Crypto Week at a Glance: Bitcoin narrative continues along with adoption, and a bit of Musk

Bitcoin’s demand from major investors has been decreasing, as per data. Coinbase Pro, the professional trading body of US exchange Coinbase, reported outward movement of large tranches of Bitcoin from its books. Going by reports, the tranches even summed up to 30,000 BTC in a single day this week. March also had registered similar patterns.

The global story of Elon Musk putting an offer to buy Twitter has ramifications for the crypto ecosystem as well. We discuss this and other stories of the week below.

Musk tweets, then buys
Dogecoin (DOGE) proponent Elon Musk’s seemingly casual Twitter poll on whether the messaging platform adheres to the principles of free speech has assumed larger proportions. The top shareholders of Twitter couldn’t have possibly fathomed the subsequent turn of events. Musk went on to become the largest shareholder of Twitter by purchasing 9.2 per cent of Twitter stocks. He then rejected the offer to join the board after holding discussions with the firm’s directors. And, as a latest spin, Musk has offered to buy 100 per cent of Twitter shares to allow for faster product innovation.

If you are wondering what this has to do with DOGE, then here’s it. Twitter has a subscription service called Twitter Blue that allows users to undo tweets and has an option to edit the tweet within 20 seconds of tweeting. Recently, the Tesla CEO advocated for DOGE as one of the payment options for Blue, causing an 8 per cent gain in the asset. Additionally, Musk taking over Twitter is seen as a boon by a majority of crypto investors as he has been vocal about cracking down on the rampant scams that have been targeting amateur investors.

However, Twitter seems to have pushed back on the idea so far.

Terraform Labs gives $880 million to Luna
Terraform Labs (TFL), maker of Terra blockchain, has made a copious grant of 10 million LUNA, worth $820 million, to Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), a non-profit organisation. The new tranche of help comes after LFG got a $1.1 billion grant last week. LFG works to collateralise TFL’s stablecoin Terra to keep it pegged with the US dollar. The purpose of the fresh fund is still unknown even as the announcement was made on Twitter on Thursday.

Terra’s founder Do Kwon has the envious task of accruing $10 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to back UST’s reserves.

Partnerships to aid in adoption
Colombian delivery app Rappi has partnered with crypto assets company Bitpay and Bitso to launch a new crypto pilot program in Mexico. Rappi, which offers on-demand deliveries of food and other goods across Latin America, will allow users to turn crypto into credits within the app to make purchases. Rappi, which operates in Latin American countries, launched payment services in Mexico to challenge its rival firm MercadoLibre which has also acquired crypto firms recently.

Meanwhile, global payments company Mastercard has teamed up with crypto lending firm Nexo to launch a first-of-its-kind crypto payment card as digital assets continue to become more mainstream. The card will be reportedly available in a few European countries initially, allowing users to spend without having to sell their Bitcoin. The card is linked to a Nexo’s crypto-backed credit line and can be used at 92 million merchants worldwide where Mastercard is accepted.

Adobe offers Metaverse images: Buy, download and create
Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks apart, do you crave for those Metaverse photos? Or do you want to get a radiant NFT album? You can now download images from Adobe Stock or Pexels. For those not satiated by the downloads can unlock creativity and make some of their own using Photo Sphere or Spalsh apps.

Bitcoin predictions
In spite of all the reversals and the US inflation hitting an all-time high, analysts and investors are hopeful of a turnaround. Let us look at two key points: April 11 started with a reclaim of the $43,000 mark but it fell back below $40,000 the next day, its lowest level in weeks. Traders feel this is the ‘drop-to’ point from where a reversal is imminent.

Bitcoin’ network deficiency is bound to decrease by 0.4 per cent and with the coin’s self-maintaining paradigm working, the ‘difficulty’ will adjust downward, say analysts. The small size of the adjustment also indicates that miners too remain afloat in spite of the 10 per cent BTC/USD dip.

Large-volume investors are still looking for exposure and last week’s US Presidential order, to investigate various aspects of the crypto ecosystem, has not deterred them.

Top Gainers This Week – (as of 7PM, April 16, 2022)
1. Kyber Network Crystal v2 (KNC): 14 per cent

2. Audius (AUDIO): 12 per cent

3. ApeCoin (APE): 11 per cent

Top Losers This Week – (as of 7PM, April 16, 2022)
1. Mina (MINA): 26 per cent

2. Anchor Protocol (ANC): 24 per cent

3. Convex Finance (CVX): 17 per cent

(Note: Analysis includes top 100 cryptocurrencies only. Source: Coinmarketcap)

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)