Despite the ongoing cypto bear market, many top cryptocurrencies posted double-digit percentage gains over the week.
Bitcoin was not so lucky. Bitcoin is up just 5.5% in the past seven days and is currently trading at $24,460 according to CoinMarketCap.
Ethereum has seen a much stronger recovery. The second crypto-currency and leading blockchain for high-functionality smart contracts is up 16% in the past week to $1,984 at the time of writing, after peaking at $2,012 late Friday night .
The excitement around ETH is about the upcoming merger, when Ethereum moves to a more energy-efficient proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. Goerli, the third and final Ethereum testnet, successfully switched on Wednesday evening.
On Monday, data from Glassnode revealed that Ethereum derivatives traders are “extremely bullish” for September, the month of the merger, but will tip lower in October.
During Coinbase’s most recent earnings conference call, the company reaffirmed the importance of staking to its pre-merger business model. A recent letter to shareholders reads: “In early August, we began offering Ethereum staking to institutional clients for the first time. We will continue to add new assets for staking, both for our retail and institutional clients. »
Bitcoin and Ethereum prices reacted positively to this month’s inflation reading of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. Inflation remains unchanged from last month at 8.5%, a clear sign that the US Federal Reserve’s historic interest rate hikes this year are keeping prices in check.
How altcoins fared
Several “Ethereum killers”, i.e. Tier 1 blockchains with high-functionality smart contracts, have seen strong rises: Avalanche (AVAX) has seen a staggering 55% rise over the week, until he gave up much of his gains on Friday night as ETH surged. Much of the momentum was due to the strong growth of NFTs on the blockchain. Read also: NEAR’s USN is live now! Will the price of NEAR go up by $20?. As of Saturday morning, AVAX had risen just 15% in the past seven days and was trading at $29.53.
Other Ethereum rivals rose over the seven days: Solana (SOL) rose 14% to $46.32; NEAR Protocol jumped 18% to $5.89, and FLOW was up 11% to $2.92.
Additionally, Chainlink (LINK) is up 15.4% to $9.16, and Ethereum Classic (ETC) – which hit a four-month high this week – is up 16% to $44.25.
There were no major losses among the main coins.
Bear Market News
The crypto winter chill has shown few signs of easing this week. See also: Do you have ETH? You should forget the $1000 price of Ethereum and prepare for $600..
Monday, the stock Exchange Singaporean Hodlnaut has joined fellow lenders Vauld and Celsius and Singaporean exchange Zipmex on the list of cryptocurrency companies that have suspended customer withdrawals due to “recent market conditions”.
Earlier this year, Hodlnaut received Approval-in-Principle (IPA) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) “to provide Digital Payment Token (DPT) services as a primary payment institution.” The lender has now reportedly notified the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) that it is withdrawing its license application and therefore no longer providing its Token Swap functionality.
On Tuesday, German crypto bank Nuri filed for insolvency, saying the move was “necessary to ensure the safest path for all our customers.” Despite the procedure, Nuri said customers still have “guaranteed access” to their euro accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.
The bank said the moves were due to “significant macroeconomic headwinds,” particularly the pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine, as well as “various negative developments” in the sector, “including sales massive cryptocurrencies, the implosion of the Luna/Terra protocol, the insolvency of Celsius and other major Crypto funds. »
On Tuesday, Zipmex announced that it is unblocking Bitcoin and Ethereum withdrawals. Users can withdraw bitcoins since Friday; Ethereum holders will have to wait until next Tuesday, August 15th.
Finally, in a Friday hearing in Celsius’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, lawyers representing a panel of unsecured creditors attempted to block Celsius’ attempts to sell its mined cryptocurrency. In a court filing, the lawyers said they first needed to know more about how the sale of Celsius’s bitcoin mines will be carried out and what the proceeds of the sale will be used for.
Celsius Mining is the bitcoin mining subsidiary of Celsius Network. On July 14, a day after the parent company filed for bankruptcy, the mining operation also filed for bankruptcy.
Celsius has already said it will use its mining business to pay off its creditors. At the start of bankruptcy proceedings in July, Celsius received approval to spend $5 million to launch its mining business, a move that drew criticism from the US Department of Justice and now the creditors’ committee .
The commission also said it was launching a “wide-ranging investigation” and that it planned to invoke the 2004 bankruptcy rule.
All in all, a good week for crypto, but not so good for a few crypto companies.
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