The first of 2023 was eventful within the ecosystem, culminating in the price of Bitcoin, which recorded a 72% increase since January. Thus, we have tried to establish a non-exhaustive list of news that marked the beginning of the year.
Bitcoin up 72% in Q1
If the year 2022 was catastrophic from a performance point of view, the 1st quarter has just ended with a nice rise in the price of Bitcoin (BTC), whose blockchain celebrated its 14th anniversary at the start of the year. So the asset is up 72% since January 1 when writing these lines:
Rise of Bitcoin in the 1st quarter of 2023
Overall, the entire ecosystem has benefited from this rise, going back above the trillion dollars of capitalization in mid-January.
Nevertheless, many players have resorted to layoffs. This is particularly the case of Silvergate and Genesis up to 40% and 30% of the workforce, before the first announced its intention to go into liquidation on March 8. The second will declare itself bankrupt on January 20, with a debt of 3.4 billion dollars to its creditors, including 765 million concerning Gemini.
Here by the way a non-exhaustive list players who have announced layoffs since the start of the year:
Huobi: 20%; Coinbase: 950 people; Crypto.com: 20%; Gemini: 10%; Polygon Labs: 20%.
On the French side, the ecosystem also had a bit of a scare, with the specter of mandatory PSAN approval ahead of the entry into force of the MiCA regulation, before this idea was rejected in favor of rules more adapted to the reality on the ground.
For Cryptoast, the month of January was also marked by the release, on the 18th, of our first collection of non-fungible tokens (NFT) through the second edition of our paper journal.
Cryptoast launches its 1st collection of NFTs
NFTs associated with a collector paper journal 🔥
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A month of February under the sign of American regulation
As January ended with the White House calling for more regulation in response to the FTX scandalthe message was well heard by US regulators.
First, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took on Kraken’s staking services, marking the beginning of a long series of legal actions. Coinbase and its CEO Brian Armstrong then stepped up to defend the legitimacy of staking services, so much so that in March, the exchange received threats of legal action from the SEC.
For its part, Paxos was forced to stop issuing Binance’s stablecoin BUSD, whose days now seem numbered. Faced with this uncertain climate, PayPal has chosen to put its stablecoin project on hold.
Faced with the regulatory vagueness from the United States, we interviewed Thibaut Boutrou and Rija Rameloarison from Meria, in order to understand if there was a risk of contagion in Europe:
👉 Find our interview with Meria
In addition, February was also marked by Interest in Bitcoin Ordinals, whose protocol was finalized at the end of January. These assets that are reminiscent of NFTs in philosophy have caused a stir in dividing the Bitcoin community.
The holder of the Bored Ape 1626 has also made a completely symbolic gesture, by sending the NFT estimated at $169,000 to a burn address in order to issue a copy of it as Ordinals on Bitcoin. For its part, Yuga Labs did not recognize the legitimacy of this new version of the Bored Ape.
Among the other highlights of February, we can also note the arrival of Base, a layer 2 of Ethereum (ETH) powered by Coinbase, as well as the revelation of the identity of the co-signatories of the bond of Sam Bankman Fried (SBF): Larry Kramer and Andreas Paepcke. The latter being academicians from Stanford University, close to the parents of the person concerned.
👉 To go further — Find our guide to buying Bitcoin (BTC)
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March: the failure of the banking system
The month of March was undeniably marked by the risk of contagion in the banking system. For its impact on cryptocurrencies, this resulted in a temporary loss of USDC’s dollar peg, due to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
Many banks were then affected in this generalized panic: Signature Bank also defaulted, and UBS bought out Credit Suisse.
After testing the $20,000 support, Bitcoin emerged as the big winner from this episode to trade today above $28,000.
Meanwhile, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Euler Finance suffered the biggest hack of the year for around $197 million. The hacker has since returned a large portion of the funds, although not all have been returned yet.
Of course, one of the other highlights of March was the arrest of Do Kwon in Montenegroand South Korea and the United States are now vying for his extradition.
In addition, we can also mention pell-mell the significant airdrop of Arbitrum (ARB), the announcement of the Shapella update on Ethereum for next April 12, the conflict between Binance and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) , or even Circle’s interest in France through its intention to become a digital asset service provider (PSAN).
It is therefore an eventful first quarter that has just ended, so much so that it is difficult to quote everything in one article. While there is no guarantee that the bear market is really over, there is no doubt that this year will continue to be rich in exciting news.
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I timidly discovered the world of blockchain at the end of 2018 during my quest for financial freedom. Initially invested moderately, it was only two years later that I took the gamble of betting everything on the movement that was taking shape then. I then dedicate 2021 to training myself better to acquire more knowledge and seriousness. As I often like to say: I still have a billion things to learn. And what I do know, I want to share with you.
Vincent Mayor
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