Bitcoin Network Transactions Reach All-time Highs, SUI Rises Ahead of Mainnet

BTC has rebounded 1.2% while stocks fell due to weakness in the banking sector. The S&P is down 1.68%, and the Nasdaq fell 1.45%. While JP Morgan’s takeover rescued First Republic, fear has spread to other regional banks. Shares of PacWest, Western Alliance, and Metropolitan Bank all had trading paused after falling over 20% this morning. Gold moved 1.4% higher while the VIX jumped to over 19, 20% higher than its intraday low of under 16 yesterday. The market is full of uncertainty, with trouble in the banking sector, the debt ceiling looming, and tomorrow’s Fed rate decision. Traders are pricing in an 82% chance the Fed hikes 25 bps, but investors will focus on whether the Fed will indicate any dovishness and finally pivot from tightening monetary policy. ETH is outperforming among the top 10 by market cap, rising 0.8% over the last day. Amid all the uncertainty, the number of transactions on the Bitcoin network has quietly reached all-time highs, likely due to surging interest in ordinal-based tokens built on the network using a new token standard (more below).