PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- BTC ($5,953): +10% / -17%
- ETH ($125): 0% / -5%
- LTC ($36): -1% / -13%
- XRP ($0.15): -1% / -21%
- Crypto Market Cap ($167B): +8% / -13%
- BTC Dominance: 65%

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- Futures exchange Bakkt raised a $300 million Series B round from investors like Microsoft's M12, PayU, Boston Consulting Group, Pantera Capital, and its parent company ICE. Bakkt plans to use the funding to launch a crypto exchange app in the summer.  Bakkt recently acquired Bridge2 Solutions, a provider of loyalty solutions for merchants and customers, and it's speculated that Bakkt's new platform will leverage this tech and allow users to cash in and trade loyalty program points for Bitcoin and cash. Link. 

- Crypto exchange Coinbase said it processed $2 billion in crypto during the crash last week, beating its previous traffic record by over 50%. To put that into comparison, Coinbase's volume over the last 24 hours was $190M. Link. Link. 

- Bitcoin's price jumped to an eight-day high of almost $7,000 this week, before falling to below $6,000 by Sunday. The rebound occurred on news the US Federal Reserve's balance sheet was increasing to a record high of $4.7 trillion and the government had injected $1.5T of liquidity into the market the last week. Link. 

- A senior Russian official has warned that an upcoming bill on digital assets will include a ban on issuing and selling cryptocurrencies, but wouldn't ban people from owning cryptocurrencies. The bill could be passed as soon as spring. Link. 

- The supply for stablecoin USDC rose by 42% since March 1, with its market cap surpassing $600 million, as more consumers and institutions shifted holdings towards USDC as a way to weather crypto turbulence. Link. 

- Crypto lender BlockFi is raising interest rates on bitcoin and ethereum on April 1, in an unusual move given that interest rates are down in traditional financial markets. Users holding 5 bitcoins will earn a 6% annual percentage yield (APY) as compared to 3.6% APY currently. Ether holders will earn 4.5% APY for up to 500 ETHs as compared to 2-3.6% APY currently. The company has said it can increase rates due to supply constraints and others pulling back from lending, and significant arbitrage opportunities that have come with recent volatility. BlockFi has more than $650 million in assets on its platform. Link.  

- While 2019 only saw 15 fewer crypto deals than 2018 for a total of 807 deals, deal volume dropped by 34% from $4.2 billion to nearly $2.8 billion. This was likely due to the absence of a few large late-stage deals in 2018: $400M raised by Bitmain, Coinbase's $300M Series E, and Hyperchain's $234M Series B. The largest raises in 2019 were Ripple's $200M and Figure's $103M Series C. Link. 

- Coinbase Card, the Visa debit card that allows users to spend crypto directly from their Coinbase accounts, can now be linked with Google Pay. The offering is currently live in 14 European countries and makes Coinbase the first company to let users to make mobile payments with crypto. It supports ten coins, including BTC, ETH, XRP and DAI. The card launched in April 2019 and is not yet available in the US. Link. 

- Browser Opera now allows US users to buy bitcoin and ether directly from its built-in crypto wallet using Apple Pay and debit cards. The company partnered with payments firm Wyre for the initiative and will be available for all three of Opera's browsers; Android, iOS browser Opera Touch, and its desktop browser. Link. 

- Members of the Steem community pushed a hard fork of Steem, resulting in a new blockchain called Hive. Justin Sun's Tron foundation had acquired Steemit in February, and the hard fork is intended to limit Sun's influence over the network. The Hive launch will be a direct copy of the existing Steem blockchain, and Steem users will receive Hive tokens in a 1:1 airdrop with the exception of Sun's holdings. Link. Link. 

- Coinbase Chief Legal Officer, Brian Brooks, is leaving the company to join the Us Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) as its COO. The OCC is an independent bureau within the Treasury Department and is responsible for charting and regulation national banks in the US. Link. 

- Senator Kelly Loeffler, former Bakkt CEO, sold off millions in stock ahead of the recent corona-virus related market crash after receiving briefings on Covid-19. She alleges that the transactions were executed by her financial advisors without her input or direction. Link. 

- Decentralized exchange Sparkswap announced it was shutting down, saying it struggled with building a large enough audience to sustain the business. The company was built on Lightning Network and enabled users to self custody their crypto when trading on the platform. It had raised $3.5 million from Pantera Capital and Initialized Capital. Link. 

- Crypto hedge fund Adaptive Capital announced it was shutting down and returning capital to investors, after it fell more than 50% during the recent crypto drawdown. The fund blamed "infrastructural insufficiencies" for its inability to respond properly to the sell-off - during the massive sell-off exchanges like BitMex went out of service for a short period of time preventing investors from being able to trade. Link. 

- A New York woman was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for sending ISIS members over $150,000 in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2017. Link.