Crypto Market Pulse Weekly – ₿ Bitcoin Halving Sparks Frenzy as Runes Protocol Launches

Weekly Market Index

Last week’s crypto market price index increased by +2.45%. Volume and volatility indices dropped -9.70% and -7.16%, respectively.

Bitcoin rallied to the US$64,000 level in the aftermath of its 4th halving which took place on 20 April. BTC held the US$65,000 level during the weekend. Ethereum also maintained the US$3,050 level post Bitcoin halving, and fluctuated near the $3,150 level over the weekend. 

US Spot Bitcoin ETFs had a week of net outflow totalling US$204 million, topping last week’s US$83 million net outflow. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF’s (GBTC) weekly net outflow settled at US$458 million last week, down from a net outflow of US$767 million the week prior.

Bitcoin reached another milestone as the fourth Bitcoin halving took place on 20 April. Occuring every four years, a halving reduces the supply of new bitcoins, cutting down the block rewards earned by miners from 6.25 to 3.125 Bitcoins.

The Bitcoin network saw its average fees surge up to US$128 on 20 April, before falling sharply a day after. This surge in fees has been a boon for Bitcoin miners who, despite a 50% drop in inflationary rewards due to the halving, saw their earnings spike and led to a record $107 million in daily Bitcoin mining revenue. 

The surge in revenue is attributed to the heightened minting activity of the newly launched Runes protocol, which coincided with the  halving. This new protocol aims to offer a more efficient way to issue fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network than the BRC-20 token standard. At the time of writing, 6,790 Runes have been minted. 

BTC fell slightly by -1.3% while ETH increased by +0.4% in the past seven days. The price action for other selected top market cap tokens was mostly positive, with SHIB and ICP leading the gains.

Most of the selected key categories were up in terms of market capitalisation changes in the past seven days, except the Layer-1 category. 

• Token holders of SingularityNet, Fetch.ai, and Ocean protocols have approved a merger that would create a combined Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) token, a project that aims to develop a decentralised AI infrastructure with ethical and transparent practices. The Fetch.AI (FET) token will become the ASI token, while SingularityNet (AGIX) and Ocean (OCEAN) tokens will be converted into ASI at specific ratios. After the merger, ASI tokens would be valued at approximately $7.5 billion in market cap.
• Worldcoin, a project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is launching an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain called World Chain. It aims to solve the issues of network congestion and automated transactions causing high gas fees by prioritising human transactions and providing verified users with a free gas allowance and faster confirmation times.
• Barclays, Citi, Mastercard, and Visa are joining a UK pilot called Regulated Liability Network. Led by UK Finance, the project aims to create a commercial banking system for tokenised deposits and securities to facilitate cross-border transactions, reduce errors, and fraud.
• Grayscale’s planned ETF, Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC), will have a fee of 0.15%. Graystale will contribute 10% of the assets in the existing Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to the Bitcoin Mini Trust. GBTC currently has a 1.5% management fee, the highest among other ETFs. 
• The Korean won has become the most traded fiat currency against cryptocurrencies in Q1 2024, surpassing the U.S. dollar in terms of cumulative trade volume on centralised crypto exchanges.