Bitcoin Stuck at $20,000
After dropping to $18,700 last week, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) gained roughly 4.40% over the past seven sessions. The flagship cryptocurrency is currently facing significant resistance, trading just a few dollars above the $20,000 mark after rising to just shy of $23,000.
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Despite an impressive comeback at the beginning of the week, BTC’s value started dropping after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed annualized inflation of 8.30% through August. While this rate came in merely 0.20% above estimates, BTC reacted with a rapid reversal lower.
In the meantime, BTC is treading water above the critical $20,000 psychological level. However, its market capitalization and dominance relative to other cryptocurrencies have experienced considerable setbacks this week. Per the weekly on-chain report from Coinglass, more than $88 million of BTC liquidations across exchanges this week contributed further to the decline in BTC’s value.
Altcoins Mostly Unchanged after a Rollercoaster Week
After weeks of anticipation, the Ethereum Merge was completed in the early hours of September 15, helping Ethereum (ETH-USD) finalize its transition to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism from Proof-of-Work (PoW). Although ETH climbed throughout the week, its price was also sensitive to the inflation data, tumbling to a modest week-over-week loss of 2.70%.
Out of the major altcoins, Solana (SOL) was a stronger performer, rising 3.00% from its prior week’s losses. This value appreciation comes at the heels of Helium Network expressing its intent to merge with the Solana blockchain. Other large-cap altcoins like Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), and Polygon (MATIC) registered minimal gains or losses over the last seven sessions.
The week’s biggest gainers were Cosmos (ATOM) and ApeCoin (APE). While much of the market remained rangebound, ATOM soared 10.00% this week to its highest point in four months. ATOM is trending within the $14.00-$15.00 range following a significant uptick in on-chain activity on the Cosmos blockchain. Another catalyst behind ATOM’s momentum was the release of the Cosmos SDK version 0.46, delivering upgrades to several modules and features.
ApeCoin (APE) added nearly 13.00% following project-related news shared by the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and the Ape Foundation. These developments, alongside a proposal for a new election process for the project’s governing decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), sparked a fresh rally in APE.
Terra’s Comeback Comes to a Halt
After last week’s massive surge, Terra Classic (LUNC) holders received a major shock after the token tumbled nearly 52.30% over the last seven days. As the news of a Korean court issuing arrest warrants for Terra’s founder Do Kwon and five other individuals went viral, the price of LUNC sold off fast and hard.
Per reports, arrest warrants were issued for these individuals due to their alleged violation of capital market rules. The Terra implosion that unfolded in May this year caused a crypto market crash, with more than 200,000 investors from Korea alone losing billions of dollars.
This new revelation heaped on more negative pressure following earlier news of South Korean prosecutors launching another investigation into Terraform Labs to determine whether the company’s native tokens fell under the “securities” category.
Google Cloud Supports Web3, Russia Considers Crypto, and More
As Web3 continues to attract significant funding and interest, Binance’s smart contract blockchain platform BNB Chain has unveiled a tie-up with Google Cloud to assist blockchain and Web3 startups. Through this partnership, all projects building atop BNB Chain will gain access to Google Cloud’s open-source infrastructure.
More than 1,300 BNB-based dApps and protocols, ranging from DeFi, NFTs, Metaverse, and P2E games, can leverage Google Cloud for data encryption and on-demand on-chain data analysis, among other benefits.
Contending with sanctions and economic blockades, Russia is growing increasingly serious about the idea of enabling crypto as a medium for cross-border payments. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin sent out an official instruction to the Duma and other state authorities to work on developing coordinated guidelines and policies to regulate cryptocurrency in the country by December 19, 2022.
This development follows Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev’s confirmation that the Bank of Russia has agreed to legalize crypto for cross-border payments.
Finally, in blockchain adoption news, Securitize Capital is preparing to tokenize KKR’s Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II on the Avalanche blockchain to promote greater accessibility. This new approach will enable investors to own on-chain representations of KKR’s healthcare-focused fund that invests across 23 North American and European pharmaceutical companies. KKR is one of the largest global investment companies, overseeing more than $491 billion in assets.
