Trading Desk Market Update: 2/23

February 23, 2022

BTC is currently trading around $39,000 and ETH around $2,750.  Notable gainers in the last 24 hours are LUNA, WAVES, and JUNO.  The global crypto market cap is $1.85T, up 4.3% over the last day.  DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$200b and BTC dominance is around 42%.

Equity markets and crypto prices are up after falling the prior day on increasing Russia-Ukraine tensions.  Several countries including the US, UK, France, and Japan have announced sanctions against Russia, while Ukraine is set to introduce a state of emergency in certain parts of the country.

Elsewhere, in regulatory news, a bill regulating crypto in Brazil is heading to the Senate to vote, crypto legislation in Panama has advanced to a committee meeting, the EU is looking to give its new AML watchdog launching in 2024 more power to monitor the crypto space, and Italy formally laid out AML requirements for crypto firms. 

In stablecoin news, the attestation report for USDT shows that Tether cut its reserves allocation to commercial paper by 21% from September to December, Tether also revealed a collaboration with Lugano, Switzerland to help revolutionize its financial sector with details to come, the Luna Foundation Guard has raised $1b for a bitcoin reserve to act as a release valve during volatile markets for the UST stablecoin, and Frax Finance is scheduled to distribute the Fax Price Index, an algorithmic stablecoin tied to the US consumer price index.

Additionally, the Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the NYSE, has bought a stake in private digital securities marketplace and crypto asset liquidity platform tZero, Puma has registered an ENS domain and changed its name to Puma.eth on Twitter, and Grayscale has launched a campaign to encourage public comments on its Bitcoin ETF application.

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