Bitcoin (BTC) hit a fresh new-year high of US$21,650 in the past 24 hours, effectively cancelling all of the benchmark cryptocurrency’s losses that followed in the wake of the FTX collapse in early November.
The BTC/USDT pair has since pulled back to US$21,100, but the one-hour chart is showing stability at the price point, suggesting it could act as a support line going forward.
Bitcoin (BTC)’s bathtub-shaped recovery – Source: currency.com
Danger could be looming on the horizon though.
Digital Currency Group (DCG), owner of the US$11bn Grayscale Bitcoin Fund (GBTC) and stakeholder in hundreds of crypto-related projects, has suspended dividend payments in an effort to shore up cash reserves and stave off bankruptcy.
We have seen what happens to the digital asset market when a mainstay of the crypto sector goes bust, so it is a small miracle that investors have yet to be sufficiently spooked.
Putting the FUD aside, BTC remains over 20% higher week on week, while Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, is currently 18% higher.
The ETH/USDT pair hit a high of US$1,610 on Tuesday but has since crawled back to US$1,580, having failed to touch pre-FTX highs.
Shiba Inu is on a roll right now, rallying a massive 13% today alone, as traders hotly anticipate the Layer-2 protocol upgrade due in the coming weeks.
Dubbed the ‘Shibarium’, the upgrade will greatly enhance Shiba Inu’s scalability in a similar fashion to Ethereum’s ongoing upgrades.
Metaverse game Decentraland remains the top weekly mover in the altcoin space following a tie-in with the Australian Open tennis tournament, but the game’s MANA token is showing signs of being overbought, having drawn down nearly 2% yesterday and a further 1% today.
Decentraland’s main competitor, The Sandbox, seems to be sharing in the metaverse goodwill, having added 40% this week.
Top movers in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space include Compound Finance (COMP), Curve (CRV) and Convex Finance (CVX), all of which have added over 40% week on week.
Global crypto market capitalisation currently stands at US$995bn, while total value locked across all DeFi protocols is at a two-month high of US$45.5bn.