Crypto Flipsider News – Bitcoin Hits 3 Weeks High, Ethereum Outperforms Bitcoin; Goldman Sachs Now Offers OTC Bitcoin Trade; FTX $100M Dave Investment, Gemini’s Ireland License, Huobi Launches Livestreaming Platform; Developers Propose New Cardano Update

Read in the Digest:

• Bitcoin hits 3 week high, Ethereum climbs $3K as excitement builds ahead of network upgrade.

• Goldman Sachs now offers OTC Bitcoin trade while Bridgewater Associates prepares for its crypto debut.

• FTX invests $100 million in Dave App, Gemini gets Ireland license, and Huobi launches livestreaming platform.

• Cardano increases Plutus script memory as it looks into new burn mechanisms.

Over the last seven days, Bitcoin has rallied by 11%, pushing the price of BTC above $43k for the first time since March 3rd. Bitcoin is now trading at $42,902 and continues to rally as the SEC considers greenlighting the first Bitcoin spot ETF.

While Bitcoin’s gains were impressive, it was outperformed by its biggest rival, Ethereum, which has seen its native Ether token gain an impressive 19.5% over the last seven days. Ethereum’s gains has seen the Ether rise above $3k for the first time in 2 weeks.

• Despite the crypto market being in the green, analysts have suggested that Bitcoin could experience a major pullback, which could send its price tumbling down to $32k.

Despite a rough start to the year, Bitcoin and Ethereum have continued to make significant developments.

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As crypto adoption rises, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has made history as it became the first major U.S. bank to complete an over-the-counter crypto trade. The trade was executed through Goldman Sachs’ trading partner Galaxy Digital. 

Goldman Sachs, which has dubbed Bitcoin a hedge against inflation, used Bitcoin to execute a non-deliverable option (NDO) – a type of instrument linked to Bitcoin’s price and paid out in cash. 

In a similarly impressive trend, Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, is preparing a crypto investment. According to sources familiar with the matter, Ray Dalio’s hedge fund is preparing to back an external vehicle.

The hedge fund, which has $150 billion in assets under management (AUM), will allegedly invest in a crypto firm without directly investing in crypto assets. The outlay would mark Bridgewater’s first involvement with cryptocurrency.

• Despite its growing adoption, investors such Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak still remain skeptical about cryptocurrencies.

Leading global cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which is on a mission of global expansion, announced a strategic partnership with ‘Dave (DAVE)’, and the strategic investment of $100 million into the publicly-traded banking app. 

As part of the partnership, FTX U.S. and Dave will explore how to introduce digital asset payments to Dave’s platform. FTX U.S. will also serve as Dave’s exclusive cryptocurrency partner.

Leading U.S. based crypto exchange Gemini has received an electronic money (e-money) license from Ireland’s Central Bank. Gemini, which applied for the license in 2020, can now operate services using electronic money in Ireland, joining the likes of Stripe, Meta, and Google.

Huobi Global, another of the world’s leading crypto exchanges, has announced the launch of an integrated live streaming platform, ‘Huobi Live‘. The service, which will be inaugurated on Monday, March 28th, will feature official shows hosted by Huobi experts.

• Over the last few weeks, crypto exchanges have come under immense pressure to restrict their services offered in Russia.

Cardano, one of the best performing crypto projects, continues to improve on its successes with new network upgrades, and the developers of Cardano, IOHK, recently announced a proposal to increase the memory of the network Plutus scripts.

The proposal will see the limit of memory units per block in the blockchain’s Plutus scripts increase from 56 million to 62 million. According to the proposal, by increasing the memory of the Plutus scripts, IOHK hopes to increase the network’s scalability.

Plutus enables users to leverage a programming environment, removing friction from the DeFi sector, and helping more users onboard to the Cardano ecosystem. The update, which came into effect on March 21st, will be monitored by IOHK for five days.

In another interesting development, the ‘Hydra’ team has hinted that Cardano could embrace token burning in the future. In a roadmap update, the Hydra team reportedly “inspected the options of token minting and burning within a Hydra Head.”

• Despite significant network improvements, Cardano, along with Solana and Polkadot, are perceived as underperforming crypto projects.