Bitcoin Price: US$ 24,670.41 (+2.31%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,699.40 (+1.55%)
The US Federal Reserve is facing a dilemma between two options: either continuing the pace of rate hikes despite the declining inflation rate, or reversing course due to the financial instability caused by the decline in the value of bond portfolios, affecting banking institutions and depositors. The crypto market seems to favor the latter option, as bitcoin and ether prices have increased by 5% and 4%, respectively, following the release of Tuesday’s inflation data. Meanwhile, trading in bitcoin options on Deribit has surged, with $2.4 billion worth of options changing hands in the past 24 hours, and bitcoin seeing its highest liquidations in two months, with over $100 million worth of bets against a rise in prices being liquidated on Monday.
Bitcoin’s value rose over 11% to over $24,700, reaching a three-week high, following two key crypto-friendly banks’ shutdowns and USD coin’s depegging from the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, over $100 million worth of bitcoin shorts were liquidated on Monday, which was the highest amount in two months. In other news, the final test run for Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade, or Shapella, was conducted on the Goerli test network. However, the upgrade’s activation on the mainnet blockchain was delayed as there was only a 29% validator participation rate during the test.
A wallet named after Vitalik Buterin spent 500 ETH, worth over $700,000, to mint RAI stablecoin and purchased USDC while it traded below its $1 peg. The wallet labeled vitalik.eth was created seven years ago and held more than 5,360 ether as of Tuesday.
MetaMask, the web3 wallet app, has released a new version of its extension, labeled “10.25.0,” with features aimed at enhancing user privacy and control. The new version allows users to choose different settings during setup, including the option to enter their own node details, turn off incoming transactions, phishing detection, and enhanced token detection. In addition, users can now turn off features that require data to be sent to third parties, such as Etherscan and jsDeliver. Meanwhile, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced another round of layoffs, cutting around 10,000 more workers across multiple waves in the coming months. This comes after the company scrapped plans for NFT support, suggesting it is feeling the sting of changing tech trends and rough market conditions.
Bitcoin surged past $26,000 following the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) print, which showed inflation in the US remains high. The CPI rose 6% in the 12 months through February, tracking price movements across a range of goods and services. Meanwhile, web3 wallet provider Metamask’s swaps volume hit an all-time high over the weekend, with people making significant moves in response to uncertainty over the fall of crypto-friendly banks Silvergate and Signature.
Source:
https://cointelegraph.com
https://coindesk.com
https://decrypt.co
https://theblock.co
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