Crypto Market

BTC and ETH Market Insight

Bitcoin has recently surpassed the $60,000 mark and is approaching all-time highs. The total net inflows into Bitcoin ETFs have exceeded $6 billion, with daily net inflows surpassing $500 million on Monday alone. The notable increase in funds flowing into Bitcoin ETFs signifies a rising investor interest in crypto investment instruments. ETH has briefly crossed the $3,000 mark for the first time since April 2022. Previously, Dexs and lending platforms held the majority of activity in DeFi. However, liquid staking has now emerged as the primary category.

Options Market

The optimistic sentiment fueled by the upcoming halving event and strong ETF inflows pushed both BTC and ETH higher - BTC up 20% and ETH 15% respectively for the week. Futures-implied yields and perpetual swap funding rates also rose strongly implying a high leverage level in the market. 7-day IV pumped above 85 handle at high for both majors during the week. Skew remained favourable for calls. Spot might stay volatile as the high leverage persists.

Altcoins and Blockchain News

• According to the official website of the Ethereum re-staking protocol EigenLayer, EigenLayer has a Total Value Locked (TVL) of 2.931 million ETH, worth approximately $10.53 billion.
• The Layer 2 network Taiko on Ethereum has completed a $15 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital, with participation from Wintermute Ventures, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures, and GSR, among others.
• According to Token unlock data, Arbitrum will unlock 1.11 billion ARB tokens, worth $2.15 billion, on March 16 at 21:00 Beijing time.
• Sui, the lending and liquidity protocol in the Sui ecosystem, has announced a strategic partnership with the RWA protocol Ondo Finance. This collaboration aims to promote institutional adoption of NAVI Protocol in DeFi.
• 1inch has announced improvements to its 1inch exchange and limit order features. 1inch users and integrators can now enjoy more efficient token swaps and limit orders, saving up to 16% on transaction costs.
• The latest proposal #4 from the Dymension community aims to launch the first round of Automated Market Maker (AMM) liquidity incentives by automatically distributing DYM tokens to specific liquidity pool providers.
• Layer 1 blockchain Venom will launch its mainnet on March 18.
• Solana's DePIN protocol io.net launched its first phase of the rewards program on March 1. The program, called Ignition, will run until April 28. Users will be rewarded with points based on the GPUs they provide to the network.
• Ether.fi announced the completion of a $23 million funding round led by Bullish and CoinFund. It has received support from over 95 investment institutions and individuals, including Amber Group, BanklessVC, OKX Ventures, Consensys, Selini Capital, and Foresight Ventures, among others.

Macro

The stock market closed mixed for the week: the DJIA lost -0.1%, the S&P 500 added +0.9%, and the NASDAQ +1.7%. The NASDAQ also reached  an all-time high of 16,302.24 on Friday. The fourth quarter earnings report of NVIDIA has sparked new passion around the AI sector. The 10-year U.S. Treasury note hit an intraday low for the past two weeks.