A Memorable March: Bitcoin and Ethereum Adoption Skyrockets
One year later, and March 2021 already seems somewhat better from all standpoints. But, when it comes to the crypto industry, this last month has been one of the most prosperous in the sector’s entire history, especially when it comes to adoption and the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
March 2021 boosts crypto adoption
The past 31 days have brought a lot of progress to the cryptocurrency industry, but it could be said that the adoption has seen the most progress. Institutional investors have been overcoming their fear of cryptocurrency for over a year now, and with each passing month, they have been more and more encouraged to join the crypto sector and help it grow. Companies like Grayscale and MicroStrategy have invested millions into crypto on behalf of their clients, and despite recent dips, institutions continue to invest. Grayscale even launched new crypto products only a few weeks ago.
Major financial institutions like JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have started offering crypto products, and even the Deutsche Bank openly stated that cryptocurrencies can no longer be ignored.
This last month revealed that Tesla has bought over $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. This month, however, its CEO, Elon Musk, announced that the electric car company will now start accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment.
Another report revealed that Bitcoin miners managed to earn over $1.5 billion in March of this year alone, making mining one of the most profitable ways of earning Bitcoin at the moment.
And, of course, no one will soon forget that this was a month of Bitcoin ETFs, with as many as three of them emerging in Canada, one of which was launched by Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz. These are the first BTC ETFs in North America, and their very existence has given US companies a new encouragement to continue to bombard the SEC with new ETF applications.
This has also been a major month for Ethereum, as its DeFi sector reached an all-time high at $46.1 billion in total value locked (TVL) in mid-March. Meanwhile, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) became one of the main topics of news and discussions, as tokenization started taking off. There were countless examples of celebrities, groups, and organizations launching NFTs, selling tokenized versions of songs, tweets, watches, and anything else that has any kind of value.
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Not to mention that Visa embraced crypto settlement, and chose Ethereum blockchain to conduct them on. Lastly, Ethereum continues to slowly implement changes that will eventually result in its transformation into Ethereum 2.0 — a better, faster, more scalable blockchain, with much cheaper transactions and greater functionalities.
Bitcoin and Ethereum hit all-time highs in March 2021
The situation regarding crypto prices was equally as good, at least for a time. Bitcoin managed to hit a new ATH earlier this month, which was followed by a major price correction. The coin reached an ATH of $61,683 on March 13th, only to correct to $54k three days later. It then attempted to reach $60k once again after that, and it succeeded, but the approaching expiration date of $6 million worth of Bitcoin options caused fears of major sell-off, resulting in an even deeper price drop that brought the coin to $51k by March 25th.
Now, only one week later, the coin is nearly back at $60k, surging rapidly over the past week, and currently sitting at $59,781.
Ethereum saw a similar price performance, however it was held back by extremely strong resistance at $1,850 for the majority of the month, and this barrier caused it to trade sideways for weeks. The coin managed to breach it only once in the past month, around the time of Bitcoin’s ATH. However, ETH did not manage to beat its February record. Instead, it only climbed to $1920 before dropping back down.
When Bitcoin options expiration date approached, ETH price was affected too due to BTC dominance, dropping to $1560 as a result. However, just like BTC, Ethereum also recovered over the past six days, and it currently pushes strongly against the resistance at $1850, which is also the coin’s price at the time of writing.
At the moment, both coins are trading in the green, with their prices surging as the new rally took over, and it would not be surprising for new ATHs to be reached in the next day. Historically speaking, crypto industry often performs very well in April and May, so the next two months have an excellent chance of bringing great price performance.
Greg Waisman, the co-founder and COO of the global payment network Mercuryo
This article was originally posted on FX Empire
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Cryptocurrency Price Check: Coinbase, Ethereum, Bitcoin Mining
Check the prices of cryptocurrency coins from this past week. Check the latest news for Bitcoin, DeFi, Chainlink, Filecoin and more.
Crypto firms reported an uptick in retail activity as US stimulus hit bank accounts according to crypto news outlet TheBlock.
Coinbase is preparing for its direct listing which is scheduled for Apr. 14.
On April 1, Morgan Stanley added Bitcoin trading to 12 of its existing institutional funds using cash-settled futures and investments with the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.
Morgan Stanley in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that “bitcoin and bitcoin futures have generally exhibited significant price volatility relative to traditional asset classes.”
Separately, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty was at a record high this week, dimming the prospects of continued record revenues for miners.
The rise in difficulty was since hash rate or blockchain computing power couldn’t keep up with Bitcoin’s surging price because of a global shortage in chips
On March 31, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said in a Bloomberg interview that the organization could be looking to launch a central bank digital currency within four years.
For more in-depth coverage of cryptocurrency including investing recommendations and strategies, follow the Crypto channel on TheStreet.
Here is a list of some of the top cryptocurrencies to watch and their performance from this past week by the percentage change at around 9 a.m. ET Sunday, Apr. 4.
Bitcoin BTC | $57,850.48
BlackRock has started trading Bitcoin futures, according to filings lodged with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission published on March 31.
Ethereum ETH | $2,070.99
The price of Ethereum hit a new all-time high of over $2,060 on Friday, according to data from TradingView. ETH first breached $2,000 in late February. The previous all-time high was at $2,041, reached on Feb. 20.
Dogecoin DOGE | $0.056
Tesla (TSLA) - Get Report CEO Elon Musk tweeted Thursday that his aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company SpaceX will put a Dogecoin on the moon. Since Musk tweeted on April Fools' Day it wasn’t clear if the tweet was a joke or not.
Binance Coin BNB | $343.70
Binance Coin has been rising this past week, gaining over 27% this past week as it looks to keep its price above $300.
Cardano ADA | $1.18
Cardano had one of the highest percentage returns in the first quarter but is only up 0.51% this past week
Polkadot DOT | $44.24
Polkadot’s coin is up over 35% in the past week. Polkadot is helping create a decentralized web created by the Web3 Foundation.
All cryptocurrency price performances are referenced and pulled from Coinbase.
Can BTC grow faster than Ethereum (ETH) or XRP in the short-term view?
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The last day of the week has turned out to be bearish for most of the coins. Binance Coin (BNB) is the only exception to the rule, rising by 1.12% since yesterday.
Top 10 coins by CoinMarketCap
BTC/USD
Bitcoin (BTC) has shown a price decrease since yesterday. It declined by 2.54%.
BTC/USD chart by TradingView
On the daily chart, Bitcoin (BTC) has bounced off, confirming the fact that yesterday’s decline was just a drop to gain liquidity for the ongoing rise.
In this case, the leading crypto now has the chance to test the level of $58,500 shortly.
Bitcoin is trading at $57,660 at press time.
ETH/USD
The rate of Ethereum (ETH) has not decreased as much as that of Bitcoin (BTC).
ETH/USD chart by TradingView
From the technical point of view, Ethereum (ETH) is ready to keep the growth going after yesterday’s decline, as one can consider the drop a retest of the mirror level but not the start of a bearish trend. Respectively, the potential short-term target is $2,300.
Ethereum is trading at $2,055 at press time.
XRP/USD
XRP is the top loser today as its rate has gone down by 4.37%.
XRP/USD chart by TradingView
Despite the decline, the long-term trend remains bullish. Buyers' dominance will become more visible when XRP fixes above $0.652. In this case, the next level of $0.75 may be attained within the next few days.
XRP is trading at $0.5892 at press time.