This Week in Crypto: Market Rebounds Sharply

Investor sentiment across the broader crypto ecosystem is seeing a positive shift, resulting in several tokens witnessing double-digit gains as the aggregate crypto market capitalization nears $2 trillion.

Bitcoin (BTC) Positioned for Another Lift-Off

Bitcoin (BTC) has gained more than 22% in the past week while it continues to break past the $45,000 resistance. From the previous week’s low of $38,000, the legacy token registered a sharp upward rally and is now consolidating below $44,000, with some analysts expecting $48,000 to act as resistance over the near-term bullish range.

With several countries imposing sanctions on Russia, the value of BTC and almost every other prominent crypto has rebounded sharply. Other significant developments worldwide, including Putin’s announcement of a national ban on foreign transfers and U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s announcement of a rate hike coming this month, also played critical roles in driving this week’s bullish investor sentiment. 

Following the Ukrainian government’s confirmation that it is receiving donations in BTC and other tokens, purchases of BTC across Ukrainian exchanges are shooting through the roof, which is yet another reason for the surge in BTC’s overall value.

Meanwhile, the value of the Russian Ruble has collapsed, forcing Russians to move big money into BTC and other cryptos.

According to the latest report published by crypto research firm CoinMetrics, the BTC accumulation phase has begun. In the past seven days, the number of addresses holding 1,000 BTC has jumped from 2,127 to 2,266.

Data from analytics firm Santiment, too, confirmed that several massive BTC transactions, as much as 13,400 BTC worth more than $1 million in value, have been processed by whales within the last three days.

Altcoin Values Storm Higher

The past week has been tremendous for altcoin valuations. Almost every notable altcoin has registered double-digit gains. Among the top 10 altcoins, the value of Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest crypto by market capitalization, moved up by almost 22%, while Binance Coin (BNB) and XRP are up nearly 20% week-over-week. 

That said, this week’s top altcoins, based solely on their weekly performances, are Terra (LUNA), Fantom (FTM), Waves (WAVES), and THORChain (RUNE).

WAVES stands out from the lot after a staggering 89.5% gain over the past week. This comes at the heels of the platform unveiling a partnership to support cross-chain transfers with Allbridge alongside efforts to launch a highly interoperable Metaverse. 

This week, Terra (LUNA) is the second-best performing token, registering around 54% gains. LUNA has outperformed Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) due to its parabolic rally to become the seventh-largest crypto by market capitalization.

Smart Stake data indicates that Terra protocol recently burned 29 million LUNA tokens valued at $2.57 billion, which explains this exceptional growth.

Meanwhile, THORChain’s recent integration with Terra and Cosmos, paired with its mainnet launch announcement, has helped the platform’s native RUNE token register a near 40% return in the past week.

PancakeSwap Misses Bullish Sentiment

The value of CAKE, the native token of PancakeSwap, the second-largest DEX (decentralized exchange) by trading volume, dropped by 10.28% over the past week.

Recently, the protocol burned $43 million worth of CAKE tokens in a bid to reduce emissions and become “emission neutral.” This means that more CAKE tokens will leave circulation than what is being produced on the platform.

Amid PancakeSwap’s efforts to revamp its existing smart contracts to attract investors, the CAKE token is stumbling, with 24-hour trading volume tumbling almost 20%.

Memecoins DOGE and SHIB are also among the few tokens that couldn’t capitalize on this week’s bull run, losing nearly 2% and 2.5%, respectively, over the last seven sessions.

Despite the bounce in the broader crypto market, Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX), Polkadot (DOT), and Polygon (MATIC) are among the other premium tokens that didn’t match the broader market’s momentum higher.

Global Crypto Community Backs Ukraine

In wholesome news, crypto donations are pouring in from all directions following the Ukrainian government’s plea on Twitter.

In its latest attempt to destabilize the Russian invasion of Ukraine, renowned hacker group Anonymous is offering $50,000 worth of BTC to Russian troops for each surrendered tank.

Since February 26, the Ukrainian government has started accepting crypto donations in BTC, ETH, USDC (via TRON network), DOT, DOGE, and is currently adding more wallet addresses.

Now that the Ukrainian government confirmed an “airdrop,” thousands of micro-donations, ranging from 0.0001 ETH to 0.01 ETH are being continuously processed within Ukraine’s official Ethereum wallet.

According to the latest data, Ukraine has already received more than $35 million in crypto donations.

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