Highlights March 1: Cryptos stage comeback, defence stocks on the rise

The crypto market is rallying across the board today. Price growth is provoked by Ukrainians buying goods with crypto donations and Russians stocking up on crypto as a store of value.  

Defence companies surged yesterday after Germany pledged to boost its armed forces in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Germany’s Rheinmetall (+24.94%) took off. Several US companies in the sector also recorded gains.

Energy companies shone yesterday as US stocks climbed higher. Solar firms Enphase Energy (+8.44%) and SolarEdge Technologies (+14.93%) leapt over concerns for global oil supplies, as did hydrocarbon exploration company Occidental Petroleum Corp (+12.88%).

Markets today may be impacted by the release of the ISM Manufacturing PMI at 15:00 GMT. 

Top cryptos

Bitcoin jumped around 14%, trading above $43,000 at time of writing. Ethereum and Cardano were both up around 11%, and XRP registered gains of around 7%.

LUNA has enjoyed a standout performance this week. It gained another 21% today, bringing its weekly surge to just under 80%. It is rallying on news of an FTX listing, slated for today.

Outside the top 10, Wrapped Bitcoin is doing the best. It added 13% to its value. Other prominent gainers include Avalanche and Cosmos.  

Top movers

Most top 100 coins are rallying too. One of the biggest winners is WAVES, the token of Waves, a multipurpose blockchain platform created by Ukrainian-born Alexander Ivanov. In what could be a show of support for Ukraine, WAVES added almost 38% to its value today.

As it usually happens, one day’s biggest losers are the next one’s biggest winners. In that vein of thought, THORChain gained 23% today. NEAR Protocol is also one of the leaders with gains of 22%.

Other coins conforming to bulls’ expectations include Kadena (+19%), Fantom (+15%), Neo (+16%), and Theta Network (+17%). Most of those were plummeting yesterday.  

Trending

The biggest gainer of lesser-known coins is OBROk, a limited-supply asset launched in 2021. The OBRok Token team is working on the Metaverse, Web3, renewable energy, and aeronautical sciences. They also provide R&D services in these areas via blockchain technology. OBROk is up 275% today.

The live UMA (Universal Market Access) price today is $8.33 with a 24-hour trading volume of $462.7 million. UMA is up 73.45% in the last 24 hours.

Qredo, an ecosystem that claims to be rearchitecting digital asset ownership and blockchain connectivity, has seen its native token gain steadily over the past few weeks. Its fully diluted market cap increased by 28% today.

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The Cryptocurrency market makes significant gains, why is crypto up today?

In the last 24 hours, the crypto market saw sharp rallies across the board. The war in Ukraine has become a turning point in the world order in many ways, one of which has been in demonstrating the might and use of these assets.

This article provides a brief overview of the main reasons the market is up today. These include increased crypto spending by Ukrainians and Russian citizens’ perception of it as a safe haven.

A historic moment for crypto adoption

The past weekend was a historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption. Ukraine posted an official plea for cryptocurrency donations on Twitter. Donations poured in, topping $15 million, which doesn’t include various other initiatives that have been organized to raise funds.

The Ukrainian government is using donated crypto to buy critical supplies, including gas, food and military equipment as the country continues to battle Russian forces tirelessly. It has been estimated that they have spent around $10 million in crypto so far.

The power of borderless currencies

The rush to support Ukraine financially highlights the power of borderless assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum and reminds of the critical role DeFi and other non-custodial solutions can play. People fleeing Ukraine only need a seed phrase to transport their Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Ukraine’s move to ask for crypto donations is an important milestone in the process of adopting the asset class globally. Naturally, that has reflected in its price growth.

The role of Russia in rising crypto prices

Russians are rushing to stock up on crypto in an effort to protect their assets and to bypass state-imposed capital controls. Sanctions against Russia are driving Russian citizens to buy it as a way of surviving the conflict, which led the ruble to shed more than 30% of its value.

Data of Chainalysis shows the Russian Federation ranks 18th in crypto adoption worldwide. There is no doubt that the conflict Vladimir Putin started will fortify this in the country. It might even push it to an all-time high as Russian citizens try to cope with the economic consequences.

A final contributing factor is the unwinding of net short positions by traders, which CoinDCX attributes to a short squeeze.

Major crypto price movements

Bitcoin (BTC/USD) gained 13% today, trading for more than $43,000 at the time of writing. The second-biggest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH/USD), jumped by 10% in 24 hours. Binance Coin (BNB/USD), the fourth biggest crypto and the native token of Binance, gained 11% today.

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No end to Qredo’s gains in sight: Here are the top places to buy Qredo

Qredo has been gaining steadily over the past few weeks. Its fully diluted market cap has increased by 28% today, and its trading volume – by 163%. This article explains what Qredo is, if it would make a valuable investment, and the best places to buy Qredo now.

Top places to buy Qredo now

As QRDO is such a new asset, it’s yet to be listed on major exchanges. You can still purchase QRDO using a DEX (decentralised exchange) though, which just means there are a few extra steps. To buy QRDO right now, follow these steps:

1. Buy ETH on a regulated exchange or broker, like eToro ›

We suggest eToro because it’s one of the world’s leading multi-asset trading platforms, an exchange and wallet all-in-one with some of the lowest fees in the industry. It’s also beginner-friendly, and has more payment methods available to users than any other available service.

2. Send your ETH to a compatible wallet like Trust Wallet or MetaMask

You’ll need to create your wallet, grab your address, and send your coins there.

3. Connect your wallet to the Uniswap DEX

Head to Uniswap, and ‚connect‘ your wallet to it.

4. You can now swap your ETH for QRDO

Now that you’re connected, you’ll be able to swap for 100s of coins including QRDO.

What is Qredo?

Qredo is an ecosystem that claims to be rearchitecting digital asset ownership and blockchain connectivity. It has pioneered the first decentralized trustless multi-party computation (MPC) custodial network.

This advancement enables Qredo to offer decentralized custody, native cross-chain swaps, and cross-platform liquidity access. By leveraging the latest innovations in cryptography and distributed ledger technology, Qredo delivers a powerful global network for securing and trading digital assets.

The ecosystem’s QRDO token provides a means of utility and governance to the Qredo Network. Qredo is designed to include a “user centric” incentive structure that economically favors the participants of the Qredo Network, driving user adoption and utilization of the network.

Should I buy Qredo today?

Qredo can be a lucrative investment, but take the time to read at least several price predictions from leading analysts and do market research before making a commitment. Take all investment advice with a grain of salt.

Qredo price prediction

Wallet Investor expects a long-term increase. Qredo will trade for $12.60 five years from now, corresponding to revenue of around +346%. A $100 investment in Qredo made now could go up to $446 in 5 years if this analyst’s prediction is accurate.

Qredo on social media

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Polygon mints unique ‘social experiment’ NFT collection

A social experiment by Dutch artist Dadara and RAIRtech, an NFT digital rights management platform, led to the creation of 7.9 billion digitally identical NFTs of CryptoGreyman, a character brought to life by the artist 30 years ago, CoinJournal learned from a press release.

Supporting refugee reception around the world  

The project has joined forces with Movement on the Ground, an NPO that seeks to dignify refugee reception across the globe, an issue that’s now more relevant than ever. 

Refugees struggle to obtain the identification needed to seek asylum and governments often see them as generators of paperwork rather than people fleeing horrible situations.

Polygon provides L2 to mint drop

Polygon provided the Layer 2 solution to mint the drop, which took place on February 22 at 2:22 pm EST. But what is the project about? The NFTs are physical identical, but each one has its own serial number, listed in the order it was minted in. Each NFT in this collection costs 1 MATIC.

Dadara commented:

I see this as a dead-serious prank, which can rattle the cage of consensual reality and elevate the conversation. It’s an experiment with an unpredictable outcome. No one specific NFT is better than another, and because the minting price is widely accessible it will be interesting to see what value each individual CryptoGreyman holder brings.

Garrett Minks, CTO of RAIRtech added:

This year this whole NFT “status symbol” idea has really developed, to the point where people will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a Bored Ape NFT or other PFP projects and will use that piece of digital uniqueness as what defines them. This project is more democratized, the barrier for entry is intentionally low. When a person purchases a CryptoGreyman, that attached serial number is theirs. That number, if they chose to keep it, will be theirs until the end of time, or until the blockchain ceases to exist.

The potential of Web3 to transform social perception  

The project reflects the view that corporations and governments reduce people to numbers, while social media put pressure on them to be dramatically unique.

Against the backdrop of this contradiction, the project hopes to inspire discussion of Web3’s potential to create a more realistic portrayal of humankind.

 

 

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BTC close to $42K as bulls take on bears despite ‘macroeconomic uncertainty’

The notable thing about Bitcoin’s gains today is that they come despite the continuing uncertainty around the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose to highs of $41,680 on Monday amid renewed buying pressure across the crypto markets.

The upside move is replicated in altcoins, with Ethereum (ETH) up 7% and trading above $2,800 while Solana (SOL) and Terra (LUNA) are both more than 14% in the green.

The total crypto market valuation is up 7.4% to $1.93 trillion, with Bitcoin’s market cap up to $793 billion.

Russia-Ukraine crisis shines the spotlight on BTC

Currently, BTC is briefly uncorrelated to Wall Street and trades more like gold than as a risk-on asset as seen over the past several months. 

The macroeconomic factors that have hindered BTC remain, with uncertainty surrounding the war in Ukraine and the Fed’s rate hike plans likely to continue dictating investor sentiment short to medium-term.

However, Natalie Brunell, the host of Coin Stories Bitcoin Podcast, says the Ukraine conflict has highlighted what Bitcoin is about for the global community. According to her:

The global monetary system is fracturing and #Bitcoin has surfaced as a pristine savings and freedom technology that is borderless, permissionless, censorship-resistant and unconfiscatable. The Russia-Ukraine Crisis puts a spotlight on this,” she told Fox Business.

Bitcoin price outlook

Brunell’s comments come as bitcoin donations to Ukraine continue to soar and ruble-denominated crypto trading volumes surge amidst the Russian currency’s weakness.

On whether BTC can sustain the current upside or hold onto gains, Dylan LeClair, a senior analyst at a digital asset investing fund at UXTO Management thinks it’s a likely scenario.

Per the analyst, BTC’s latest uptick is hinged on a growing number of ‘diamond hands’. He points to data that shows more than 80% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply has moved year-to-date.

 “Only 15.5% of the #bitcoin circulating supply has moved in 2022 despite rising levels of macroeconomic uncertainty. HODLers are completely unfazed.  Quite astonishing when you think about it,” LeClair tweeted on Monday.

$42,000 and $46,000 are key barriers

Crypto trader and investor Scott Melker wants to see BTC break above $42 and sustain momentum above it to have the chance of fresh legs for further gains.

And according to pseudonymous analyst Altcoin Sherpa, if BTC rallies to the mid-February peak of $46k, investors might want to look at a potential “market structure shift.”

Unlike last week, when Bitcoin (BTC) fell alongside stocks, this week’s upside is happening as the S&P 500 and broader equity move towards another negative close.

Bitcoin is nearly 10% up at $4,665, while the S&P 500 edged to -0.3% close for February.

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