Weekly Insights #23

Bitcoin Transaction Count Plummets By 30%—Mar 12, NewsBTC

The recent fall in Bitcoin’s transaction count has coincided with the end of VeriBlock’s testnet phase. According to Coinmetrics’ report, VeriBlock has been responsible for 20–30% of BTC transactions during the testnet phase. Since the end of testing on March 4, Bitcoin’s daily transaction count has fallen by 21%, leading many to draw parallels. Additionally, the Venezuelan blackout might be responsible for some of the drop.

Nasdaq-Powered DX.Exchange Launches Security Token Trading—Mar 5, Cointelegraph

Estonia-based Nasdaq-powered digital trading platform DX.Exchange is claiming an industry first with its launch of security token trading and security token offering (STO) listings. DX.Exchange went live in January, with support for various fiat and cryptocurrency trading pairs and tokenized stocks.

CBOE Halts Bitcoin Futures, Considers Conceding Market to CME—Mar 15, Coindesk

In a press release from CBOE, the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) has decided not to add a Bitcoin (XBT) futures contract for March. The exchange is considering how it should approach the space with respect to its digital asset derivatives trading. According to the release, the CFE “does not currently intend to list additional XBT futures contracts for trading.” The remaining futures listed on the exchange will continue to trade, with last month’s contract currently having a June expiration.

Tether Says Its USDT Stablecoin May Not Be Backed By Fiat Alone—Mar 14, Coindesk

Stellar Lumens (XLM) Launching on Coinbase Pro

In our 10th edition of the Weekly Insights newsletter back in November, we wrote about how the next asset listed on Coinbase after Zcash would be XLM. Although Coinbase listed XRP prior to XLM, our prediction did come true. Transfers of XLM to Coinbase Pro opened on March 13. Coinbase stated in a blog post that once a sufficient supply of XLM is established on the platform, trading on the XLM/USD, XLM/EUR, and XLM/BTC order books will start in phases, beginning with a post-only mode and proceeding to full trading once their metrics for a healthy market are met.
Reacting to this news, XLM has just managed to achieve the 10th spot among the top 10 gainers of the week, with a price increase of 22.28% vs. USD at the time of writing.

MARKET OVERVIEW & METRICS

Weekly Crypto Stats

• Global network value reached $133.56B, with 2% weekly delta.
• Global crypto market turnover was $31.4B, 56.3% from ATH.
• Bitcoin dominance is 51.7%, with -0.4% weekly delta, and beta of 0.81.
• Ethereum dominance is 10.83% with -1.8% weekly delta, and beta of 1.32.
• Bitcoin hashrate is 42.86B TH/s, with -5.3% weekly delta.
• Ethereum hashrate is 154.5K GH/s, with -1.4% weekly delta.

CHART OF THE WEEK

Square has sold progressively more bitcoin every quarter since making the asset available for purchase through their Cash app.