Late good morning, Coinheads, on this International Women’s Day. Presumably you’ve checked your portfolio, wondered why Bitcoin’s a bit down and have gone searching for an answer. You probably already know that a 70-year-old American bloke called Jerome Powell has it.

Sorta. It’s a mixed bag from the generally hawkish US Federal Reserve boss, who was speaking before the Senate Banking Committee in Washington. Why should crypto pay attention to him at all, though? He’s not wearing a hoodie. It’s because “you can’t fight the Fed”, basically.

US stocks took a dive overnight (AEDT) on the back of Powell’s overall tone about ongoing interest rate hikes, with the suggestion that economic data from February could show a higher-than-expected increase in inflation.

“If the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes.”

As expected, markets didn’t like that. And as for his thoughts on crypto?

He essentially thinks it’s a hot mess, citing the turmoil of the past year and believes financial institutions need to tread with caution when it comes to the asset class and that regulators need to provide a “workable framework” for the industry. Guess he’s not wrong on that score.

He did also say the following, though:

“We have to be open to the idea that – somewhere in there – there is technology that can be featured in productive innovation that makes people’s lives better. We don’t want to stifle innovation.”

Righto then. “So you’re telling us there’s a chance… yeaaaaahhhhh!”

Onto the daily price action…

 

Top 10 overview

With the overall crypto market cap at US$1.06 trillion, down about 1.5% since this time yesterday, here’s the current state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin and pals have, of course, followed the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones into dip city today post Fed speak. No surprises there.

Exchange coin OKB, though, that’s taken the biggest hit with a double-digit loss. Can’t see any particular news to support sending that one lower than the rest of the majors. That said, exchange tokens… they’re not exactly not the most confidence-inspiring sector of crypto.

As for the big two cryptos, BTC and ETH, let’s see what some of the usual-suspect Crypto Twitter analysts we turn to are saying…

https://twitter.com/eddyiskongz/status/1633219771583041540

Uppers and downers: 11–100

Sweeping a market-cap range of about US$8.87 billion to about US$425 million in the rest of the top 100, let’s find some of the biggest 24-hour gainers and losers at press time. (Stats accurate at time of publishing, based on CoinGecko.com data.)

DAILY PUMPERS

• Conflux (CFX), (market cap: US$438 million) +7%

• Curve DAO (CRV), (mc: US$731 million) +2%

• ImmutableX (IMX), (mc: US$903 million) +2%

• Uniswap (UNI), (mc: US$4.8 million) +1%

• LEO Token (LEO), (mc: US$3.15 billion) +1%

 

The gaming and NFT-focused layer 2 Ethereum blockchain ImmutableX is home to the Illuvium games ecosystem, which is currently in the midst of its Illuvium: Beyond sale of its Illuvitars NFTs. Anticipation for these has been attracting some buzz in the Web3 gaming sector.

As ImmutableX co-founder Robbie Ferguson notes, the last time Illuvium carried out an NFT sale, it did pretty big business.

 

Proceeds of Illuvitars sale will go into Illuvium development

Illuvium co-founder Kieran Warwick shared some interesting info with Coinhead about what the project is doing with the proceeds from the Illuvitars sale, which he’s expecting to be a big success.

“Funds generated from the sale of Illuvium: Beyond will be directed to a special $15 million USD ‘Safety Pool,’ designed to mitigate the risk of uncertain macroeconomic conditions by providing a unique source of runway to sustain DAO operations,” the project has announced. 

“In the world of Web3 gaming, the power belongs to the players,” said Warwick, adding:

“The Illuvium DAO’s groundbreaking initiative to use revenue generated from digital collectibles to fund game development is a testament to the transformative potential of this technology. By investing in their future, players become more than just fans – they become stakeholders in the game’s success.”

 

DAILY SLUMPERS

• Stacks (STX), (market cap: US$924 million) -10%

• Synthetix (SNX), (mc: US$895 million) -8%

• SingularityNET (AGIX), (mc: US$490 million) -7%

• Optimism (OP), (mc: US$505 million) -6%

• Rocket Pool (RPL), (mc: US$697 million) -5%

 

Around the blocks

Some pertinence and randomness that stuck with us on our morning moves through the Crypto Twitterverse.

https://twitter.com/naiivememe/status/1633159269154693120