Crypto Market Forecast: Week of April 11th 2022
A curated weekly summary of forward-focused crypto news that matters. This week, Bitcoin drops but finds strong support at the US$42,000 price level, the Strike lighting network solution announces a partnership with Shopify, and the emission rate of Ethereum drops.
It has been a mixed week of trading and consolidation in the digital asset markets. Bitcoin (BTC), the largest asset on the Brave New Coin market cap table, is down ~7% in the last week. Ethereum (ETH), and Binance-coin (BNB), are down ~6% and ~4% respectively.
The price of BTC slid despite a number of major announcements from the recently concluded Bitcoin 2022 conference. The conference was held between April 6th-9th and featured some of the world’s biggest names in Bitcoin and popular culture including Michael Saylor, Cathie Wood, Jordan Peterson, and Serena Williams.
On Thursday, Trading App Robinhood announced that it has activated its crypto wallet for 2 million “eligible” customers, making digital wallet transfers available for the first time within the firewalled app.
Chief Product Officer Aparna Chennapragada explained that all Robinhood users will now be able to move Bitcoin, Ether, and Doge freely in and out of the app. Additionally, Bitcoin transfers will be supported by the lightning network, the blockchain’s largest layer-2 solution. This will make Robinhood Bitcoin transfers considerably faster and cheaper.
On the same day, Strike CEO, Jack Mallers announced a mega partnership with E-commerce giant Shopify. Mallers told Bitcoiners, “you’re gonna be able to walk into millions” of storefronts on Shopify and access high-speed Bitcoin payments.
The integration will be enabled through a partnership with NCR, the world’s largest point-of-sale (POS) supplier, and payments firm Blackhawk.
Mallers is a true-blue old-school bitcoiner and says the deal will be an opportunity for the protocol to return to its payments roots. He says the deal will be his ‘King’s gambit’.
In the lead up to Bitcoin 2022, the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, hinted that he would be making an important announcement at the conference. At Bitcoin 2021, Bukele historically announced that his country would be the first ever to accept BTC as legal tender.
However, Bukele called off his appearance at this year’s conference citing “unforeseen circumstances” that required his full attention at home. El Salvador is in the middle of a violent gang war. On March 27th the country’s parliament declared a State of Emergency after 62 gang-related murders were recorded in a day, the most violent 24-hour period since the end of the civil war in 1992.
Bitcoin has held above the US$42,000 price level despite threatening to drop below it on a number of occasions. Bulls are being offered daily support by the Luna Foundation Guard that continues to market buy large sums everyday as part of a larger plan to create a safety net for the UST stablecoin and tie the stablecoin to the wider crypto ecosystem. The fund now holds ~US$1.7 billion in BTC and added another US$176 million worth of BTC on Sunday.
Crypto news for the week ahead
11th April- Mandatory Fort Canning Road Upgrade on Defichain (DFI)
DeFichain, a blockchain project with a focus on bringing full DeFi capabilities to the Bitcoin blockchain via an anchoring, undergoes a mandatory upgrade this Monday. The Fort Canning road upgrade contains a number of key fixes to the protocol and will add new loan repayment and fee capabilities. DFI is down ~2% in the last week.
1st April – ZOO token farming launches on the Avalanche blockchain
The Zookeeper dapp, originally launched on the Wanchain will launch on the Avalanche chain this Wednesday. Users will be able to farm ZOO tokens by providing liquidity to the ZOO/AVAX trading pools on the Trader Joe and Pangolin exchanges via Metamask and then locking LP tokens on the Zookeeper Dapp.
Top 10 Crypto Summary
Altcoin markets cooled off considerably last week but the strong gains of the last 30 days have not yet been fully reversed. Data provider Intotheblock reported last week that the daily issuance of ETH has dropped to a 2-month low in recent weeks. This suggests that supply of the asset is getting tighter, putting pressure on the price to go higher.
Bitcoin Price Chart
While the short term price of BTC is highly unpredictable there are signs that in the long term, the price of the asset will increase. Glassnode reports that the illiquid supply of Bitcoin is growing – suggesting more and more commitment from investors to hold the asset for a long period and not sell for short term gains. This suggests the sell pressure of BTC is fading.
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