Market Trend｜Rocket Pool’s ETH Staking Service Reaches $1B In TVL; Russia Offers Subsidies On Crypto Mining In Siberia

Across the past week, the cryptocurrency market has been privy to a progressive decline, with the total market capitalization falling to $1.2B, a $600M decrease from the previous week. With the bullish momentum seen since the start of 2023 appearing to fizzle out, it appears as if a bullish correction has thwarted the market, causing losses of up to 10% in the top 20 top cryptocurrencies. However, there has been bullish news to spur a potentially positive sentiment among investors this week, with Rocket Pool’s TVL having reached $1B on their Ethereum staking service as the Shanghai Upgrade readies for deployment. In addition, Russian authorities have offered subsidiaries of cryptocurrency mining in Siberia to create a new state-owned mining facility. On the flip side, the crypto exchange Kraken has announced that it is set to shut down its US crypto-staking service as they are set to pay a $30 million fine in an SEC settlement.

The Latest News

Rocket Pool’s ETH Staking Service Reaches $3B In TVL

The Ethereum staking service, Rocket Pool, has been confirmed to have reached $1 billion in total value locked (TVL) yesterday according to a data report released by DefiLlama. Having achieved this historic milestone in less than two years since the mainnet’s launch in November 2021, Rocket Pool has accelerated in popularity by offering users access to an Ethereum decentralized node operator tool that enables them to run their own node.

By lowering the entry requirement for Ethereum staking and node operationalization through decreasing capital and technical requirements, Rocket Pool allows Ethereum stakers to enter the pool with only 0.01 ETH, as opposed to the traditional 32 ETH required to operate a node. In turn, this has democratized Ethereum staking access and provided a more accessible and decentralized means of reaping staking rewards.

Rocket Pool Logo (Image Courtesy of Rocket Pool)

Kraken To Shut Down US Staking Amidst $30M SEC Settlement

The international digital asset exchange, Kraken, has announced that they will ‘immediately’ halt all crypto staking-as-a-service offerings for US customers and pay a $30 million fine to settle a case with the SEC where the agency charged Kraken with offering unregistered securities. Ceasing staking operations that have been in place since 2019, Kraken is set to automatically unstake any assets staked by US clients, with the exception of ETH tokens, which will be unstaked after the Shanghai upgrade.

According to an SEC release their complaint alleges that ‘Kraken touts that its staking investment program offers an easy-to-use platform and benefits that derive from Kraken’s efforts on behalf of investors, including Kraken’s strategies to obtain regular investment returns and payouts.’. This comes in light of the SEC press release suggesting that Kraken’s yield rates may be as high as 21% when the exchange initially quoted 20%.

Kraken Logo (Image Courtesy of Kraken)

Russia Offers Subsidies On Crypto Mining In Siberia

Russian media agency, RBC, released a report on the 8th of February stating that the state-owned Corporation for the Development of the Far East has announced that there will be the establishment of a cryptocurrency mining center in Buryatia, a republic in East Siberia. As a result, a new mining facility will be erected, containing 30,000 mining machines, employing 100 people, and draw 100 megawatts from the main power grid. It is set to open in the first half of 2023 and be owned by Trover, Russia’s largest provider of crypto-mining co-location services.

This comes in light of Russia offering subsidies on crypto mining in Siberia, which will allow the mining center to benefit from a range of incentives. These will include zero land and property taxes, electricity costs halved, as well as a lower income tax rate.

Crypto Mining (Image Courtesy of Spectrum IEEE)

Current Project Trends

Based on data provided by CoinMarketCap, a majority of the top-gaining projects across the past week have been focused on both the Binance Smart Chain and NFTs. One of the top-gaining projects focused on pairing both is the DINGO TOKEN, which has seen an unprecedented growth of 6318.46% in the past 24 hours. This demonstrates that NFTs have once again risen in popularity and have taken the interest of investors across a range of blockchains.

The Current BTC Trend

Having declined over 7.11% across the past seven days, Bitcoin has begun a progressive decline over the past week following the former realization of a bullish golden cross formation in previous weeks. Having entered the week at a sTRONg $23.54k, Bitcoin briefly broke above its 7-day SMA before beginning a swift decline on the 4th, which eventually made way for BTC to break through $23k on the 5th and begin to descend through the $22k region – with no signs of stopping.

BTC’s current price trajectory appears to be indicative of a price correction in light of the recent bullish price momentum, which comes in light of international markets gradually improving as inflation appears to be easing across the world and geopolitical situations begin to ease. It is likely in the coming weeks that Bitcoin may continue to follow this trajectory, yet, it is pivotal to note that BTC is still consistently trading above its 1-month SMA, meaning that this may be indicative of a minor correction in a month-long bullish price trajectory.

In light of this growing bearish sentiment, Bitcoin’s MVRV (market value to realized value) has begun to stagnate and decline, yet it has remained consistently above the 1 threshold. Entering the week at a high of 1.183, BTC’s MVRV was one of the highest values it has been in several weeks before it then fell to a weekly low of 1.144 on the 9th. This signals that BTC is continuing to stay above the ‘market bottom’ indication, meaning that it is holding its ground above $20,000.

Weekly BTC MVRV Data (Data Courtesy of Blockchain.com)

The State Of ETH Gas Fees

As of the 9th of February, there has been a moderate decrease in the total volume of gas used across the past week in comparison to the former, with the lowest figure attained on the 8th, totaling 107,868,173,706. The highest figure attained this week was on the 6th, totaling 108,517,726,041, demonstrating a similar total usage to that seen throughout the opening of 2023. This decline back into the 107B region is indicative of a gradually declining trend of gas usage across the past month.

As a result, Ethereum gas fee boundaries this week have had a notable decrease from the week prior. The low gas boundaries were between 12-165 gwei, the average boundaries were between 13-165 gwei, and the high boundaries were between 13-305 gwei – demonstrating a vast disparity in gas fees across the past week.

Across the past 24 hours, the top ‘Gas Guzzlers’ according to Etherscan were Uniswap: Universal Router (with fees totaling $598,050.78 or 387.23 ETH), Seaport 1.1 (with fees totaling $474,431.43 or 307.18 ETH), and Tether: USDT StablEcoin (with fees totaling $302,029.00 or 195.56 ETH) – thus demonstrating a significant increase from the previous week.

The estimated cost of transactions across the likes of OpenSea: Sale, Uniswap V3: Swap, and USDT: Transfer, has been suggested to be between $3.76 and $13.39, according to Etherscan.

The Current Macro Situation

Munich Re Experts Believe 2023 Global Economy Is To Be Shaped By Inflation

Munich Re’s Economic Outlook for 2023 has forecasted that high inflation and low economic growth are to paint the portrait of the global economy in 2023. Yet, it is anticipated that the international economy will cope better than previously expected with geopolitical tensions, sharp price increases, and higher interest rates.

The Chief Economist Michael Menhart commented: ‘The global economy is different from that of pre-Covid and pre-war times, and it will likely stay that way for quite a while. With inflation, higher interest rates, government interventions, and geopolitical risks shaping the outlook. On the positive side, we can now say that the forecasts do not look as grim as many had expected half a year ago.’.

What Could Be Coming In The Week Ahead?

With the market having entered a seemingly more bearish trajectory, it is likely that the market will continue to decline progressively in the coming days. However, with more bullish news having emerged, this positivity could translate into a more bullish sentiment amongst investors across the market. Thus, in turn, the market’s recovery may be dependent on the overarching sentiment within the wider community.