Daily Market Update: Mar 21, 2023

March 21, 2023

BTC is currently trading around $28,200 and ETH around $1,800. Notable gainers in the last 24 hours are XDC, XRP, and LDO. The global crypto market cap is ~$1.21T, up ~0.1% over the last day. DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$49b and BTC dominance is around 47%.

Equities are rising alongside a sharp upward move in short-term treasury yields. Supportive comments from Treasury Secretary Yellen helped ease investor tensions and relieved regional bank stocks. Yellen will give a speech at the American Bankers Association conference at 10 am, but her prepared remarks note that U.S. officials believe sufficient action has been taken to support the financial system, though more will be done if the turmoil continues. Additionally, a Bloomberg report indicated U.S. officials are studying ways to temporarily expand FDIC coverage to include all deposits if deemed necessary, but the path to doing so remains unclear without Congressional approval. Regional banks are a top contributor to equity performance this morning, and markets are increasingly expecting a 25 bp hike at tomorrow’s FOMC meeting now.

Notable news includes: Polygon partnered with Immutable to develop a new Layer 2 called Immutable zkEVM that is distinct from the StarkEx-based Immutable X chain; U.S. presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis called for a CBDC ban in Florida; Circle is ramping up its European expansion as it seeks to register in France; Coinbase paused support for Signature’s Signet; OKX intends to shutter its Canadian operations by mid-2023; a Render Network proposal would see the network migrate to Solana if approved; DeFi Llama confirmed no token is imminent, putting the internal team drama to rest after blaming ‘poor communication’; GameFi project Gala filed a $28m lawsuit against pNetwork; Belgium will require a new warning disclaimer in all crypto ads stating “the only guarantee in crypto is risk”; PIMCO and Invesco emerged as two of the largest holders of Credit Suisse’s wiped out debt; and, the Euler exploiter is now seeking to arrange the return of stolen funds as seen in an onchain message yesterday.

Authors:
Matt Kunke, Junior Strategist | TwitterTelegramLinkedIn
Brian Rudick, Senior Strategist | TwitterTelegramLinkedIn

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