Cryptocurrencies surged as hopes of a diplomatic solution to the geopolitical crisis in eastern Europe strengthened after positive indications from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Earlier, prices had dropped as the red-hot inflation in the U.S. and the unabated political situation in eastern Europe dampened investor sentiment in favor of digital currencies. Annual inflation in the U.S. in February came in at a 40-year high of 7.9 percent.
Cryptocurrency market capitalization is hovering near $1.77 trillion.
Asian markets mostly slumped tracking overnight losses in Wall Street. Dollar index ranged between 98.27 and 98.81. Gold also oscillated between $1965 and $2004.
Bitcoin slipped to a low of $38,347 but has recovered to trade near $39,389.
Ethereum too returned to green zone after treading to a low of $2534.69. ETH is now trading near $2630.
6th ranked Terra (Luna) too jumped more than 3 percent overnight amidst a surge in staked value. As per data published by stakingrewards.com which tracks 261 yield-baring assets, staked value of Terra (Luna) is at $31.7 billion, a tad below the $32.1 billion attributed to Solana (SOL) and way ahead of the $25.1 billion on account of Ethereum 2.0.
Luna, the staking coin of the Terra network had touched an all-time high of $104.58 on March 9. It is currently trading at $96.72, seven percent below the recent ATH.
10th ranked Avalanche (AVAX) has gained more than 4 percent in the past 24 hours.
12th ranked Polkadot (DOT) is trading at $18.05, having risen more than 7 percent in the past 24 hours.
36th ranked Elrond (EGLD) surged 4 percent after the Romania-based blockchain announced that it received in-principle nod from Romania’s central bank for acquiring payments firm Twispay.
At current levels of market capitalization, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), BNB (BNB), Terra (LUNA), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA),Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX), Polkadot (DOT), Dogecoin (DOGE), TerraUSD (UST), Polygon (MATIC), Cosmos (ATOM), Litecoin (LTC), and NEAR Protocol (NEAR) are the top-ranking crypto coins.
In the tokens category, Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD), SHIBA INU (SHIB), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Dai (DAI), Cronos (CRO), Chainlink (LINK), Uniswap (UNI), FTX Token (FTT), UNUS SED LEO (LEO), Decentraland (MANA), Bitcoin BEP2 (BTCB), The SandBox (SAND) and Axie Infinity (AXS) rank in the order of market capitalization.
In the category-wise market capitalization dominance, Smart Contracts aggregate to 26.76 percent; Stablecoins dominate 10.45 percent; DeFi is at 8.02 percent; Centralized Exchanges add up to 5.10 percent; Web 3 sums up to 2.78 percent; Research grosses 2.02 percent; NFTs account for 1.98 percent; Memes command 1.63 percent; Scaling enjoys 1.34 percent; Metaverse commands 1.31 percent; Decentralized Exchanges amount to 1.28 percent; while Gaming follows with 1.21 percent market capitalization.
Blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos, on Thursday announced it has received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), to operate digital payments token services under the Payment Services Act 2019.
The U.S. Department of Labor, in a Compliance Assistance Release dated 10, March, has cautioned plan fiduciaries to exercise extreme care before adding a cryptocurrency option to a 401(k) plan’s investment menu for plan participants. The DoL report cites several reasons including speculative nature of cryptos, the extreme volatility, the challenge for plan participants to make informed investment decisions, custodial and recordkeeping concerns, valuation concerns as well as the evolving regulatory environment to proceed with such an advisory.
Annual inflation in the U.S. spiking to a 40-year high would exert tremendous pressure on the Federal Reserve to combat inflation more forcefully. The likely spike in inflation on account of the surge in commodity and fuel prices in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the last week of February would also heavily influence central bank strategy and rate action.
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