Bitcoin Corrects Below $44K as Markets Bleed $70 Billion: This Week’s Crypto Recap

The past week was filled with serious volatility, but unfortunately, a lot of it was to the downside. Bitcoin is currently trading at around $43,800, down 3.6% during the week. It’s interesting to note that this happens as the biggest BTC-focused event is currently taking place in Miami – Bitcoin 2022.

The first week of April wasn’t very productive across the board. For BTC, the price was sitting at around $46,000 this time last week, and it was looking primed to test $47K. It failed on a few occasions, and four days later – on April 6th, the bears finally took control.

Taking advantage of the buyers’ inability to produce meaningful gains, bears pushed the price down, and by the next day, BTC was trading below $43,000 for a brief period. It managed to recover and is currently trading slightly below $44,000.

The rest of the market followed a similar path as most of the altcoins also corrected. Ethereum lost some of the gains it had previously delivered but ultimately finished the week flat with a slight 0.3% increase. BNB is up 1.1%. SOL and XRP are down some 4%, whereas AVAX and ADA are down around 6%.

It’s worth noting that Terra, the protocol behind the popular UST stablecoin, announced plans to buy $200 million worth of AVAX today. This happens shortly after Do Kwon started buying massive amounts of BTC to build up a considerable reserve for UST.

All in all, the market looks rather indecisive, and this might also be due to overall uncertainty across traditional markets as well. It’s interesting to see how things will shape up in the weeks to come and if the geopolitical tension will have its toll.

Market Data

Market Cap: $2,130B | 24H Vol: $101B | BTC Dominance: 39.1%

BTC: $43,850 (-3.6%) | ETH: $3,291 (+0.3%) | ADA: $1.08 (-5.2%)

Strike Announces Integration With Shopify to Facilitate Bitcoin Payments Via Lightning Network. The digital payments platform Strike has announced an integration with the e-commerce giant Shopify. The goal is to enable merchants to accept payments in BTC as seamlessly as if it was with the USD.

Near Protocol Raises $350M in a Funding Round Led by Tiger Global (Report). Near protocol has raised a whopping $350 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global. Other participants include Andreessen Horrowitz, Alameda Research, and Three Arrows Capital.

Terra’s Intentions to Buy $200M Worth of AVAX Explained. Terra revealed its intentions to buy up to $200 million worth of Avalanche (AVAX) through a token swap. The intention is to build up a solid reserve backing its stablecoin UST.

UFC Fighters to Start Receiving Bonuses in Bitcoin. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has announced that it will be distributing new bonuses for athletes that will be paid out in BTC. The awards will go to the top three fighters that the fans have voted for is between $10,000 and $30,000.

Terra Adds Another $230M Worth of Bitcoin as BTC Dips to $44K. Terra – the protocol behind the popular UST stablecoin and the LUNA cryptocurrency – has added yet another $230 million to its Bitcoin stash. Terra started BTC earlier in March in aims to structure a reserve for UST.

HSBC to Allow Wealthy Asian Customers to Invest in the Metaverse (Report). Multinational banking giant HSBC will be allowing its wealthier clients in Hong Kong and Singapore to allocate funds to a new set of products. These will be primarily focused on the Metaverse.

Charts

This week we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, Avalanche, and Luna – click here for the full price analysis.