Im exklusiven Interview mit Cointelegraph erklärt Bybit-Gründer Ben Zhou, weshalb er weiterhin von Bitcoin überzeugt ist und wie er das Debakel rund um Terra (LUNA) bewertet.
Highlights June 16: Crypto market rebounds after Fed rate hike
Most cryptocurrencies rebounded after the Federal Reserve finally announced its rate hike, the biggest in almost three decades. The crypto market was in the green this morning, with the majority of top 10 cryptos registering gains.
Top cryptos
Bitcoin was up around 4% at time of writing, trading above $22,000. Ethereum climbed around 9%, XRP was up around 9%, and Cardano and Polkadot were around 11% higher.
Solana has done well in the past 24 hours as investors bought the dip. It registered gains of around 18%.
Cryptos outside the top 10 were doing well too. Tron’s TRX is one of the biggest winners with 19%. Avalanche and FTX Token are up around 10 resp. 11%.
Top movers
Outside the top 20, the tendency was similar, with most coins adding 5-9% to their value. Notable standouts include Helium with 15%, Elrond with 21%, ApeCoin 17%, Stacks 12%, and 1inch Network 13%.
Elrond’s price is rising on new that the Romanian ICI, a National Institute for Research and Development in Computer Science, will use its token to create a decentralized domain name service and an institutional NFT marketplace.
On the losing side, XDC Network is down 5%. UNUS SED LEO was also not impacted by the rate hike news positively, with losses of just under 1%.
Trending
The biggest winner today is ELEF WORLD, an NFT game that allows players to earn rewards for providing liquidity. These can be exchanged for the ELEF token anytime. The token is up 1,410%.
The post Highlights June 16: Crypto market rebounds after Fed rate hike appeared first on CoinJournal.
Here is why SAND is up by more than 10% so far today
The cryptocurrency market has performed well in the last 24 hours after a poor start to the week.
The cryptocurrency market has performed well over the past 24 hours. The market has added more than 5% to its value so far today, with the total market cap now above the $900 billion mark once again.
Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, is up by nearly 5% today and currently trades above $21k per coin. Ether is also trading above $1,100 per coin after rallying by over 9% in the last 24 hours.
SAND, the native token of The Sandbox ecosystem, has also been performing excellently in the last few hours.
SAND has added more than 10% to its value over the past 24 hours as the broader cryptocurrency market embarks on a slow recovery.
The Sandbox’s ongoing positive performance can be attributed to its partnership with Lionsgate. The Sandbox announced its partnership with Lionsgate, a global content leader, and its partner Millennium Media, in a Medium post on Wednesday.
The partnership will see the entities develop “Action City”, a dedicated LAND that will serve as a thrilling entertainment destination featuring voxelized characters and items.
Key levels to watch
The SAND/USD 4-hour chart is currently bearish despite The Sandbox performing well in the last 24 hours. The bearish trend in the past couple of days negatively affected SAND’s broader performance.
The MACD line remains below the neutral zone but has been moving towards the positive region thanks to the ongoing rally. The 14-day RSI of 44 shows that SAND is no longer in the oversold region.
At press time, SAND is trading at $0.864 per coin. If the rally continues, SAND could surge past the first major resistance level of $1.02 before the end of the day.
However, the second major resistance level at $1.13 should provide a tougher challenge for the bulls to overcome in the near term.
If the bears regain control of the market, SAND could decline below the $0.80 mark for the second time this week.
The post Here is why SAND is up by more than 10% so far today appeared first on CoinJournal.
Watchmaker TAG Heuer launches a smartwatch showcasing users’ NFT collections
TAG Heuer, a Swiss luxury watchmaker company, has ventured into the growing NFTs and crypto space despite the ongoing crypto market turmoil. It has launched a smartwatch with features that enable users to showcase their NFTs collections.
According to the company announcement, the new feature (TAG Heuer’s Connected Calibre E4) is more than a smartwatch since it has a verified proof of ownership that can turn into an NFT viewer for users to display their digital asset collection.
The announcement read:
“TAG Heuer presents a new way to bring these valuable and highly collectible artworks into the real world. For the first time, they can be worn on your wrist with verified proof of ownership. The TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E4 allows you to display NFT artworks on your watch by connecting your crypto wallet to guarantee authenticity.”
In addition, the company claimed that the move is “part of TAG Heuer’s expanding digital ecosystem of apps and watch faces, created by a team of in-house developers and bearing the brand’s trademark design signatures.”
Features of the new TAG Heuer smartwatch
The main function of the new feature is to enable multiple NFT transfers with the help of a paired smartphone to a new lens watch face that can display NFTs artwork and time simultaneously in three unique ways. Besides that, it also has “a conceptual design with a triangle and a circle representing hours and minutes.”
Additionally, the feature also connects to various crypto wallets like Ledger Live or Metamask securely as well as enables users to select the type of NFTs they want to showcase on their watch. No worry about the image size since the feature offers an image resizing option to fit on the screen.
Lastly, it’s important to note that this move is just one of the steps that the company is taking toward venturing into Web3 and integrating NFTs and blockchain technology.
The post Watchmaker TAG Heuer launches a smartwatch showcasing users’ NFT collections appeared first on CoinJournal.
Bitcoin and the $20k mark: Then Vs Now
As the financial world battles inflation and rising geopolitical uncertainties, bearish sentiment has flooded the Bitcoin market.
Bitcoin has fallen by 27% in the last five days with the S&P 500 index (SPX) in comparison declining by only 8% in the last three days. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency is currently trading at $22734, marking a 70% downfall from its all-time high of $69000 last November.
Bitcoin first hit the $20k milestone on December 16 2020 following a massive rally in crypto markets. While the Wall Street interest in cryptocurrency was widely credited for this gain, Bitcoin has since managed, for the most part, to stay afloat the $30k support level until recently.
As the currency now falls dangerously close to the $20k psychological price level, this article contrasts the contexts in which Bitcoin’s position can be understood at the $20k price point, 18 months apart.
Institutional eagerness vs Institutional pull out
Bitcoin’s record performance during the 2020 rally heavily relied on institutional investments as opposed to its traditional reliance on retail speculation. Massive names in the financial world including Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller, and large tech companies like Square and MicroStrategy added Bitcoin to their portfolio. This change in investor demographic pushed Bitcoin’s price over the $20k level.
As price indicators continue to predict a downtrend, one of the most important signals recently has been institutional investors pulling out their money from the Bitcoin market even before the crash. Between 6 June and 10 June, about $56.8 million was removed by institutions from the Bitcoin market. Ethereum observed outflows worth $40.7 million.
Pandemic and FOMO Vs Layoffs and Liquidity Crisis
The 2020 rally witnessed a domino effect of asset managers offering crypto in their portfolios both in the interest of diversification and as a hedge against inflation. With the pandemic highlighting that the era of virtual currencies is here to stay, a Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) was seen among traditional finance investors who now emphasised Bitcoin’s limited supply.
U.K. asset manager Ruffer which managed around $20 billion in 2020 announced that it was allocating 2.5% of its portfolio to Bitcoin during the rally. The move was described by the company as an insurance policy against a continuing devaluation of the world’s major currencies:
“Bitcoin diversifies the company’s (much larger) investments in gold and inflation-linked bonds, and acts as a hedge to some of the monetary and market risks that we see.”
This institutional interest has taken a massive downturn recently amid crypto industry stalwarts like Coinbase laying off 18% of its workforce citing economic reasons. Crypto lending platform Celsius paused all withdrawals earlier this week due to what it called “extreme market conditions”.
Experts have viewed this development as a sign of an impending liquidity and insolvency crisis in many parts of the crypto market, further harming Bitcoin’s price. The currency’s volatility is being heavily discussed across investor circles.
Ruffer announced last week that it was exiting its high-profile Bitcoin bet, calling the current situation a “speculative frenzy”.
Duncan MacInnes, an investment director at the company explained the decision by saying that “It just looked like this would be a time when it would be nicer to be watching from the sidelines than from in the trenches.”
Will BTC drop to $20k?
The big question to be asked is if Bitcoin will fall enough in the next few days to hit the $20k price level and what such a development would mean for investors in particular and the crypto world in general.
Experts like Swan Bitcoin Analyst Sam Callahan believe that while a fall in Bitcoin’s price up to $13k is possible, its now-sophisticated investor base will ensure that the downturn is temporary. Explaining how such a scenario might pan out, Callahan said:
“If Bitcoin dropped below $20,000, I think we would see substantial buying pressure at those discounted price levels because Bitcoin’s long-term value proposition remains intact.”
However, this optimist isn’t shared by all. Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX explained that as Bitcoin falls below the $20k price level, a liquidity cascade could ensue leading to forced liquidation and additional downward pressure on the market.
In a Twitter thread, the expert said that a massive sell pressure can be expected in this condition, adding that crypto traders might as well shut down their computers as their charts will be useless for a while.
The post Bitcoin and the $20k mark: Then Vs Now appeared first on CoinJournal.