The last seven days turned out to be even rockier for the crypto market than the previous week, with almost every coin in the top 100 market cap list undergoing a price drop — many of them significant.
Right at the bottom was SPELL, which fell 37.9% after having another bad week. It wasn’t alone though — KDA fell by 32.3%, GALA by 31.1%, and ROSE by 27.5%. The prices drops have no doubt thrown the trading systems of many traders off balance.
These might be relatively obscure names in the crypto world, but some bigger names have also suffered losses. BTC fell by 12.8%, ETH by 17.9%, and SOL by 21.8%. BTC is now approaching the $40k mark, which would be its lowest point since September 2021. It’s also the coin’s longest streak of losses since 2018, so this isn’t something to take lightly.
If you have a cautious 2022 investment approach and didn’t end up buying into the lows two weeks ago, these price reductions might just be too good to pass up.
However, there were a few exceptions to the rule, with six cryptocurrencies in the top 100 market cap exhibiting net gains. Leading the way was LINK, which increased by 32.5% in value — it’s still far away from its all-time highs, but at least it’s on the road to recovery. ICP also did well, rising by 32.2% over the last seven days after a slow start since its launch in May 2021. Other winners of the week included OSMO (up 19%), ONE (up 9.8%), and DASH (up 4.9%). It’s been a volatile and difficult few weeks for investors so make sure you do your research first before investing.
India has been in the news in the crypto world this week for a few reasons. For one, its central bank created a fintech department focused on handling cryptocurrency-related issues — above all, on creating regulations. The nation is also researching the possibility of creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC), considering two different CBDCs for different purposes. However, the government lacked a department dedicated to the task until now.
There have also been suggestions that the Indian government’s next budget could include crypto regulations. Tax agencies discovered that five big cryptocurrency exchanges in India were avoiding taxes, highlighting the need to introduce stricter rules. The country’s industry body of startups addressed a letter to the government explaining that there needs to be greater clarity regarding how tax laws treat cryptocurrencies. The budget is due at the end of January, so more information is expected within the next few weeks.
Fantom and Avalanche are two major competitors in the realm of layer 1 blockchains, which support the building of applications (Ethereum is a prime example). Last week, the number of transactions on Fantom overtook those on Avalanche, with the platforms boasting 1 million and 728,000 transactions respectively. This is mostly due to the higher returns offered on Fantom.
PayPal was one of the entities to add functionality to buy cryptocurrencies to its offering in 2021, but the payment processing giant has now taken this one step further by seemingly introducing its own stablecoin. It appears that the coin will be pegged to the US dollar, but there’s still limited information about what exactly it will be used for or whether the plans will even come to fruition. After all, the news only came out after a developer found the plans and shared them with the press.
The successful NFT collection Pudgy Penguins (which features digital images of uniquely adorned penguins) appears to face uncertainty after its founders were voted out of the project due to concerns about their performance and use of funds. This leaves it unclear exactly who will be in charge of the project. Some are pushing for it to become decentralized, but there’s also the potential of a buyer swooping in (some have already made offers).
But to end this summary on a more positive note, there have been a few successful funding rounds over the last week. The money market project Wonderland invested in BetSwap, a decentralized application for betting. This marks a unique example of a community-led project investing in a smart-contracts-fuelled DeFi platform.
Meanwhile, blockchain-based investment firm Pantera has now accumulated $63.7 million in funding from an extensive cohort of investors. It also has a portfolio of assets worth more than $6 billion, demonstrating just how profitable the crypto world has become (as if we needed reminding).
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At the time of writing, neither Tim Thomas nor Timothy Thomas Limited hold positions in the cryptocurrencies mentioned.
This post was produced by Timothy Thomas Limited and was syndicated by Tim Thomas
Featured image credit: Unsplash