Hello Asia, here is what is driving the markets today.
Bitcoin and Ether start the week flat, with the world’s largest digital asset at $22,463, up 0.6% on the day, and Ether at $1,569, up 0, 1%.
Observers say the market is currently on the brink. Although it is no longer the depths of crypto winter, the market must decide how much it will continue to value Silvergate’s crypto failure while factoring in positive economic data from China.
“It does not appear that the Silvergate issue is leading to widespread contagion. And we may have already seen most of the downside associated with this news,” Matt Weller, global head of research at Forex.com, told CoinDesk TV on Friday. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see bitcoin come back to $20,000, maybe even $18,000, to kind of retest those lows. But…it looks like the depths of winter are behind us.
At the same time, economic data from a re-opened China, which quickly dropped all Covid restrictions early in the year, could reinforce the “China narrative” that fueled the mini price spike in late February. The coming week is expected to be busy with the release of economic data from the country, with data on the trade balance, foreign exchange reserves and inflation rate expected.
“China’s openness is a positive for the global economy, which implies that some animal spirits are back in Asia,” March Zheng, co-founder and managing partner of Bizantine Capital, said in a note to CoinDesk.
These so-called animal spirits, Zheng said, could lead to increased appetite for assets like crypto.
“We believe this will offset lingering fears in US equity markets as well as rising rates,” he said.
EthDenver shows that Ethereum has a real community
This weekend marks the culmination of ETHDenver, possibly the most important annual gathering for smart contract and decentralized finance (DeFi) developers right now, on Ethereum and beyond. I wish I could be there this year, but I’m still recovering from a pretty intense four months of doing cool stuff and calling out the bad guys.
Luckily, a lot of people are sharing clips from the event, so I can enjoy it vicariously. Unfortunately, many of these posts express something between innocent confusion and sneering disparages of the supposedly lame events of ETHDenver.
This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk’s daily roundup of the most crucial stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to take full advantage newsletter here.
But this attitude, to paraphrase the fugitive philosopher-thief Do Kwon, is an excellent formula for obtaining rekt. This may sound silly and disorganized to you, but the rough edges of ETHDenver are actually strong signals that a real community has been brought together by common interests to build something together from the ground up. This is the kind of community that has gone through and will go through slow periods of crypto growth like what we are going through right now.
Admittedly, compared to many crypto conferences, ETHDenver and some related events can feel a bit sloppy, and more than the slightest bit weird. Take, for example, the annual contributions of Jonathan Mann, aka “The Song a Day Guy.” He’s been creating and performing goofy, slightly amateurish tunes for the event for quite some time now – and every year people on Twitter take advantage of it for the dunker.
But let me tell you, a goofy song is hardly the only thing at ETHDenver that might make you uncomfortable!
When I attended last year, ETHDenver was held in a renovated parking lot, where the bathrooms were partially or completely broken for much of the event. You couldn’t see the main stage from about a third of the downstairs seats, and the people talking in the back of the room were half drowning out the speakers. Occasionally someone would drop 500 pizzas on an upstairs table resulting in massive queues that made it almost impossible to get around.
And you know what? It was awesome.
The full article can be found here:
Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) were sinking, as customers fled crypto bank Silvergate, whose shares closed down 58% on US trading yesterday. Forex.com Global Head of Research Matt Weller shared his reaction. Additionally, Sotheby’s is auctioning the original manuscript of “Snow Crash,” Neal Stephenson’s 1992 historical science fiction book that coined the terms “metaverse” and “avatar.” Founder and CEO Roneil Rumburg explained how music streaming platform web3 integrates with TikTok.