The cryptocurrency market faced another day of downward pressure as the unease in the traditional markets continues to spread following the recent interest rate spike on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell to a low at $44,710 late on Feb. 25 before buying at the key support returned to help the digital asset recover back above $46,500 but generally, analysts are looking for $50,000 to become an established support before expecting bullish continuation.
BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:TradingView
Despite major BTC purchases by MicroStrategy, Tesla and MassMutual, a majority of institutional investors still have security and tax treatment concerns that prevent them from investing in Bitcoin, according to Galaxy Digital co-president Damien Vanderwilt.
Institutional investment has been a significant source of optimism in the cryptocurrency sector in 2021, but its influence in helping BTC reach a market cap of $1 trillion may be overstated as recent analysis shows that stablecoin whales and retail traders still hold the most buying power.
Interest rate increase puts pressure on GBTC
On Feb. 25, the interest rate for the 10-year U.S. Treasury spiked to 1.52%, its highest level in over a year.
According to Chad Steinglass, Head of Trading at CrossTower, the move led to market-wide pressure that pushed the “GBTC premium down as low as negative 6% and it closed around negative 2% today.” The analyst sees interest rate volatility as a major source of market volatility, as the long end of the curve steepens while the U.S. dollar is pushed lower.
Cryptocurrencies fell under increased pressures as equity markets deteriorated throughout the day, possibly due to a “scramble for liquidity” resulting from traders “pushing up against margin calls and needing to free up cash.”
Steinglass said:
“I interpret the GBTC premium collapse as a sign that either retail is dumping to free liquidity, or large fund holders like ARKW are seeing outflows, which causes them to sell GBTC along with everything else.”
Traditional markets are still choppy
The 10-year Treasury yield pulled back .0582 basis points to 1.46 on Feb. 26, marking a 3.82% decrease from its high on the previous day. This leadi to a choppy day in the markets which saw the major indices close mixed.
The NASDAQ finished the day up 0.56%, recovering some of its losses from the 3.5% drop on Feb. 25. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and DOW finished the day in the red, down 0.48% and 1.51% respectively.
A majority of the top cryptocurrencies also took on sharp losses on Friday, with the exception of Cardano (ADA), which became the third-ranked cryptocurrency by market cap after its price broke out to a new all-time high at $1.29. The current excitement for the altcoin appears to be connected to the upcoming ‘Mary’ mainnet launch scheduled for March 1.
ADA/USDT 4-hour chart. Source:TradingView
Basic Attention Token (BAT) has also battled back against the market sell-off to post a 6.43% gain following the Feb. 23 announcement of the upcoming Brave Decentralized Exchange (DEX).
Ether (ETH) price is down 7.19% and trading below $1,500, while Binance Coin (BNB) has dropped 8.36% to $224.14
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.533 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 61.3%.
On the latest episode of the PokerNews Podcast, Sarah Herring, Chad Holloway, and Jeff Platt talk about the odds of a 2021 World Series of Poker taking place this summer, breakdown the recent passing of an online poker bill in the North Dakota house of representatives (complete with audio), and explore the bad blood between Daniel Negreanu and Ryan Fee.
They also highlight the strong start to the 2021 PokerStars MICOOP in Michigan, Ankush Mandavia winning the CardPlayer Poker Tour Venetian, Niklas Astedt making his 10th final table of Super Millions, and the official end of Full Tilt Poker.
Finally, they welcome guests Vivian Saliba and Daiva Byrne, who talk all things 888poker and GGPoker respectively.
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Alpha Finance Lab (ALPHA) experienced a price breakout on Feb. 25 as a series of significant partnerships has brought renewed interest in the cross-chain DeFi platform.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that following the announcements, ALPHA price surged to $1.78 but Bitcoin’s recent struggle to hold $50,000 as support led to a sell-off among altcoins and ALPHA currently trades at $1.31.
ALPHA/USDT daily chart. Source:TradingView
One of the reasons for the sudden surge was the Feb. 25 announcement of a partnership with Compound Finance (COMP) that will allow Compound users to integrate with Alpha Homora and lend assets across platforms.
Due to the deposit APY on Ether (ETH) being higher on Alpha Homora, Compound users are presented with an opportunity to yield farm by borrowing ETH against collateral in their accounts and lending it on the ALPHA protocol.
Users are lured by lower fees on Binance Smart Chain
Alpha has is also benefiting from its recent integration with the Binance Smart Chain, which has been growing in popularity for being a low-fee alternative to transacting on the Ethereum network.
The team at ALPHA hinted at what lies ahead for the protocol in the following tweet acknowledging the recent progress of the Binance Smart Chain:
Impressed with Binance Smart Chain (BSC)’s growth and traction.
Following the Feb. 1 launch of Alpha Homora v2, which included the release of a limited edition NFT, the protocol has continued to expand its reach and establish new integrations with partners in the blossoming decentralized finance ecosystem.
The project also received a renewed boost of optimism on Feb. 22 after an agreement was reached on the terms of how Alpha Finance would repay Cream Finance (CREAM) for funds lost during an exploit of Alpha’s “Iron Bank” on Feb. 13. This exploit involved a hacker draining $37 million from the protocol.
Currently, Compound finance is the third-ranked DeFi protocol by total value locked (TVL) and the partnership between it and Alpha Finance could further Alpha’s growth and exposure to new users in the months ahead.
Many of us have experienced loneliness amidst the isolation of the pandemic. In rural Austria 888poker Ambassador Vivian Saliba was feeling the effects of the loneliness and embarked on a journey to start her own Twitch stream to build a community and get connected again. Coming from a primarily live background she has worked a lot on her game to move into the online world and she shares with Sarah Herring about her experience. In this interview Vivian candidly shares about reinvigorating her love of poker.
For more on the 888poker tournament schedule update check out:
https://www.pokernews.com/news/2021/02/888poker-new-tournament-collection-38699.htm
