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Friday’s declines in Bitcoin and Ethereum dashed optimism that the cryptocurrency market would post gains for the fourth week. However, the coins are still having a much better year than in 2022 in 2023.
Bitcoin (BTC), which trades at $22,924 as of Saturday morning, has not changed in value over the last seven days, according to data from CoinGecko. According to research published this week, the end of the first day of the Chinese New Year is the best time to start long positions in cryptocurrencies since, on average, selling 10 days later results in a 9% profit over the previous eight years.
At $1,571, Ethereum (ETH) is down 5.2% for the week. On Tuesday, Ethereum engineers revealed that they have made significant advancements toward the network’s expected Shanghai update, which is slated for the next scheduled upgrade. Finally, stakers will be able to withdraw their Ethereum (you must stake 32 ETH, or $51k, to begin mining Ethereum) and any awards that have already been earned in Shanghai.
Aptos (APT) had a remarkable 56% increase and is now trading for $17.09. The token has made a strong comeback this week. It’s hard to single out a single factor, but a significant portion of the trade volume originated from arbitrage trading in South Korea, where cryptocurrency is sometimes priced up to 50 cents on some exchanges. When it comes to Bitcoin, this difference has already been termed the “kimchi premium” and may be used by experienced traders to make modest profits. (Sam Bankman-Fried began trading cryptocurrencies using the kimchi premium.)
When Aptos launched toward the end of last year, it experienced a 40% price drop and received widespread criticism for having a murky tokenomics model, allocating a sizable percentage of tokens (49%) to developers and private investors, and promising speeds of up to 120,000 transactions per second (tps) while only achieving 4 tps at launch.
The native token for the blockchain-based video game with the same name, Axie Infinity (AXS), exploded by 25% this week and gained 22% on Monday alone when a token unlocking released 2% of the game’s entire supply onto the market. Right now, it’s worth $11.44.
Other prominent cryptocurrencies that had significant price increases this week were Avalanche (AVAX), which surged 16% to $20.29, OKB, which increased 13% to $38.25, and Polygon (MATIC), which increased 8.5% to $1.11.
Regulators in the U.S. and Europe said this week that cryptocurrencies are still on their priority list. A fresh set of regulations guiding cryptocurrency firms on storage, use, and other responsible and compliance-friendly procedures while storing digital assets for customers were released on Monday by the New York Department of Financial Services.
European Union legislators backed legislation on Tuesday requiring banks to notify when they interact with cryptocurrency. The regulation package still has to be approved by the EU finance ministers and the European parliament. The plans also supposedly contain laws forcing crypto-friendly banks to keep additional capital in order to cover future crypto losses.
The European Union’s landmark crypto legislation will not go into effect until France’s authorities have modified their stance on crypto licensing in the nation and passed an amendment enabling crypto businesses to continue operating without a license. If implemented, the historic Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) law will provide an uniform regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies throughout the Union. The guidelines will be put to a vote in April, and if approved, it will be another 18 months before they are put into effect.
Ted Cruz, a Republican senator who supports cryptocurrency, has continued to press for the adoption of Bitcoin on Capitol Hill. He issued a fresh instruction on Wednesday urging the operations directors of the House of Representatives and the Senate to collaborate with those who take cryptocurrency. Cruz’s idea sees crypto-savvy Washingtonians spending their hard-earned BTC at vending machines and gift stores.
