Regulatory crackdown, macro backdrop kill momentum

[ad_1]

After two weeks of bullish crypto momentum, Bitcoin’s (BTC-USD) winning streak came to an abrupt end this week. The legacy token was close to breaking its 10-year record of holding 15 consecutive days of green candles. However, the streak ended on January 18 after BTC fell below the support at $21,500.

At the time of writing, BTC was consolidating just below the $21,000 mark. BTC’s pullback from previous weekly highs can be attributed in part to the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to unveil international cryptocurrency enforcement action on January 18.

Another potential reason for lower Bitcoin prices was the US Producer Price Index (PPI) figure released this week. Contrary to expectations, the December 2022 Producer Price Index (PPI) came in at 6.2% year-on-year (YoY) from the previous figure of 7.3%, signaling a decline in inflation. As investors speculate that the U.S. Federal Reserve may slow its pace of interest rate hikes, BTC and other major cryptocurrencies saw a sharp selloff that dented weekly returns after the release of data. data.

Solana leads Altcoins on the rise

Most altcoins were able to maintain the upward momentum of previous weeks, with Solana (SOL) establishing itself as one of the main outperformers on the upside. After months of decline following the collapse of FTX, SOL posted an impressive gain of 31% over the past week, mainly due to increased developer activity, adoption of users and a series of promising announcements.

While several other altcoins also recorded double-digit returns, this week’s standout performances came from Decentraland (MANA), Frax Finance (FRX), and Aptos (APT). The value of Decentraland (MANA) jumped almost 67.37% this week after the metaverse platform revealed its partnership with the Australian Open (AO) tennis tournament.

Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH-USD)-based Frax Finance (FRX) project rocketed into the top 100 cryptos by capitalization this week after surging 65% in the past seven sessions. This positive price action on the value of FRX and other liquid staking cryptocurrencies can be connected to the upcoming Shanghai Ethereum upgrade, after which users can withdraw their currently staked Ethereum to validate the network activity.

The Aptos APT token has also been a strong performer after surging around 54% this week. The value of the native APT layer-1 blockchain token surged following news of the integration of Web3 infrastructure provider Moralis with Aptos. The new integration will add support for all existing API endpoints, create a dedicated Aptos API, and integrate real-time data streaming via webhooks from Aptos to Moralis.

Monero and ApeCoin face relentless resistance

Despite the overall positive performance seen across the crypto landscape over the past seven sessions, Monero (XMR) and ApeCoin (APE) have significantly underperformed their peers after both tokens lost almost 5% in value. The drop in Moneros hashrate is one of the main reasons for this week’s drop in value. XMR’s value briefly rallied last week, but began to consolidate soon after and is currently trading 70% below its previous all-time high.

ApeCoin (APE), on the other hand, continues to struggle with price corrections due to a steady decline in the number of daily active users on the network. Asset trading volume has steadily fallen in recent weeks amid weak investor sentiment due to the unexpected drop in its open interest rate (OI).

Australias New Stablecoin, $500M+ Web3 Fund

Amid growing interest in digitizing national currencies and central bank experimentation, the National Bank of Australia (NAB) is the latest central bank to unveil blockchain initiatives with a plan to launch a pegged stablecoin on AUD to the top of the Ethereum blockchain by mid-2023. The AUDN stablecoin aims to streamline cross-border transactions and carbon credit trading, helping users overcome the hassles associated with the SWIFT payment network.

Kicking into high gear for funding and investing trends, venture capital firm Hashkey Capital closed a $500 million investment round. These funds will be split between infrastructure, tools and applications designed to accelerate the mass adoption of blockchain, Web3 and other emerging technologies. Meanwhile, SkyBridge Capitals Anthony Scaramucci has invested in a new crypto company founded by former FTX US Chairman Brett Harrison.

Finally, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has implemented an international crypto enforcement action in coordination with France against the Hong Kong-based P2P crypto platform Bitzlato and its founder Anatoly Legkodymov for their involvement in unlicensed money transmissions worth over $700 million. . The news triggered an immediate selloff in the crypto ecosystem before a modest rebound from lows set in.

Disclosure

[ad_2]