Bitcoin, and crypto in general, are holding up okay – despite China’s shaky Evergrande property situation continuing to cast a shadow over global markets.

Evergrande’s shares were suspended from trading today after a missed interest payment on its US$300 billion+ debt bill. This, and a few other things, are causing macro-market unease, from which crypto is most certainly not immune.

After its recent flurry of positive moves in the past few days, pullback or consolidation for Bitcoin and friends was always likely on the cards regardless of what’s happening in China. It’s now had a bit of both, and, right now, the bulls are still well in play.

The combined crypto market cap is currently down by about half a percentage point compared to this time yesterday, and sitting at US$2.2 trillion.

Bitcoin (BTC) had earlier slipped back below US$48K but, in the course of writing this update, it’s rollercoasted up again, changing hands for US$48,671.

It’s been facing strong resistance around the mid-48K zone (as seen in Lark’s tweet below)… so let’s see if it can turn it into support this time.

Meanwhile, analyst Mickrypto notes that the OG asset, which is still the barometer for most of the crypto market’s health, had fallen below its exponential moving average support line. If it fails to get back above and hold, bullish momentum will be lost.

All short-term thinking, that – so if you’re a long-term Bitcoin believer, the old “zoom out and chill out” is definitely an option worth considering.

As for the crypto market’s go-to sentiment tracker, the Fear & Greed Index, it’s in Switzerland at the time of writing – neutral territory. If the stock market takes further dips, bringing crypto down, too, then it might be back pointing left and with a scared look in its eyes by this time tomorrow.

Meanwhile, gold bug Peter Schiff’s been listening to St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard talk up the US-dollar inflation narrative today, which helps his own narrative…

And the laser-focused Bitcoin maxis won’t mind it, either (not that the BTC-despising Schiff would be down with that alignment).

 

Mooners and shakers: ETH, LUNA, Axie Infinity and more

Elsewhere in the market today, beginning with the most influential “altcoin” in existence – Ethereum (ETH). The no.2 crypto by market cap is down 2.4 per cent since this time yesterday, currently changing hands for US$3,331.

A little dip doesn’t tend to worry the ETH bulls, though…

Moving down the top 10 list, Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), XRP and Polkadot (DOT) are all having a “meh” kinda day, about 3 per cent down in the past 24 hours.

Terra (LUNA), just scraping into the 1st XI, however, is partying on, practically in double-digit percentage-gain territory.

The Terra protocol has been surging in recent days on the back of its successful Columbus-5 mainnet upgrade and a fast-growing ecosystem with partnerships galore.

The upgrade has reportedly brought deflationary pressure to LUNA coins, effectively introducing scarcity, while also integrating the Terra Luna ecosystem with the Cosmos (ATOM) Stargate protocol. This is an interoperability play, enabling the transfer of digital assets across multiple blockchains.

And, just to sweeten the deal further for LUNA holders, staking yield just increased, too. Well… supposedly…

Another notable gainer further down the list is play-to-earn NFT game Axie Infinity (AXS) which, a handful of hours ago, hit another all-time high, reaching US$155.88. It’s currently changing hands for US$144.83, up 24.6% since this time yesterday and 126% in the past week.

Some observers reckon the coin might be “overheating” after yet another pump, with some charting technicals showing a possible reason to exercise caution.

Last week, the play-to-earn gaming project announced it was distributing more than US$60 million worth of tokens to its early adopters, plus the launch of staking functionality.

Other coins well up today include: Shiba Inu (SHIB) +27.33%; Dapper Labs’ Flow (FLOW) +11.5%; UFO Gaming (UFO) +24.93%; and Polkadot launchpad Polkastarter (POLS) +17%.

Polkadot is a blockchain to keep an eye on, having comparatively missed out on the sorts of “layer 1” protocol gains Avalanche, Solana, Cardano and others were enjoying not so long ago.

Its time may well come again, especially with its project-specific blockchains (parachains) expected to integrate into its ecosystem soon.

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