After pulling back from multi-month highs over the past week, Bitcoin (BTC USD) has reversed course and stormed higher over the past day to make a fresh six-month high and drag the entire crypto market into a strong recovery. The legacy token is trading just above the critical $24,500 resistance point, posting around 8.4% gains over the past seven sessions.
This uptick follows the Bitcoin network setting a new record in terms of average block size and the launch of the Bitcoin NFT Ordinals protocol. According to the latest data from Blockchain.com, the adoption of the new protocol has pushed the average size of a Bitcoin block to more than 2.5 megabytes – the first time since Bitcoin’s inception in 2009.
At the same time, it also sparked a sudden short-term spike in network usage, contributing nearly 44 million new non-zero BTC wallets to the network’s user base.
Another reason behind BTC’s positive price momentum is the increase in short liquidations amid price pressures. Traders liquidated nearly $85.87 million worth of short positions in BTC over the past day, fueling the BTC price storm further.
Altcoins maintain their winning streak
Most altcoins took advantage of the favorable market conditions and improving investor sentiment to extend the previous week’s gains. While almost every other token from the top 10 altcoins by market cap posted modest gains, several low and mid-cap altcoins saw exceptional performances over the week.
Hedera (HBAR) broke out of a long-term consolidation and surged 23% amid rising network activity after tech giant Dell Technologies (NYSE: Dell) joined the network’s governing council. Meanwhile, the value of Mina Protocol’s $MINA token added another 38.7% to its previous gains as its OpenMina node browser concept with Viable Systems continues to gain mainstream adoption.
Along with the clear outperformers of the week, GameFi and Initial Game Offering (IGO) platform BinaryX (BNX) also rallied this week. The value of the $BNX token increased by 34.50% in the last seven sessions after the BinaryX team decided to proceed with a 1:100 split of the native token and announced plans to launch more VR and AR Add games to its IGO platform.
Frax stock and PancakeSwap slide despite market momentum
Despite gains in the broader market, Frax Share (FXS) and PancakeSwap (CAKE) failed to capitalize on improving investor sentiment this week. The value of Frax Share’s $FXS token fell 17.60% over the past seven sessions on growing uncertainty as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stepped up its crackdown on the crypto industry, specifically $BUSD token.
Following the loss in Frax Share, the value of Binance Chain-based DEX PancakeSwap’s $CAKE token fell 8.40% this week, mainly due to increasing scrutiny of Binance’s $BUSD stablecoin . After the SEC served a “Wells” notice to Paxos Trust Company – the issuer of the $BUSD token – to stop minting Binance’s dollar-pegged stablecoin, protocols with the largest $BUSD liquidity pools are in for a heat.
With PancakeSwap having $334 million in $BUSD pools, almost half of all $BUSD pools in the entire DeFi sector, the value of the $CAKE token came under SEC crosshairs, leading to its ongoing devaluation.
$2 Billion Web3 Initiative, Blockchain SIM Card and More
Hub71, the Abu Dhabi-based technology company, has announced its new initiative to boost Web3 innovation by providing Web3 startups with access to funding, partnerships and programs. The initiative, called Hub71+ Digital Assets, includes a $2 billion fund to support deserving startups.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai Tree-Graph Blockchain Research Institute (known as Conflux Network) has partnered with China Telecom to develop a blockchain-powered SIM card dubbed BSIM. According to the official announcement, this new product will serve as a secure option for users to store private keys and use the sim’s built-in functions to validate digital transactions.
Finally, notorious North Korean hackers, most notably the Lazarus Group, have started using a new cryptocurrency mixing service to launder stolen crypto funds. This new blender is rumored to be a “relaunched” variant of Blender operating under a brand called “Sinbad”.
However, following crypto research firm Elliptic’s report exposing this new mixer, crypto exchanges Binance and Huobi froze several accounts associated with the group, most of which were active and attempting to connect with the bridge hack of funds related to Harmony Horizon in 2022.
disclosure
Learn Crypto Trading, Yield Farms, Income strategies and more at CrytoAnswers
https://nov.link/cryptoanswers
Comments are closed.