As of 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Hong Kong, Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was trading at US$26,846, marking a 1.78% rise from May 12. Meanwhile, Ether increased by 2.44% over the week, trading at US$1,808. Both cryptocurrencies have been trading under considerable pressure, with Bitcoin consistently below US$30,000 since April 19 and Ether dipping under US$1,800 multiple times this week.
Tim Frost, the chief executive officer of digital wealth platform Yield App, suggested a bearish outlook for Bitcoin based on current trends. “Looking at the charts, Bitcoin is demonstrating a new bear flag pattern, indicating a potential downward trend with a target of approximately US$24,000,” Frost said. He added that a buying opportunity might arise around US$23,000, predicting a bounce if the market were to reach this level.
Crypto investors have been feeling the pressure of the potential US governmental default, which has been looming large over market sentiment this week. The US Treasury Department reiterated on Monday that it expects to default by June 1 without an increase in the debt limit. However, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy conveyed their commitment to raising the US$31.4 trillion debt ceiling on Wednesday.
In Europe, inflation rates accelerated to 7.0% in April from 6.9% a month earlier, primarily due to rising services and energy costs. The core inflation rate, excluding food and fuel, slowed to 7.3% from 7.5%. This surge in inflation, well above the European Central Bank’s 2% target, hints at possible further interest rate hikes.
Lido Finance, a liquid Ether staking protocol, saw its community vote in favor of the Lido V2 upgrade, which was executed on Monday. This upgrade allows Ether and staked Ether (stETH) withdrawals directly on the protocol. Following the upgrade, Lido’s stETH supply dropped by over 437,000 stETH on Wednesday, as per data from Dune Analytics.
The pace of Ordinals inscriptions, a version of non-fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain, slowed down this week after crossing a new milestone of 7 million inscriptions on Sunday. Nevertheless, the Bitcoin network remained congested with over 263,548 transactions waiting for validation as of 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Hong Kong.
This high demand for block space was primarily driven by the growth of BRC-20 tokens, a fungible token standard built on the Ordinals protocol. According to data provider BRC-20.io, the number of different BRC-20 types increased from 14,300 tokens on May 11 to 24,677 on Friday.
Cryptocurrency users were shaken when Ledger, a crypto wallet company, launched Ledger Recover, an optional recovery service for seed phrases. The launch caused widespread concern about a potential backdoor into users’ seed phrases. Ledger Chief Technology Officer Charles Guillemet tried to mitigate these fears, stating that “there is no backdoor for anyone, neither us, a provider or even a very gifted hacker to access it.”
As of Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, the global crypto market capitalization stood at US$1.12 trillion, up 1.8% from US$1.1 trillion a week ago, according to CoinMarketCap data. Bitcoin’s US$520 billion market cap accounted for 46.3% of the market, while Ether’s US$217 billion held a 19.4% share.
Among the top 100 coins by market capitalization listed on CoinMarketCap, the Render Network’s native cryptocurrency and the Mask Network’s governance token made the biggest gains this week. Render rallied 39.72% to US$2.42 after a promotional video for the Ethereum-based NFT collection, Pudgy Penguin, was animated using the Render network. Meanwhile, Mask Network’s token rose 25.23% to US$4.53 after the company announced its investment in The Open Network to further develop its decentralized social network.
In the coming week, investor focus will likely remain on the negotiations to increase the US$31.4 trillion U.S. debt ceiling. A potential deal might be reached as soon as next week, according to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Furthermore, the release of the minutes of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday and speeches from key figures such as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will provide further insights about the state of the world’s largest economy.
Finally, fans of Didit, a digital identity and metaverse solution, are eagerly awaiting the launch of the project’s protocol on Tuesday.
©traders-news.online
