What happened last week

BTC rides the seesaw, XRP ETF drama, and SOL & AVAX performance analysis

This week seems to end slightly lower than where its started, BTC was ranging between $35’000 and $38’000, reminiscent of a see saw. Given the CPI print this week which came in below expectations and the current ETF optimism, it is somewhat surprising that we seem to close the week lower. The most stirring headline this week was probably the bogus XRP ETF listing, reminiscent of a 2 year old story about Walmart supposedly starting to accept LTC as payment, that also turned out to be bogus. TIA remained resilient throughout the week, Bitcoin Suisse also saw buy side skewed flow throughout the week.

This morning, the cryptocurrency market saw a pullback, eroding some of the gains made earlier in the week. This appears to have been influenced by trends in the equity markets, particularly in Asia, where stocks had a notably poor performance. The timing suggests that the Asian markets may have been the catalyst for the latest round of liquidations in the crypto space. For a change, Solana was the worst performing bluechip, whereas Avalanche continued its streak as the top performer.

Looking at the SOL/USD chart, it's clear that Solana has had an outstanding year, with its value at the peak having surged to an 800% increase year-to-date. However, despite the lack of specific news to explain today's drop, it might be reasoned that the downturn is a natural market correction, perhaps accentuated by the significant holdings of SOL by FTX on their balance sheet.

Switching to the AVAX/USD chart, we observe a respectable 130% YTD gain. It's not as dramatic as Solana's rise, but it's still noteworthy. AVAX's recent outperformance may be attributed to the announcement of a partnership with JPMorgan. Specifically, Onyx by J.P Morgan and Apollo Global have announced a collaborative effort under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian which will be using Avalanche to facilitate automated asset management, which could be driving investor optimism.