According to minutes of their last meeting, released Wednesday, US Federal Reserve officials indicated that they would have to raise interest rates by 0.5 per cent in each of their next two meetings.
Barring stablecoins Tether and Tron, major crypto tokens were trading lower on Thursday. Avalanche tanked over 5 per cent, followed by a 4 per cent drop in Solana and Polkadot each. Ethereum shed 3 per cent.
The global cryptocurrency market cap was trading lower at the $1.26 trillion mark, dropping more than 2 per cent in the last 24 hours. However, the total cryptocurrency trading volume declined as much as 4 per cent to $69.12 billion.
What’s cooking in India
Cryptocurrency portfolio tracking and tax compliance platform CoinTracker on Wednesday announced its foray into the Indian market.
The company’s move also comes against the backdrop of the government mandating a 30 per cent taxation on such transactions with effect from April 1.
Expert take
Fed’s recent openness to being nimble when it comes to economic policies saw the equities markets rising this morning although crypto remains very much rangebound, said CoinDCX Research Team.
“A lack of economic catalysts and persisting inflation has led many to believe that a recession is around the corner, with funds cautious and conservative in their deployment of further capital,” it added.
Market corrections may not always necessarily be negative — they can also be healthy in resetting market valuations and investor expectations within a longer-term market advance.
Darshan Bathija, Co-Founder and CEO, Vauld, said that the US Fed Reserve release minutes from their committee meeting; “we can expect a 50 basis point interest rate likely to occur over the next few meetings.” This step is taken to address inflation concerns.
Bitcoin continued to exhibit little volatility and moved sideways for the most part, he added. “The bullish sentiment about the price impact of the merger will likely be muted due to larger macro economic conditions.”
Global updates
Creating an official digital version of the US dollar could help ensure financial system stability as crypto-assets and digital currencies developed by other countries become increasingly popular, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard said.
Ukraine, battered by three months of war, plans to continue to tap crypto investors to help raise funds after a plunge in prices decimated the country’s fundraising efforts in May.
Scott Minerd, the chief investment officer of Guggenheim Investments, hasn’t been shy over the past couple years about making predictions about the price of bitcoin (BTC).
Hot off a splashy February rebrand, Ignite (formerly Tendermint), the company originally behind the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem, has announced that it is splitting into two entities: Ignite and NewTendermint.
A snapshot of the Terra blockchain is expected to take place later this week ahead of the launch of “Terra 2.0,” a so-called revival of the Terra ecosystem following the implosion of the terraUSD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin earlier this month.
Tech View by Giottus Crypto Exchange
Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) is the governance token of the popular crypto-meets-Pokemon game Axie infinity. AXS is an ERC-20 token whose holders can claim rewards for paying the game, staking their tokens, and participating in the platform’s governance.
Despite being a top-performing cryptocurrency in 2021, it has lost over 85% of its value since the beginning of 2022. AXS lost a crucial long-term support trend line at $38 end April and has lost 46% of its value ever since.
The token has made several attempts to recover from the fall in May, creating several lower highs to ultimately move sideways in a narrow range, forming an ascending triangle. On 23rd May, AXS lost another support trend line at $21.4 and seems to have broken out of the triangle formation in downward momentum.
AXS price got rejected at the .238 retracement level ($21.5) yesterday, which is now acting as short-term resistance. AXS would have to break past the psychological resistance of $23 to put brakes on any further downside. Conversely, in case of a continued downside, it would have to test support at $16.40.
Major Levels:
Resistance: $21.5, $24.6, $27.0
Support: $20.0, $16.4
(Views and recommendations given in this section are the analysts’ own and do not represent those of ETMarkets.com. Please consult your financial adviser before taking any position in the asset/s mentioned.)