Bitcoin’s weekly close rejects the US$47k level, total value locked (TVL) increases across the board, and WAVES might be running out of momentum.
TL;DR:
- TVL on the rise.
- Bitcoin testing the 200 exponential moving average (EMA).
- ETH to US$10,000?
- Waves about to crash?
- NFTs and metaverse update.
Market update 🌍
Total valued locked (TVL) represents the amount of value locked in smart contracts on a network, usually through tokens. TVL has been growing across the board, which is typical when markets increase in value.
This week, notable standouts are Terra (LUNA) and Polkadot (DOT).
Terra (LUNA) continues to have strong TVL increases with a 15% increase this week, pushing the chain to over $US30 billion in TVL and near ¼ that of Ethereum (ETH).
Polkadot (DOT) TVL increases were an astronomical +998% this week but represented a significantly smaller dollar amount than Terra. The significant increases point toward a newly flourishing Polkadot ecosystem on parachains Moonbeam (GLMR), Acala (ACA) and Astar (ASTAR), which additionally saw significant increases in token price.
Source: DeFI Llama
The broader crypto markets and bitcoin (BTC) were quiet over the weekend. BTC traded in a tight range of US$45.6K and US$46.8K after it successfully tested the 200 EMA for the first time on Friday. The level represents an overall bullish trend when the price is above, and a bearish one when below. BTC prices need to remain above the average for crypto markets to continue trending upwards. BTC closed the Sunday daily candle at US$46,400.
Source: Trading View
Notable gainers(7d)
| Protocol (Coin) | Price ($) | Gain (%) |
|---|---|---|
| STEPN (GMT) | 2.38 | +212 |
| Frax Share (FXS) | 41.94 | +103 |
| Zilliqa (ZIL) | 0.15 | +71 |
| Aave (AAVE) | 242.76 | +49 |
| Synthetix Network (SNX) | 7.23 | +41 |
| Waves (WAVES) | 45.99 | +41 |
| Lido DAO (LDO) | 4.38 | +36 |
| Astar (ASTAR) | 0.22 | +101 |
| Moonbeam (GLMR) | 4.94 | +78 |
| Mobox (MBOX) | 4.06 | +68 |
| Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index | 48 Neutral (-4) |
| “Crypto” Google Trends | 43 |
| “Bitcoin” Google Trends | 38 |
Newswatch 📰
- Neutrino USD (USDN), the stablecoin backed by WAVES, has depegged. This comes after price spikes saw WAVES rally 110% in a week. Allegedly, a proposal to liquidate those shorting $WAVES and $USDN on Vires.Fnance is being supported by the founder of Waves himself…
- Five Ducking Digits. BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes compares Ethereum to bonds in a recent Medium article and values ETH at US$10,000 in 2022.
- Generous Buterin. Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, quietly has donated an estimated US$8 billion to a Ukrainian DAO, according to Fortune magazine. Vitalik and his father, both Russian-born, play a prominent role in the DAO that helps support the war effort in Ukraine.
- Trezor Data-Breach. Hardware wallet provider, Trezor, reports a data breach to newsletter host Mailchimp and on-going phishing attacks on affected accounts. Trezor has stated NOT to open any emails originating from [email protected].
- The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) will soon offer Solana and Cardano futures contracts.
On-chain ⛓
- Bitcoin milestone. The weekend saw the mining of the 19 millionth bitcoin. The complete supply of bitcoin is 21 million, and the last Satoshi (the smallest bitcoin unit – 100 million satoshis = 1 bitcoin) is estimated to be mined by 2140.
NFT & metaverse update 🐵
- Axie Infinity (AXIE) team unveils a playthrough via the unreleased Axie Origins metaverse. Although Axie Infinity is the largest game in crypto in terms of value, the Origins release will be a giant step forward for the play-to-earn (P2E) gaming platform.
- Dark Taverns, a free P2E massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) built by AAA devs from Ubisoft, NCsoft and Blizzard, is live.
Notable NFT mints:
| Project | Community score | Mint price | Date of mint | Time (UTC) |
| Chill Bear Club | 80 | 0.06 ETH | April 5 | 10:00 |
| Skyverse | 81 | 0.1 ETH | April 5 | 10:00 |
| Shinsekai | 80 | 0.15 ETH | April 7 | 03:00 |
Banter’s take
Price climbs and altcoin pumps were commonplace last month as traders quickly shrugged off interest rate hikes and lingering inflation worries. From here, April tends to be the traditional market’s most bullish month historically. If the pattern continues, expect bullish sentiment to leak into crypto markets.
News native to a project plays a vital role in whether an altcoin will pump or not, as has been the case recently. So, monitoring news and updates could mean catching a pump early or missing out altogether. Additionally, if bitcoin successfully rebounds from the 200 EMA, the push will solidify the bullish sentiment of the crypto investors. So, will April continue bullish traditions??
