Sead Fadilpašić
Last updated: | 5 min read
Get your daily, bite-sized digest of blockchain and crypto news today – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s news.
In today’s crypto news:
- Why is Crypto Down Today?
- Circle’s USDC Deploys on Celo Mainnet
- South Koreans “Hoover Up” Bitcoin
- Bybit Web3 Introduces Airdrop Arcade
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Why is crypto down today?
The crypto market is generally having a red day.
The total market capitalization is down nearly 2% over the past 24 hours.
At the time of writing, it sat at $2.054 trillion, according to CoinGecko. As for individual coins, a large majority of them have seen a decrease in their respective prices over the last day.
Focusing on the top 10 coins by market capitalization, we find them all in red. However, the changes are not significant and are well in the typical range for the crypto market.
The highest decrease is Solana (SOL)’s 3.2% to $102.58. Cardano (ADA) and Avalanche (ADA) follow it with drops of about 2%. Ethereum (ETH), BNB, XRP, and Lido staked ether (STETH) each fell between 1.1% and 1.7%.
The least to fall is currently Bitcoin (BTC), recording a price decrease of 0.8% to $51,190.
Meanwhile,Matrixport predicted that BTC could reach a target of $63,000 by March 2024. Key catalysts that could propel the coin to new heights include the upcoming halving event, the recent approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the USA, and interest rate cuts in that country.
Also, Fidelity’s Director of Global Macro, Jurrien Timmer, suggested on Thursday that the bitcoin market cap has the potential to reach a quarter of the “monetary gold” market, hitting an impressive $6 trillion.
“I estimate that Bitcoin will eventually capture around a quarter of the monetary gold market,” Timmer wrote. “At 40%, monetary gold is currently worth around $6 trillion, while Bitcoin is worth $1 trillion.”
As for altcoins, BitMEX co-founder and Maelstrom’s Chief Investment Officer, Arthur Hayes, argued that eight altcoins were set for a bull rally. These include dYdX, GMX, Flare, Pendle, Krav, Elixir, Ethena, and Axelar.
Circle’s USDC Deploys on Celo Mainnet
The Celo Foundation has announced that the USDC issuer Circle has launched the stablecoin natively on Celo. Last month, Circle announced its partnership with the Celo ecosystem to deploy the popular stablecoin. Therefore, with this partnership, Circle has joined Celo’s ecosystem with over 1,000 projects in more than 150 countries.
Moreover, USDC also joined Mento’s local currencies on Celo, such as cREAL and eXOF, which track the value of the Brazilian Real and the CFA Franc, used across 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Introducing USDC on @Celo! In addition to CELO dollars, you can now seamlessly transact with USDC on CELO through Fonbnk, expanding possibilities for swift, secure, and efficient payments. 💸
Fonbnk is the leading on-ramp solution for CELO in Africa supporting all the leading… pic.twitter.com/WFgJ7orP60
— @fonbnk1 (@fonbnk1) February 22, 2024
Per the press release, USDC’s integration with Celo mainnet “signals a significant step towards enabling users to pay for the network’s sub-cent gas fees using USDC.” This is an industry-first, they added.
One of Celo’s key features includes paying for network gas fees with stablecoins. Therefore, core contributors at cLabs will soon submit a governance proposal to include USDC as an accepted gas currency.
Moreover, exchanges, digital wallets, institutions, and developers can access USDC on Celo via Circle Mint and Circle APIs for use cases that include:
- making low-cost payments and remittances globally that can be settled in seconds;
- 24/7 trading, borrowing, and lending on apps like Uniswap and Curve;
- enabling users to save digital dollars without needing a traditional bank account.
Furthermore, the ecosystem partners who are “committed to leveraging” native USDC on Celo include Ammer Pay, Bitmama, Centrifuge, Flowcarbon, Fonbnk, HaloFi, Huma Finance, Kotani Pay, Mento, Ramp Network, Toucan, Unlimit, Untangled Finance, and Valora.
South Koreans “Hoover Up” Bitcoin
Riskier altcoin trading usually makes up the majority of the volume in South Korea, but more traders have turned to Bitcoin this year, Bloomberg reported in the latest crypto news. What has changed?
The Bitcoin price has been climbing this year, and South Korean investors tend to chase momentum. Therefore, BTC has become more attractive than altcoins, whose gains are lower. Bitcoin trading accounts for 30% of volumes on domestic South Korean exchanges this year so far.
This is the highest proportion since January 2023, the report said, citing CryptoQuant data. It stated that:
“The scale of the shift is also evident in the fact that, normally, smaller tokens — altcoins — make up more than 80% of trading activity.”
However, Bradley Park, an analyst at CryptoQuant, commented that,
“Aside from the noise of Bitcoin volume on Bithumb, Korean trading habits probably won’t change much.”
Major local crypto exchange Bithumb’s market share hit 40%, up from 12% in October. Meanwhile, the competitor Upbit saw its share drop from 80% to 54% in the same period.
That said, due to Bithumb ending the zero-fee offer this month, it’s possible that trading activity will return to Upbit. This suggests that “the market share changes could be temporary ones rather than enduring structural developments.”
Bybit Web3 Introduces Airdrop Arcade
In other crypto news today, Crypto exchange Bybit revealed a new gamified reward hub: Airdrop Arcade. It’s described as “a next-generation platform where gamification meets airdrop excitement for all Web3 users.”
Furthermore, Bybit Web3 will partner with Solana to feature $120,000 in airdrops starting February 29. According to the press release, Airdrop Arcade is a quest-to-earn airdrop platform, providing interactive reward-earning quests for emerging projects. It aims to redefine user interaction and rewarding mechanisms across blockchains and decentralized applications (dApps).
1️⃣ Simple Interaction:
Effortlessly participate in airdrops with streamlined actions and clear guidance.2️⃣ Curated Selection:
[2/4] 🧵
Access hot and promising projects, giving you a front-row seat to valuable crypto airdrops.— Bybit (@Bybit_Official) February 22, 2024
Airdrop Arcade offers a simplified way to access upcoming Web3 and token opportunities. It combines “numerous opportunities and participation mechanics” into one app, removing the need to search for rewarding airdrops, the team said.
It comes with clear guidance, curated selections of new projects, bonuses, and free non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Also, rewards that users earn through interactive quests with DApps, such as token airdrops and NFTs, are sent to their Bybit wallets.
Moreover, the platform is inspired by mobile games, therefore offering a gamified environment with multiple levels and quests.
“It is designed for beginners and airdrop hunters, by curating high-potential opportunities, presented as guided quests that they can choose in the Arcade,” the announcement said.
