This Week in Cryptocurrencies: Solana Rises Most, Bitcoin and Ethereum Rise

Market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum have kept up with each other to raise the global market capitalization of crypto back to over $1 trillion. Though we’re a long way from Bitcoin’s 2021 highs, cryptocurrency investors may feel we’ve returned to the exciting times of its bull run.

According to data from CoinGecko, Bitcoin (BTC) increased 16% over the last week and is currently trading at $22,963. That indicates a 64% loss from Bitcoin’s record-high price of more than $69,000 on November 10, 2021.

Ethereum (ETH) jumped 14% and is now worth $1,654. Due to the March Shanghai update, Ethereum reached 500,000 validators on Tuesday. Shanghai will allow validators to withdraw their investments and accrued prizes. Validators must deposit 32 ETH (about $50k) to start mining Ethereum using the network’s proof-stake consensus process.

In anticipation of a U.S. Department of Justice statement regarding a “major international cryptocurrency action,” the two market leaders had temporarily declined on Wednesday. Even the CEO of Binance, CZ, looked scared, but it turned out to be about a little-known Chinese exchange called Bitzlato, which resulted in numerous memes and much laughter on Twitter.

Solana (SOL) led the market recovery for the third week, rising more than any other top 20 coins. SOL has increased by 40% in the last seven days to take back $25.Solana survived the FTX total collapse in November previous year because FTX was one of the cryptocurrency’s first and largest sponsors. When the crisis began, Solana was trading near $36.

Talking about a European Union digital currency

Finally, in the political world, there weren’t many new steps taken this week toward regulating crypto anywhere in the world, but some attractive news came out of Brussels.

The European Central Bank is currently investigating the possibility of issuing its own crypto-digital Euro. The Eurogroup, which consists of finance ministers from EU member countries that use the Euro (€), meets regularly to discuss the issue.

Their most recent exchange indicated that any currency created by the digital Euro project must provide EU citizens with privacy and be consistent with “other policy objectives such as preventing money laundering, illicit financing, tax evasion, and ensuring sanctions compliance.”

On Tuesday, the European Parliament suspended voting on the bloc’s landmark Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill—a unified regulatory framework that, if passed, will apply to crypto across the Union. The election has been postponed for April.