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Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:
Prices: Bitcoin drops below $29.5K as investors' appetite for riskier assets lessens.
Insights: What crypto projects are solving particularly important problems? Consensus Magazine presents 19 that bear watching in 2023.
Prices
|
$29,387
−578.8 1.9%
|
$2,074
−19.2 0.9%
|
1,288
−20.5 1.6%
|
|
S&P 500
4,151.32
+13.7 0.3%
|
Gold
$2,011
+16.4 0.8%
|
Nikkei 225
28,514.78
+21.3 0.1%
|
BTC/ETH prices per CoinDesk Indices, as of 7 a.m. ET (11 a.m. UTC)
Is Bitcoin Entering a New Range?
Following a week of upward momentum that saw Bitcoin rise above $30,000, the cryptocurrency experienced a dip below this significant psychological threshold.
Currently, the leading cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization is trading at approximately $29,400, representing a 1.9% decline over the past 24 hours. At one point, BTC fell below the $29,300 mark as banking concerns eased, treasury yields increased, and investors moved away from more high-risk assets.
"Cryptos are losing some appeal as banking turmoil risks appear to be disappearing," Edward Moya, senior analyst at foreign exchange market maker Oanda, wrote in an email. "Fed lending to banks continues to ease and earnings has not revealed any major strains with the early banks that have reported. Also dampening the appeal for crypto is the surge behind Treasury yields, which is dampening the appeal for most risky assets.
Moya noted that a number of major banks reported solid first quarter earnings, including Wells Fargo and Citigroup and that "emergency lending is decreasing."
"The mid-and small banks are about to report and while we are about to see some serious deposit outflows, the focus is not about bank solvency, but on banking profitability," Moya wrote.
Ether is currently trading at around $2,075, representing a slight decrease. As the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value, it has yet to experience any significant negative impacts from the recent Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, which marks the final stage in the blockchain platform's shift from a proof-of-work to a more environmentally-friendly proof-of-stake protocol.
Other significant cryptocurrencies are experiencing minor declines. ARB, the token of Arbitrum, a layer 2 Ethereum scaling protocol, and ADA, the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano blockchain, have both recently decreased by approximately 3%. The CoinDesk Market Index, which reflects the overall performance of the crypto markets, has fallen by 1.6%.
Investors are closely analyzing positive bank earnings and the potential for the U.S. central bank to continue raising interest rates to combat inflation, leading to slight gains in equity markets. This prescription seemed less likely in the near banking meltdown that occurred last month. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield has increased for three consecutive days, reaching 3.59%, while gold, which came close to reaching its all-time high a week ago, has declined slightly to just above $2,000.
Oanda's Moya was wary about bitcoin's near-future path forward. "Bitcoin looks like it might be consolidating, possibly settling on a new range between the $26,500 and $31,000 region," he wrote.
Biggest Gainers
| Asset | Ticker | Returns | DACS Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decentraland | MANA | +7.3% | Entertainment |
| Gala | GALA | +5.0% | Entertainment |
| Loopring | LRC | +4.3% | Smart Contract Platform |
Biggest Losers
| Asset | Ticker | Returns | DACS Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cosmos | ATOM | −4.0% | Smart Contract Platform |
| Solana | SOL | −3.9% | Smart Contract Platform |
| Cardano | ADA | −2.7% | Smart Contract Platform |
Insights
Crypto Innovation Thrives: Here Are 19 Projects to Watch
For the past three years the Pew Research Center has polled Americans about their exposure to cryptocurrency. The percentage of people who have “ever invested in, traded or used a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin or ether” has remained roughly 16% since 2020. But this spring, Pew sought to identify how people feel about crypto. Among the 88% who have ever heard of cryptocurrency, 75% are “not very or not at all confident that cryptocurrencies are reliable or safe.” Only 6% are very confident.
Trust in crypto is very low.
Investors are closely analyzing positive bank earnings and the potential for the U.S. central bank to continue raising interest rates to combat inflation, leading to slight gains in equity markets. This prescription seemed less likely in the near banking meltdown that occurred last month. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield has increased for three consecutive days, reaching 3.59%, while gold, which came close to reaching its all-time high a week ago, has declined slightly to just above $2,000.
It's evident that 2022 was the opposite of what crypto was originally intended for when it was created in 2009 as a solution to the broken global financial system, rather than to enrich sharks and charlatans. Bitcoin's primary goal was to enable peer-to-peer transactions, circumventing slow, expensive, and intrusive bank transfers. By resolving the issue of trusted intermediaries, Bitcoin facilitated quicker and more affordable transactions, making them more accessible to everyone.
The CoinDesk team embarked on a search for projects that embody the essence of crypto by providing solutions to real problems. During our brainstorming sessions, we discussed potential issues that could be addressed using crypto and categorized them into two groups: problems within the crypto ecosystem and problems in the world at large.
The team then delved into the details of the projects that aimed to address the identified problems. After reviewing a list of over 35 potential projects, we narrowed down our selection to 19. Some of these projects are still in the pre-launch phase, while others have been established for years. The funding for these projects ranges from bootstrapped to tens of millions of dollars, with some receiving undisclosed support from a parent foundation or project. We purposely did not impose strict restrictions or parameters on these projects, as the crypto industry comprises various forms of organizations, from traditional startups to DAOs to major corporations. Despite the crypto industry's multibillion-dollar valuations, many of its brands remain relatively unknown to the general public due to its newness.
The CoinDesk team searched for innovative ideas, compelling proposals, and evidence of success, as well as talented and dedicated individuals. Additionally, the problems that the projects aimed to address had to be genuine and in need of solutions. These solutions could not simply be a crypto adaptation of something that is adequately managed in traditional finance, nor could they be purely intended for speculation or entertainment purposes.
Source Coindesk
