Despite the recent fall of California’s Silicon Valley Bank and UBS’ recent takeover of Credit Suisse, cryptocurrencies are rallying from the slump that hit the sector last year. But with interest rates still on the rise and a number of new legal issues raised by relevant government bodies, the crypto sector isn’t out of the woods just yet.

A Good First Quarter

The biggest and best-known crypto, Bitcoin, showed a strong finish at the end of the first quarter of this year. Bitcoin’s value was up by a substantial 69% as of March 31st. As of last week, Bitcoin’s value edged to around $28,000.

Bitcoin’s primary rival Ether, on the other hand, found its value up by around 51% at the end of Q1-2023. As of April 5th, the token’s value was pegged at around $1,900 per coin, the highest it has been since September 2022.

Even meme coin Dogecoin was up by 30% when trading for the week began on Monday, April 3rd. Industry watchers attributed this surge in the token’s value to the way Twitter chief executive Elon Musk switched Twitter’s iconic bluebird for Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu logo between April 3 and 6. 

While the meme coin forfeited some of its gains when Twitter returned to the blue bird on Thursday, April 6th, Musk has denied that the switching of logos was either a publicity stunt or a delayed April Fool’s prank.

It will be recalled that Musk has been a staunch supporter of Dogecoin for some time now, even openly declaring that it was better than even bitcoin as a means of payment.

What Happens Now?

With all the news regarding the improved market performance of cryptocurrencies, Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital, opines that the crypto sector is now well through the bear market seen last year. Indeed, even if anything happens to crypto exchange Binance (which is currently under fire from government regulators), the impact will be minimal.

Scaramucci’s firm faced numerous challenges in the past year because of the crypto bear market. Numerous customers made requests to withdraw their money, and the firm was forced to sell a 30% stake to Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-disgraced crypto exchange FTX. Indeed, as of the end of last year, SkyBridge’s total assets under management amounted to just $1.8 billion – 80% lower than the $9.2 billion it reported during its peak in 2015.

Scaramucci, nevertheless, remains confident in the investments his firm has made in the cryptocurrency sector.