The first quote | Crypto investment hits 18-month high, Blast points bonus goes live, Tether becomes the 7th largest holder of BTC, and waning interest rate cut optimism could impact global stock markets

Crypto Daily Digest: Crypto investment hits 18-month high, Blast points bonus goes live, Tether acquires 8,888 BTC to become the 7th largest holder

Let's start with the trading activity of Bitcoin ETFs, according to Farside Investor data, Grayscale's GBTC outflows continued to be large on March 6, amounting to $302.6 million, while the Fidelity Bitcoin Spot ETF (FBTC) saw $44 million inflows, Bitwise Bitcoin Spot ETF (BITB) saw $1.1 million inflows, and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin Spot ETF (ARKB) saw outflows of $0.3 million.

Funding for crypto companies reached its highest level in 18 months due to massive early-stage investments in blockchain-related businesses in March.

According to The Block Deals Dashboard, new funding from crypto companies totaled more than $1.4 billion. This made March its best month since September 2022, when the industry raised more than $2 billion in funding.

John Dantoni, director of research at The Block, said March was a landmark month, partly due to a surge in early-stage or Series A investment. Dantoni said there were more than 20 early-stage investments this month, a significant increase from February, with nine such investments in February, on par with last year's monthly average.

These increases are closely related to the rise in the price of Bitcoin. In the coming months, more money is likely to enter crypto projects through venture capitalists. For example, news broke on Thursday that Marc Andreessen, Accolade Partners, and Galaxy Digital invested in the latest fund from crypto venture capital firm 1kx, which raised $75 million.

Blast announced on the X platform that it has officially launched the Blast Points Booster feature, which allows users to boost their Blast Points by trading on select spot or perpetual contract exchanges. The points bonus feature will permanently increase the user's points balance and yield, and only by using a specific DApp, you can get the points bonus, and there is no limit on the amount of transactions. In addition, users can also share points bonuses between different wallets, which means that points bonuses can be obtained through hot wallets, while also being applied to the main wallet.

It's important to note that security is always a top priority when interacting with any DApp, including when interacting with Blast's credit-plus DApps.

A total of 12 points will be added to Blast before points can be redeemed in May. It is important for users to ensure that all points are collected prior to redemption in May. Users can now get their first two points bonuses by visiting the Blast airdrop page, with more coming soon.

Tether recently made an acquisition to increase its Bitcoin reserves. With the acquisition of 8,888 bitcoins, Tether became the seventh-largest bitcoin holder. According to the company, they plan to invest 15% of their net profits in Bitcoin to diversify their stablecoin-backed assets.

As of March 4, Tether's USDT market cap has reached a record $100 billion, up 9% year-to-date. Tether also announced the successful completion of a Systems and Organization Control 2 (SOC) audit, the highest level of security compliance audit an organization can demonstrate, developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino wrote in an April 1 announcement that the audit underscores Tether's commitment to providing a secure user experience: "This compliance measure assures our customers that their assets and data are managed in an environment that meets the highest standards of data protection and information security. This independent verification of security controls is critical to Tether, demonstrating our commitment to being the world's most trusted and compliant stablecoin. "

Market analysis: The Fed's expectations for a rate cut in June have fallen, and the market has plummeted

Market Trend:

At one point, BTC fell sharply near the $68,000 mark yesterday, leading to a general decline in altcoins in the market. On the macroeconomic front, U.S. equities were mixed, with the probability of a first rate cut in June falling below 50% due to good U.S. manufacturing data.

Market Hot Spots:

1. GHST soars in the Gamefi sector: The GHST project announced that it will move to the Base chain to develop Layer 3, and the price has risen sharply due to this news.
2. The BOME of the meme concept has risen sharply: BOME has risen by more than 20% in a single day, while the meme tokens on other Solana chains have basically seen a pullback. The market is still keen to hype the new coins in the popular concept tokens, following the trend of "speculating on the new over the old".
3. The BTC ecosystem has generally declined: Projects in the BTC ecosystem have generally declined, with ORDI plummeting by more than 10%. At the same time, BTC's Layer 2 solution user experience was lower than expected. With less than 20 days to go until the BTC halving, the market is on the sidelines.
4. Airdrop of the cross-chain bridge Wormhole protocol: The Wormhole protocol will open the airdrop claim of token W at 19:30 tonight, after Gate.io announced the listing of the token. Wormhole's latest funding round is valued at $2.5 billion, and the investment institutions are very luxurious, which has attracted market attention.

Overall, the market hotspots cover the Gamefi sector, the Meme concept, the BTC ecosystem, and the dynamics of the cross-chain bridge Wormhole protocol. Investors should pay close attention to these hot spots, adjust their investment strategies in a timely manner according to market conditions, and respond cautiously to market fluctuations.

Macro: Erosion of interest rate cut optimism could impact global equities, with gold prices hitting record highs

Most markets around the world are closed on Fridays, and European markets are closed on Mondays. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (. DJI) fell 0.6%, and the S&P 500 (. SPX) fell 0.20%, but the Nasdaq Composite (. IXIC) rose by 0.11%.

Gold prices hit record highs and Wall Street stocks closed mixed as strong U.S. economic data dampened optimism that the Federal Reserve was about to cut interest rates, prompting the need to cut spending sooner rather than later. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday that the inflation data released that day was "in line with our expectations" and that "you won't see us overreacting," suggesting that the Fed is willing to remain in a wait-and-see mode.

Asian equities rose on Tuesday, the dollar strengthened, and the yen held near the 152 yen to dollar level. Traders are starting to worry about a possible intervention as market expectations for an imminent Fed rate cut are waning.

Data on Monday showed that the U.S. manufacturing sector grew for the first time in 1-1/2 years, with a sharp rebound in output and an increase in new orders, underlining the strength of the economy, which also raised doubts about the timing of the Fed's rate cuts. Strong manufacturing data drove US Treasury yields higher, with two-year and 10-year yields climbing to two-week highs, boosting the dollar.

Against the backdrop of general economic optimism, Chinese equities led gains across much of Asia. And the dollar rose as data showed that the U.S. manufacturing sector grew for the first time since September 2022. Overnight, the S&P 500 outperformed expectations after strong manufacturing data drove US Treasury yields higher.

However, concerns about the timing of the rate cut dragged down the first trading day of the second quarter, giving the market a calm tone. It is worth mentioning that the index recorded its largest percentage increase in five years in the first quarter.

In commodities, U.S. crude rose 0.3% to $83.96 a barrel and Brent rose 0.34% to $87.72, driven by signs of improving demand and heightened tensions in the Middle East.

Spot gold fell 0.1% to $2,248 an ounce, hitting an all-time high of $2,265.49 on Monday.

by Sherry S. & Icing. *This article represents the views of the author only and does not constitute any trading advice. *The content of this article is original, the copyright is owned by Gate.io, if you need to reprint, please indicate the author and source, otherwise you will be held legally responsible.