Binance’s Departure from Nigeria | Weekly Summary
This week, the cryptocurrency market experienced an upward trend, resulting in Bitcoin (BTC) reaching a new all-time high above $70,000. This surge in price was accompanied by sustained inflows into spot BTC ETFs. Despite global regulatory issues, Worldcoin (WLD) also saw significant price increases.
In other news, Binance decided to leave Nigeria, while Montenegro approved the extradition of Do Kwon to South Korea.
Bitcoin reached record highs this week, with its 24-hour trading volume hitting $40 billion for the first time since May 2021. On March 5, BTC reached a new all-time high of $69,170, which had a positive impact on the broader crypto ecosystem. DeFi TVL also reached a two-year high of $101.3 billion.
However, the increased volatility in the market led to the liquidation of $1.05 billion in trades within 24 hours. As a result, BTC slumped below $60,000 on March 5 but eventually recovered.
Following Bitcoin’s recovery, the rest of the market also saw an upward trend. Meme coins, such as dogwifhat (WIF), Floki (FLOKI), and Shiba Inu (SHIB), experienced price surges. SHIB recorded an impressive 216% increase in seven days. Floki, in particular, saw a 70% surge on March 8 due to a burn of 2% of its circulating supply.
Ethereum (ETH), the largest altcoin, also joined the market uptrend and rallied to reclaim the $4,000 psychological threshold for the first time since December 2021.
With the bullish market sentiments, Bitcoin surpassed $70,000 and reached a new all-time high of $70,330 on March 8.
The positive market developments also had an impact on Coinbase’s stock, which crossed its initial listing price for the first time in two years. Goldman Sachs updated its outlook on Coinbase from Sell to Neutral.
The market’s uptrend was further supported by sustained inflows into spot BTC ETF products. On the first day of the week, spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $562 million in inflows. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw a daily record of $788 million in inflows on March 5. Reports suggested that BlackRock is looking to acquire more Bitcoin ETFs and include them in its global allocation fund.
While the spot Bitcoin ETF products have been successful, the U.S. SEC is still cautious about spot Ethereum ETFs. The agency delayed its decision on filings from BlackRock and Fidelity. Nasdaq also had its request to allow trading of options on the IBIT Bitcoin ETF postponed.
Despite facing global regulatory issues, Worldcoin (WLD) had a better performance than the broader crypto market. The token experienced a significant price increase after OpenAI announced new board members. WLD reached a new all-time high above $11.
In Nigeria, the battle between Binance and the authorities continued, with the exchange eventually delisting all NGN pairs and leaving the country.
The Terra case also made headlines, with Do Kwon facing extradition to South Korea. An appeals court in Montenegro overturned the decision to extradite him to the U.S., but a high court in Podgorica approved his extradition to South Korea. The U.S. Department of Justice plans to appeal this decision.
