March 2024 has been an incredible month, with bitcoin reaching its all-time high by hitting $73,400.

This is the first time in history that BTC has managed to reach its previous highs before the halving, which is about a month away.

In today's episode of Market Insight, we analyze the volatility, especially the upward trends, of the last few weeks of all assets integrated within the MetalSwap dApp and beyond.

Commodities Market Overview - General appreciation

Invesco Commodity ETF

After a predominantly sideways 2024, the reference ETF that tracks the performance of the world's most important commodities seems to be breaking out of this stagnation, which could signal a resurgence in strength for commodities.

This potential general appreciation, also influenced by American inflation data that has surprisingly exceeded analysts' expectations, could pose some complications for traders who buy and use commodities in their business.

In these cases, a hedging solution, like the one proposed by MetalSwap, helps reduce volatility on the various underlying assets and increase certainty on the commodities handled.

Analysis of Assets on MetalSwap's dApp

We are still in a general appreciation context in the crypto market, with all the major cryptos showing consistent appreciation in the past weeks.

Bitcoin - New All Time High!

Bitcoin price action

In the previous episode of this series, we observed bitcoin battling the $50,000 resistance.

Today, the situation has changed completely, with BTC breaking through that resistance and, in just a few days, reaching prices above $70,000, thus setting a new historical high for its price.

Specifically, on March 14th, bitcoin reached $73,750, while it is currently trading at around $68,000.

What's interesting is that the volatility and the positive effects of the halving are yet to come. 

In the next episode of the volatility overview, the halving will probably just have been completed, and things will likely be even more interesting.

Ether - Still Losing Against BTC

Ether price action vs bitcoin

Ether too has taken advantage of bitcoin's positive momentum to increase its prices, surpassing $4,000 in the second week of march.

However, as in the last episode, if we analyze the ETH vs. BTC chart, we see that the latter is still stronger in price action, also thanks to the continuous inflows from spot ETFs.

But if we want to go beyond simple price analysis, the Ethereum blockchain is nevertheless seeing massive usage as observed during the last bull run.

In recent weeks, we have seen the gwei consistently high, with peaks of over 120, which obviously leads to high transaction costs, both on the mainnet and on major layer 2s.

However, it's also worth noting that since March 13th, the Proto-Danksharding update has gone live, resulting in a significant reduction in transaction costs on layer 2s, thereby at least partially countering this general increase in gwei.

Gold - Another All-Time High

Gold price action

After the all-time high analyzed in the last episode, gold didn't stop there and on March 11th reached a new high at $2,194 per ounce.

This rise is attributed mainly to investors' uncertainty regarding the inflation of the US dollar and thus the future monetary policy decisions by the FED.

Currently, gold has a total market cap estimated at $14.5 trillion, with bitcoin being worth less than 10% of that based on current prices.

OP - One of the most volatile altcoins

OP price action

After reaching all-time highs in early March at $4.85 per single token, OP has seen a significant and rapid depreciation, bringing it to its current price of $3.5.

Once again, it's important to emphasize that this is one of the most volatile assets among the crypto mid-caps, which is one of the reasons why MetalSwap has integrated it into its hedging contracts.

Conclusion

We continue to see a general appreciation of all assets available on the MetalSwap dApp.

In these euphoric phases, volatility has also increased, and the risk of significant downturns, like the one seen on the OP asset, is very high.

Thanks to MetalSwap, this factor can be nullified, and both hedging and speculative strategies can be very interesting!

-The DeFi Foundation

✎ What is MetalSwap?

MetalSwap is a decentralized platform that allows Hedging Contract on financial markets with the aim of providing coverage to those who work with Digital Asset and an investment opportunity for those who contribute to increase the shared liquidity of the project. Allowing the protection for an increasing number of operators.

With Hedging Contract we enable hedge swap transactions through the use of Smart Contracts, AMM style.

It's great to Hedge the Risk of Price volatility with MetalSwap dApp !