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Despite being down from its recent $30,000+ high, bitcoin is on something of a winning streak when looking over a longer period. The cryptoasset has grown for four months in a row, generally considered a positive pattern in a bull run-up. 

Bitcoin’s rally has taken something of a new aspect in 2023. Unlike last year when the cryptoasset took losses alongside economic worries and general pullbacks in investment markets, bitcoin has become something of a rallying point for investors and seems to be living up to its ‘digital gold’ character at the moment. 

Last week it began the week around $27,000 and saw rallies to $29,500 over the course of the week. It did however pull back again at the weekend and is now around $27,700. It still has a long way to go before even thinking about a new all-time high (ATH) but it is showing price resilience where there was none last year. 

Ether saw a similar weekly cycle, beginning around $1,800 before rallying to $1,950. A weekend sell-off saw it range back down to around $1,800 where it trades this morning. 
 

HMRC quietly initiates DeFi consultation

The UK’s tax authority has quietly launched a consultation into DeFi and staking services looking at modifying the tax treatment of the sector. The consultation is seeking to better align the tax treatment of DeFi lending and staking while reducing the administrative “burden” on users.

More regulatory clarity should be welcome to the crypto community in the UK. We’re in something of an arms race to clarify rules between different jurisdictions. The EU is very much leading the way in this regard with MiCa, but the UK seems keen to catch up.

Ultimately regulation, done right, is essential to protecting market participants, both innovators, and users. While it is important that regulatory authorities don’t show heavy-handedness, it's also key that the sector takes an active role in the formation of new rules to create the most accommodative framework possible to enhance consumer protection and create a level playing field while providing clear and decisive guidance from regulators.
 

Franklin Templeton launches digital money market fund

The digital TradFi assets market is quickly becoming one of the most interesting growth areas for crypto in 2023. The Franklin OnChain Fund originally launched on the Stellar blockchain in 2021, recently announced the expanded availability on the Polygon blockchain.

The draw here is investors can now access what are ‘traditional’ financial instruments such as market funds but are able to acquire and hold the tokens for those assets in their own wallets. Franklin Templeton’s offering holds around $270 million of assets and will process ownership and transactions on the Polygon blockchain. 

Major financial institutions have been flirting with the technology for a little while now, but it would appear many are now taking the plunge to give the offering to investors. While each token will have its own investment case and assets that underpin them, the move to digitizing and putting financial services on the chain is definitely underway. 
 

Sotheby’s debuts NFT marketplace

Major auction house Sotheby’s has debuted its secondary NFT marketplace called ‘Sotheby’s Metaverse’. Collectors will be able to use the platform to buy, sell and exchange digital collectibles. 

While the firm is far from the first to offer such a service, it is perhaps the most storied and old-school. It will be interesting to see if the old-fashioned experience of the auctioneer is sustained in the quality of the service it offers to clients.

The name alone could be enough to attract valuable works of art, especially from artists who have yet to digitize valuable real-world art pieces. Of course, NFT technology extends well beyond the custody of digital artwork, with ownership use cases for an array of different assets that lack fungibility, from stocks to bonds and even property.

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