In crypto, Bitcoin, the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, is down more than 2% and is trading at $20,610. According to CoinGecko, the global cryptocurrency market cap was below $1 trillion today, having fallen by more than 3% to $964 billion in the past 24 hours.
Ether, on the other hand, is the coin linked to the Ethereum blockchain and the second largest cryptocurrency, fell more than 3% to $1,175. Meanwhile, Dogecoin price is trading down 7% today at $0.07, while the Shiba Inu is down more than 6% at $0.0000011.
Today’s performance of other crypto prices also declined as XRP, Tether, Solana, BNB, while Stellar, Litecoin, Polygon, Uniswap and Tron prices were trading with cuts in the last 24 hours, however, in Apcoin. Slight increase.
Grayscale Investments LLC has recruited some heavyweight partners to help it in a bid to convert its bitcoin trust into an exchange-traded fund. The firm has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for its Grayscale bitcoin trust, ticker GBTC, to become an ETF.
The trust, which has a market cap of about $13.6 billion and a negative 32% premium to the price of bitcoin, has listed Jane Street and Virtu as authorized participants if it becomes an ETF. As Bloomberg reports, APs are specialized traders who have the authority to create and redeem shares of an ETF, which is done to help keep the price close to its net asset value.
Cryptocurrencies have suffered this year amid a hike in Federal Reserve rates and extremely high inflation. After crypto’s last two years of hibernation ended in 2020, the sector reached nearly $3 trillion in total assets last November, before falling to just under $1 trillion last November. The cryptocurrency had been moving in the same direction for months as investors’ appetite for riskier assets in stocks was dampened by growing fears about an economic slowdown.
Coinbase Global Inc., Crypto.com, Gemini Trust and BlockFi Inc. are among crypto companies that have announced layoffs, citing the general macroeconomic slowdown to derail their previously expanded plans. The collapse of the Terra/Luna ecosystem and continued concerns about hedge fund Three Arrows Capital Ltd. have further upset investors.
(with inputs from agencies)