Pushing Boundaries

Chart of the Day

It seems that for BTC and ETH, good things come in pairs. As at the time of writing, BTC has managed to cleanly surpass its previous all-time high of $67k, extending its gains beyond $68k to settle on a new all-time high of $68.5k. If this momentum sustains, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap looks set to explore the uncharted territories of $70k and beyond sooner rather than later. This momentum can be mainly attributed to the continuous inflow of institutional capital into digital assets. Total institutional inflow hit a staggering $8.9 billion last week, bringing this year's running tally above the total institutional investment amount for the whole of last year. Of course, speculation regarding the final deliberation of the first BTC spot ETF might have also played a part in hyping up bullish sentiments. Not to be outdone, ETH, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has reached yet another all-time high of above $4,800. ETH's fundamentals are also looking strong, as the total value locked (TVL) in ETH Layer 2 protocols has topped a whopping $5 billion, with an increasing number of ETH addresses starting to make profits. 

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Talk of the Town

Payments giant Mastercard has been at the forefront of bringing cryptocurrencies to the masses. It was among the first payments firms to be heavily involved in the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDC), and recently also integrated custodial wallet services for customers to store and trade their digital assets. Now, through the launch of their crypto-linked payment cards in the Asia Pacific region, Mastercard has taken yet another huge step towards facilitating broader retail acceptance of cryptocurrencies. The card, which will allow users to seamlessly and instantaneously convert their digital assets into fiat currency, is aimed at bridging the gap between customers who are willing to pay in crypto, and merchants who are more inclined to accept fiat.