Kategorie: Crypto Markets

The crypto market was in the red this morning, with the majority of top 10 cryptos registering losses. 

Top cryptos

Bitcoin was down around 5% at time of writing, trading below $30,000. Ethereum and XRP were around 6% lower, Cardano registered losses of around 7%, and Solana was down around 14% after yet another outage.

Cryptos outside the top 10 are likewise in the red. Polkadot has shed 7% of its value and Avalanche is down around 9%. 

Top movers

Outside the top 20, the tendency was similar, with most coins losing 5-9% of their value. The only gainers are Waves, up around 13%, and Golem (GLM), up 38%. Golem broke the top 100 today after Bitpanda listed it. It’s currently at #96.   

GLM is the token of a decentralized computation network, which claims to provide a new way of delivering redundant computing power to recipients on demand. 

The biggest losers of the day are Compound, Arweave, and Kusama, each down 12%.  

Trending

As Solana plummets, the top gainer is Sweet SOL (SSOL), a multilayer hyper-deflationary token that enables holders to generate passive income. They take advantage of an automated mining protocol to receive funds in their wallet. 

SSOL is up 2,522% today. The platform plans to develop a multilayered blockchain on top of Solana and Binance Smart Chain.  

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Axie Infinity’s native token, AXS, has rallied by about 7.2% over the past week and yesterday it jumped by over 19% making it one of the best performers in the top 100 crypto assets.

At the time of writing, AXS was trading at $22.70, after pulling back from yesterday’s high of $27.82. 

Before delving into why the price of Axie Infinity native token AXS has been rising over the past week, it is important to first explain what Axie Infinity is.

What is Axie Infinity?

Axie Infinity is a popular play-to-earn blockchain-based game where players buy NFTs of Pokémon-like monsters to battle each other. 

While playing, players get a chance of earning another token called the Smooth Love Portion (SLP), and they can trade them for other cryptocurrencies or exchange them for cash.

Why AXS price has been rising

The Builders Program has been the main newsmaker within the Axie Infinity ecosystem.

Axie Infinity (AXS) price surge especially yesterday was mainly due to an announcement by Sky Mavis, Axie Infinity development group. The group announced that the first batch of 12 projects has been accepted by its Builders Program which intends to introduce user-generated content to the Axie ecosystem.

Your Axie NFTs are a ticket to an infinite realm of experiences. Today, we take a major step towards making this a tangible reality.

We’re ecstatic to present the first 12 projects that we’ve accepted into the Axie Builders Program!https://t.co/iy2x9sXcR9

— Axie Infinity🦇🔊 (@AxieInfinity) May 31, 2022

Axie Infinity Builders Program acts as a laboratory for community-created experiences and games with the goal of rewarding developers who helps in creating gaming tools and experiences on its platform.

The chosen teams will get a minimum of $10,000 grants in AXS to facilitate their projects and also get full access to tech integrations like Ronin wallet transactions and Ronin Single-Sign-On, product teams, game design, and engineering.

In a statement Sky Mavis said:

“The Builders Program is one of many initiatives that will unlock more enjoyment and utility for your Axies, in this case from community built experiences.”

The company noted that it will be partnering with other major game studios to create experiences for Ronin and Axie Infinity.

In addition, Sky Mavis said:

“We will be accepting many more teams over time (and maybe even quite soon) and everyone should continue to build.”

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DeFi exposure related to Terra’s stablecoin UST saw CoinShares, Europe’s largest digital asset firm with billions of assets under management, lose more than $21 million, the firm’s CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti revealed on Tuesday.

The CoinShares chief’s comment on the loss was part of his investor relations message to the company’s clients published in the 2021 Financial Annual Report.

While the loss will be reflected in the company’s Q2 earnings report, Mognetti said he would wait until then or the earnings call scheduled for August to give an update.

CoinShares had no direct exposure to UST 

According to the CoinShares co-founder, although the firm’s trading activities mean it was not directly exposed to LUNA’s price collapse, it is active in the DeFi space. Thus, when the implosion occurred, it had been exposed to UST via a book it was running.

“Following the events of the last few weeks, we have booked an exceptional loss from our DeFi activities of £17m on liquidating our holding in UST,” he explained.

That’s about $21.4 million lost, but the CoinShares CEO is upbeat that it won’t impact its activities going forward.

“While this obviously impacts on the Group’s performance for Q2, this loss has not had any impact on any of our additional Capital Markets activities, nor does it in any way impact upon the hedging and collateralisation of any of the Groups ETPs.”

It’s a ‘battle scar’

Despite the loss, CoinShares looks at it (LUNA’s collapse and the loss) as a humbling experience and “battle scar” that team has learnt from and won’t forget. 

The events also gives them the morale focus on providing “the premier investment technology for the digital asset sector.”

Mognetti  also says  that the company had an “exceptional” 2021, with  fiscal year income up more than 500% year-on-year to over  £113 million ($142.4 million). However, shareholders might not see the value due to the global macro environment and the company stock’s lack of liquidity.

Terra’s collapse has resulted in the creation of a forked chain LUNA 2.0. The old chain is called Luna Classic (LUNC).

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Soros Fund Management CEO and CIO Dawn Fitzpatrick says crypto is going nowhere given its already mainstream. 

The Soros’ executive made the comments during an interview with Bloomberg, noting that the entry of major mainstream players like Fidelity Investments was a key development.

In her response on what she thought of crypto in terms of “taking off” or being hindered by government regulation, Fitzpatrick said “it’s here to stay.”

“I think it’s gone mainstream,” she added, noting that “Fidelity just announced you can put it in your 401(k).”

Soros Fund Management is a top investment management firm founded by investor George Soros. The family office confirmed it held some bitcoin in October last year.

On Bitcoin and Ethereum

Regarding the future of the top two cryptocurrencies by market cap today (Bitcoin and Ethereum), Fitzpatrick thinks the smart contracts platform is set to see more traction than Bitcoin. 

According to her, the issue of climate change could be the difference that pushes Ethereum above the pioneer cryptocurrency.

She told Bloomberg:

“The one caveat I would say is, first of all, climate impact is going to become increasingly in focus. So, in that context, I think Ethereum is likely to gain some more traction over Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin is a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain network that uses a lot of energy to process transactions and maintain network security. Notably, Ethereum is inching closer to fully transitioning from PoW to proof-of-stake (PoS), a network mechanism that’s deemed more eco-friendly. 

Blockchain applications

In other comments, Fitzpatrick noted that so many companies entering the crypto and blockchain space hold “massive Treasury accounts” with loads of different coins, which she thinks could expose them to near term vulnerability.

“But that said, I think blockchain technology is going to have some great applications and crypto is here – today,” she concluded.

Fitzpatrick’s comments come at a time when crypto is battling a bear market that has seen Bitcoin and Ethereum lose over half of their market value. However, industry figures continue to bet on the sector’s future, noting that a ‘crypto winter’ is the best time to build.

Recently, venture fund Andreessen Horowitz announced plans to invest billions in projects within the crypto and Web3 space.

But Terra (LUNA)’s debacle, including the collapse of its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), has the regulatory antennae firmly fixed on the sector. 

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The crypto market saw decent rebound on Monday as Bitcoin (BTC) pushed above $30k, with a multi-week high above $32,000 seeing the cryptocurrency turn positive on the weekly chart after nine consecutive red candles.

The rest of the market also saw nice bumps as Ethereum shot above $2k and several other top coins rose to push the total crypto market capitalization up by nearly 4%.

Bitcoin is ‘overdue a rebound’

While bulls are not out of the woods yet given the bear market, Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky believes the crypto market is “due a rebound.”

He told Kitco News in an interview ahead of Monday’s bounce that more room for upside looks likely given the market outlook over the past few weeks. The Celsius CEO also pointed to Wall Street’s performance last week, where the major indexes snapped a losing streak, including the S&P 500 that had edged +6% by Friday’s close.

Mashinsky also notes that analysts at JPMorgan recently released a research report suggesting the sell-off in crypto was “overdone.” The report suggested a rebound was likely to push Bitcoin price to around $38,000.

Also, with $1.8 billion worth of crypto expirations on, a bullish reversal is highly likely. On the overall bearish pressure still present amid extreme fear among investors, the Celsius exec added:

“You can press a spring as hard as you want but the harder you press it the harder it rebounds and here we’re overdue for a rebound.”

Bitcoin currently trades around $31,780 while Ethereum is hovering near $1,960 as US markets open after Monday’s holiday close.

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