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Bitcoin has hit a five-month high, returning to price levels last seen in August 2022 as the cryptoasset market’s good run of 2023 continues. 

Last week, bitcoin began the week trading around $22,500 and rose uniformly across the week, peaking over $23,500 at the weekend on the eToro platform. It is currently trading at around $23,400. 

Ether meanwhile had a more mixed week last week, with the price starting the week around $1,625 before plunging below $1,525 midweek. It recovered those losses in volatile few days however and is now trading around $1,610. 
 

Goldman Sachs bullish on Bitcoin

One of the world’s largest investment banks, Goldman Sachs, has published a positive note on bitcoin, ranking it as one of the best-performing assets of 2023 so far. 

The market performance sheet, published on Twitter, shows bitcoin outperforming all other major asset classes such as gold, real estate, emerging markets, and others. Goldman Sachs for its part hasn’t said whether it is increasing its exposure to the cryptoasset, however. 

Bitcoin has performed extremely well so far in 2023, rising nearly 43% since 1 January on the eToro platform. From its lowest point in the past year - $15,523 - reached on 9 November, it's up just over 50%. 

So what’s causing the outperformance relative to other asset classes? It’s hard to say, and we’re far from definitely in a totally new bull market. But with inflation and interest rate expectations now turning, most asset classes have halted the declines witnessed in 2022 as investors begin to think “where next” for their portfolios beyond the 2022 rate hike crash.  
 

Ethereum on-chain activity sending positive signals

Amid high-profile ether price rises of 2023, Ethereum is sending other signals that the network is in rude health according to a report from Beincrypto. Metrics such as the number of addresses on the network have hit record highs, while the number of daily traded tokens have steadily increased back to levels last seen in July 2021. 

So where next for ether? Last year the much anticipated Merge went ahead without major issues, but with the market, in an especially volatile phase, the benefits of the network update were not clear to see in the price of ETH. But in 2023 that has begun to change, with essential metrics such as the token turning deflationary now beginning to flash. 

According to Ultra Sound Money, ether supply growth is currently deflationary, with the number of tokens in circulation slowly diminishing. This is supportive of price especially when the aforementioned usage statistics are all ticking upward. In short, fewer tokens are doing more of the work on the network, and this is driving demand (and therefore the price) higher. 
 

Amazon launching digital assets services, NFTs

eCommerce giant Amazon could be about to launch its own digital assets enterprise, including NFT initiatives, according to a report in Blockworks. Per the report, Amazon’s efforts could include layer-1 blockchains, blockchain-based gaming, digital asset exchanges, and NFT applications. 

While Amazon isn’t late to the party per se, these developments have been trailblazed in the past two years by the crypto market. But the digital retail giant could be well-placed to capitalize on ideas already in play that have suffered during a year of volatile markets which have hampered development efforts.

A business such as Amazon has the resources to move into an area it sees future profitability. People commonly associate the firm with its online shopping, but one of the most lucrative parts of its business is its web hosting platform Amazon Web Services (AWS). From this perspective, moving into the Web3 space makes total sense, and will enable the firm to explore new areas and keep skin in the game as it develops in the next few years.

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