Hello and welcome to the latest Overbit Weekly Round Up.
On December 15, Bitcoin surged over $2,000 as markets reacted to suggestions that the US Federal Reserve may hike interest rates and phase down its bond-buying program beginning in 2022.
According to statistics from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, BTC/USD reached $49,310 on Bitstamp, the highest since December 12, when the price temporarily crossed $50,000.
The surge gathered steam after the Federal Reserve announced that it would raise its key interest rate three times next year, above market expectations, but concerns have already been expressed concerning the impact of such strategies on both traditional and crypto markets due to the lack of “Easy” liquidity.
Jim Caron, a senior portfolio manager and chief strategist on Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s global fixed Income division, is quoted as stating about the move: “It is a breath of relief for the equity market, which had feared it would be considerably more aggressive. That is what we were thinking anyway.”
As a result, the S&P 500 increased modestly, while cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, gained slightly less than 5%. At the time of writing, BTC/USD was hovering around $49,000. $53,000 would represent a break from the most recent December range, restoring Bitcoin’s market capitalisation to $1 trillion.
Popular layer one blockchains, such as Solana and Avalanche, have led the altcoin recovery, with both coins making more than 10% daily moves.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, has recovered the $4,000 level. ETH has surged beyond the 0.08 BTC mark after hitting a low of 0.078 earlier in the day.
Today’s program concludes with a look at a new trend in the crypto realm that is making its way into the real world: holidays.
Over the last year, the demand for NFTs of art, music, and in-game assets such as digital plots of metaverse land have surged. Young investors appear to be buying significant amounts of NFTs and other digital assets for themselves and as gifts during the Christmas season.
According to CNBC, Cynthia Gentry hopes to offer her sister and parents an NFT of a digital land piece to share in the metaverse. According to the 23-year-old San Antonio native, NFTs are assets that will grow in value over time. Gentry plans to purchase collector NFTs from the World of Women and Crypto Coven programs to empower women.
Gentry’s sister, Imani, also plans to buy NFTs for everyone in her family for Christmas. Imani, who is also from San Antonio, wants to get her mother a World of Women NFT.
Anisha Sunkerneni, who is based in San Francisco, is delighted to offer her close friends and family their first digital assets, such as Ethereum Name Service domains and NFTs, as gifts.
“I think an ENS domain has the ability to be related to your on-chain personality and profile even more than NFTs,” the 26-year-old explains.
That concludes this week’s issue of Overbit Weekly Round Up. Thank you so much for reading, and until next time!