All praise Do Kwon, whose series of US$125 million spot BTC buys appear to have restored some positive price action, contributed to significant short liquidations, and more importantly, instilled some market-wide confidence, as bitcoin inches towards US$50,000 (with dominance suggesting the altcoins are ready to play catch-up).
All that and more!
TL:DR
- Bitcoin rallies, shorts get REKT.
- TVL metrics and booming alts.
- Newswatch.
- NFT and metaverse update.
Market update
The Luna Foundation Guard’s (LFG) bitcoin purchases have guided the crypto markets near yearly highs. Bitcoin (BTC) broke a heavily tested US$45k on the low liquidity of weekend markets. The week ahead will decide if the breakout turns “fake out”, or whether the key US$45k level will see resistance flipped to support. Notably, the stochastic relative strength index (StochRSI) indicator is nearing the oversold area on the daily charts, suggesting a retest could be incoming.
Source: Trading View
The ETH/BTC daily chart looks to be setting up a miniature bull flag pattern that adds the potential for altcoins to run while bitcoin takes a break from pulling the markets.
Source: Trading View
On-chain data from Santiment suggests that the large number of short positions piling up on exchanges was a significant contributing factor to the price action, which saw a 4% pump in 5 minutes.
This bullish price action is matched by a drop-off in commodities across the board. This is likely due to potential progress concerning the Russia/Ukraine conflict, with talks set to take place in Istanbul, Turkey today and this week.
Weekly total value locked (TVL) update
Polkadot (DOT) quietly leads the weekly gains in the top 12 chart with a 21% increase after various parachains announcements this week (MoonBeam (GLMR), Acala (ACA), Kusama (KSM), Astar (ASTAR)). The ecosystem in Polkadot is taking shape, and liquidity will likely follow an upward trend.
THORChain (RUNE) has gained 47% this week and 194% for the month after major upgrades and releases for the decentralized liquidity provider.
Notable TVL increases:
25. Theta (THETA) + 22%
51. Zilliqa (ZIL) +80%
54. VeChain (VET) +45%
Source DeFi Lama
Notable price gainers (7d)
| Protocol (Coin) | Price ($) | Gain (%) |
| Zilliqa (ZIL) | 0.10 | +138 |
| Holo (HOT) | 0.007 | +66 |
| Convex Finance (CVX) | 14.86 | +58 |
| VeChain (VET) | 0.07 | +49 |
| Filecoin (FIL) | 24.37 | +38 |
| Axie Infinity (AXIE) | 67.09 | +35 |
| Loopring (LRC) | 1.10 | +33 |
| Cardano (ADA) | 1.17 | +33 |
Banter watchlist (7d)
| Protocol (Coin) | Price ($) | Gain (%) |
| ApeCoin (APE) | 14.86 | +54% |
| Terra (LUNA) | 93.3\ | +3% |
| Polkadot (DOT) | 22.35 | +20% |
| THORChain (RUNE) | 10.35 | +20% |
| Arweave (AR) | 37.09 | +14% |
| Pocket Network (POKT) | 0.92 | +18% |
| Render (RNDR) | 2.80 | +7% |
| Tomb Shares (TOMB) | 5,971.00 | +87% |
| Astroport (ASTRO) | 2.12 | +13% |
Newswatch
- US inching closer to accepting crypto banks. The banking subsidiary of Kraken Exchange receives a routing number from the American Bankers Association. It moves closer to attaining a Federal Reserve Master Account that garners access to the global payments system utilized by banks.
- EU voting on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommended travel rule. The EU parliament will vote Thursday, March 31, on crypto anti money laundering (AML) regulation. The regulatory provision would include the FATF recommended travel rule which will require crypto service providers to gather and share clients’ personal information for transactions.
- Ancient leadership. Elon Musk stated the US has “very, very ancient leadership and a serious issue with gerontocracy” in a recent interview that spanned subjects such as human life span and Putin.
- El Corte Crypto. Europe’s largest department store El Corte Ingles to launch a crypto exchange.
On-chain 
- Bye-bye 20% yield, welcome sustainability. Anchor Protocol (ANC) Prop 20 passed on March 25. As a result, the Terra-based dApp will begin implementing a semi-dynamic earn rate with a monthly change of +/-1.5%.
- Avalanche (AVAX) announces the US$100m Culture Catalyst Initiative that looks to push the web3 creative community forward and focus funding on NFT projects, on music, film, entertainment, GameFi and digital art.
- UST increase on Curve (CRV). Proposal to increase liquidity on Ethereum Curve UST pools through Votium, Convex and Tokamak.
- Lending Wars on Near Protocol (NEAR) explained.
NFT and metaverse 
- Chip supplier giant enters metaverse. Qualcomm has reportedly set aside US$100 million to invest in technologies related to the metaverse.
- Raoul Pal of Real Vision purchases Bored Ape Yacht Club #7894 for 140 ETH ($440,000).
Notable NFT mints
- The Universe Machine Presale: March 29, 13:00, ET / Public mint March 31, 1300, ET.
- Imposters whitelist is expected on March 28, with an exact time TBC, and goes public 24 hours later.
Banter’s take
Bitcoin’s price action provides some much-needed confidence, matched only by some impressive TVL increases across the board, and projects are upgrading and building more than ever. Terra and Anchor continue to make moves to stay sustainable, and even Raoul Pal has a Bored Ape now. And honestly, we could use a crypto bank by now. So, will bitcoin hold US$45,000 and give altcoins a chance to run this week?
Thanks for reading the Morning Brew!
Gabri
