Major cryptocurrencies and altcoins alike took a nosedive alongside hawkish comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Jerome Powell.
The total cryptocurrency market is down on Friday. BTC dropped 5.5% as ETH fell 4%. Of the few cryptos in the green, GMT added to previous gains — up over 3%.
Crypto and traditional markets remain highly correlated. Though it seemed like cryptocurrencies had veered off into their own path earlier in the week, a massive dip in traditional indexes triggered major coins, such as BTC and ETH, to dive. This comes after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell took to an International Monetary Fund debate yesterday to outline a hawkish monetary policy in support of multiple 50 basis-point rate hikes.
The next Federal Open Markets Committee meeting will occur in early May, where the group will decide on next steps for the United States’ policies.
DeFi Digest: Lending protocol on Aurora raises $9 million with release of governance token
Bastion, NEAR’s largest decentralized finance protocol, announced a $9 million fundraise on Thursday. Built on NEAR’s Ethereum-compatible layer, Aurora, Bastion is a lending, borrowing and exchange protocol boasting over $600 million in total value locked. This funding round was led by Three Arrows Capital.
The Series A round coincides with the launch of Bastion’s governance token, BSTN. Users are able to claim tokens if they participated in pre-mining by supplying and borrowing on the platform or two of the protocol’s lockdrops. N^2, the pseudonymous founder of Bastion, said the lockdrop received over $410 million in total value locked. The token launched at a $180 million fully diluted value, with a supply of 5 billion.
NFT Snapshot: Cricket NFT platform Rario announces $120 million Series A
Rario, the startup behind the world’s first cricket nonfungible token platform, reported a $120 million funding round yesterday. Led by Dream Capital, the round will help cement Rario as the dominant cricket NFT company — accessing over 140 million of Dream’s users through its fantasy sports site.
Currently, Rario has the largest share of cricket NFT rights through partnerships with six leagues and the over 900 cricketers involved with the platform. Fans can purchase multiple types of digital collectibles through the site, including player cards, video moments and cricket artifacts. To date, the startup has sold over 50,000 NFTs to users across various countries.
Top altcoin gainers and losers: CRV, LUNA up
- CRV/USDT +6.09%
- LUNA/USDT +4.24%
- 1INCH/USDT +3.1%
- TRX/USDT -5.86%
- CVX/USDT -9.56%
- LOOKS/USDT -10.17%
Though most of the market is down today, CRV and LUNA have outperformed. Both are up on the day.
Meanwhile, TRX has given up some of its previous move after founder Justin Sun announced a new algorithmic stablecoin to be launched on the blockchain yesterday.
BTC technical analysis: Breaking down
BTC fell below 40,000 USDT earlier, revisiting levels put in at the week’s open. Currently, the market leader sits around 39,500 USDT — experiencing some sell-off as traditional markets dip.
So far, some support has been found — but with each tap lower and a muted response from buyers, many traders expect lower prices.
ETH technical analysis: Seeking lower
Like BTC, ETH fell on the day, breaking below 3,000 USDT for the first time since Monday. The coin currently sits around 2,950 USDT but has not broken down to the weekly lows of 2,880 USDT. Bulls will want this area to remain as support for now — otherwise, more downside could be in the forecast.
Altcoin technical analysis: LOOKS gives back gains
LOOKS, the token behind popular nonfungible token marketplace LooksRare, fell today after outperforming most of the market earlier this week. LOOKS bottomed around 1 USDT in mid-March, only to rally to nearly 3 USDT a few weeks ago. For now, there is previous support around 1.40 USDT as traders look for the next mark to go long.
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Source: https://www.okx.com/academy/en/btc-eth-sell-off-as-traditional-markets-plunge-crypto-market-daily