The crypto market traded lower during the week, tracking losses in the equity market. Bitcoin’s correlation to the S&P 500 has risen to its highest level since October 2020. Investors are more sensitive to the impact of rising interest rates on asset values, similar to what occurred in 2014 and 2018.

The price of Bitcoin broke $42,500 (BTC/USD) on Thursday’s session but failed to surpass resistance level $43,200, next major support level is near $39,500. Bitcoin closed at $40,480, up 1.32% on the week, while Ethereum closed at $2,983 (ETH/USD), down 1.25% on the week.

It’s important to remember that the market doesn’t always go straight up, it’s a random walk with an upward drift. High conviction investment strategies can help you maintain confidence and stay the course. If you still have exposure to low-cap altcoins or any positions you don’t believe in anymore, now would be a good time to reevaluate your crypto portfolio and move these positions into fiat backed stablecoins (USDC).

Crypto Sector Performance

The currencies sector was the best performing during the week up 1.2%. Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) outperformed all other currencies up 17.08% and 8.37% respectively. Monero will undergo an upgrade on July 16, 2022 after reaching a consensus within the community. Meanwhile, some Monero community members are orchestrating a crypto bank run called “The Monorun” aimed at exposing whether exchanges are selling more private crypto than is in their reserves.

Decentralized exchange 0x Protocol (ZRX) stole the spotlight in the DeFi sector after announcing its partnership with Coinbase. The token spiked as high as 55% then finished the week with a 21.36% gain. Coinbase will leverage the 0x Protocol to power their social NFT marketplace.

The gaming sector was the worst-performing during the week down -3.4%.

Top News Recap

• The New China: Is New York actually going to ban proof-of-work mining?

  - Bitcoinist

• Justin Sun, founder of TRON will launch algorithmic stablecoin USDD on May 5th using $10B of crypto as collateral - The Block

• Coinbase launched a social NFT Marketplace, here’s what you need to know - Bitcoinist

• Decentralized exchange 0x Protocol’s token jumps over 50% after Coinbase partnership - Bloomberg

• 21Shares and ETF Securities will launch Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs in Australia on April 27th - prnewswire 

• Optimism-based projects spiked over 20% on rumors of a token airdrop

  - Cointelegraph

Hackers Are Stealing More Crypto From DeFi Platforms Than Ever Before

According to Chainalysis latest research, hackers have stolen over $1.3 billion from platforms and exchanges in just the first three months of 2022 and the victims are disproportionately from DeFi protocols, up from 72% in 2021 and just 30% in 2020. Could ERC-4626 “the tokenized vault standard” minimize these hacks?

Crypto Adoption News

• Bahamian government hopes to allow residents to pay taxes with digital assets in 2022 - Cointelegraph

• LimeWire raises $10 million in private token sale to grow music-linked NFT platform - The Block

• ​​Oman to incorporate real estate tokenization in virtual assets regulatory framework - Bitcoin

• Tencent nearing the launch of Digital Yuan wallet-WeChat integration

  - Beincrypto

Top Venture Funding Activity

Last week 42 projects announced fundraising rounds, here are some of the largest: 

• Sandbox, is set to raise US$400M of fresh funds at a $4B valuation - Bloomberg

• Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX specialized in crypto-enabled financial services raises $135M at a $2.15B valuation. - The Block

• Blockchain analytics company Flipside Crypto raises $50M at a $350M million valuation. - The Block

Latest Crypto Policies from G20

source: crypto.com

Other News and Top Reads

• U.S. House Democrats call for scrutiny on crypto mining as an environmental threat - Coindesk

• DeFi protocol Beanstalk was hacked for $182M - The Verge

• MetaMask has advised its users to disable automatic iCloud backups of its wallet data to prevent hacks - The Block

• Popular Ethereum mixer Tornado Cash adds Chainalysis sanction screening tool to block crypto wallets sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) - Coindesk

• The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a U.S. federal banking regulator, finds Anchorage Digital failed to maintain proper AML rules

  - Coindesk

Disclaimer: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please do further research before you invest in any crypto asset.