Blockchain News

Global markets across asset classes tumbled on Friday amidst reports of a new and possibly vaccine-resistant coronavirus strain. Cryptocurrency markets dropped in sync with the global sentiment contagion. Gold however bucked the trend and attempted to live up to its safe-haven image.

Global cryptocurrency market cap has slowly edged up to $2.58 trillion from the seven-day low of $2.44 trillion. The overnight surge in market cap is close to 1.5 percent. Despite the overall recovery, the meme category comprising 259 cryptocurrencies is now witnessing a 4.5 percent decline in market capitalization. Will the fad fade?

Cryptocurrency markets have declined around 1.5 percent overnight in the backdrop of the announcement that Jerome Powell would continue at the helm of affairs at the Federal Reserve. Hawkish bets on the interest rate tightening regime, led the Dollar Index, to surge to 96.55 on Monday and to a high of 96.6 on Tuesday.

Cryptos have been on a downtrend for past few days. Despite this, BTC has given annual returns beyond 200 percent. In contrast, Gold has gained just 0.27 percent. Dollar Index has strengthened 4 percent. As the pandemic rears its head once again and as economies grapple with hyper-inflation and declining real interest rates, the contrast between the three would become more evident and appealing.

Market capitalization of all crypto assets including stablecoins and tokens declined by 1.5 percent in the past 24 hours to $2.53 trillion. Bitcoin (BTC) is down 3.4 percent at $57,041.33, after touching a 24-hour low of $55,705. Ethereum (ETH) is down 0.25 percent at $4,155.05, after dropping to $3,959 in the past 24 hours.