The second week of March has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is the market for cryptocurrency-backed loans experienced its first big stress test this week as Bitcoin's (BTC) price plummeted 40% due to the global markets meltdown and crypto lenders demanded over $100 million in extra collateral from borrowers. In the last day, Genesis Capital called in an additional $100 million of collateral from its selective pool of about 40 clients, CEO Michael Moro said Friday. Celsius Network, making up a loan book of $400 to $600 million at any given time, has seen margin calls in the hundreds of millions, said CEO Alex Mashinsky. Also, Nexo's cofounder Antoni Trenchev said some customers have repaid loans, but it liquidated other clients' collateral. Also, BlockFi reported it made some margin calls and liquidations on its loan book.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
As the novel coronavirus pandemic worsens around the world, CoinDesk announced it is taking immediate action on Consensus 2020. The organizers of Consensus and Blockchain Week NYC said they changed Consensus 2020, one of the largest crypto events ever, from a gathering in New York City to a completely virtual experience in order to bring the community together to educate, grow, and create meaningful connections in a safe location. In addition, attendees from all over the globe can participate in the conference online for free. People who already purchased tickets will receive full refunds. CoinDesk said the speakers will discuss the most important topics with moderators in a rolling live TV-like experience. The journalism firm did add it expects Consensus to return in 2021 as a physical, in-person conference.
Mark Carney, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England (BoE), highlighted the potential risks to monetary governance if the British central bank were to debut a digital currency in the UK. In a foreword to a BoE working paper, Mark Carney wrote on Thursday: "While CBDC poses a number of opportunities, it could raise significant challenges for maintaining monetary and financial stability." Reuters reported Carney added a digital pound would have to be "very carefully designed" if the central bank did push ahead with a launch. In his past comments, Carney seemed relatively pro-crypto for a central banker, noting Bitcoin's rising value was no threat to financial stability. He also previously suggested a central bank digital currency could one day replace the US dollar (USD) as the global reserve currency.
Crypto prices cratered to $154 billion this week, following global markets in a wild plunge. For the majors, Tezos (XTZ), Binance Coin (BNB), and Ethereum (ETH) posted outsized losses, and all major coins took losses. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Maker (MKR), down a whopping 58%, Matic Network (MATIC), down 56%, and Ren (REN), down 51%. The biggest gainers were Multi-collateral DAI (DAI), up 4.7%, USD Coin (USDC), up 0.21%, and Binance USD (BUSD), up 0.12%. Next week traders will see if crypto can recover from one of its worst weeks in history.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.