Cryptos Drop Ahead Of Release Of FOMC Minutes

Cryptocurrencies extended losses, declining more than two percent on an overnight basis, amidst a broad-based decline in stock markets worldwide ahead of the release of the minutes of the previous FOMC minutes later on Wednesday. Sentiment remained muted amidst recent data that showcased a robust economy and renewed rate hike fears. The proceedings of the FOMC are expected to reveal the extent of the Fed’s inclination to continue raising rates further.

Overall crypto market capitalization ranged between $1.12 trillion and $1.08 trillion in the past 24 hours. It is currently at $1.09 trillion, down 2.2 percent on an overnight basis.

Bitcoin (BTC) has shed 2.2 percent in the past 24 hours and is currently trading at $24,092.72. BTC is holding on to gains of 6 percent in the past week and 45 percent on a year-to-date basis. The lead cryptocurrency which dominates more than 42 percent of the overall crypto market ranged between $24,752.79 and $23,902.54 in the past 24 hours.

Ethereum (ETH) too lost 1.9 percent overnight and is currently changing hands at $1,644.56. Ether is however still holding on to gains of 4 percent on a weekly basis and 37 percent on a year-to-date basis. The lead alternate coin which commands more than 18 percent of the overall crypto market ranged between $1,682.59 and $1,628.69 in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation has announced that the Shapella network upgrade which would combine changes to the execution layer (Shanghai), consensus layer (Capella) and the Engine API would activate on the Sepolia network at epoch 56832, scheduled for 4:04:48 AM UTC on Feb. 28, 2023. The upgrade would enable validators to withdraw their stake from the Beacon Chain back to the execution layer.

4th ranked BNB (BNB) has lost 1.5 percent overnight whereas 6th ranked XRP (XRP) is more than a quarter percent below the flatline. 7th ranked Cardano (ADA) declined 2.7 percent and also topped weekly losses among the top 10 cryptos with a decline of 1.8 percent.

Binance USD (BUSD) the stablecoin which had to face action by the SEC earlier in the month has slipped to a market capitalization of $12.4 billion and an overall ranking of 8. Reuters had earlier reported that the company is in constructive discussions with the SEC, after it received a Wells notice from the regulator.

9th ranked Polygon (MATIC) extended losses with a 3.3 percent decline. 10th ranked Dogecoin (DOGE) dropped a little more than a percent.

91st ranked Ankr (ANKR) surged almost 50 percent in the past 24 hours after the announcement that tech giant Microsoft has partnered with Ankr Network to launch a hosting service.

52nd ranked Stacks (STX) followed with overnight gains of more than 20 percent. The 150-percent surge recorded in the crypto coin in the past week has been attributed to the steady growth of NFT network activity on the Stacks blockchain.

92nd ranked SingularityNET (AGIX) was the biggest laggard with an overnight decline of more than 12 percent. AGIX has however rallied 750 percent in 2023.

Topping weekly and year-to-date gains is 79th ranked Conflux (CFX). Conflux is a first layer consensus blockchain that utilizes a unique Tree-Graph consensus algorithm, enabling the parallel processing of blocks and transactions for increased throughput and scalability. It also claims to be the only regulatory compliant, public, and permissionless blockchain in China.

The crypto coin tagged to the Payments, Research and Web 3 industries recorded a gain of 284 percent in the past week and 1158 percent in 2023. The coin, currently tagged to the NFTs and Collectibles, Smart Contracts, Staking and DeFi categories touched a 52-week high of $0.3595 on February 21. The rally in the coin comes amidst the integration with Little Red Book, the Chinese equivalent of Instagram and reports of partnership with China’s Telecom as well as Shanghai government. CFX has however shed 7 percent in the past 24 hours.

67th ranked ImmutableX (IMX) dropped 17 percent in the past week. Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the Australian blockchain gaming firm has cut 11 percent of its staff in the second round of layoffs since the end of July.

23rd ranked UNUS SED LEO (LEO) is the only crypto currency among the top 100 to trade with losses of more than 1 percent in 2023. The token has lost more than 5 percent on a year-to-date basis.

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