Bitcoin has broken a significant record in the face of volatile market conditions. The monthly Bitcoin transfer volume has exceeded the baseline average since Terra’s fall (LUNA).

This important development indicates a resurgence of on-chain activities, indicative of a strengthening of network fundamentals and broader utilization of the system.

Bitcoin is on an upward trend, and recently passed the $30,000 price threshold. The $30,000 level is a psychologically important threshold for traders and investors. If Bitcoin maintains its current level, this could instill renewed confidence and possibly drive the price up.

For the first time, since the LUNA collapse, the #Bitcoin Monthly Transfer Volume has exceeded the yearly averaged base.
This indicates an increase in on-chain activities, which is typical of improved network fundamentals and increasing network utilization. pic.twitter.com/GqzfOpE7DK

Glassnode (@glassnode). June 23, 2023

The outlook for the future is not free of potential pitfalls. The Swissblock Signals, a variety of analytical tools, indicate that support for the $30,000 level may be a bit tenuous, and is not particularly robust.

If Bitcoin’s price falls below this level, then we may see a return to the $27,000 level of support.

This retest will be a crucial moment for the cryptocurrency. If Bitcoin fails to hold the $27,000 level of support, it may fall into a gap in the market characterized by low trading and on-chain volumes. This could lead to a period of bearishness for Bitcoin at least on the short-term.

It is also important to note that metrics on the blockchain, like the Bitcoin transfer volume monthly, show an upward trend. This indicates that the network’s fundamentals are improving.

A rise in on-chain activity can be a bullish signal, as it indicates that more users are using the network and could potentially create upward pressure on prices.

The overall sentiment on the market is the deciding factor.

Recent data shows a somber picture of the digital asset trading landscape as the crypto market nears the end of another busy week.

In a Tuesday note, Research firm K33 noted that major cryptos, such as ether ( ETH), Bitcoin ( BTC), binance coin ( BNB), all took a small dip. This suggests a general downturn in market conditions.

Gordon Grant, co-head of trading at Genesis Trading, expressed concern about the lack a macro catalyst, BTC and ETH have hindered a recovery of the market since the previous quarter.

Grant stated that ‘as implied volatility stares down cyclical bottoms and majors appear to have staved of another thwarted attack on trend support, similar sloppy pricing action could be in the offing for Friday expiry if correlative risks assets find their footing’.

Small cap altcoins, also known as the’small fry’ in the crypto pool, have suffered a greater loss. Investors are avoiding these more risky bets, according to evidence.

The dominance of stablecoins and blue-chip digital assets, USDT, and USDC now makes up an astounding 78.45%. This figure was last seen in February 2021. It suggests a reduced appetite for digital assets that are more risky, according to K33.

Bitcoin, the bellwether of the industry, has recovered some losses after last week’s 10% drop. Blockworks Research data show that BTC has been flat over the past seven days at 0.3% to $26,800.

Crypto firm Kaiko stated in a recent Research Note that the current climate is one of excitement, but it’s also a bit too quiet. Volumes are declining, which has increased bitcoin’s volatility intraday.

The research firm stated that ‘the ongoing turmoil in US Regional Banks and the highly-publicized debate about the US Debt Ceiling are negatively impacting risk sentiment’.

The crypto market is cooling off as more market-makers announce that they will be scaling down their bitcoin operations. This has caused a ripple of decreased liquidity.

Jane Street and Jump Crypto, two prominent market makers, announced last week that they would be reducing their US crypto exposure because of the regulatory uncertainty in the country.

Blockworks reported that this transition led to a redistribution in volumes between centralized exchanges and futures contracts traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This indicates investor’s concerns regarding the risks associated with centralized credits.

Charlie Morris is the founder and CIO at ByteTree asset management and believes that gold and Bitcoin will experience significant and long-lasting gains as a result of a weakening US dollar and increased sovereign risk.

Morris, in a article published by Kitco News on April 17, believes that the econometrics is clear and suggests that investors who own gold or Bitcoin will not have bad days. Morris stated in an interview on April 12 with Kitco News reporter Ernest Hoffman that he believes the market has begun a bull market, due to the weakening of the dollar.

Morris emphasized the unprecedented rise of gold prices, without Wall Street backing. This hasn’t been seen for the last 25 years. He warned investors about the rising sovereign risk, especially when U.S. bond yields exceed four percent.

Morris recalled the events of last October when the U.S. bond yield for the 10-year term rose to over four percent. This led to the resignations of both the UK Prime Minister as well as the Chancellor.

The attempts to implement economic policies that promote growth were not successful. In recent years, Credit Suisse, one of the world’s leading banks, has collapsed. He said that the U.S. response to the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank only increased the risk.

Morris believes that gold prices will rise due to the rising sovereign risk around the world. Morris considers recent Wall Street investments into gold as significant. Both central banks and Wall Street are buying gold at the same time, creating ideal conditions for a gold bull market.

Morris, in addition to gold and other assets, is also optimistic about Bitcoin. He attributes this optimism to sustained inflation, as well as poor returns from other assets. Morris is almost certain that Bitcoin’s low point has been reached for this cycle. He estimates a price of $40,000 in the next year. However, he believes that the six-digit, hundred-thousand-plus figures will only be attainable in the next cycle after the halving event.

Morris claims that the negative sentiment surrounding Bitcoin over the last 18 months is unfounded. It was blamed for other failures within the cryptosphere. He stressed the robustness and resilience of the asset.

Morris concludes that gold and Bitcoin will outperform each other in the medium-term and are complementary as investments. Morris believes now is a great time to buy inflation-protecting assets, while they are still underpriced.

Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange (Nasdaq : COIN), announced Wednesday that it received a Wells notice’ by the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. This notice’regards an unspecified portion our listed digital assets. Our staking service Coinbase Earn and Coinbase Prime and Coinbase Wallet, after a cursory examination.

Coinbase is described in a blog article:

The Wells notice today does not contain a lot of information that we can respond to. Although they claimed to have found potential violations of securities laws, the SEC staff provided little else.

“We asked the SEC to specifically identify assets on our platforms that they believed may be securities. They declined,” the exchange stated.

On Twitter, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that a Wells notice usually precedes enforcement actions. “Two years ago, the SEC reviewed our company in detail and approved Coinbase’s public listing. The executive explained that our S1 [filing] clearly described our asset listing process, and contained 57 references to staking.

Gary Gensler, Chairman of the SEC, has often encouraged crypto companies to register with securities regulators. Coinbase made this observation Wednesday:

We tried, but the SEC won’t allow crypto companies to ‘come into and register’.

The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency platform stated that it doesn’t list securities tokens or offer products that could be considered securities. Coinbase stated that it had repeatedly invited the SEC “to raise any questions about any assets on our platform,” and added that they had raised none.

According to the exchange, “We met with SEC more than thirty times in nine months, but it was us who were doing all the talking.”

The exchange noted that Coinbase had a rigorous process of analyzing and reviewing each digital asset before it was made available on its exchange. This process was shared with the SEC as part our public listing.

The bottom line is that Coinbase does NOT list securities, nor do we offer securities-related products to customers.

The SEC initiated an investigation into Kraken’s staking program in February. To settle with the securities regulator, the cryptocurrency exchange paid $30,000,000 and ended the program available to U.S. users.

“The cryptocurrency industry has collapsed,” the senator stated, noting that $1.46 trillion was lost in crypto market value by 2022, and that over 1,600 jobs have been eliminated by crypto firms. The lawmaker went on:

Last year saw crypto prices plummet, and platforms started collapsing, causing more losses for the rest of crypto ecosystem. Crypto firms left behind have had to stop customer withdrawals and freeze people’s money.

The senator from Ohio noted that crypto contagion didn’t infect the wider financial system. However, he said that he saw signs of what it could do if crypto was allowed to enter the banking system. He said: “This nightmare isn’t over yet… we are still learning about the full extent of what happened to the FTX collapse.”

The senator noted that “As these cryptocurrency firms filed for bankruptcy”, regulators and policymakers also learned how out of control some of those businesses were.

They were both over-leveraged, and undercapitalized. They did not have internal risk controls. They took customers’ money for granted. They used the money to fund their own personal ends in the case of FTX. They might never see the money again.

“These crypto disasters have exposed what many people already knew: digital assets – stablecoins and investment tokens- are speculative products run recklessly by companies that put Americans’ hard-earned dollars at risk. It is not surprising that this industry was designed to skirt the rules,” Senator Brown added.

Recent crypto meltdowns have shown that we need a comprehensive framework for regulating crypto products in order to protect consumers as well as our financial system.

The lawmaker pointed out that crypto can be covered by existing rules, and stated that: “Crypto isn’t unique… We can begin with these commonsense principle as we consider a regulatory framework that places consumers first while keeping our financial system safe.”

Senator Brown has been skeptical of cryptocurrency for a long time. He suggested in December 2013 that crypto should be banned. He acknowledged, however, that it would be difficult to ban crypto as it will move offshore.