Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) refused to let $20,000 support die for good on March 11 as the weekend opened to a battle for lost ground.

Bitcoin shakes off USDC depeg

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD circling $20,200 at the time of writing.

A brief dip below the $20,000 mark overnight was short-lived, and the mood appeared more stable as the initial panic over United States bank stability subsided.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which followed Silvergate in dealing a fresh blow to some crypto firms, nonetheless continued to play out.

At the heart of the debacle was payments technology company Circle, which overnight revealed it had part of the reserve funds for its stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), with SVB.

Big round numbers always pique the interest of investors and the $1 trillion total crypto market capitalization is no exception. It’s a level that held for 48 days before collapsing on March 9. After a 16-hour negative 8.6% price movement, the indicator fell to $914 billion, its lowest level since Jan.13.

Concerns about the stability of the U.S. banking industry, specifically the downfall and subsequent closure of Silvergate Bank (SI) on March 8 and the shut down of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10 by The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, are among the reasons for breaking below the $1 trillion capitalization support. Silvergate was a critical fiat gateway network for the most important cryptocurrency exchanges and intermediaries.

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation did not provide an explanation for SVB Bank's closure. Nonetheless, it stated that the financial institution will be the first FDIC-insured institution to fail in 2023.

Silicon Valley Bank possessed more than $200 billion in assets and provided financial services to a number of crypto-focused venture firms, including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.

Don't forget, however, the ongoing efforts of the U.S. Federal Reserve to curb inflation, which include increasing interest rates above 2% in August 2022 and reducing its balance sheet through asset sales. In addition to this, U.S. labor market data released on March 10 revealed the creation of 311,000 jobs in February 2023, supporting the notion that the Fed's anti-stimulus measures require additional firepower.

Ethereum’s upcoming Shanghai upgrade will allow users to withdraw staked Ether (ETH), increasing the network’s liquidity and competitiveness while also boosting its staking ratio closer to its competitors.

The Shanghai upgrade is a hard fork of Ethereum tentatively scheduled to occur in March. It implements five Ethereum Improvement Proposals, the headliner being EIP-4895, which allows users to withdraw their locked-up tokens representing staked Ether from the Beacon Chain.

The ability to withdraw staked Ether could increase market liquidity and make it easier for users to access their funds. Ethereum liquid staking platforms, which largely emerged to alleviate the blockchain’s prohibitive lock-up and staking requirements, could also benefit from the upgrade.

Since the Ethereum network moved to proof-of-stake (PoS) in September 2022, increasing the percentage of staked Ether has become important to help secure the protocol. But many have hesitated to stake their ETH due to the unavailability of withdrawals. Consequently, only around 15% of ETH is currently staked, while all other major layer-1 networks have a staking ratio above 40%.

According to The DeFi Investor, many investors will opt for a liquid staking option following the Shanghai upgrade, as they can utilize liquid staking derivatives on other decentralized finance networks without forfeiting their staking yield.