Bitcoin (BTC) recently registered its most considerable hourly loss of over 5% for the first time since the FTX blowout. The sudden price dip caused a ripple effect that saw several altcoins, including Ethereum (ETH), XRP, and Shiba Inu (SHIB) record even greater declines.

Matrixport, a crypto exchange and lending platform, said it has been bullish on digital assets since mid-December, but signals from the U.S. economy are now forcing it to be more cautious.

Afternoon version

The market is trading in red today, as most of the significant coins see a decline. The cryptocurrency markets are abuzz with the news that Silvergate Capital, a bank with a focus on crypto, is experiencing a “crisis of confidence” that has caused it to delay its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Bitcoin's (BTC) early Friday slide, triggered by concerns about crypto-friendly bank Silvergate (SI), shook out bullish leverage from the futures market. Exchanges liquidated longs or bullish bitcoin futures worth over $62 million during the Asian hours, the highest amount since August, according to data from Glassnode. Short liquidations worth just over $500,000 were also observed. Liquidation happens when the market moves against a trader's bullish/bearish bet, leaving them with insufficient funds to keep the leveraged trade open. (Coindesk)

Marathon Digital (MARA), one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin miners, sold 650 bitcoins out of 683 bitcoins it mined in February.

BitCard® has announced a new relationship with Blackhawk Network (BHN), one of the world’s leaders in branded payment technology. Through this groundbreaking commercial relationship, BitCard® will offer its Bitcoin Gift Card at select U.S. retailers in BHN’s vast network of retailers and B2B channels.

Bitcoin may face increasing pressure to switch its consensus algorithm from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake.

Alex Gladstein, the Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, predicts that there will be more pressure for Bitcoin to change its consensus algorithm from proof of work to proof of stake. 

For the first time since May 5, 2019, the short-term holder realized price is above-realized price, a metric that CryptoSlate has followed for a while. In addition, the same event occurred in the 2015 bear market on Nov. 3, 2015, where STH realized price exceeded the realized price. Currently, STH realized price is at $19,892, while realized price is at $19,850; it is paramount that the Bitcoin price stays above $20,000 in the short term to increase the cost basis of the STH cohort. In the coming weeks, we could see STH realized price trying to get above LTH realized price — currently a difference of $3,000 — which could signal a potential end to the bear market.