Binance Research - Monthly Market Insights

The crypto industry exhibited a healthy momentum in February, with both the DeFi and NFT space enjoying an upswing as investors regained their risk appetite for cryptocurrencies. The Ordinal Inscription on Bitcoin brought about waves of discussion among the community, dividing users on the utility of blockchain. In March, Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade made headlines, enabling ETH stakers to remove their staked ETH. The dominance of Ethereum in DeFi remains, but total value locked continues to increase across top blockchains like BNB Chain and Tron. Meanwhile, the Layer-2 narrative is in full swing, with leading optimistic roll ups, Optimism and Arbitrum, gaining significant traction. NFT trading volume increased due to the highly anticipated Blur airdrop, and the NFT lending landscape is gaining ground as holders seek ways to unlock liquidity of their assets. Several coins, driven by idiosyncratic factors specific to each chain, exhibited strong price actions in terms of returns. This report goes into more details on these trends.