April 2023 Crypto Market Forecast from qocsuing's blog

April 2023 Crypto Market Forecast

overcoming negative headlines from the collapse of Silvergate Capital and U.S. regulators taking action against top crypto exchange Binance. Financial market volatility even caused the second largest stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC) to briefly lose its peg to the dollar in March.To get more news about Crypto currency market, you can visit wikifx.com official website.

Looking ahead to April, crypto investors will be focused on ongoing liquidity concerns in the financial sector, additional regulatory developments, and the next batch of data on inflation and the labor market.Bitcoin prices briefly topped $29,000 in late March before finishing the month at $28,477, a 19.2% monthly gain. Ethereum (ETH) prices rose 9.7% in March to close out the month at $1,829.

Among the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Ripple (XRP) was the best February performer with a 1.3% gain. Polygon (MATIC) was the worst performer, with a 9.8% loss.

Crypto prices have been resilient so far in 2023 after both Bitcoin and Ethereum each logged their worst annual performance since 2018 last year. Following March’s gains, Bitcoin prices are up 68.4% year-to-date, while Ethereum prices are up 49.2%.

In March, the implosion of SVB Financial (SIVB), Signature Bank (SBNY), Silvergate Capital (SI) and Credit Suisse (CS) triggered widespread fears over the stability of the banking system. However, the banking crisis also dramatically shifted investor expectations for interest rates moving forward.

A Federal Reserve policy pivot could now be coming sooner than expected, news that has helped propel Bitcoin prices to their highest level since June 2022.
On March 8, crypto bank Silvergate Capital announced it would be winding down its operations and liquidating its assets. The decision came after the bank’s total deposits dropped from $11.9 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2022 to just $3.8 billion, forcing Silvergate to sell $5.2 billion in debt securities at a heavy loss.

Just two days after Silvergate announced it was closing up shop, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced it was seizing Silicon Valley Bank. SVB had roughly $209 billion in total assets and $175 billion in deposits as of the end of 2022.

On March 12, New York state regulators shut down crypto bank Signature Bank, which had more than $110 billion in assets and $88 billion in deposits as of the end of 2022.

In a televised address on March 13, President Joe Biden assured Americans that the financial system is sound and that all depositors at Signature Bank will get their money back.

Spooked investors sold more than $2 billion of stablecoin USD Coin after USDC parent company Circle Internet Financial said it had $3.3 billion in reserves at Silicon Valley Bank. The selling pressure dropped the price of USDC, which is designed to trade at $1, below 87 cents on March 13.

Circle reassured investors that it could cover any cash reserves stuck at SVB using company resources, and USDC recovered to the $1 level by March 13.On March 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) filed a lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance, CEO Changpeng Zhao and former compliance officer Samuel Lim alleging “numerous violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.”

In the complaint, the CFTC claims Binance provided users access to derivatives that must be traded on regulated platforms and did so without properly registering with U.S. regulators.

Barry Weinstein, founder and CEO of VolatilityMarkets, says the Binance lawsuit was the biggest crypto news in an action-packed month.

“The biggest crypto story of March was the CFTC…suing Binance over the accusation that they are operating an unregistered securities exchange. This lawsuit is just one signal that the US federal government is going to continue cracking down on cryptocurrency custodians and exchanges,” Weinstein says.

In fact, the next major crypto target for U.S. regulators could be popular crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN).

On March 22, Coinbase announced it had received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) notifying the exchange that it plans to take enforcement action against the company. The SEC said it believes Coinbase violated investor protection laws, but Coinbase said in a statement that it is “confident in the legality of our assets and services.”