The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization regained ground lost in a late Tuesday swoon. ALSO: Laguna Labs CEO Stefan Rust discusses Genesis and bitcoin’s short-term prospects in a CoinDesk Q&A.
Prices: Bitcoin regains lost ground to trade over $23K again.
Insights: Laguna Labs CEO Stefan Rust wrote in a CoinDesk Q&A that the Genesis Chapter 11 filing prompted a sigh of relief among many in the crypto industry and that bitcoin’s short-term price prospects depend on the size of the next Fed interest rate hike.
The overall market capitalization of stablecoins fell for a 10th consecutive month in January, to $137 billion, according to a report by research group CryptoCompare.
Stablecoin dominance within the broad cryptocurrency market dropped to 12.4% from its all-time high of 16.5% in December, suggesting traders have been rotating from stablecoins into riskier assets, CryptoCompare said.
Prices
Bitcoin’s Comeback to $23K
A Tuesday crypto market pullback turned into a Wednesday comeback as bitcoin soared past $23,700 before retreating slightly.
The largest cryptocurrency was recently trading at above $23,180, up more than 3.1% over the past 24 hours. BTC had sunk under $23,500 at one point Tuesday as investors reaped profits from the crypto’s recent surges.
Bitcoin has risen more than 35% largely on the tailwinds of declining inflation and economic data suggesting the economy will avoid a severe tailspin.
A slew of unfavorable fourth quarter earnings, including tech giants Microsoft and Texas Instruments and iconic aerospace company Boeing, seemed to derail at least the latter part of that narrative by Wednesday, sending stocks lower.
“The January stock market rally might be over and that could drag crypto lower here,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst for foreign exchange market maker Oanda, wrote in an email.
“Bitcoin could be vulnerable to a dip toward the $20,000 level if the tech-driven selloff on Wall Street intensifies over the next couple of days.”
Ether followed a similar pattern to bitcoin, rising from depths near the $1,500 threshold to return to its perch earlier this week above $1,618, a 5.4% gain from Tuesday, same time.
Most other major cryptos were in the green with APT, the token of Layer 1 blockchain Aptos, recently up more than 48% over the past 24 hours to hit an all-time high of $18.62.
APT is up over 425% since Jan. 1, according to CoinDesk data – the spike likely due to growth in non-fungible token markets on Aptos.
OPT, the native crypto of layer 2 network Optimism, also rose to a record high of $2.34, a nearly 20% gain from the previous day.
The CoinDesk Market Index (CDI), an index measuring cryptos’ performance, recently decreased about 4%.
Traditional markets traded sideways with the tech-heavy Nasdaq and S&P 500 down a smidgen of a percentage point as investors chewed over corporate results.
On Wednesday after markets closed, electric car manufacturer Tesla beat expectations for profits and revenue but struck a cautionary note about the impact of a possible economic contraction.
Meanwhile, crypto exchange giant Binance’s BUSD stablecoin extended its recent declines, amid mismanagement issues involving the exchange’s pegged tokens that surfaced earlier this month, and other debacles.
BUSD’s circulating supply fell to $15.4 billion on Wednesday, paring down $1 billion over the past week and $2 billion in a month, according to cryptocurrency price tracker CoinGecko.
The latest drop extended BUSD’s decline from $22 billion in early December when anxious users scrambled to withdraw funds from Binance after it botched a report about its digital asset reserves.
The drop has come as stablecoins’ overall market capitalization is down for a 10th consecutive month so far in January to $137 billion, according to a report by research group CryptoCompare.
Stablecoin dominance within the broad cryptocurrency market dropped to 12.4% from its all-time high of 16.5% in December, suggesting traders have been rotating from stablecoins into riskier assets, CryptoCompare said.
