Market Trend｜Charles Hoskinson Eyes Up CoinDesk Purchase; One of the Australian "Big Four" Banks Mints Stablecoin

2023-01-20, 05:48

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In another undeniably bullish week for the cryptocurrency market, green candlesticks have been illuminated across the top one hundred, granting gains of up to 25% marketwide. As this bullish momentum has caused a significant valuation incline marketwide, the market has also been greeted with positive news in regards to adoption.

It was revealed this week that National Australia Bank, one of the ‘Big Four’ banks in Australia, has unveiled their own stablecoin pegged to the Australian dollar ready for consumer and institutional use. Similarly, Charles Hoskinson CEO of what was voted the ‘most loved’ crypto project in the western world, Cardano, has revealed his plans to potentially buy the blockchain news powerhouse, CoinDesk. However, in perhaps more concerning news, the new CEO of FTX has stated their plans to potentially revive the exchange. Yet considering the infamy and controversies surrounding this exchange, this news appears to be shrouded with anxiety and fear as the fallout of the collapse ensues.
## The Latest News
### Charles Hoskinson Eyes Up CoinDesk Purchase
Charles Hoskinson, the acclaimed CEO of Cardano, revealed in a recent live stream that he is interested in acquiring the world's biggest crypto news outlet, Coindesk. Having complained about being unfairly treated by the media in days past, Hoskinson aspires to reintroduce ‘journalistic integrity’ to blockchain news sources, citing that his interest in media is ‘more broad’.

Previously, Hoskinson has suggested the possibility of turning news pieces into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), thus allowing readers to interact with and own a piece of news and history. Viewing this concept as ‘really cool’, Hoskinson believes turning this concept into reality could make it possible for each story to become its own living entity. Providing Hoskinson can one day acquire CoinDesk, this concept may very well become reality.

![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1674193557001.png)Charles Hoskinson (Image Courtesy of UToday)

### Current FTX CEO Says He Is ‘Exploring Rebooting The Exchange’
In light of the dissolution of 130 companies operating under the FTX umbrella, John Ray stepped in as CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange to initiate bankruptcy proceedings. However, it has emerged that Ray has reportedly set up a task force to attempt to recover the exchange and restart FTX. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Ray stated that everything was ‘on the table’ in regard to the future of the infamous exchange.

Having reported on January 17th that there had been $5.5 billion of liquid assets in its investigations, with a further $3 million owed to its top 50 creditors, the current financials for FTX appear dire – thus raising the question: is restarting the exchange worthwhile or even feasible?

![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1674193584002.png)
FTX Logo (Image Courtesy of FTX Facebook)

### One of the Australian "Big Four"Banks, NAB, Mints Stablecoin AUDN
National Australia Bank (NAB) is now set to become the second of Australia’s ‘Big Four’ banks to launch an Australian dollar-pegged  stablecoin (backed 1:1) on the Ethereum network. Having anticipated its launch sometime in mid-2023, NAB has stated that the purpose of this stablecoin is to streamline cross-border remittances and carbon credit trading.

The NAB’s Chief Innovation Officer (CIO), Howard Silby, has stated that the decision to mint the AUDN stablecoin is based on the bank’s belief that blockchain infrastructure has the potential to play a crucial role in the next major evolution of finance. ‘We believe there are elements of blockchain technology that will form part of the future of finance…from our point of view, we see [blockchain] has the potential to deliver instantaneous, transparent, inclusive, financial outcomes.’ stated Silby.
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1674193603004.png)
National Australia Bank Logo (Image Courtesy of Australia Chamber)
## Current Project Trends
Based on data provided by CoinMarketCap, a majority of the top-gaining projects across the past week have been focused on generating consistent value and volume through inflationary tokenomics structures. Many of these projects seek to resolve issues such as marketing and development dampening during bear markets. As a result, some of these projects have witnessed gains of over 100% across 24 hours, as well as gains of almost 500% across the past week.
## The Current BTC Trend
Continuing from the bullish momentum seen in the previous week, [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) has continued to climb upwards at an unprecedented rate, soaring above its 7-day SMA and remaining consistently above this level. Having entered the week at $18.81k, [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) sharply drew upwards on the 14th of January, pushing it well above the $20k threshold to an average of $20.8k. This average quickly shifted to a price floor throughout the middle of the week, with [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) testing the $21k region and occasionally falling short, thus pushing it back into the upper $20.9k region. However, on the 18th of January, [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) finally pushed through this resistance zone and landed on a weekly high of $21,501.44, before seeing a sharp dip back towards the price floor, from which it has recovered and is now trading just above the $21k threshold. Having moved well above what was anticipated to be the next key resistance zone, it can only be ascertained that [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) will now test $21.6k, with this acting as the new local resistance.

Following this positive movement, [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT)’s MVRV (market value to realised value) has significantly increased over the past week, finally moving above the 1 threshold. Entering the week at 0.954, BTC’s MVRV was the highest it has been in several weeks, with this then soaring to a high of 1.075 on the 17th. This signals that BTC has finally moved away from the ‘market bottom’ indication and towards a more stable territory, signalling that the asset has moved towards a more realistic and fully realised valuation.

![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1674193628005.png)
Weekly BTC MVRV Data (Data Courtesy of Blockchain.com)
## The State Of ETH Gas Fees
As of the 19th of January, 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 15th, totalling 108,296,985,205. The highest figure attained this week was on the 17th, totalling 108,533,581,326, demonstrating a similar total usage to that seen throughout the opening of 2023. Despite this small change in the volume of gas used, the current volume of gas used appears to be in line with current monthly trends.

As a result, Ethereum gas fee boundaries this week have taken a moderate increase from the week prior. The low gas boundaries were between 11-117 gwei, the average boundaries were between 11-339 gwei, and the high boundaries were between 12-407 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 Seaport 1.1 (with fees totalling $346,604.82 or 222.84 ETH),  Uniswap: Universal Router (with fees totalling $255,898.99 or 164.52 ETH),  and XEN Crypto: XENT Token (with fees totalling $81,210.65 or 140.03 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 $1.29 and $4.59, according to Etherscan.
## The Current Macro Situation
### Davos 2023 Sheds Light On The Current Crypto Market
Davos, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, allowed crypto industry leaders and regulators alike to shed light on the current macro situation in crypto across the past week. With a more subdued presence this year, the number of blockchain firms in attendance had waned in comparison to previous years, yet the likes of Casper Labs, the Filecoin Foundation, and Circle led a range of events and discussed issues such as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the FTX collapse. Joining the blockchain moguls were a number of United Nations (UN) representatives who confirmed the use of blockchains within UN branches (such as Advit Nath of the International Fund for Agricultural Development stating they use blockchain to monitor donated funds on a regional basis). This gradual integration of traditional regulators and blockchain moguls on such a vast forum is a testament to the growing collaboration between the two and could signal that the future of technology and finance at large will undeniably feature blockchain at its core.
## What Could Be Coming In The Week Ahead?
Considering the marketwide bullishness and the positive news regarding adoption and regulation, it is highly probable that the coming week will extend this momentum further. In doing so, various assets within the top one hundred will continue to gain momentum and regenerate valuation, thus further hauling cryptocurrencies out of the trenches and onto the battlefield as they fight their way to their former glory.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author: Gate.io Researcher: **Matthew Webster-Dowsing**
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all other cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>