Here's Why Bitcoin's Going

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and there's a lot of things cooking.

⭐️Today's selection:

• ⬆️Bitcoin Boost
• 👋Meta Steps Back From NFTs
• 😎Cool Facts Tuesday
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

BITCOIN BOOST

Yeah, Bitcoin's showing signs of strength. What's up?

Yesterday, during a speech, Biden announced full protection for depositors of the affected banks. He added that the regulators will resume following strict bank rules and inspections.

Investors saw this as a soft 🕊"dovish"🕊 reversal.

But hold on tight because today's US data is giving us a new twist.

US Data got announced that February's CPI (consumer price index) was 6%, in line with expectations, and down from the previous value of 6.40%.

This marks the eighth consecutive month of decline, reaching a new low of inflation since September 2021.

The weakening of inflation will allow the central bank to take a break from raising rates at the upcoming meeting on March 22.

Some are even suggesting that Fed may lower rates instead! It's no surprise that the markets are hopeful once again, and this optimism is reflected in the charts.

TL;DR: February's CPI was 6%, the lowest since September'21. This sparked hope and optimism in the market. This can be seen in crypto prices going up.

META SAYS "FAREWELL" TO NFTs

Big names have some big news. It looks like the social media giants (precisely, Instagram and Facebook) are taking a step back from the Web3 world.

Last year, from May to November, Meta (the company behind Facebook and Instagram) tested out NFT features on both platforms.

However, the features were pretty basic and failed to gain significant traction.

Most NFT enthusiasts opted not to use the features, and Instagram users were hesitant to embrace NFTs following several scam promos.

As a result, Meta has announced the curtailment of their NFT program, and experts suggest that this is due to the company's lack of understanding of Web3 culture.

While Meta will continue to support the authors of art tokens, they will now focus on other technologies such as Reels and payment optimization using the Meta Pay service.

But hey, don't fall into despair! This step back isn't gonna last forever.

Twitter, for example, has subtly embraced Web3 by introducing NFT PFPs, built-in communities, and Twitter spaces.

These features foster daily active users and community building, and who knows, maybe Meta will copy a page from Twitter's book.

The good news is that Meta still has the technology it has built, and the first attempt was a necessary learning exercise for the company to understand the differences between tech adoption in Web2 and Web3.

But wait, could this actually mean the end of NFTs?

Despite Facebook and Instagram taking a step back, the NFT market is showing signs of life in 2023. Thanks to marketplace competition, the Ethereum NFT marketplace is growing, and even big brands like Starbucks are releasing successful NFT collections that sell out in minutes.

We made the first mention of the rise of Bitcoin NFTs on February 9th, when there were only 47,000 of them.

Today, just a few weeks later, that number has grown tenfold and is approaching half a million. 

As the market continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how these trends develop and what new innovations emerge.

TL;DR: Meta is taking a step back from being involved in developing new NFT features. It's Facebook and Instagram that are about to go on hiatus concerning their relationship with the NFTs' integration.

COOL FACTS TUESDAY

Exciting news in the world of decentralized exchanges - due to the USDC situation, transaction volumes have soared over the weekend.

In fact, the Curve platform hit an impressive all-time high of nearly $8 billion in trading volume (over the last 24 hours), Uniswap also experienced a surge at $3.45 billion.

According to the data from DefiLlama, the total volume on decentralized exchanges on March 11th hit an incredible high of $15 billion, marking the highest point since May 2022.

In addition to that, here's something else.

Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle (issuer of USDC), has declared that USDC is the most secure digital dollar available on the internet.

Just yesterday, he announced that they managed to gain access to the $3.3 billion held at Silicon Valley Bank and withdrew almost all of it, which is certainly impressive.

However, do you think that this means there won't be any more issues with USDC?

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• Blockchain Security Firm Spot Vulnerability Placing over 280 Blockchains at Risk. This puts over $25 billion worth of crypto funds at the mercy of hackers.
• Gemini Claims It didn't Hold Customer or GUSD Funds at the Signature Bank. It's all FUD.
• Coinbase Implements Ban On BUSD Trading Across All of Its Platforms. Coinbase stated that BUSD no longer met its "listing standards."