Crypto market update
There seems to be a strong correlation again between traditional financial markets and crypto market. Financial markets are now falling back mainly in response to comments yesterday from the Fed suggesting that the US central bank will tighten more in its efforts to tame runaway inflation and s new round of anti-Russian sanctions is also of some concern. The cryptocurrency market has taken a u-turn in the past couple of days as prices tumble across the board. Most assets are trading well in the red, with BTC crashing below $44K. PlatonCoin is trading on a relatively flat line, unlike most of the altcoins, some of which are reporting double digit losses.
Bitcoin (BTC) is now trading at 43,473 USD down by 3,9% in 24h
Ethereum (ETH) is now for 3,231USD down by 3,2% in 24h
PlatonCoin (PLTC) is now for 0,688 USD down by 0.3% in 24h
Total marketcap is currently at 2.103 trillion USD down by 4.2% in 24h
(all data valid at the time of publishing, from Coingecko.com)
Daily news update
Bitcoin and miners: A recent report has shown that nearly one-fifth of the total share of Bitcoin’s (BTC) hash rate now belongs to publicly-listed mining companies. The report, published by Arcane Research, details that publicly-listed Bitcoin mining companies now account for 19% of Bitcoin’s total hash rate, growing considerably from a mere 3% in January.
Meta and own tokens: Meta Platforms (Facebook) is preparing to integrate cryptocurrencies into its family of apps, with the goal of using them to reward creators and to facilitate lending and other financial activities. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Meta is considering creating “Zuck Bucks,” a virtual currency that consumers can use across its apps, as the British lender expands its presence in the $800 billion virtual reality sector.
Vitalik Buterin and Ukraine: Cryptocurrency has proven a practical method to aid the invaded people and military in their struggle. In the largest of such donations, the Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has contributed to the effort with a total of $5 million in crypto. Specifically, Buterin donated 750 Ethereum (ETH) to Unchain Fund, a charity project created by blockchain activists to support Ukraine with humanitarian aid, the fund tweeted on April 6.
Russia, CBDC and sanctions: Anton Gorelkin, a lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, had suggested that Russian companies and individual entrepreneurs should be allowed to make payments in digital currencies, including for settlements with foreign partners. He thinks the establishment of a Russian national crypto infrastructure in response to the sanctions introduced by the West is inevitable. Central bank officials are convinced, however, that transfers of large amounts of money in cryptocurrency by Russian businesses would not be feasible. Quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency, Yudaeva pointed out that regulatory authorities in the EU, U.S., U.K., Japan, and Singapore have started to implement preventive measures.