Table of Contents
In this report:
- Week in Review - Crypto exchanges are not safe custodians (SEC)
- Top 100 Gainers (7-days): Maker (MKR) +28%
- Small Cap Gainers (30-days): $GENE +2,370% (30d)
- Monthly Altcoin Pick - Altcoin Pick for February was released last week
What Happened This Week?
The top crypto stories this week:
- SEC Chair says Crypto Exchanges Should not be considered Safe Custodians: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler says "Just because a crypto trading platform claims to be a qualified custodian doesn’t mean that it is,". As my readers have heard many times, not your keys, not your crypto. It's best to keep your crypto in a hardware wallet.
- Ethereum Shanghai Update Delayed: The expected launch of the Shanghai hard fork has been delayed from late March to the first two weeks of April.
- Goldman Sachs open to crypto hires, amid mass 3,200 staff cut: Goldman Sachs, said the bank remains “hugely supportive” of exploring blockchain applications and that the digital asset division will hire “as appropriate” this year.
- XRP Surpasses 4.6M wallet addresses: Despite the ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC, the data has just revealed that XRP has now surpassed 4.6 million total wallet addresses.
March is an Important Month for Crypto
Over the last few days, we have seen a significant drop in the crypto market and we may continue to see even more selling pressure over the next few weeks.
March is one of the biggest months for token unlocks this year with 7 major projects releasing a significant portion of their total supply. This includes HBAR, APE, BIT, APT, DYDX, IMX and ACA.
While we did see two great months of upward movement in the crypto market, March may be the month we see a decline in the crypto market, especially taking into consideration the impact of market data to be released in the upcoming weeks.
Important dates to be aware of:
March 10th - Jobs data in the U.S. is released. March 10th is also this is the same date Mt. Gox payments are scheduled to be sent out to creditors (after 10 years of waiting).
March 10th is also the date it is reported Mt. Gox will be releasing $9B worth of BTC into the market. If these recipients decide to sell their newly (re)acquired BTC, this could cause a further decline in the price of Bitcoin.
March 14th - The release of the CPI (Consumer Price Index) data.
March 15th - The release of the PPI (Produce Price Index).
Both the CPI and PPI will provide insight into the state of inflation within the U.S. and although inflation has been declining over the last few months, if these reports show that inflation is on the rise, this will likely impact the markets negatively.
March 22nd - This is when the Federal Open Markets committee meeting is scheduled and will be deciding on the course of action relating to interest rates based on the market data from earlier in the month.
It's likely interest rates will be raised by another 25 basis points, however, we could see higher (up to 50 basis points) depending on the results from the jobs data, CPI and PPI.
It's important to note, that a rise in interest rates would have a negative impact on both the stock and crypto markets. March could be a turbulent month for crypto and we will have to keep a close eye on these reports as they are released.
Crypto Market at a Glance:
Bitcoin & Ethereum Price Movement
Bitcoin has decreased 3.47% in the last week, currently trading at $22,350 (90-day high of $25,134). In the last 90 days, Bitcoin has increased by 32%.
Ethereum has decreased 2,45% in the last week, currently trading at $1,568 (90-day high of $1,732). In the last 90 days, Ethereum has increased by 25%.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalization continues to float above the trillion dollar level, sitting at $1.025T.
#1 Crypto Self-Directed IRA Retirement Platform
You can now invest in crypto, gold & silver using your IRA. With over $6.5B in transactions & 190k+ accounts created, iTrustCapital is considered the top self-directed IRA platform for Crypto.
Top 100 Gainers - Last 7 Days
Over the last 7 days, the biggest gainers (within the top 100):
Maker (MKR) 28.8% - Ranked #54
The Maker ecosystem is one of the earliest projects on the decentralized finance (DeFi) scene: the industry that seeks to build decentralized financial products on top of smart-contract-enabled blockchains, such as Ethereum.
Initially conceived in 2015 and fully launched in December 2017, Maker is a project whose task is to operate DAI, a community-managed decentralized cryptocurrency with a stable value soft-pegged to the US dollar.
Maker (MKR) is the governance token of the MakerDAO and Maker Protocol — respectively a decentralized organization and a software platform, both based on the Ethereum blockchain — that allows users to issue and manage the DAI stablecoin.
yearn.finance (YFI) +24.5% - Ranked #98
Yearn.finance is an aggregator service for decentralized finance (DeFi) investors, using automation to allow them to maximize profits from yield farming. Its goal is to simplify the ever-expanding DeFi space for investors who are not technically minded or who wish to interact in a less committed manner than serious traders.
Launched in February 2020, the service, formerly known as iEarn, has seen a huge growth in recent months as new products debuted and developers released in-house token YFI.
Stacks (STX) +20% - Ranked #43
Stacks is a layer-1 blockchain solution that is designed to bring smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) to Bitcoin (BTC) and offer Bitcoin the additional functionality we already see with ETH. These smart contracts are brought to Bitcoin without changing any of the features that make it so powerful — including its security and stability.
Stacks uses Bitcoin as a base layer, arguably the most secure blockchain in operation. Offering smart contracts to the world's largest blockchain is a game changer for BTC.
Casper (CSPR) +16.3% - Ranked #85
Casper is the first live proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain built off the Casper CBC specification. The Casper platform is designed to boost the adoption of blockchain technology, smart contracts, and DApps on a global scale.
Casper’s mission is to usher in a new era for Web3, as demand for intuitive, interconnected services continues to grow across the board. Casper does so by solving the adoption trilemma: offering enterprise-grade security, scalability and decentralization all within the same blockchain protocol.
Do You Own a Hardware Wallet?
If you own crypto, you need a hardware wallet. Period. Hardware wallets (also known as cold storage devices) are the best devices to keep your crypto investments safe and under your personal custody.
Ledger supports more cryptocurrencies than any other wallet on the market. This means if you have a portfolio with a bunch of exotic altcoins (especially small-caps), then Ledger is the best wallet to keep your portfolio secure.
Store +1,000 Cryptos in a Single Wallet.
Trending Crypto Sectors for 2023
We see the greatest growth taking place within these 3 crypto sectors for 2023:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Decentralized Finance (DeFi) - Including DEXs
- Web 3.0 - Including DeSCI
It's highly likely the next big growth sector within the Web3 space will be the Decentralized Science sector.
Decentralized Science is still in its infancy (very few people have even heard of it) and will likely completely revolutionize how the field of scientific study is conducted. If you have been looking to get well ahead of the curve on the next growth sector, consider looking into the field of decentralized science.
Biggest Small Cap Gainers in the last 30 days
Every week we review and analyze low-market-cap cryptos looking for the next low-cap gem and every month we research the cryptocurrency marketplace for the next successful cryptocurrency project and announce it to our subscribers as our Monthly Altcoin Pick.
The best-performing cryptocurrency projects fall within the nano & micro-cap projects.
Best Performing Small Cap projects (30 days):
- $GENE +2,370% - Earn Money From Your DNA (Nano-Cap)
- FACTR +1,235% - 'Real-world' asset tokenization (Nano-Cap)
- BDP +1,080% - Liquid Marketplace for Commercial Data (Nano-Cap)
- ALEX +659% - Decentralized apps on BTC (Micro-Cap)
- HELLO +263% - Entertainment Ecosystem (Micro-Cap)
- KEY +209% - Web3 Digital Identity (Micro-Cap)
- DBC +105% - Infinitely scalable distributed computing network (Micro-Cap)
The best-performing small, nano and micro-cap projects (aggregated) offer a strong indication of the next big growth sectors within the crypto space.
Emerging Low-Cap Crypto Gems:
For the crypto investor, projects which fall under the market capitalization of micro and nano-cap offer the greatest growth potential and typically have a market cap between $1M-$50M - We affectionately call these "low-cap gems".
Low Cap Gem:
Big Data Protocol (BDP) has increased by 1,080% in the last 30 days and is still classified as a nano-cap project. This Defi protocol is worth looking into:
Richard Knight
Most Recent Low-Cap Gems
If you would like a full and current listing of projects which we believe are emerging low-cap crypto projects with massive growth potential, check out the low-cap gems section of our website.
Monthly Altcoin Pick:
Our most recent Altcoin Pick was released last week. If you would like access to this and prior Altcoin Picks, please consider becoming a member.
Our Altcoin Picks for the prior months can be found here.
If you would like to support this publication and have access to member benefits, such as our monthly Altcoin Pick, signup here.
Thanks and appreciation to all our members!
Until the next report,
Richard
){kind=link}