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The Q1 sales figures for Ethereum and Polygon-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on OpenSea are on track to register the lowest monthly volume of the year so far, according to data from Dune Analytics.

Ethereum-based NFT sales on the marketplace soared to a nine-month high of $643.61 million by the end of February. However, with four days left to end the first quarter of the year, OpenSea has logged $324.30 million in Ethereum-minted NFT sales in March, representing a 50% decline in sales volume from the February high.

Following a record-breaking NFT sales volume of $109.12 million in February, sales of Polygon-based NFTs on OpenSea have experienced a sharp decline this month. Over the past 26 days, only $2.5 million in sales volume have been recorded, indicating a staggering 97% drop in sales.

The steep decline in sales volume of Ethereum and Polygon-based NFTs on OpenSea was attributed to the drop in the count of NFTs sold so far this month.

Regarding Ethereum-minted NFTs on OpenSea, 715,925 NFTs have been sold so far. This represented a 16% decline from the 853,391 total NFTs sold in February and a 37% fall from the 1.13 million total Ethereum-based NFTs sold in January.

Regarding Polygon NFTs on OpenSea, sales have plummeted by 93% this month, with only 35,064 NFTs sold compared to the 565,964 NFTs sold last month, and a 98% decline from the 1,514,895 NFTs sold in January.

Data from DappRadar revealed a steep decline in key growth metrics for leading NFT marketplace OpenSea since the year began.

For example, the count of unique active wallets that trade on the marketplace has dropped by 98% in the last 90 days. Likewise, the transactions count on OpenSea has witnessed a 99% decline during the same period.

The decline in OpenSeas dominance is attributable to the launch of Blur, which has gained significant traction since it became operational in October 2022.

According to a recent report from Glassnode, Blurs market share experienced a notable surge following the airdrop of its token on 14 February.

Before the distribution of the BLUR token, the NFT marketplace and aggregator held 48% of the NFT transfer volume across the entire market. However, the airdrop led to a significant increase in Blurs NFT transfer volume, which soared to 78% at its peak.

During the last week, Blur accounted for a significant portion of the total NFT sales volume, representing 73.8% of the market share. In contrast, OpenSea held a smaller share of 17%.

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OpenSea sees a slump in Ethereum and Polygon NFT sales; Details inside - AMBCrypto News

Bitcoin (BTC) has continued to show signs of consolidation around the US$28,000 price point in a promising sign that the impressive gains netted during the recent bout of financial turmoil could prove sticky.

BTC/USDT gained close to 2% over the weekend after closing 3% lower on Friday. At the time of writing, the pair had fallen back0.7% to US$27,750.

The past few weeks have been pretty chaotic, not just for crypto but for the broader financial sector, with numerous banking collapses in the US and Credit Suisses takeover by rival UBS.

Interest rate hikes across the UK, EU and US have also sown uncertainty, but evidently things have started to calm down in the markets.

To that end, the safe-haven rally we have seen on physical gold and bitcoin should be expected to level out too.

A marked decline in long and short futures liquidations seems to attest to this point - on Sunday, combined liquidations totalled US$18mln compared to US$100mln-plus at the height of the turmoil.

Bitcoin might see some downward pricing pressure depending on the level of profit taking, though buying support around 27k per Binances order book could act as a bottleneck.

Tensions between Coinbase and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shouldnt be ignored either.

The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange received a Wells Notice from the regulator on Thursday last week, typically a sign of an impending enforcement action.

Bitcoin products are not likely to be impacted by any enforcement, but it could provide an added layer of uncertainty in the markets regardless.

Bitcoins risk-on rally levels out Source: currency.com

Ethereum (ETH) added around 1.3% over the weekend but has since ceded most of those gains this Monday morning. The ETH/USDT pair is currently trading at US$1,750.

Ripple (XRP) remains elevated above the rest of the top-20 altcoin set, and is now over 20% higher week on week.

The payment tokens stellar performance coincides with renewed hopes of a major win in the long-running SEC vs. Ripple Labs dispute over unregistered securities.

Ripple president Monica Long told CNBC last week that she is very hopeful about achieving a win; that simple statement was evidently enough to galvanise the XRP bulls.

Litecoin (LTC), which has a similar profile to XRP as a payment token, has also surged by over 10% in the past seven days.

Top overnight movers among the top-100 club include ssv.network (SSV), Rocket Pool (RPL) and Neo (NEO).

Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation added 0.3% to US$1.16tn overnight, while total value locked in the decentralised finance (Defi) space remained unchanged at US$49.1bn.

See the article here:

Bitcoin and Ethereum face profit taking and Coinbase headwinds - Proactive Investors USA

Amid all the excitement surrounding The Merge last year, the fortunes of Ethereum (ETH 1.34%) and Polygon (MATIC 0.93%) appeared to be inextricably linked. After all, Polygon was the most popular Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, so any future growth in the Ethereum ecosystem implied future growth in the Polygon ecosystem. But fast forward to 2023, and it looks like the paths of these two cryptocurrencies are starting to diverge.

While both cryptos are up about 50% for the year, it's their performance over the past 30 days that's the most troubling. During that time, Ethereum was up about 10%, while Polygon was down 17%. Is this a short-term mispricing in the marketplace or a sign for investors that Polygon's future growth prospects are coming under pressure?

On the surface, the growth story for Polygon remains in place. It's arguably still the most popular Layer 2 in the Ethereum ecosystem and has some of the best technology out there for making Ethereum run faster, better, and more efficiently.

Moreover, there are still plenty of top brands and companies utilizing Polygon for new Web3 initiatives.As a result, Polygon has a market capitalization of $9.8 billion, making it one of the top 10 cryptos in the world.

Image source: Getty Images.

However, look beneath the surface, and the picture gets a bit murkier because there's been a steep falloff in growth at Polygon since December.

For example, consider the number of new Polygon addresses being created on a daily basis. These are down 32% from mid-February levels, a warning sign that developers and users could be looking elsewhere when deciding to build on top of Ethereum. Even more troubling, Polygon recently said it was cutting of 20% of its team.

What's going on here? The problems at Polygon could be linked to the emergence of new competition.

Polygon isn't the only Layer 2 option that developers have, and it's starting to become very evident now. For example, Optimism (OP 2.57%) seemingly exploded out of nowhere this year to become a super-popular Layer 2 scaling solution. For the year, it's up more than 170%.

Optimism recently made headlines as the result of a high-profile partnership with crypto exchange operator Coinbase Global. If you look at key blockchain metrics such as total value locked (TVL), Optimism appears to be narrowing the gap with Polygon.

Moreover, there are other Layer 2 names out there that are generating buzz. Another top Layer 2 solution is Immutable X (IMX 3.91%), which is up more than 200% this year. It now has a market cap of over $1 billion, making it the No. 53 crypto in the world.

But the name that everyone is talking about now is Arbitrum, which is about to get its own crypto token soon.According to some traders, the price of Polygon could sink as much as 15% as soon as the new Arbitrum token starts trading.

Meanwhile, Ethereum has shown little-to-no impact from the recent spate of bank failures and bank runs and is now being mentioned as a potential safe haven for investors thinking about moving their money into crypto. According to Cathie Wood of Ark Invest, Ethereum has not "skipped a beat" during the recent market upheaval, and that should be very reassuring to investors.

Ultimately, the choice of whether to invest in Ethereum or Polygon comes down to a single question: Do you feel more comfortable investing in a Layer 1 or a Layer 2 blockchain? While there's a lot of exciting activity happening at the Layer 2 level, the field is getting so crowded now that investing in a Layer 1 looks a lot more appealing.

Finally, keep in mind track records. Ethereum has a proven track record dating back to 2015 and managed to pull off The Merge in 2022 amid one of the worst crypto meltdowns ever. If you're looking for a crypto to ride out the gathering financial storm, the clear choice now is Ethereum.

Dominic Basulto has positions in Ethereum and Polygon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Coinbase Global, Ethereum, Immutable X, and Polygon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Read more here:

Better Buy: Ethereum or Polygon? - The Motley Fool

Arbitrum, a layer-2 rollup on Ethereum, has hit an all-time high in daily transactions and unique wallets interacting with the network ahead of its airdrop.

Dune analytics show that close to 240,000 unique wallets interacted with Arbitrum on March 21, nearly twice its previous peak in February 2023.

On March 21 and March 22, the network hosted roughly 1.66 million and 1.56 million transactions, respectively.

Over those same two days, there were also more transactions on Arbitrum than on the Ethereum mainnet. Etherscan reports that Ethereum hosted just over 1 million transactions each day.

Its likely these metrics will continue to surge after users can begin claiming their airdropped tokens. There are more than 625,000 eligible addresses.

Number of daily active wallets interacting with the Arbitrum Network. Source: Dune

Arbitrum first announced the launch of its along with an airdrop of ARB governance tokens to early users and developers on March 16.

The airdrop is slated for 9 am EST today, with a live countdown appearing on Arbitrums site.

Following the airdrop announcement last week, the network also saw a massive spike in its DeFi liquidity. The total deposits on DeFi platforms on Arbitrum reached a new peak of nearly $2 billion, per DeFi Llama.

The layer-2 network is ranked fourth in DeFi liquidity after Ethereum, Binance Chain, and Tron.

The total value locked in DeFi applications on Arbitrum. Source: DefiLlama

The futures contract for the ARB token started trading on BitMEX on March 20. The contract last traded for $1.38, aligning with the popular ARB token market estimations.

The peak exchange price of ARB futures on BitMEX was $1.5.

Top crypto exchanges in Binance, Bybit, BitMEX, Kucoin, and many others will enable trading on the platforms right at launch time to benefit from the trading volumes that the token will bring.

Analysts expect the ARB token to rake in over $1 billion in trading volume on launch day.

Read this article:

Arbitrum Transaction Activity Outpaces Ethereum Ahead of ARB Airdrop - Decrypt

Bitcoin started the week trading around the $28,000 mark, as markets reacted to the news that Silicon Valley Bank was to be acquired. First Citizen Bank agreed to buy approximately $72 billion in SVB assets, at a discounted rate of $16.5 billion. Ethereum continued to trade under $1,800 on Monday.

Bitcoin (BTC) started the week trading marginally higher, with prices hovering near the $28,000 level.

Following a bottom at $27,678.15 on Sunday, BTC/USD moved to a high of $28,178.14 earlier in todays session.

The move saw bitcoin edge towards a recent resistance point at the $28,300 mark, which was last hit on Friday.

Overall, BTC has mostly consolidated on Monday, which comes as the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) collided with a ceiling at the 65.00 zone.

As of writing, the index is tracking at the 64.51 level, with the next visible point of support at the 62.00 mark.

Should bulls take price strength below this point, there is a strong possibility that BTC could move below $27,000.

Ethereum (ETH) largely consolidated on Monday, as prices moved away from a key price floor in todays session.

ETH/USD jumped to a peak of $1,797.88 earlier in the day, which comes less than 24 hours after falling to a low of $1,748.44.

Since hitting a seven-month high of $1,861 last Thursday, the worlds second largest cryptocurrency has mostly traded below $1,800.

Overall, ethereum is down 1.19% from the same point last week, with prices mostly moving between a floor of $1,730, and a ceiling at $1,820.

The 10-day (red) moving average has now begun to shift direction, with upwards momentum now fading.

Prices may continue to trend sideways heading into April, unless some unexpected news moves markets.

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Do you expect ethereum to finish the month below $1,800? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Eliman was previously a director of a London-based brokerage, whilst also an online trading educator. Currently, he commentates on various asset classes, including Crypto, Stocks and FX, whilst also a startup founder.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Below the Sky / Shutterstock.com

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Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC Consolidates Near ... - Bitcoin News