It was a mixed bag of results for crypto traders across the market last week, with many of the most popular tokens trading within a range of -5% or +5% on their positions a week prior. Bitcoin was down approximately 2%, with its next biggest competitor Ethereum up 5%. There were, of course, exceptions to this rule as there always is, with some big gainers like Solana and Waves up 20%+. However, the spike we initially saw with ApeCoin has subsided, and recent investors would be down as much as 20% on their prior investments.
Please note: this article should not be taken as trading advice. It is simply the observations of ZB, and is for educational purposes only.
As far as the crypto world goes, it was a reasonably quiet week in context. Ascents in value have been steady over the previous few weeks, and while there were some dips in value come April 1st, they haven’t been as considerable and as sustained as the falls we have observed recently. Barring an announcement from India about its upcoming crypto tax, some of the bigger developments in the industry occurred away from the tokens themselves, with a substantial hack of the Axie Infinity platform and the release of ‘The Hunt for the Crypto King’ on Netflix. Other such crypto documentaries are available of course…
Bitcoin traded steadily towards the end of March, but fell $3k as the new month turned in. It wasn’t alone in this however, as a good proportion of crypto took a slight dip as the new month came in due to an announcement by the Indian government on its upcoming crypto taxes. However, some dips were more drastic than others, and Bitcoin certainly took one of the bigger hits in the market with this announcement. With that said, it reclaimed approximately $2k of its lost value come the evening of April 1st, and has started the week by surging towards $47k again — where it started last week.
Ethereum had a similar story to Bitcoin last week, however it too rallied back and more significantly across the week. Falling to $3,231 on April 1st, by the beginning of April 4th it was peaking at $3,567. Notably too, the small drop that Ethereum experienced was less sustained in comparison to Bitcoin, and recovered its position in less than 24 hours. On the morning of April 1st, the value of many crypto had taken a fall, but Ethereum was one of the few to not only recover, but make gains on its position a week prior.
The likes of Dogecoin, Polygon, Shiba and Polkadot all experienced similar falls on April 1st. India’s crypto tax came into effect on this day, and may have been a contributing factor to the market wide falls that we observed. India will tax crypto and NFT trades 30% from now.
As always, there are gainers and fallers in the crypto space that don’t always reflect the general direction of the market. Lesser known crypto like Dotmoovs, for example, traded steadily around the $0.007 mark at the beginning of the week, before launching to $0.09 and gaining +500% in value. Similarly, Gas DAO, Blockchain Brawlers and Pancake Games gained 548%, 416% and 396% respectively — although the visibility of such tokens won’t be felt across the market. Alternatively, Lumerin, Kitty Coin Solana and Tomb Shares all lost value by over 30%, showing again the mixture of fortunes that can be felt across the industry.
Axie Infinity, an online video game that rewards users with NFTs via its in-game economy, was hacked to the value of $650 million towards the end of March. However, the hack wasn’t noticed for nearly a week, with Axie staff raising the alarm on March 29th — many days after the hack took place. There wasn’t any considerable immediate effect noticed in the markets however, and no specific correlation between the fall of markets on April 1st and this event being observed.
Looking towards the future, Dubai is starting to become a major crypto hub. Crypto-friendly yet sensible and much-needed legislation from the Dubai government is driving this push, and many major cryptocurrency platforms and general big players are announcing their presence in the region. With Dubai seeking to become the crypto capital of the world, the market is certainly obliging.
Finally, ‘The Hunt for the Crypto King’ dropped on Netflix at the end of March. A fascinating tale about the death of a crypto exchange CEO, it has certainly got the crypto community talking. Unfortunately, it will most likely only paint the crypto industry in a negative light due to its central themes of theft and the disappearance of funds from the platform. While of course an entertaining watch, it will most likely steer prospective traders away from the industry with a narrative that is not generally reflective of the secure nature of cryptocurrencies.
With April now upon us, the first quarter of 2022 is complete and there is plenty to reflect on. Stay tuned to the ZB Medium page for a reflection on the quarter that was, and what we can look forward to in the coming months.
P.S. Ramadan Kareem, from all at ZB.
