The crypto universe suffered a huge loss this week, as currencies sank so deep that holders and traders wondered if they might find any ray of sunlight anytime soon. The existing bearish sentiment that has held sway for weeks intensified in momentum and sent price spiraling uncontrollably down a crypto black hole.
Terra (Luna) сrashes by more than 99% from recent highs
One of the hardest hit this week was Terra (Luna). The price of Luna plummeted by about 99% from its recent all-time highs, creating historic lows, while the price of its stable coin which was supposed to be pegged 1-to-1 to the US Dollar fell below 1 cent creating very controversial appreciation for what was initially regarded as one of the strongest stable coins. The loss of the UST peg has severely undermined investor confidence in algorithmic stablecoins. The collapse of UST could lead to lobbying for bills around the world in favor of strict regulation of stablecoins.
Doge: will Elon come to its rescue?
Doge coin opened the week at $0.1232 and by Thursday had touched the 0.0653 levels. Marking more than 50% percent decline in the price of Doge from the opening price at the start of the week. The Shiba army was also dealt a huge blow during the week with price declining more than 40%. While price opened for the week at $0.00001864, price declined to the 0.00000876 levels.
Cardano (ADA) submerged to a new all-time low
ADA plummets with the rest of the crypto market causing investors to hold off buying. Price declined by almost 50% to $0.38 levels after opening the week at $0.75, creating a new all-time low for the coin. Price is currently locked in a downward channel and sitting on a support level which might see a mild price retracement to the upside.
Tron’s USDD goes live
Away from the sad events of the week which saw the crypto market capitalization lose over $400 billion, Tron’s previously announced stable coin, USDD, went live this week. However, to allay the fear of users considering the fact that USDD was a decentralized algorithm-backed coin like UST, Tron stated that it will build a $10 billion reserve together with $1 billion expected to be raised by institutional investors and venture capitalists.
Justin Sun, the CEO of Tron, in a statement, promised investors that Tron DAO plans to allocate $2 billion to protect the TRX ecosystem from any attacks. Luna’s price believed to be pegged 1:1 to the US dollar had lost its peg and suffered a price crash to a staggering low of $0.0001665 as at Friday.
Bitcoin Cash upgrade promises two important functionalities
In another exciting news, Bitcoin Cash plans to add two new functionalities to its network in an upcoming upgrade. The upgrade scheduled to happen on the 15th of May would make it easier to write and deploy smart contracts compared to provisions of the present designs while deploying bigger scripts integer to the Bitcoin Cash chain.
Top Gainers and Losers this week
On Friday, the entire crypto market saw a rebound with the market global capitalization increasing by more than $200 billion, pegging the crypto market capitalization at $1.3 trillion after it dipped during the week to $1.1 trillion levels. Leading the pack is Cardano (ADA) with a 30% increase, Matic 24%, BNB has a 21% growth, XRP has increased by 18%, while BTC and ETH is up by 8.4% and 8.6% respectively. On the flip side, the top loser on the market still remains Terra (LUNA) which has currently lost 99% of its value.
Bitcoin leads the market free-fall
In similar free fall, Bitcoin opened the week at $35 737 and by mid-week, price had fallen to $26 577 levels, bringing the price of the asset back to the December 2020 levels. At the end of the week, the fall in cryptocurrency rates in total destroyed more than 400 billion dollars. The fall in the price of Bitcoin by about 12% and the fall in the rates of other cryptocurrencies led to a drop in the total capitalization, which at the beginning of the week was about $1.5 trillion, fell to $1.1 trillion.
Investors and financial experts believe the unfortunate turn out of the US consumer price index (CPI) which rose 8.3% in April above market expectations at 8.1% intensified the bearish grip on the crypto market just like the US stock futures.
Ripple: not yet out of the murky waters. Binance Coin (BNB) price declines by 16%
Like BTC, BNB and Ripple were not spared, they suffered their fair share of the drowning spree. Ripple and Binance coin went down by 20% and 16% respectively.
SBI Motors joins the likes of Tesla to accept BTC and XRP as payment methods
SBI Motor of Japan adds to the excitement this week as it announces the acceptance of XRP and BTC as new means of payment. The e-commerce website has tasked SBI VC Trade Co. Ltd., a crypto trading subsidiary of the SBI group with the tack of providing the functionalities to integrate XRP and BTC payment gateways. The design will ensure that the necessary Anti-Money Laundering guidelines are strictly observed and buying partners who wish to use this payment method must also observe same.
