Bitcoin's dominance of the cryptocurrency market has reached a three-year high, driven by strong investor appetite for the newly launched spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and a period of weakness for altcoins.

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), Germany's largest state-backed lender, announced a partnership with Austrian cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda to offer cryptocurrency custody services.

Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is stepping into the realm of Ethereum scaling solutions with the mainnet launch of its layer-2 network, X Layer, providing users with lower fees and interoperability when interacting with decentralized applications.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Bitcoin’s Dominance Soars to Three-Year High
• German Banking Giant LBBW to Offer Crypto Custody Services
• OKX Launches Ethereum Layer-2 Scaling Solution X Layer
• Spot Trading Volumes Surge in Hong Kong

Bitcoin’s Dominance Soars to Three-Year High

Bitcoin's dominance of the cryptocurrency market has reached a three-year high, driven by strong investor appetite for the newly launched spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and a period of weakness for altcoins.

The flagship cryptocurrency accounted for nearly 55% of the $2.4 trillion cryptocurrency market at the end of last week, representing a return to levels last seen in April 2021. Ether, Tether’s USDT, Binance Coin (BNB), and Solana round out the top five by market capitalization.

Bitcoin’s growing dominance comes after the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States from major asset managers including BlackRock and Fidelity, which have amassed about $56 billion in assets so far, marking one of the most successful debuts ever for a fund category.

These ETFs’ inflows helped the price of Bitcoin move to a new all-time high above the $73,000 mark before correcting more than 6% since then, while a gauge of altcoins lost more than 30% of its value during the same period.

German Banking Giant LBBW to Offer Crypto Custody Services

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), Germany's largest state-backed lender, announced a partnership with Austrian cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda to offer cryptocurrency custody services.

The collaboration will leverage an "Investment-as-a-Service" infrastructure, allowing LBBW to provide its corporate clients with a way to “store and procure cryptocurrencies,” including Bitcoin and Ether.

Stefanie Münz, member of the LBBW board of directors responsible for finance, strategy, and options, noted that the offering positions the lender “with a clear added value” for its corporate clients. The cryptocurrency custody service is set to be launched in the latter half of 2024.

OKX Launches Ethereum Layer-2 Scaling Solution X Layer

Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is stepping into the realm of Ethereum scaling solutions with the mainnet launch of its layer-2 network, X Layer, providing users with lower fees and interoperability when interacting with decentralized applications.

Built using Polygon's Chain Development Kit (CDK), X Layer leverages zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) for enhanced security and scalability, allowing for the verification of transactions without revealing all the underlying data, resulting in faster and more cost-effective interactions with decentralized applications (dApps).

X Layer is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to seamlessly deploy or migrate existing Ethereum-based dApps without extensive code modifications.

The project has already garnered interest, with over 50 Web3 dApps launching on the X Layer testnet since its November 2023 debut. The Layer-2 network allows OKX users to transfer, deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies on the exchanges and access nearly 200 decentralized applications. Its native token, used to pay for gas fees on the network, is OKX’s OKB.

Spot Trading Volumes Surge in Hong Kong

Spot trading volumes on Hong Kong-based centralized exchanges like Hashkey and OSL have spiked recently, with approximately $260 million traded since the weekend in anticipation of upcoming spot ETF launches in the region.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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