Adverse macro data agitates 🤯 crypto market; institutional interest anchors it

Hello, and welcome to another week in the cryptosphere and world of finance. The past week was a mixed bag on the crypto front. Even as institutional interest in Bitcoin continues to hold strong, macroeconomic headwinds left the crypto market shaken. Read on to learn more about this, and all things crypto.

The first order of business, though, is to help you kickstart your investment journey if you’re new to investing.

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Watch the video below, or head over to the CoinSwitch Money channel to watch this and our past videos.

If you liked this video, make sure to check in here next week—same time, same place. For now, a brief update on the market.

Last week, the global crypto market was seen trading in a tight range with a negative bias. Macroeconomic data signaling upcoming headwinds had something to do with it. The ADP report, in particular, sent “risk-on assets” like crypto lower by confirming the heated economy and highlighting the need for further rate hikes.

However, continued institutional interest is providing strong support at key trading levels. The big development on the institutional front last week, of course, was asset manager BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s Fox Business interview, where he called BTC a “revolutionary” upgrade for financial services. Thanks to these institutional moves, the overall crypto market cap is staying above the $1.2 trillion level. And market leaders, BTC and ETH, are trading above the $30K and $1.8K levels, respectively.

Most other tokens came under selling pressure but remained rangebound. The few cryptos with heightened volatility worth highlighting include Litecoin, which rallied and subsequently faced sell-offs. Remember, the Bitcoin-inspired crypto is less than a month away from its halving cycle.

Solana, too, makes it to our list of noteworthy cryptos as it continued to outperform broader markets. Much of the positive returns it amassed were due to the network activity continuing to rise.

The MKR token also moved higher during the week, with its new “smart burn engine launch” proposal. The engine is likely to further improve MKR’s tokenomics. Whales have thus taken to accumulating the token.

Meanwhile, all eyes are on bond yields this week as the yield curve that inverted last year is showing the greatest disparity since 1981. The inverted yield curve is a classic recession indicator. So the widening spread between short-term and long-term bonds is getting investors agitated.

Cryptos that witnessed some interesting price action over the last week were:

• BTC: 1.85%  🔽 $30,113

• ETH: 5.02% 🔽 $1,857

• LTC: 16.57% 🔽$93.51

• SOL: 7.92% ⏫$20.96

(All data here is as of 12.45 pm, 10 July 2023.)

As an investor, you would do well to understand what’s triggering all the price moves. So here’s some news to help you process all the action in the market.

• BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently told Fox Business that Bitcoin is an international asset. The statement comes even as BlackRock files for a spot Bitcoin ETF in the US. Read more here.

• The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection sunk to a 20-month low last week, signaling a slowdown in the NFT market. Read more here.

• Hong Kong recently set up a task force for Web 3.0 development. The government allocated $6.4 million for the task. Read more here.

• In a major step toward building a legal framework for virtual assets, South Korea passed the Virtual Asset User Protection Act last week. Read more here.

• Cross-chain router protocol Multichain lost $130 million in a recent exploit. The attacker siphoned the capital out of numerous token bridges, stripping Multichain of all its wBTC, USDC, and USDT, holdings. Read more here.

• Crypto trust firm Gemini sued the Digital Currency Group, and its founder Barry Silbert, on Friday for allegedly committing “fraud” through its subsidiary Genesis. The subsidiary held funds for Gemini tied to the latter’s Earn program. Read more here.

• Polygon and Jump.trade are working with Flipkart to onboard over 1.1 million Web 3.0 wallets. The move will give Flipkart users exclusive access to brand loyalty programs and limited-edition NFT drops. Read more here.

Before you get on with your day, don’t forget to exercise those brain muscles with our weekly crypto crossword.

That’s it for now. Thanks for sticking around.

See you later, folks!

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