Top Crypto Stories This Week: From Strong Bitcoin Performance to Stronger Binance Perfume

Firstly, happy International Women's Day to all the crypto queens who've been breaking barriers and glass wallets. Speaking of breaking stuff, Bitcoin has broken its own record.

Smashing through its all-time high into the $69K zone before nosediving for 12 hours to $59K, the world's biggest cryptocurrency's performance inspired celebration, elation, and panic. Crypto gains always come at a cost.

Fortunately, Bitcoin has recovered much of its midweek "losses" and returned to the $67K mark. Not quite its top-end but still a comfortable enough zone to reinforce "bull" status for the market. It's finally safe to check your trading account's balance.

Although Ethereum has yet to break its all-time high, the second-biggest cryptocurrency actually outperformed its bigger brother this week, offering 12.4% returns compared to 6.4%.

Risk appetites on the Fear & Greed Index have edged up in the "Extreme Greed" bracket, up from 80 last week to 81.

The Fear & Greed Index uses 5-6 measurements to assess the current sentiment of the market and then rates that level of emotion on a scale of 1-100 – 1 is extreme fear and 100 is extreme greed.

Bitcoin breaking new highs might have stolen headlines this week but lest it not overshadow other key stories sprouting up since our last update, else you would've missed the following gems.

It's a valuable lesson in crypto: Bitcoin isn't everything in this market, there are other things, like IWD Binance fragrances. Digital ass-scents indeed.

Hong Kong Announces New Wholesale CBDC Project to Support Tokenization

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has revealed Project Ensemble, which seeks to " explore innovative financial market infrastructure (FMI) that will facilitate seamless interbank settlement of tokenized money through wCBDC."

wCBDCs provide infrastructure for RWAs as digital tokens on blockchain networks. Leveraging wCBDCs for tokenization enables enhanced liquidity, transparency, and accessibility of assets. This allows for fractional ownership, faster settlement, and increased market efficiency.

Arrests, Layoffs, Exile: Binance's Woes Continue in US, Nigeria

Binance US has reportedly laid off 200 employees, or two-thirds of its workforce, as a result of regulatory pressure. The SEC has claimed that Binance US has failed to provide answers to key questions regarding customer assets.

BAM Trading Services — doing business as Binance.US — has been “unable or unwilling” to answer requests for information concerning the custody of customer assets, the SEC said in a report to a Washington, D.C. District Court.

Meanwhile, in Nigeria, Binance is discontinuing all its Nigerian naira services following a local regulatory probe.

FTX, Alameda Reach Potential $874.5M Settlement With BlockFi

FTX and Alameda Research have reached an "in-principle" agreement with BlockFi.

Recent court filings reveal a settlement in which BlockFi will receive $874.5 million in claims against FTX and Alameda Research.

Some $185.2 million represents a claim against FTX, representing the value of BlockFi customer assets on the exchange, while $689.3 million comes from a claim against Alameda Research for its loans from BlockFi. The loan was collateralized using FTX's FTT token.

MicroStrategy Ups Convertible Debt Offering to $700M to Buy More Bitcoin

MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) has increased its convertible debt offering by $100 million to a total of $700 million in order to buy more Bitcoin.

Just two days ago, MicroStrategy chairman Michael Saylor revealed that it intended to raise $600 million in the form of senior convertible notes to buy more Bitcoin.

Buying Bull Market Junk: Memecoins or Binance Perfume?

Made bank on this bull run? Looking for somewhere to park your profits? How about some musky Binance aroma to musk the smell of shameless Memecoin degening?

Blockhead offers you an alternative lucrative opportunity.

Bitcoin Miners See Record-Breaking Daily Revenue; Bitdeer Positions for Growth

Thursday saw the highest daily Bitcoin mining revenue of $78.5 million, up from $61.91 million the day before, and up from $18.93 million one year ago. This is a change of 26.80% from yesterday and 314.7% from one year ago, according to blockchain.com data.

Leading the way was Foundry USA, which mined 1,334 blocks, accounting for 30.06% of the total, while Antpool secured 1,152 blocks, representing 25.96%.

Bitcoin Kimchi Premium Returns to Korea, Do Kwon Potentially Does Too

The "kimchi premium" has returned to its two-year high of 10% as Bitcoin breaks above its previous record. Shortly after Bitcoin hit $69,000, the "kimchi premium" went as high as 12% on Wednesday.

Although not exclusively used on Bitcoin, the term "kimchi premium" is used to describe the phenomenon when cryptocurrencies trade at higher prices on South Korean exchanges compared to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, in a new twist, Montenegro’s High Court has now determined that Do Kwon should instead be handed over to South Korea.

Crash or Correction? Making Sense of Bitcoin's Wild Volatility

Let's address the elephant in the room: that Bitcoin blip that had us holding our breaths. Crashing from its all-time high to $59,700 in a matter of hours, the market reminded us of just how volatile it can be when it wants to.

But was it an engineered crash? Get your conspiracy theories ready.

Events

Onchain 2024

Saison Capital, a Singapore-based venture capital firm and subsidiary of Saison International, has announced the inaugural launch of ONCHAIN 2024, marking Asia's first RWA conference.

Taking place on 26 April 2024, 9 am - 5 pm (ICT), in SO/Bangkok Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand, the event features an impressive lineup of speakers and attendees from TradFi institutions including Citibank, Standard Chartered, SCBx, Woori Bank, and SBI Holdings, as well as real-world asset (RWA) leaders including Helicap Group, Evertas, HELIX, D3 Labs, OpenEden and Rakkar Digital.

“The trend of tokenizing RWAs has gained momentum in 2023 despite depressed markets across traditional finance and crypto," said Qin En Looi, Partner at Saison Capital. "The launch of ONCHAIN 2024 aims to bring more partners into the conversation to shape the financial ecosystem of the future."

Early bird tickets, priced at S$99, are available now. But as the exclusive supporting partner for ONCHAIN 2024, we've got an exclusive 20% discount on tickets for the Blockhead family. Simply use the promo code 'blockhead' at checkout to unlock this special offer.

ETH Seoul/BUIDL Asia 2024

The fifth edition of BUIDL Asia Week is set to take place on 27–31 March 2024 in Seoul, South Korea. This year's event, BUIDL Asia and ETH Seoul, is poised to unite a diverse group of visionaries, developers, and innovators, aiming to solidify South Korea's status as a global hub for digital innovation and collaboration in the Web3 space.

For more details on the event schedule and speaker lineup, interested parties are encouraged to visit the official BUIDL Asia 2024 and ETH Seoul 2024 websites.

Blockhead is a media partner for the event. See you there!