The crypto market opened trading this week on a bearish note, with most assets bleeding. After soaring as high as $52,853.76 in the past week, Bitcoin (BTC) failed to maintain its bullish momentum and slipped back to $45,206.63 on Monday. At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization is changing hands at $45,351.24 after gaining 1.25% in 24 hours.
As is the norm in the crypto market, BTC’s performance has a ripple effect that triggers gains or losses in altcoins. As such, coins in the top-10, except Polkadot (DOT) Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC), have registered double-digit losses over the past seven days. With this dull performance spreading beyond the top-10 leading coins, one coin stood out.
Floki Inu (FLOKI), a Dogecoin (DOGE) offshoot that came to be after Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, disclosed that he would name his Shiba Inu pet Floki, gained over 100%. The coin’s gains came after Musk tweeted that Floki had arrived and posted a picture of the pet. Floki surged to set a new all-time high (ATH) at $0.00004332 yesterday, before correcting downward to $0.00003557, at the time of writing.
Apart from the performance of the crypto market, there have been several interesting events in the crypto space over the past week. These include,
Walmart quashes news of a partnership with the Litecoin Foundation
Walmart, an American retail giant, refuted an announcement that it had partnered with the Litecoin Foundation to accept Litecoin (LTC) for payments. Initially revealed by a GlobeNewswire press release, this news saw LTC gain as much as 30%. However, the cryptocurrency plunged once Randy Hargrove, Walmart’s representative, said the organization had no knowledge of the news release and was false.
Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs fetch $24M at Sotheby’s auction
A set of 101 NFTs representing cartoon apes from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection sold in a Sotheby’s auction for $24.4 million on Thursday. Reportedly, this amount exceeded Sotheby’s presale estimates of $12 and $18 million, indicating the NFT craze is far from over. The collection also featured three M1 and M2 serums that offered the buyer a chance to generate six new Mutant Ape NFTs.
Coinbase shares plunge as the SEC plans to sue the exchange
Yesterday, Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, revealed that the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to sue the exchange if it goes ahead to launch its lending service dubbed Coinbase Lend. Per Coinbase, this service will let Coinbase lend user funds to borrowers and offer them an interest of up to 4% annually. Following Armstrong’s disclosure, Coinbase’s shares (COIN) plunged by 3.2%.
Robinhood launches recurring crypto purchase feature
American financial services company Robinhood launched a recurring crypto purchase feature on Wednesday, allowing users to purchase a plethora of digital assets seamlessly. According to the firm, this feature allows users to buy crypto worth as little as $1 commission-free on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Through this feature, Robinhood seeks to help its customers bolster their crypto holdings over a long time while minimizing volatility.
