Bitcoin Soars to $42K: A Year-Long High First in America

• Current Updates in the Crypto Market
• Impact on Crypto Stocks and Other Cryptocurrencies
• Grayscale Appoints New Head of Distribution & Partnerships Team
• UK Lawmakers Discuss Potential Digital Pound
• Chart of the Day

Current Updates in the Crypto Market

Recent trends in the cryptocurrency markets have seen the price of Bitcoin$42,260 -0.64% (BTC) surging past the $42,000 mark, a feat not achieved since before the Terra crash. This is the first time since April 2022 that such a significant gain has been noted. Concurrently, Ether (ETH) has also surpassed $2,200. Bitcoin has been flirting with the $40,000 mark in recent days but finally broke past it on Monday, achieving a trading value of over $41,600 as per the most recent data, marking a 24-hour rise of about 6%. Ether traded at approximately $2,240, marking a similar percentage gain.

Impact on Crypto Stocks and Other Cryptocurrencies

The upward movement in Bitcoin and Ether has had a positive impact on cryptocurrency stocks. For instance, crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) experienced nearly a 9% jump in pre-market trading, similar to what was seen with Microstrategy (MSTR). Crypto miners like Marathon Digital (MARA) and Riot (RIOT) saw increases above 10%. Other top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization registered smaller gains, while the BNB$312 -5.65% coin (BNB), associated with the Binance exchange, remained nearly unchanged.

Grayscale Appoints New Head of Distribution & Partnerships Team

Grayscale, a crypto asset management firm, has recruited John Hoffman, former Head of Americas at Invesco, to steer its distribution and partnerships team. This decision comes six weeks prior to the announcement about Grayscale's potential launch of a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded-fund (ETF). Hoffman, an ETF veteran, spent more than 17 years working at investment manager Invesco, in varying capacities ranging from director of ETF institutional sales and capital markets at Invesco PowerShares Capital Management to adviser roles and finally leading the Americas, ETF, and indexed strategies team.

UK Lawmakers Discuss Potential Digital Pound

UK lawmakers are urging the government to contemplate reducing holding limits for a prospective digital pound and ensuring its design does not prohibit the option of paying interest. Both the UK and its 27-nation counterpart, the European Union, have proposed that retail digital currencies should not be permitted to earn interest similar to bank deposits. These concerns were voiced by UK legislators in the Treasury Committee of the House of Commons in a report published on Saturday, as part of a February consultation about the UK's plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The government has suggested that a digital pound may be likely needed in the future.

Chart of the Day

The chart illustrates the number of entities that control addresses possessing at least 1,000 BTC and Bitcoin's price since May 2022. The count of such 'whale entities' has risen to 1,509, the highest recorded since September 2022, verifying Bitcoin's bullish price movement. This metric is regularly monitored for potential divergences as indicators of trend reversals.

Note: The provided information is based on data from Glassnode.

Edited by Jonathan Stoker