Reports of positive developments in the Russia/Ukrainian conflict, the upcoming FOMC meeting, and Europe’s imminent decision on banning proof-of-work consensus mechanisms.
All this and more in your Crypto Brew!
- The big stories (EU to ban Bitcoin, Russia/Ukraine negotiations, rate hikes).
- Market update.
- Newswatch.
The big stories
- The members of the Economic Committee in the EU parliament are prepared to vote for the Markets in Crypto-Assets Directive (MiCa) today.
MiCa is part of the greater European Commission’s new Digital Finance package, which ultimately aims to create a regulatory framework for crypto-assets and digital finance. Unfortunately, the legislative package includes some controversial sections that could eventually lead to banning proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. Jean Marie Mognetti, CEO and Founder of Coin Shares, contends in the well-researched and data-backed Twitter thread below:
There are reports that negotiations are developing between warring nations Ukraine and Russia. US Secretary of State Wendy Sherman suggested that sanctions could be tugging Russia towards diplomacy. Award-winning journalist Christo Grovez unwraps the details in the following thread:
The Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting transpires Wednesday at 1400 EST, with a likely rate hike. The Fed will reportedly begin hikes with a modest 25 basis points (bps) or 0.25% in the face of record inflation. However, the Russia/Ukraine war has complicated the Fed’s plan to restrain inflation in the US, and Chairman Powell has stated that he plans “a more cautious approach” in the Senate hearing last week.
Crypto market update
Bitcoin (BTC) holds above $37k after a solid sell-off to open the Asia trading session. BTC continues to range between $37k – $45k, as it has done for over two months now, despite several macro-induced challenges. BTC ended Sunday up +2.58% at 38.7k.
https://www.tradingview.com/chart/v7j9tiND/
Notable total value locked (TVL) gainers (7d) by market cap
| Protocol | 7d change | TVL |
| Terra (LUNA) | +13.94% | $24.81b |
| Waves (WAVES) | +39.81% | $2.37b |
| Klaytn (KLAY) | +15.40% | $1.18b |
| Theta (THETA) | +14.10% | $232.63m |
| THORChain (RUNE) | +26.82% | $226.02m |
| Oasis (ROSE) | +13.71% | $174.68m |
Source DeFi Llama
Notable price gainers (7d) by marketcap
| Protocol (Coin) | Price ($) | Gain |
| Waves (WAVES) | 25.92 | +44% |
| THORChain (RUNE) | 6.48 | +38% |
| Zcash (ZEC) | 149.18 | +38% |
| Stacks (STX) | 1.25 | +15% |
| Xido Finance (XIDO) | 26.62 | +77% |
| Immutable X (IMX) | 1.68 | +45% |
| ICON (ICX) | 0.73 | +19% |
| Origin Protocol (OGN) | 0.35 | +32% |
| Astroport (ASTRO) | 1.76 | +21% |
| AIOZ Network (AIOZ) | 0.18 | +34% |
| Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index: | 23 Extreme Fear |
| “Crypto” Google Trends: | 42 |
| “Bitcoin” Google Trends: | 32 |
Crypto newswatch
- El Salvador has scheduled to launch bitcoin bonds this week to help fund volcanic bitcoin mining facilities and purchase additional BTC for the nation.
Notable events
- Superfluid staking has quietly launched on Osmosis (OSMO), allowing staked assets to be utilized as liquidity on the Cosmos SDK interchain.
- Cardano (ADA) has a reported 517 projects building on the network.
- Efinity (EFI), a “decentralized metaverse” parachain on Polkadot (DOT) launched this weekend.
Banter’s take
Don’t turn away now; this could be a massive week for crypto markets, depending on how all events devolve. On the one hand, the Fed will enact rate hikes that are likely already priced in the market. On the other hand, a misinformed EU committee will vote on a legislative package that could ban PoW crypto-assets. And for the sake of everyone, the Russian/Ukraine conflict may be taking a turn for the best.
Thanks for reading!
Gabri
