Bullish Insights – Weekly Market Recap

The Bullish Insights Weekly Market Recap includes curated industry news and analysis from the Bullish team for the week of February 27, 2023.  

Bullish Exchange

This week’s peak trade volume (24h): February 28, 2023, $534,160,154 (22,731 BTC)

Crypto market highlights

• Bitcoin's correlation with US equity markets has been decoupling since the start of February. Bitcoin's correlation with the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 maintained a correlation score of 0.8 and above throughout the month of January but has since fallen to -0.14 and -0.28 respectively as of February 27. The inverse correlation began on February 22 and has since maintained its trend. The last time an inverse correlation was observed was back in November 2022.
• Last week, digital asset investment total flows saw $2mn worth of outflows. Bitcoin saw outflows of about $12mn while Ethereum saw outflows of $0.2mn. On the contrary, short bitcoin saw inflows of $9.9mn. By region, Switzerland and Germany saw the majority of inflows at $10.9mn, $8.0mn respectively. The United States and Brazil saw the largest outflows by region of $13.7mn and $2.2mn respectively.
• Ordinal inscriptions have exceeded 231,676 inscriptions as of March 2. Images and texts make up the majority in terms of distribution type. Bitcoin maxi's continue to class the new craze as spam on the network.
• ETH spot volume compared to futures trading volume has seen a decreasing trend to 0.15. The 30-day moving average shows the figure has plummeted to all-time lows.

Macro market highlights

• US equity markets recorded its worst weekly performance of the year after Friday's session.
• US equity markets saw a rebound in Monday's session. Consumer discretionary, industrials, and information technology shares notched higher, while utilities, healthcare, and consumer staples underperformed.
• In Tuesdays session, US equity markets closed the month on a lower note with indexes in the red
• US equity markets closed on a lower note for the second consecutive session on Wednesday with US manufacturing data coming in stronger than expected. The S&P 500 was down by 0.5%, the Dow saw little change, and the Nasdaq Composite retreated by 0.7%.
• US equity markets climbed higher in Thursday's session after a Fed official's comment that boosted investor sentiment. The S&P 500 was up by 0.8%, the Dow rose by 1.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced by 0.7%.

Other updates

• In an interview with New York Magazine, SEC Chair Gary Gensler expressed his views that cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin are token securities. He noted that Bitcoin’s exception stems from its “unique history and creation story” which differs from its altcoin counterparts. (Source: NYMag)
• After last year’s Wormhole bridge attack of $325mn, it appears that Jump has worked with Oasis to recover the funds through a counter exploit on an Oasis contract. (Source: Blockworks)
• Starting from March 13, Coinbase has announced they will cease all trading for $BUSD as the stablecoin no longer fits the exchange’s listing standards. (Souce: COINTELEGRAPH)
• Crypto options exchange Deribit is looking to launch a Bitcoin volatility index dubbed BTCDVOL. The new product is expected to be available from the end of March indexing to Bitcoin’s implied volatility. (Source: CoinDesk)
• The SEC charged former FTX co-lead engineer, Nishad Singh for a “multiyear scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX.” According to the SEC, Singh was responsible for software code that enabled FTX user funds to be funneled through to Alameda Research. (Source: SEC)
• Silvergate has announced that they are experiencing delays with their 10-K annual report for the 2022 fiscal year. (Source: CoinDesk)
• Australia is set to pilot its first CBDC commencing March 31 to May 31. Offline payments as well as tax automation will be featured in the trial with participants like Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Bank joining the pilot program. (Source: COINTELEGRAPH)
• Coinbase announced they will cease using Silvergate for their institutional clients, switching to Signature Bank. (Source: CoinDesk)
• Celsius Network announced on Twitter that they will reopen withdrawals for certain custody accounts with eligible customers having been notified already.

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