Crypto wrap: Market continues to recover as total cap nears $1 trillion

business-standard.com:

The crypto market continued to recover in the past week, with Bitcoin and Ethereum rising 10 per cent to $20,943 and $1,550, respectively. The total market cap was up from $907 billion to $975 billion during the week. However, it touched $1 trillion on Thursday, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

There was a blip in the market on Thursday after the US agencies arrested the founder of Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Bitzlato.

"Bitcoin began the week by reaching a new high of $21,000, driven by investor optimism following a report on consumer prices that showed a decrease in inflation numbers for January. This surge also caused the total market value of cryptocurrencies to surpass $1 trillion for the first time since November. Bitcoin and Ethereum reached a two-month high during this period. However, prices dropped slightly on Thursday due to the US government's crackdown on the Bitzlato exchange and uncertainty surrounding Genesis," said Alankar Saxena, CTO and co-founder of crypto investment platform Mudrex.

Bitzlato's founder Anatoly Legkodymov was arrested in the US, allegedly on money laundering charges. The fraud reportedly involves $700 million.

"The other major scare for the markets has been the rumoured bankruptcy of Genesis, crypto's biggest lender and part of the behemoth, Digital Currency Group. The Genesis bankruptcy still can't be ruled out completely and we can expect market gyrations around related developments," said Parth Chaturvedi, crypto ecosystem lead at crypto exchange CoinSwitch.

The exchange has been in trouble since the collapse of FTX last year. It had huge sums invested in the exchange. However, the market rebounded on Friday mainly due to strong US consumer sentiment.

"Bitcoin regained