Morning Coinheads!

The Bitcoin selloff is taking a breather, allowing the cryptocurrency to recover back above $30K. Bitcoin’s price has sunken, stone-like by more than 50 per cent from its all-time high back in November.

It’s Wednesday in Cryptoland. Let’s begin.

 

Crypto markets less volatile overnight as some traders stepped in to buy the dip

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price stabilised around US$30,000, which Coindesk says is the bottom of a year-long trading range.

The cryptocurrency appears to be oversold, similar to what occurred in late January, which preceded a brief relief rally. Still, some analysts are cautious, pointing to risks in the stablecoin market.

 

Quietly suggesting, or just Yellen?

On Tuesday, Stateside, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen chatted ongoing mega-distress in ye olde stablecoin UST during her cracking testimony before a Senate panel. Yellen’s session came only a few hours after the supposedly US dollar-pegged token crashed to a low of $0.61 over the past 24 hours, triggering at least one platform to halt trading it.

“I think that simply illustrates that this is a rapidly growing product, and that there are risks to financial stability, and we need a framework that’s appropriate,” Yellen suggested.

 

Not bored anymore

Purportedly blue-chip NFT collections like, umm I’d suggest – Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) – which, at least for a few exciting moments, swung higher than the rest of the crypto market, are now getting right-whacked by the unholy rout souring crypto-sentiment. BAYC’s average sales price plummeted 29% over the last seven days in US dollar terms, while transactions have tanked by 21% and user numbers are down 27%, according to NFT watchers Price Floor and DappRadar.

 

Token prices slide and slide

Yes tokens have been sliding and slipping during the focused selloff on the Nasdaq and for tech on the traditional markets. The troubles surrounding the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD, have exacerbated traders doubts, according to CoinMarketCap.

The average sales price for the Otherdeeds NFT collection by Yuga Labs — the same creator of the BAYC NFT collection — sank 23% in the last seven days, according to NFT Price Floor. Average sale prices for Moonbirds, a collection of owl-themed NFTs, also dropped 19%.

A token tied to BAYC, dubbed ApeCoin and distributed to BAYC holders in March, is also down about 36% this week.

 

Public blockchain KuCoin aims to solve high gas fees on Ethereum

Ethereum’s woefully high gas costs have made it untenable for the network to ‘demonstrate its full utility’, reports CoinTelegraph.

Decentralised finance (DeFi) might be booming… but despite the fact that Ethereum (ETH), arguably, the main accelerator of DeFi, achieved its goal of becoming the world’s most programmable blockchain, its widespread usage has also highlighted the network’s greatest weakness –– scalability.

Congestion has become commonplace on the network, resulting in super-high gas fees. That’s a big problem because it’s simply making it impossible for projects to run micro-transaction payments on Ethereum.