 24 hours, possibly indicating a correction after briefly being pumped by Elon Musk on Twitter. However, it is still up nearly 18% over the week. This is not the first time Dogecoin has experienced a hype wave and subsequent drop due to Musk’s influence.

Avalanche Launches Evergreen Subnets to Offer Customized Blockchain Deployments for Financial Institutions

Blockchain platform Avalanche is launching a suite of blockchain deployments and customization services targeted at financial institutions called “Evergreen Subnets”. The subnets allow firms to launch their own networks for research and development and for production-ready use cases. The price of AVAX barely saw a big move after the news, currently up 2.59% over the past 24 hours.

Summary of Market Events and Price Action

As a summary of today’s events and price action in the market, it is crucial to note the following key points:

• BTC back to $28,100 after showing some weaknesses ahead of Easter weekend
• ETH has potentials to outperform BTC in Q2, said Coinbase Institutional
• USDT market cap reaches $80 billion
• TORN rises following Coinbase’s support for lawsuit
• DOGE sees a post-Musk correction
• AVAX doesn’t respond to Avalanche’s news
• Apple macOS Bitcoin

Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Gainers:

Injective INJ (+7.75%)

Radix XRD (+7.40%)

Maker MKR (+6.90%)

Losers:

Dogecoin DOGE (-4.39%)

Stacks STX (-3.77%)

Lido DAO Token LDO (-3.58%)

NFT Market Map

Novel Labs and Faraway are developing “Serum City,” a city-building game that will use ApeCoin as its primary in-game currency on Ethereum. The game features Mutant Apes, who are the main characters, and MAYC, along with a few NFT collections, will provide owners access to the game. MutantApeYachtClub’s volume has been up 54.21%.

Gemesis, after an active day, has pulled back sharply as the collection saw a whooping -80.59% drop in trading volume.