April 18, 2024

Bitcoin (BTC) has become more dominant in the crypto market because of the impending halving and risk aversion in the broader market. The largest cryptocurrency by market value was trading below $61,400 during Asian hours on Thursday, according to CoinDesk Indices data, as the sell-off in risk assets, fueled by difficult macroeconomic conditions, raged. The CoinDesk 20, a measure of the world’s most liquid digital assets, fell 3.3% to 2,125. While bitcoin might be having a challenging moment, layer-1 blockchains and altcoins are doing worse. Top layer-1 tokens like Solana’s (SOL) are down over 20% in the past week. Avalanche's (AVAX) has fallen 26%, Cardano's (ADA) 23% and Filecoin (FIL) 30%.

Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange that was removed from India some months ago, is looking to re-enter the country by paying a $2 million fine, the Economic Times reported on Thursday. Earlier this year, Binance and some other exchanges were removed from the Apple Store in India after India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) sent them compliance "show cause" notices. OKX, KuCoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global and Bitfinex were the other firms that were sent notices at the time. 

USDe holders should monitor the project’s reserve fund to avoid risks related to the potential of a negative funding rate, according to data provider CryptoQuant. Ethena Labs, the firm behind the stablecoin, currently offers an annual yield of 17.2%, a rolling average over the past seven days, to investors that stake USDe or other stablecoins on the platform. The yield is created from a tokenized “cash and carry” trade that involves purchasing an asset whilst simultaneously shorting that asset to rake in funding payments. Funding is a way of keeping the asset prices on derivatives exchanges close to the underlying assets. In a bullish market, holders of long positions pay short positions and the opposite is true in a bearish market.

"The masses are always wrong. Wisdom is doing everything the crowd does not do," American poet and novelist Charles Bukowski said.

That holds true for crypto too, and the crypto crowd is beginning to lean bearish on bitcoin (BTC) – a sign the current BTC price sell-off may soon run out of steam.

"Historically, prices move in the opposite direction of mass traders' expectations," blockchain analytics platform Santiment said in a market insights post, adding the market could bottom out right before the halving – expected in the next two days – or shortly after.

Data tracked by Santiment shows that the number of "bull market" or "bull cycle" mentions on crypto social media has been declining since late March. At the same time, the number of "bear market" or "bear cycle" mentions steadily increased.

- Lyllah Ledesma