Bitcoin and Ether experienced a downturn on Thursday morning in Asia, accompanied by other leading non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin momentarily slid under the $28,500 mark, while Ether’s tumble brought it beneath the significant $1,800 mark. Altcoins like Dogecoin, Solana, and Ripple saw the steepest declines.
On a brighter note, Coinbase Global secured the green light to introduce crypto futures to American individual investors. Although the Forkast 500 NFT Index was in the red, the overall market vibe still appears optimistic, given the sustained rise in worldwide transactions. The previous day saw mixed trading for U.S. equity futures.
The recent release of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting minutes regarding interest rates has somewhat clouded the equity landscape, hinting at possibly prolonged high rates or even a subsequent increase.
Recent Turbulence in the Crypto Sector
Over the past day, Bitcoin’s value decreased by 0.95% to US$28,551.83 as of 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong. This was after it shortly dipped under the $28,500 mark. According to CoinMarketCap, the crypto with the highest market value saw a 3.51% drop over the week.
Ether’s value also declined by 1.80% to US$1,794.91, going below the notable $1,800 mark, marking a 3.28% decline over the week. All other top non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies also saw a decline, with Dogecoin taking the hardest hit among the top 10, losing 5.01% to US$0.06731 over the week. Solana wasn’t far behind, with a decline of 4.25% to US$22.83 and a weekly loss of 5.98%.
Alex Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at the London-based FxPro online brokerage, shared in an email that major currencies have been more resilient than their smaller counterparts. He also highlighted the impact of the rising U.S. Treasury yields on riskier assets. However, the crypto market has also witnessed some positive developments.
The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase Global, recently announced its approval from the National Futures Association to introduce crypto futures to American retail investors. This was previously a privilege only for institutional clients. Coinbase described this move as a “watershed moment,” despite ongoing legal challenges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
NFT Transactions Reach New Highs
The indexes are proxy measures of the performance of the global NFT market. They are managed by CryptoSlam, a sibling entity to Forkast.News within the Forkast.Labs group.
The central Forkast 500 NFT index has seen a 0.76% decrease over the past day, sitting at 2457.08 as of 08:45 a.m. in Hong Kong. This index has seen a 1.23% decline over the week. Forkast’s Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano NFT indexes have seen downturns, but Polygon’s index showed gains.
NFT trading volumes have reduced by 7.72% over the past 24 hours to US$15.01 million, according to data from CryptoSlam. Trading volumes on blockchains like Ethereum, Polygon, and ImmutableX saw decreases, but Solana and Mythos experienced gains.
Wednesday marked a significant milestone, with global NFT transactions hitting an all-time high of 617,619, a rise from 595,209 on the preceding day. Yehudah Petscher, an NFT strategist at Forkast Labs, expressed immense optimism about the NFT market, which he believes is rapidly evolving.
He emphasized the significance of transactions over sales volume as a measure of the NFT market’s health. According to him, the NFT market is thriving, largely due to the reduction in NFT prices. The average price for a single NFT is now at US$22.08, a drop from US37.85 the previous week.
