[CryptoButthead.com , msch, May 12, 2023] The cryptocurrency market experienced significant setbacks as Bitcoin and Ether, two of the largest digital currencies, saw their prices slide. Bitcoin fell below $27,000, largely due to concerns about shrinking liquidity and network congestion that is causing transaction costs to surge. Simultaneously, Ether fell below the critical support level of $1,800, contributing to a general retreat among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. Polygon’s Matic token led the decline.
Bitcoin’s value fell by 2.13% to $26,975 in the last 24 hours, reaching its lowest price since March 28. This slide is attributed to the backlog of transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, which reached almost 300,000 on Friday morning, more than six times higher than the May 9 figures. This congestion followed the introduction of the BRC-20 token standard, which allows the minting of fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network, leading to a significant surge in activity.
Jane Street Group and Jump Crypto, two world-leading market makers, are also reportedly exiting digital asset trading in the U.S., further exacerbating concerns about liquidity in the Bitcoin market.
Ether didn’t fare better, falling 2.34% to $1,796, marking a weekly loss of 4.45%. The Ethereum Network’s Beacon Chain also encountered issues, briefly halting transaction validations early Friday morning.
Other cryptocurrencies weren’t immune to this downtrend, with the total crypto market capitalization falling 2.11% to $1.12 trillion. The total trading volume also dropped by 17.87% to $37.67 billion.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) also took a hit, with the Forkast 500 NFT index dropping by 1.42%. NFT sales on the Ethereum blockchain fell 47.62% in the past 24 hours, following the fading hype for the Millady Maker NFT collection.
In contrast, U.S. equity futures experienced a slight rise on optimism that the Federal Reserve may halt its interest rate hikes in June due to slowing inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures edged up 0.07%, the S&P 500 futures gained 0.14%, and the Nasdaq Composite futures added 0.25%.
The Federal Reserve will decide on June 14 its next move on interest rates. Current predictions indicate an 87.1% chance that the Fed will keep rates unchanged in June.
Disclaimer: Yo, this is just Butthead yappin’, man. Don’t take this too seriously, huh huh. Crypto investing is serious stuff, and you should, like, get real info or whatever. And remember, dude, investing is also, like, extra risky. If you have no clue, ask someone who knows.
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