TRON and Algorand add more than 20%
Bitcoin fell to $34K over the weekend, after the biggest interest rate rise in more than twenty years sent both the stock and crypto markets plummeting.
In the fateful Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday, Jerome Powell pledged not to hike interest rates to 0.75%, prompting a brief relief rally to $40K. Yet over the weekend, Bitcoin then plunged to a low of $34K as investors reflected on the reality of the first 0.5% rate hike since 2000. This macroeconomic uncertainty pushed Bitcoin into its sixth week of successive losses, despite $1.5 billion in buying interest from the Luna Foundation Guard, and big adoption moves from fashion house Gucci, photo-sharing app Instagram, and the state of California.
TRON was one of the few altcoins to escape the carnage, jumping more than 25% as the broader market turned red. Close behind, Algorand added more than 20% after scoring a partnership deal with FIFA, while Curve climbed 12%. On the flipside, ApeCoin fell the furthest, losing 30% over the week.
This Week’s Highlights
– Luna Foundation Guard buys $1.5 billion of Bitcoin
– TRON adds 20% on stablecoin launch
– TBanque lists Universal Market Access and API3
Luna Foundation Guard buys $1.5 billion of Bitcoin
Selling pressure across the market last week was met with buying interest from the Luna Foundation Guard, a Singapore-based nonprofit tied to the Terra ecosystem.
On Thursday, the foundation announced the acquisition of $1.5 billion in Bitcoin to back its LUNA stablecoin, getting closer to its goal of accumulating $10 billion in reserves.
Other big buyers revealed in the past week include Utah-based movie studio Angel Studios, which added more than $10 million in Bitcoin to its treasury last October.
TRON adds 20% on stablecoin launch
While many altcoins are flashing double-digit losses, TRON is trending higher.
The token of the smart contract blockchain has made more than 20% weekly gains on the release of USD Decentralized (USDD). This new stablecoin is based on similar algorithmic mechanisms to Terra’s UST, and is backed by a reserve of $10 billion in Bitcoin and other cryptoassets managed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called Tron DAO.
USDD is available on TRON, BNB Chain, and Ethereum, and has promised to deliver yields of as much as 30% APY.
TBanque lists Universal Market Access and API3
TBanque has listed Universal Market Access (UMA) and API3 (API3), taking the total number of cryptoassets available on the investment platform to 64.
Universal Market Access is a synthetic asset protocol that allows anyone to create and trade tokenized derivatives.
API3 aims to create decentralized application programming interfaces (APIs) for the blockchain ecosystem.
Note: These new cryptoassets are not yet available in the US.
Week ahead
After weeks of falling prices on macroeconomic fears, more inflation data will be released on Wednesday that could influence the Federal Reserve’s approach towards future interest rate hikes.
Economists expect April’s consumer price index (CPI) data to come in below March’s 8.5%, which could potentially catalyze a rally as it would signal that inflation has peaked.
Conversely, higher inflation figures would suggest more tightening could be expected from the Federal Reserve — potentially sending Bitcoin down to make new yearly lows below $33K.
