THE WEEKLY UPDATE Week 8, 2022 - Sponsored by - Squarespace

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THE WEEKLY UPDATE Week 8, 2022 - Sponsored by - Squarespace
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              THE WEEKLY UPDATE
                   Week 8, 2022

Mar 1, 2022
THE WEEKLY UPDATE Week 8, 2022 - Sponsored by - Squarespace
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    Market Update
        New crypto narratives are spinning up as the war in Ukraine
1
    
        escalates. Bitcoin has seen a sharp recovery in the last week
        and saw a 14.5% price increase on Monday – its largest daily                                   Cryptocurrency Donations to Ukraine*
        gain since February 8th, 2021.
                                                                           $24m
       Russian and Ukrainian trade volumes are soaring at the
        moment, as the USDTRUB pair reached new all-time highs
        yesterday and Ukrainian BTC volumes see a sharp increase.
                                                                           $20m
       Directionally the stock market and BTC moved in lockstep last
        week as the Russian invasion of Ukraine escalated. Meanwhile,
        gold saw strength.

    Valuation
                                                                           $16m

2      After a sharp recovery yesterday, bitcoin has returned to its
        $40-44k trading range.
                                                                           $12m
       The annualized basis on Binance has now fallen below CME’s
        basis for the first time since November 2020, as premiums now
        align across all exchanges. The 3mth annualized futures basis
        on Binance reached its lowest 24hr average level in history on
        Monday of 1.17%.                                                   $8m

       Funding rates are in its third consecutive month in a neutral to
        below neutral regime.
                                                                           $4m

    Blockchain Activity
3      All red on-chain. Miner revenues plummet, and transaction fees
        are now at the lowest point in one-and-a-half years.               $0m
                                                                                         24 Feb     25 Feb          26 Feb         27 Feb            28 Feb               1 Mar
       Thousands of people globally are donating millions worth of
        cryptocurrencies to support Ukraine. Have we underestimated                                     Ukrainian Government   Come Back Alive NGO
        the power of using cryptocurrencies for fundraising?
                                                                              Source: Elliptic.co                                                             *Cumulative donations
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              THE NEWSROOM

          Crypto Donations to Ukraine Jump                    ECB Wants Quick Action on Crypto                      South African Exchange Raises $50M
          to $20M                                             Regulation Following Russian                          in Africa’s Largest Funding Round
                                                              Sanctions
                                                              Speaking to the press following a meeting of the      South African crypto exchange VALR has raised $50
          The Ukraine government’s call for donations to                                                            million in a Series B equity funding round, marking
                                                              EU's Economic and Financial Affairs Council, ECB
          resist the Russian invasion and provide aid to                                                            the largest-ever funding for an African crypto
                                                              President Christine Lagarde says it's "critically
          those affected has been embraced by the crypto                                                            exchange. With this latest round of funding, VALR’s
                                                              important" for the so-called MiCA legislation to be
          community with nearly $20 million raised in ether                                                         valuation has increased to $240 million, a 10X in
                                                              pushed through as soon as possible. While there's
          and bitcoin. On Monday, Binance announced it                                                              growth since it raised its $3.4 million in a Series A
                                                              been lots of speculation on how Russia might make
          would donate $10 million crypto to the effort and                                                         round in July 2020. This round was led by VC
                                                              use of cryptocurrency networks to assist in evading
          launched a crowdfunding portal to encourage its                                                           Pantera Capital, Alameda Research, Coinbase
                                                              stringent financial sanctions imposed by the EU and
          users to donate more.                                                                                     Ventures, and several others.
                                                              U.S., many legal and blockchain experts aren't
                                                              convinced it's possible.

Mar 1, 2022                                                                            3
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              New narratives born for crypto?
                  New crypto narratives are spinning up as the war in Ukraine escalates.                    Bitcoin Correlation:
                   Cryptocurrencies serve as powerful fundraising tools for Ukraine (slide 20). At the
                   same time, the demand for crypto may increase as both the western block and
                                                                                                                90-day correlation
                                                                                                               (weekly change included)           ETH                    GOLD                   S&P500
                   Russia introduce the strictest capital controls in decades (slide 8 and slide 9).
                                                                                                                      BTC                 0.880         0.004      -0.200      -0.120        0.485        -0.001

                  Investors are speculating that crypto will become increasingly important as               Source: CoinMetrics
                   apolitical and trustless money in a time of escalating geopolitical uncertainty,
                   conflict, and capital controls. This speculation may have contributed to the 15%
                   increase in the bitcoin price over the past seven days.                                                Top 3 by Market Cap: Percentage Change in Price Over the Last Week

                  Gold has historically fared well in times of increasing conflict but has not
                                                                                                         15%                                                                                                        BTC 15%   $43,518
                   experienced nearly the same gains as bitcoin over the past few days, being
                   significantly negatively correlated to bitcoin.                                                                                                                                                  BNB 13%   $415

                  Correlations between the different cryptocurrencies continue to be elevated, as       10%                                                                                                        ETH 13%   $2,925
                   BNB and ETH follow bitcoin and are both up 13% over the past seven days.

                  Bitcoin’s meteoric rise on February 28th lifted all crypto boats, and OKB is the       5%
                   only coin of the top 50 by market cap that is down over the past seven days.

                                                                                                          0%
              Last week of top 50 by market capitalization
                Best Performing                           Price    Last week     Last month       YTD
                Terra                                     88.81       76.7%          74.5%         -3%
                                                                                                         -5%
                Cosmos                                    31.71       33.1%           8.5%        -12%
                Avalanche                                 87.40       24.8%          21.0%        -24%

                Worst Performing                          Price    Last week     Last month       YTD    -10%
                OKB                                       18.07       -0.3%         -13.5%        -38%      22 Feb             23 Feb       24 Feb        25 Feb     26 Feb         27 Feb    28 Feb        1 Mar
                LEO Token                                  6.03        2.8%          72.7%         59%
                TRON                                       0.06        3.2%           2.3%        -19%                                                  BTC        ETH        BNB

              Source: CoinGecko, messari.io                                                                    Source: Tradingview (Coinbase)

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                              4
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          Bitcoin wins the fearful February
                                                                                             Percentage of Total Market Capitalization
                                                                                                                 BTC          ETH         USDT           BNB              USDC              XRP           LUNA         ADA          SOL        AVAX
                                                                                                Market
                                                                                                                43.02%        18.23%      4.16%          3.54%            2.79%             1.93%         1.75%       1.70%         1.61%      1.11%
                                                                                                Share

                                                                                                Weekly
                                                                                                                 0.83%        0.00%       -0.64%         -0.02%           -0.39%            -0.05%        0.60%       0.01%         0.02%      0.08%
                                                                                                Change

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Source: Coinmarketcap.com
              Bitcoin beats all the crypto indexes in February - a month filled with
              geopolitical uncertainty.
                                                                                                                                 Monthly Performance of Market Cap-Weighted Indexes
                 Bitcoin is the best performer in February with a 12% gain in its first     20%
                  month of positive performance since October.
                                                                                             15%
                 Behind bitcoin follows the Large Cap Index with a 9% gain. The Medium                                                                                                                                                                12%
                  Cap and Small Cap indexes both end February where they started.            10%
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       9%
                                                                                              5%
                 February was an extraordinary month for crypto. The month started with                                                                                                                                                               0%
                  growing prices, but in the middle of the month, the market turned sour      0%
                  as the fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine grew. When Russia invaded                                                                                                                                                              0%
                  on February 24th, the crypto market turned around and started growing.
                                                                                             -5%

                 After bitcoin's recent outperformance, the bitcoin dominance is now        -10%
                  43%, significantly up from the bottom of 39.3% in the middle of January.
                                                                                             -15%

                                                                                             -20%
                                                                                                    1 Feb           4 Feb         7 Feb       10 Feb             13 Feb            16 Feb            19 Feb       22 Feb       25 Feb       28 Feb

                                                                                                                                               Bitcoin             Large               Mid               Small

                                                                                               Source: Bletchleyindexes.com

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                            5
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        Fear and greed index back to neutral
       The Fear and Greed Index suddenly entered neutral territory after staying in the "extreme fear" area for most of 2022. One of the reasons the crypto market remained in a prolonged fearful
       state was geopolitical uncertainty related to the imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine. As the attack unfolds, investors seem to have changed their opinions on how increased geopolitical
       uncertainty and conflicts may affect the crypto market (slide 4).

                                                            Fear & Greed Index

              Extreme Greed

                                                                                                                                                                                51

                                                                                                                                           51

                                                                                                                                                             Now           Last week         Last month

              Extreme Fear                                                                                                                                                Extreme Fear
                                                                                                                                                          Greed (51)                          Fear (26)
                                                                                                                                                                              (20)
        Source: Alternative.me, NYDIG

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                           6
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          Highest daily bitcoin trading volume since December
          The real bitcoin trading volume* pushed above $10 billion last Thursday when Russia invaded Ukraine. This was the highest volume seen since December 4th, and Monday also saw high
          trading volumes. The market seems to be waking up after a dozy February.

                                                                                             Real BTC Daily Volume* (7-day average)
          $20b

          $18b

          $16b

          $14b

          $12b

          $10b

              $8b

              $6b

              $4b

              $2b

              $0b
                Feb 21            Mar 21               Apr 21              May 21   Jun 21     Jul 21    Aug 21       Sep 21   Oct 21   Nov 21    Dec 21        Jan 22             Feb 22

               Source: Skew, Tradingview (Binance, Binance US, Bitfinex)                                                                                        *Includes Bitwise 10 exchanges, LMAX, FTX.

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                                       7
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              Volumes in the Russian ruble soaring
              On February 28th, we saw a massive volume increase in the ruble pairs on Binance, particularly in USDT, as the USDTRUB volume reached a new all-time high of $35 million. The bitcoin
              volume also saw a substantial rise. These volume increases could indicate that Russians seek stablecoins to get dollar exposure ahead of possible sanctions directed towards Russian
              crypto traders. However, the rising volumes could also be caused by market makers seeking to eliminate their ruble exposure. As explained in the next slide, Ukrainians are also seeking
              crypto exposure in these uncertain times.

                                                  Binance: Daily Volume USDTRUB                                                                      Binance: Daily Volume BTCRUB
              $40m                                                                                                $30m

                                   May 19th, 2021                                  Feb 28th, 2022
              $35m                   $34.31m                                         $34.94m
                                                                                                                  $25m

              $30m

                                                                                                                  $20m
              $25m

              $20m                                                                                                $15m

              $15m
                                                                                                                  $10m

              $10m

                                                                                                                   $5m
              $5m

              $0m                                                                                                  $0m
                 Jan 21                  Apr 21             Jul 21        Oct 21      Jan 22                             1 Jan      8 Jan        15 Jan   22 Jan   29 Jan   5 Feb   12 Feb   19 Feb   26 Feb
                  Source: Tradingview (Binance)                                                                      Source: Tradingview (Binance)

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                               8
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              Ukrainians are buying crypto as never before
              Like the Russians (previous slide), Ukrainians are also buying crypto as never before, as both the USDTUAH and BTCUAH pairs on Binance see enormous increases in trading volume.
              Many Ukrainians worry that the banking system in the country may collapse and are seeking to crypto as a safe haven for their savings. In addition, by exchanging their liquid assets for
              crypto, Ukrainians can escape the country and bring some of their wealth with them, just like described by this Ukrainian refugee in Bitcoin Magazine.

                                                Binance: Daily Volume USDTUAH                                                                       Binance: Daily Volume BTCUAH
              $10m                                                                                              $3.5m

                                                                                                                $3.0m
              $8m

                                                                                                                $2.5m

              $6m
                                                                                                                $2.0m

                                                                                                                $1.5m
              $4m

                                                                                                                $1.0m

              $2m
                                                                                                                $0.5m

              $0m                                                                                               $0.0m
                     1 Jan     8 Jan        15 Jan   22 Jan   29 Jan   5 Feb   12 Feb   19 Feb   26 Feb                 1 Jan      8 Jan        15 Jan     22 Jan   29 Jan   5 Feb   12 Feb     19 Feb   26 Feb

                Source: Tradingview (Binance)                                                                              Source: Tradingview (Binance)

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                               9
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               Bitcoin’s largest daily percentage gain in one year
               On Monday, the bitcoin price increased 14.5%. This daily price increase was the largest since February 8th, 2021, when Elon Musk announced that Tesla had bought $1.5
               billion in bitcoin. It made the 7-day volatility shoot up to 5.4%, which is the highest level since June 2021 – once again proving that bitcoin often behaves opposite of the rest
               of the financial markets concerning volatility, as upwards price movements often cause the most significant volatility spikes.

                                                                                                   BTC-USD Volatility
                                                                                    Daily Return         30-Day Volatility    7-Day Volatility

              20%

              15%

              10%

                                                                                                                                                                                                             5.4%
               5%
                                                                                                                                                                                                             4.2%

               0%

              -5%

              -10%
                  Feb 21          Mar 21        Apr 21   May 21        Jun 21       Jul 21          Aug 21         Sep 21    Oct 21              Nov 21   Dec 21       Jan 22       Feb 22          Mar 22

               Source: Tradingview (Coinbase)

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                                   10
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              Last week saw gold behave as a safe haven asset vs BTC and indexes
                                                                                                                                Last week: Gold vs BTC vs Global indexes

                                                                                              6%

              Directionally the stock market and BTC moved in lockstep last
              week as the Russian invasion of Ukraine escalated. Meanwhile,                   4%
              gold saw strength.

                                                                                              2%
                 Bitcoin has followed the stock market closely for a long while,
                  evident by the 60-day correlation reaching new all-time highs
                  recently.                                                                   0%

                 Last week’s market was no exception, with both bitcoin and various         -2%
                  stock indexes seeing a sharp correction on Thursday amid the
                  invasion before recovering on Friday.
                                                                                             -4%

                 Meanwhile, gold showed clear tendencies of behaving as a safe
                  haven asset as fear soared in the markets, evident by gold’s               -6%
                  Thursday rally. In other words, gold behaved just as investors
                  expect it to do.
                                                                                             -8%

                 Since 2008, Russia has accumulated gold heavily, increasing its
                  gold reserves from 450 tonnes to 2,200 tonnes. As more sanctions          -10%
                  reach Russia, the long-term implications for gold could be
                  interesting to follow, with a potential scenario being Russia seeking
                  to use gold for barter.                                                                                     S&P 500      DE40      UK 100            BTC   Gold
                                                                                            -12%
                                                                                                21 Feb               22 Feb              23 Feb               24 Feb            25 Feb         26 Feb

                                                                                          Source: Tradingview

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                                     11
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              An overview of the Web3 landscape

              We are working on an article series on Web3, explaining
              what Web3 is and why you should care. You can read the                                  The Web3 Landscape
              first article of the series here.                                                                    Social networks                                                                              Publishing                                 Music
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             TV shows
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Curated marketplaces

                                                                                                             Showtime               Zero           Bitclout            Superlocal              Yup              Mirror        Sigle                                                                                                                             Known Origin          SuperRare              Foundation
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Catalog           Royal          Sound              Vezt                 Mad Realities

                                                                                                              Islands           Sapiency              RSS3             Akasha             Momento                                                        RDCRDSHP           OneOf             Aok1verse                                                         Artpool        Nifty Gateway               MakersPlace

                  Web3 is a model of decentralized networks where
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Cortex
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Stoner Cats
              

                                                                                    Discovery
                  participants: 1. can interact without an institution; 2. are in
                                                                                                              Orbis           Solcial             Steemit             Wall         ShowMe                                                                Melodity        Audius              Emanate                                                                      Open marketplaces
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Talent                                                                                                      Video platforms

                  total control over central aspects of their digital identity,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Station        Braintrust                                                                                                                                 OpenSea            Rarible          Solsea
                                                                                                                   Communication                                                                                                                       Soundmint            Nina             Yellowheart                        Beam              Glass
                                                                                                                                                                               Film & TV

                  including their underlying encryption keys; 3. control how
                                                                                                              Pravica            Status            Secretum                      Ritestream                     Pallet        Underdog                                                                                                                                    LooksRare             Mintable        Cargo
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Fashion

                  their credentials and personal data is shared/used.                                        ComingChat                  Session                                 Vabble                                                                     The Fabricant           DIGITALAX             Artisant          RTFKT            UNXD.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Productivity                                                                                                                                              Native marketplaces

                                                                                                             MessageParty                 Alter                                  Hollywoodao                    Blocksurvey            Cal.com              The Dematerialized               Stylexchange                                                                 NBA Top Shot               LarvaLabs
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      DRESSX             Neuno

                  The current version of the internet, Web2, has concentrated
                                                                                                                   Ecosystems                                                                                   Building tools                                                                Domains                                        Payments                          Community management
              
                  power among a few companies who decide which users get
                                                                                                             Ethereum               Stacks           Secret             Flow            Hive                    Project Galaxy            Zora       Moralis         Celestia                 Unstoppable             ENS                Suberra           Kask                   Agora           Beyond

                  network access and how these users’ data is secured.                                       DeSo            Near            Solana            Theta             Avalanche                      Streamr           Verida         Golem          Biconomy                      Handshake              RNS                 Alice           Cask                     Snapshot           Juicebox

                                                                                    Infrastructure
                                                                                                             Polygon              Helium            Cosmos               Lukso            Polkadot              Cardstack           Ceramic          Gitcoin                                  Butterfly                                  Utrust           DePay                Unlock             UniPass        Glow

                                                                                                               Storage                                        Identity                                          Privacy protocols                        Wallets                                          Token gating                                              Browsers                       Social graphs

                 The big promise of Web3 can be summarized in a single                                      Arweave              Swarm                     SpruceID             IDX           Civic            Aleo         Ruby                      Metamask            Argent                     MintGate              CharmVerse                                    Brave                        CyberConnect

                  concept: user-control. A decentralized successor to the                                    Filecoin           Storj                       Ryder              Jolocom                          NyCypher            NYM                Rainbow           Trust wallet                 Rally          FWB Gatekeeper               POAP                    Opera                        Lens Protocol

                  current internet is being built.                                                           Sia           BitTorrent                       Profile          BrightID                           Panther           Anoma                Coinbase wallet                                Collab.Land             Bonfire          Coinvise                   Beaker                       Mem Protocol

                                                                                                              Virtual worlds                                                                                              Custom spaces                                            Play-to-earn                                                                                    Move-to-earn

                 The map on the right highlights a mere fraction of what                                    Decentraland                Nifty Island           OVR              Bloktopia             Netvrk                Spatial         Arium         Portals                                                                                                                        Genopets

                  Web3 has to offer, spanning everything from career
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Axie Infinity          Enjin           AlienWorlds           DeFi Kingdoms

                                                                                                                                         Cryptovoxels            Bullieverse               Wilder World                      Monaverse           RareRooms                                                                                                                                Stepn
                                                                                    Experience
                                                                                                             The Sandbox

                  platforms to collaborative music platforms to decentralized
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Cometh            Gaia Everworld                Aurory           Gods Unchained

                                                                                                             Somnium Space                   Everdome                 NFT Worlds             Dvision Network                 Cyber          Space                                                                                                                                     Sports
                  credentials and reimagined versions of social media.                                         Commerce                                                          Physical spaces                 AR                              Avatars
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Cryptotanks               Wonderhero             Dalarnia            Mobox
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Sorare

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Illuvium          Gala Games                BattleVerse            Illuvium
                                                                                                             Clytie            Metamall              ClubRare                          Digital Art Fair            Xone                           Ready Player Me                                                                                                                         ZED

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Osiris          Splinterlands             Space Misfits           REVV Racing

                  Stay tuned for more articles in the series, where we will dive
                                                                                                             Highstreet             Walmeta             ALTAVA                         Crypto Portal               Illust.space                   Genies                                                                                                                                  Delta Time
              
                  deeper into all the different sectors illustrated on the map.
                                                                                                     The overview is not all-inclusive

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                                                                         12
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              VALUATION
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Mar 1, 2022
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              Bitcoin revisits the 40-44k range for the third time in 2022

              After a sharp recovery yesterday, bitcoin has
              returned to its $40-44k trading range.

                 Bitcoin tested its $40,000 support throughout
                  the weekend and followed up with a convincing
                  breakthrough yesterday.

                 As was the case during the early February rally,
                  bitcoin has found resistance at $44,000. This is
                  an important resistance level, and bitcoin has
                  yet to convincingly break the $44,000 resistance
                  since its early January sell-off.

                 If the third time is the charm, and bitcoin
                  manages to breach through the $44,000
                  resistance, $47,000 is the next resistance area to
                  pay attention to.

                 Towards the downside, the $40,000 resistance
                  has again been flipped and may now act as
                  support, with further support found in the $36-
                  38k range.

                                                                       Source: Tradingview, Coinbase

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                            14
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              CME’s basis above Binance for the first time since November 2020

                                                                                                                          Bitcoin Futures Annualized Rolling 3-Month Basis
              The annualized basis on Binance has now fallen below CME’s
              basis for the first time since November 2020, as premiums now
              align across all exchanges.                                               12%

                 Last week’s volatile environment is reflected in the futures basis,   10%
                  and yesterday we saw the first substantial basis recovery in the
                  market since Jan 26th as the futures premiums climbed amid
                  bitcoin’s strength.
                                                                                        8%

                 However, the basis remains at unusually low levels, and
                  yesterday, Binance’s 24hr average basis reached an all-time low       6%
                  of 1.17%, as illustrated in the next slide.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         2.88%
                 The subdued basis on Binance and a stabilizing basis on CME           4%
                  has led CME to trade at a premium to Binance for the first time                                                                                                                                        2.97%
                  since November 2020.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         2.23%
                                                                                        2%
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         2.22%
                 Following yesterday's sharp gain in BTC, open interest fell by
                  15,000 BTC in the futures market, suggesting profit-taking while                                                                                                                                       1.69%
                  also indicating a short squeeze.                                      0%

                 Overall, the futures premiums remain very low, and pessimism          -2%
                  still seems to be the prevailing emotion among derivatives
                                                                                           1 Dec      8 Dec      15 Dec   22 Dec   29 Dec   5 Jan   12 Jan     19 Jan     26 Jan   2 Feb     9 Feb    16 Feb
                  traders.
                                                                                                                            FTX        BitMEX        Deribit            Binance       CME*
                                                                                              Source: Skew.com
                                                                                                                                                                                                     *Closed Saturday - Sunday

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                                15
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              Basis reaches all-time low on Binance’s quarterly BTC futures

                                                                                                                     Bitcoin futures: Binance 3mth annualized basis (24h MA)
                                                                                         45%

                                                                                         40%

              The 3mth annualized futures basis on Binance reached its lowest            35%
              24hr average level in history on Monday of 1.17%.

                                                                                         30%
                 The futures basis on Binance reached a new all-time low on
                  Monday, plummeting to levels lower than the July 21st lows.
                                                                                         25%

                 The previous low coincided with BTC bottoming after its sustained
                  summer sell-off and was followed by a substantial short squeeze as     20%
                  BTC broke out of its then $30k to $40k range, analogous to a range
                  of $35k to $45k today.
                                                                                         15%

                                                                                                                                                                                               Feb 28th, 2022
                 While history doesn’t necessarily repeat, and the basis overall has    10%                                                                                                       1.17%
                  been far more muted since May, the basis reaching historical lows
                  reflects that the sentiment is poor and possibly that sellers are
                  losing fire powder.                                                     5%
                                                                                                                                                                  July 21st, 2021
                                                                                                                                                                      1.18%
                                                                                          0%
                                                                                            Jul 20          Oct 20          Jan 21      Apr 21        Jul 21      Oct 21              Jan 22

                                                                                         -5%

                                                                                        Source: Skew

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                            16
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              Perp traders not convinced by recent rally
              Funding rates still muted

                                                                                                                         Bitcoin perpetuals: Funding Rates vs BTCUSD
                                                                                       $60,000                                                                                                              0.04%

              Funding rates in its third consecutive month in a neutral to below
              neutral regime.                                                          $55,000                                                                                                              0.02%

                                                                                                                                                                                                            0.01% (neutral funding)
                 Funding rates remain in neutral to below neutral terrain. Thus,
                  despite the strong recovery yesterday, perp traders remain           $50,000                                                                                                              0.00%
                  cautious.

                 We’ve now seen three consecutive months of a neutral to negative
                                                                                       $45,000                                                                                                              -0.02%
                  funding rate regime, similar to what we saw during the summer
                  bear market of 2021.

                 Liquidations has picked up in the last week, with Feb 24th and Feb   $40,000                                                                                                              -0.04%
                  28th seeing the largest daily short liquidation volume in bitcoin
                  since the volatile Dec 4th crash.

                                                                                       $35,000                                                                                                              -0.06%
                 Despite yesterday’s liquidation uptick, the perp open interest
                  remained fairly stable, falling from 223,000 BTC to 219,000 BTC,
                  suggesting that traders are actively re-adjusting risk.
                                                                                       $30,000                                                                                                              -0.08%
                                                                                              1 Dec        11 Dec   21 Dec     31 Dec    10 Jan      20 Jan    30 Jan     9 Feb     19 Feb     1 Mar   11 Mar

                                                                                                                             BTC Price            Average Funding Rate (Binance + Bybit)

                                                                                                 Source: Skew

Mar 1, 2022
                                                                                                      17
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              BLOCKCHAIN ACTIVITY
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Mar 1, 2022
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              Bitcoin on-chain summary: All red on-chain

          All red on-chain. Miner revenues plummet, and transaction fees are now at
          the lowest point in one-and-a-half years.

              Daily miner revenues drop 14% to $34.6 million, caused by a slower than
               average block production rate and a struggling bitcoin price over the
               previous seven days.

              On February 17th, Bitcoin increased its difficulty by 4.8% in the sixth upwards
               difficulty adjustment in a row. Increased difficulty makes it harder for miners
               to produce blocks, and mining becomes less profitable. Therefore, many
               miners turned off their machines, and the hashrate decreased 6% over the
               past seven days.
                                                                                                               Source: Bytetree

              The declining hashrate led to a 5.3% reduction in the block production rate.
               After increasing six times in a row, the difficulty is finally expected to decrease                                         Bitcoin Hashrate (7-day average)
               by 2.4% on Thursday.                                                                          220

                                                                                                             200
              In addition to plummeting miner revenues, the most notable on-chain metric
                                                                                                             180
               now is the 29% decrease in transaction fees per day. They haven't been lower
               since the summer of 2020, showing us how little on-chain activity there was                   160
               over the past seven days.

                                                                                                      EH/s
                                                                                                             140

                                                                                                             120
              It will be interesting to see if the conflict in Ukraine will lead to an increase in
               on-chain activity going forward, or if on-chain activity will continue to stay                100
               muted.
                                                                                                             80
                                                                                                              Feb 21              Apr 21   Jun 21       Aug 21          Oct 21   Dec 21      Feb 22

                                                                                                               Source: Blockchain.com

Mar 1, 2022                                                                                                  19
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              Crypto donations are pouring in to support Ukraine

              Thousands of people globally are donating millions worth of                                             Cryptocurrency Donations to Ukraine*
              cryptocurrencies to support Ukraine. Have we underestimated the            $24m
              power of using cryptocurrencies for fundraising?

                 On February 24th, the Ukrainian NGO "Come Back Alive" started
                  raising crypto. Donations poured in, and by February 25th, they had    $20m
                  already raised more than $4 million.

                 The Ukrainian NGO's crypto fundraising success must have inspired      $16m
                  the Ukrainian Government, which started raising crypto on
                  February 26th, posting Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses on Twitter.

                 Ukraine is one of the strongest crypto adopters globally, proved by    $12m
                  its 4th rank in Chainalysis 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index, and
                  the Ukrainian Government has historically been open towards
                  crypto. Still, it's unique for a government to plead for crypto
                  donations.                                                             $8m

                 Using crypto for fundraising has proved to be straightforward, both
                  for the donator and the receiver. There are no middlemen, so the
                  receiver saves fees, receives the funds faster, and can be 100%        $4m
                  certain that the funds will not be confiscated by intermediaries who
                  disagree with the cause.

                                                                                         $0m
                 So far, more than $24 million of crypto has been donated to
                                                                                                        24 Feb    25 Feb           26 Feb         27 Feb            28 Feb                1 Mar
                  Ukraine, but this number is likely an underestimation since
                  countless smaller NGOs are collecting funds.                                                         Ukrainian Government   Come Back Alive NGO
                                                                                            Source: Elliptic.co                                                                *Cumulative donations

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