Good morning Here’s what happens:
Prices: Bitcoin stabilizes comfortably above $29,000. One analyst says investors are now looking for assets that will hold their value.
Insights: Captain Kirk drops his first NFT collection and boldly speaks about crypto’s potential in a Consensus 2023 discussion.
Bitcoin Holds Above $29,000; Ether surges above $1.9k
Bitcoin shelved concerns about renewed banking turmoil and slowing US economic growth to comfortably hold above $29,000 throughout US trading hours on Thursday.
The largest cryptocurrency by market cap recently traded at around $29,500, up around 2.2% over the past 24 hours. BTC surpassed $30,000 at one point, close to its highs of the previous week but still a long way from its April peak of nearly $31,000. Still, investors appear to have forgotten Wednesday’s dramatic back and forth as the cryptocurrency plummeted amid a mass liquidation of short and long positions and separate unsubstantiated rumors of bitcoin sales — by the US government and crypto from the failed exchange Mt Gox – fell to around $27,200 before recovering.
Since surging about 40% in January, bitcoin and other cryptos have stubbornly defended themselves against industry breakdowns and broader macroeconomic uncertainties.
“The operational word here is resilience,” Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of crypto asset management company Grayscale Investments, told CoinDesk TV on the opening day of the Consensus 2023 conference in Austin, Texas. “Despite recent setbacks, whether it be confidence or certain companies that were once an integral part of crypto and no longer exist, we are seeing resilience.”
Sonnenshein added, “It’s really encouraging when this industry keeps being challenged, showing its strengths and coming out stronger.”
Grayscale and CoinDesk share the same parent company, Digital Currency Group.
Ether recently traded above $1,910, up about 0.8% from the same time Wednesday. Other major cryptocurrencies recently edged up slightly more than 36 hours after falling sharply into the red. The CoinDesk Market Index, a measure of how crypto markets are performing, recently rose 0.8%.
US stock markets rose as better-than-expected gains from tech giants Microsoft, Google and most recently Meta trumped concerns about weaker-than-expected first-quarter GDP growth of 1.1% and woes at regional bank First Republic. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500, which has a strong technology component, rose 2.4% and 2%, respectively.
Investors will now focus on next week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rate decision. The CME FedWatch tool is currently showing an 87% probability of a third straight 25 basis point rate hike, although Edward Moya, senior market analyst at FX market maker Oanda, wrote in an email that the US Federal Reserve is on the verge of completing it Kind of monetary hawk. The Fed will be able to move forward with one, maybe two more rate hikes, but that should be it then,” Moya wrote.
Meanwhile, Bob Baxley, chief technology officer of decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Maverick Protocol, told CoinDesk’s Jocelyn Yang that Bitcoin’s performance over the past few days reflects investors’ confidence in the crypto’s ability to survive amid troubling events to hold value.
“Bitcoin and other crypto assets have clearly proven to be the kind of safe haven that many had hoped this class of technology would become,” Baxley told CoinDesk in an email.
William Shatner races to Web3 at Warp 9.
The original Star Trek captain and longtime Twitter crypto dude has officially shut down his NFT release, Infinite Connections, at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2023 conference.
Infinite Connections includes two collections: Cosmic Explorer with 2,500 NFTs featuring a Shatner 3D avatar paired with artworks exploring scientific topics such as quantum physics and sonic vibrations. Each also includes a physical action figure of Captain James T. Kirk, the role for which Shatner is best known, each hand-signed by Shatner with a quote from the character.
The other collection is Timeless Voyager, which includes 1,000 NFTs of 2D artworks of future technology and the cosmos. No action figure is included, but “select” owners will have access to unspecified IRL opportunities.
“NFTs are starting to get more artistic,” Shatner said backstage at the conference. “These developed by Orange Comet are some of the most artistic I’ve seen.”
Orange Comet CEO Dave Broome, also speaking at the conference, revealed how the deal with Shatner came about and how Shatner’s intellectual curiosity was a key component. “This is a man at 92 who is still asking and still has the ability to learn and embrace technology and understand what it can do,” Broome said. “We’re interested in bringing someone like legendary cult legend William Shatner and all the millions and millions of fans he has to web3.”
Read the whole story here:
“First Mover” was live in Austin, Texas as Consensus continued in 2023 with special guests including Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital, Erik Voorhees, Founder of ShapeShift, Kathy Kraninger, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Solidus Labs , Rebecca, Chief Policy Officer at Polygon Labs Rettig and EY Global Blockchain Leader Paul Brody.
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