• Contagion spread across DeFi after Curve is hit with a $116m exploit that has cascading effects across the sector.
• Bitcoin and Ether prices collapse to quarterly lows due to continued hawkishness from the Fed and fragile market dynamics.
• Grayscale win court appeal against SEC on their spot ETF approval, momentarily pushing prices back up 8% before retracing as excitement wanes.

• XRP declared not a security when sold programmatically to the public 

• Increasing bifurcation of the market for alts and majors 

• Pick-up in futures and basis trade interest for Bitcoin. 

• The SEC takes further legal action against Coinbase, Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao. 
• Blackrock files for a spot Bitcoin ETF, shifting sentiment and momentum to close out the month at a 6-month high for the price of Bitcoin. 
• Volatility returns to the market leading to an uptick in volume for BTC futures and options on the CME. 

• Macro headwinds batter derivatives volatility across risk assets including crypto
• The evolving regulatory landscape in the US pushes big exchanges offshore and prominent market makers to halt trading in the region
• Spot trading volumes hit lowest levels since 2020, while transactions onchain hit new heights.

The Fusion Digital Assets marketplace opened last week offering trading in bitcoin and ether versus the U.S. dollar.

• Traditional financial firms building digital-asset services
• Fidelity Digital Assets providing trade settlement and custody

By Anna Irrera

QUICK TAKE

• Crypto markets have a lot to learn from traditional finance, according to Duncan Trenholme, global co-head of digital assets at TP ICAP, the world’s biggest interdealer broker.
• Blockchain technology has the most potential to disrupt the markets for bonds and carbon credits, he said in an interview. 
• Yet to really take off, crypto products need to offer a better experience than the status quo, he said. 

As the interdealer broker gears up to launch crypto exchange Fusion this year, FN speaks to the men behind it

It traces its history back to 1784 and Alexander Hamilton. But these days, even venerable Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is forging ahead in the world of crypto.

Despite all that’s gone wrong in cryptoland, with trillions in losses, gruesome bankruptcies, the arrest of Sam Bankman- Fried — the world’s largest custodian bank and other financial giants are hoping to expand — not shrink. 

Another year under the belt for the TP ICAP Digital Assets team and whilst cryptoassets are no stranger to volatility, looking back on last years round up really puts into perspective how significant of a shift the market underwent in 2022. Whilst this year has been associated with a significant fall off in cryptoasset prices across the board and major blow-ups of tokens, hedge funds and exchanges. It has also allowed room for development, maturity and some much needed reflection upon the right way to approach this new asset class for both investors and regulators alike.