Cryptocurrencies Stall As Traders Continue To Weigh Macro And Geopolitical Uncertainties

Macro headwinds and geopolitical tensions continue to put pressure on the cryptocurrency market. 

“It appears that investors are deleveraging and utilizing derivatives markets to hedge out risk and buy downside protection, with a keen eye on the Fed rate hikes expected in March,” noted crypto analytics frim Glassnode in its latest report.

As of 9:30 AM E.T, bitcoin (BTC) has slipped below $43,000, 2.7% down on the day. 

Most major assets have also entered the red territory. The second-largest cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), has surrendered 1.29% over the past 24 hours and is currently floating at $3,069.

Leaders and Laggards: Featuring the best and worst-performing assets of the past 24 hours among the 85 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization tracked by Forbes. For more information, read this quick Forbes Digital Assets guide.

Still, some assets are bucking the trend. Nexo (NEXO), the token of the namesake cryptocurrency lending platform, has surged 5.8%. Yesterday, Nexo added support for Decentraland’s MANA, one of the most prominent assets in the metaverse category. (MANA jumped earlier this week as JPMorgan announced the opening of its virtual lounge in Decentraland)

Another leader of the day is Cosmos (ATOM), a cryptocurrency that powers an ecosystem of blockchains designed to scale and interoperate with each other. It is up by 4.64%. Additionally, protocols built on Cosmos have been actively airdropping their tokens, ​or sending them out to community members for free, to promote the project. Some of the latest include Comdex and Evmos.

Among today’s notable laggards is SushiSwap (SUSHI), a token powering the SushiSwap decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, 4.13% down. One of DeFi’s largest marketplaces has lately seen a few busted deals and suffered departures of some of its key leaders.

Further leads:

USDC Stablecoin Backer Circle Doubles in Value to $9B in New Deal With SPAC

NYSE moves closer to NFT trading with trademark application

Crypto Market Attracts Fed Scrutiny Over ‘Emerging Risks’