BTC Fair Value Rises; Virtu eyes Bigger Role in Crypto

Chart of the Day

On Thursday, the broader crypto market rose in tandem with major stock indices, with the latter experiencing their largest two-day rally since April of last year. The recovery in the stock markets can be partly attributed to the U.S. Federal Reserve's move to raise interest rates by a quarter-percentage point to a range of 0.25%-0.5% after two years of maintaining a near-zero interest rate to insulate the economy from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some analysts believe that a prolonged period of rate hikes will actually constitute a strong headwind for digital assets in general. As of the time of writing, BTC has reclaimed the $40k level after posting up a decent 4% gain within the last 24 hours. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is currently consolidating above the $41k level, and looks to be charging up another attempt to break through the immediate resistance zone near the $41.6 mark. A clear break above said level would open up the doors for another BTC rally.

In a similar vein, ETH is now stabilizing above the $2,700 level after rising by 5% from 24 hours ago, while most major altcoins have also flipped green, with top performers like AVAX leading the altcoin rally with double-digit percentage gains. Further, on-chain datapoints also paint a rather optimistic picture with regard to the near-to-mid-term future of BTC. The realized price-to-liveliness ratio (RPLR), a metric that compares the HODL-ing behavior of long-term investors with the realized price of Bitcoin, reveals that the estimated "fair value" of Bitcoin has been increasing on the back of a constrained supply due to large scale HODL-ing activities. Meanwhile, over 10 million ETH has also been staked in Eth2 contracts, a number that makes up a significant 8.56% of the total ETH supply.

Talk of the Town

Market-making titan Virtu is looking to make a greater impact on the crypto industry in the coming month. At the FIA Boca futures industry conference, Virtu presented an ambitious roadmap and made clear their intention to become a wholesaler within the crypto space, one that fills buy and sell orders for online brokerages like Robinhood. With a wealth of market-making experience when it comes to crypto exchanges, Virtu has also been actively lobbying for regulators to approve new financial product innovations within the space.