Despite the downtrend of the last few months, some tokens are still inching higher as others display promising upward momentum. Nevertheless, investor sentiment is still hovering around the “fear” zone despite the total crypto market capitalization edging past the $1.05 trillion mark.
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Bitcoin Struggles to Top $23,000
After momentarily jumping past the critical resistance at $23,500, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is once again trending below the $23,000 support level. Over the past seven sessions, BTC has declined approximately 0.65%.
Meanwhile, after months of dumping holdings to mitigate the price decline, Bitcoin miners now cumulatively hold 1.86 million BTC – a record two-year high – according to new data published by CryptoQuant. The report also indicates that the “miner capitulation” phase is poised to end soon as BTC’s price action stabilizes.
However, blockchain analytics firm Glassnode, in its latest Week On-Chain Report, suggests that the ongoing market conditions, such as Bitcoin’s weak transaction volumes and the increased demand for block space, have started to resemble the 2018-19 bear market. At the same time, data from Bitcoin derivatives show no potential signs of “fear” among investors, creating an interesting risk-reward setup for BTC.
Binance Chain and Filecoin Fend Off Bears
While Ethereum’s (ETH-USD) recent rally has ground to a halt, with the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization now facing extreme resistance at the $1,700 mark, the value of Binance Chain’s BNB token registered impressive gains this week. BNB jumped by nearly 11.80% over the past seven sessions, and its 24-hour trading volume has jumped by 80%.
The strong uptrend for BNB comes at the heels of several new announcements from the Binance team. While the newly-published report on the BNB Chain Activity for the second quarter of 2022 indicates a significant decline in DeFi activity on the BNB Chain, GameFi and NFT sectors on the BNB Chain registered exponential growth.
Moreover, a potential BNB ZKRollup solution to boost scalability and speed while lowering costs has also added to the upward momentum.
Among the top-ten altcoins, Ripple (XRP) and Polkadot (DOT) gained around 4% and 6%, respectively. In the low to mid-cap category, Near Protocol (NEAR) and ApeCoin (APE) registered nearly 13% gains.
The value of NEAR pumped after reports that the platform is aiming to expand into the NFT market to enlarge its market capitalization. APE gained ground following Gucci’s decision to add ApeCoin to its list of accepted cryptocurrencies.
That said, this week’s biggest gainer was Filecoin (FIL). Ranked 33rd by market capitalization, the value of FIL stormed 46% higher over the past seven sessions. The decentralized storage network’s native token’s gains outpaced prominent tokens like BTC, ETH, BNB, and others. The uptick comes on the heels of the Filecoin Foundation’s newly inked long-term partnership with the Harvard University Library Innovation Lab (LIL).
Solana Back in Murky Waters Yet Again
Solana’s SOL token is nearly 86% down from its all-time high of November 2021, as investors continue to raise serious questions about the platform’s security. After attempting to recover from a string of exploits, hacks, and network downtime over 2022 that has already dented confidence in the Solana blockchain ecosystem, the network is facing renewed attacks.
A fresh exploit over the past week has now compromised thousands of Solana-based Slope and Phantom wallets, with users continuously reporting a loss of funds. Preliminary reports suggest that hackers have acquired private keys of relatively dormant wallets and are targeting both mobile and web versions of the wallets.
According to OtterSec, more than 8,000 wallets have already been compromised, and the hackers are now sitting on top of more than $8 million worth of SOL, USDC, USDT, BTC, and ETH tokens. So far, the reason hasn’t been pinpointed, stoking more concerns about the outlook for the network.
Starbucks Leverages Web3, Nomad Bridge Hack, and More
Amid the ongoing attacks on blockchain infrastructure, cross-chain bridges are also finding themselves back in the crosshairs of enterprising hackers. In the latest iteration, hackers have drained off roughly $200 million from the Nomad bridge project – marking the third-largest cross-chain bridge hack this year.
Switching gears to adoption news, Oxford City Football Club became the first National League football club to start accepting BTC payments for their matches. Additionally, fans will be able to purchase tickets, food, and drinks on matchdays with their BTC holdings via the Lightning Network.
Echoing other moves to incorporate blockchain technology in loyalty systems, global coffee franchise Starbucks has unveiled its own plans to launch a customer engagement and retention program leveraging Web3 primitives.
Finally, amid an uptick in regulatory enforcement action, the U.S. SEC has filed a lawsuit against 11 individuals for their role in building a fraudulent crypto pyramid scheme via the Forsage platform, which engaged in the sale of unregistered securities. Per the lawsuit, the platform aggressively raised more than $300 million from global investors by promoting smart contract investment options across multiple blockchain networks.
