In turn, the relatively neutral price action we had recently been seeing was shattered, and $78.24 million in long BTC liquidations occurred on March 3rd after the price slip.

With broadly improving market sentiment since the end of last year, there has been a persistent trend of increased interest in altcoins. Since November 2022, the percentage of altcoin volumes relative to BTC, ETH and stablecoins has increased from 40% to 50%, largely at the expense of ETH, who’s market share has decreased from 25% to just 7% of volumes. Bull markets are often characterized by a rotation of funds out of BTC and ETH and into riskier altcoin alternatives.

According to data from Ripple and FPC, most payment companies believe that merchants globally will use more cryptocurrencies in the near term. As seen in the graph below, the survey results show that 64% of representatives of payment companies in the Middle East believe that more than 50% of merchants will start accepting cryptocurrency payments within the next three years. - source

The volatility spread between Ether and Bitcoin has compressed to below 1. This has only occasionally happened and the spread has traded above 1 in 93% of the observations during the past four years — link

The market is mostly bearish and is betting on further declines, according to funding rates.

"If we have more leverage building and bearish bets in this setup we could have a price recovery driven by cascading shorts liquidations."

89% still trust centralized custodians despite 2022’s collapses: Survey

Fundraising for crypto gaming jumped 79% from January to February of this year to hit $141.4M — link

The Euro's share of volume relative to USD has nearly doubled since the FTX collapse, rising from 9% to 16% for BTC markets — link

ANALYSIS: Open Interest in #BTC futures on the CME exchange plummeted to a 4-month low.

CME Futures Volumes Rise 21.2% Month on Month

Regarding total USD trading volume, CME’s ETH futures reached $10.1bn in February (up 24.4% since January). Meanwhile, CME’s BTC futures volumes rose 20.0% to $25.0bn. On aggregate ETH + BTC futures volumes rose 21.2% to $35.0bn. This does not include Micro Futures.

A combined volume of $4.05bn in BTC and ETH futures was traded on the 21st of February – a maximum for the month, up 25.1% from the intra-month high in January.

Crypto Derivatives On The CME Reach New Milestones Amid Regulatory Uncertainty

Bitcoin also had a big month, with options open interest reaching an all-time high and crossing $1 billion for the first time. Open interest is the total number of outstanding contracts that are yet to settle.

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Bitcoin bulls’ desire for a trend reversal could be obliterated by this week’s $565M options expiry

Bitcoin keeps liquidating longs as BTC price action gives up $22K support.

In a clear sign that Silvergate's demise is disproportionately affecting U.S.-based exchanges/market makers, BTC and ETH depth in the USD market has improved on international exchanges in the past month while U.S. exchanges have become less liquid.

Binance's market share, having recently peaked at 88%, has fallen to 80% as the regulatory crackdown continues

Miners are putting pressure on Bitcoin

"If miner pressure continues to increase in addition to other factors, Bitcoin could fall to either $19,500 or $16,600."

ANALYSIS: DeFiLlama reveals that if USDC drops to $0.872, approximately $45.3 million in USDC collateral will be liquidated, with Aave v2 and Compound holding the majority of the position. Currently, USDC is trading below $0.9.

Euro share of BTC volumes has spiked in the last few days vs. USD. Up 3x since November as regulatory ambiguity continues to hurt the US.

USDC and DAI regaining some ground after falling below $0.90

🚨 CAUTION: Keep an eye on these regional banks.

Last week, a total of 52 U.S. regional banks experienced a stock drop of over 10%. As of Friday, their combined market capitalization was $369 billion.

Bitcoin price makes comeback above $20,000 after $422 million in BTC options were liquidated