Crypto News

Crypto Brief 04/30: Bitcoin on Track to Post First Monthly Loss Since August 2023 Plus XRP, WIF, USDC, Shiba Inu, Binance Team

From Bitcoin potentially ending its 7-month bull run to USDC surpassing USDT in trading volume, here are some of the top stories in the crypto space. Bitcoin Team Bitcoin appears to be headed for its first monthly loss, potentially ending a seven-month winning streak that has lasted since August 2023. The largest digital asset by market capitalization started April with a price hovering around $70,000. However, as the month comes to a close, Bitcoin is now hovering around the $61,000 mark, representing a monthly decline of more than 12%.

BTC Price Chart – 1 Month | Source: TradingView According to Coingecko data, Bitcoin's monthly candlestick chart shows that April was the asset's first losing month since August 2023. Expanding the data, April's downturn represents the largest monthly decline since June 2022, when Bitcoin opened the month at around $31,000 but closed around $21,000. A combination of factors weakened Bitcoin’s bullish momentum at the start of the month, including a decline in demand for spot ETFs, the prospect of higher interest rates over a longer period, and a broader risk-on sentiment in the stock market. According to Nansen Analyst Aurelie Barthere, the recent downturn in the crypto market has resulted in a disproportionate number of negative returns compared to positive returns, affecting traders’ risk appetite. “The analysis shows that the recent sell-off has reduced traders’ risk appetite, leading to a sharp negative skew in the distribution of returns.” However, analyst Nansen predicts a market recovery after a period of sluggish activity. Bitcoin has dropped about 1.7% over the past 24 hours and is currently changing hands around $61,200.

Poloniex Hackers Move $32 Million Worth of Bitcoin

A large movement has occurred in Bitcoin originating from an address labeled as a Poloniex hacker. About 501 BTC, worth about $32 million, was distributed across three new addresses, with the aim of obscuring the origin of the stolen funds. The largest transaction involved the transfer of 486.62 BTC, worth approximately $30.8 million, to a single address. Two smaller amounts of 10 BTC and 5 BTC, worth approximately $623,000 and $316,000, respectively, were transferred to separate addresses. These transactions raise some concerns as the hacker may be trying to cover his tracks in order to liquidate the funds in the near future.

XRP Team

XRP is struggling to maintain the crucial $0.50 support level, an extremely important area as it has kept the asset from falling to lower levels. XRP’s recent trading pattern has shown that, although the token has faced bearish pressure, the presence of the $0.50 support level once signaled a consolidation point that could lead to a strong reversal. XRP reached this level, briefly dipped below it before rebounding, indicating an ongoing battle between bulls and bears.



XRP/USDT chart | Source: TradingView Sustaining above $0.50 could give confidence to a potential uptrend. A reversal scenario would play out if XRP can maintain its position, supported by strong buying pressure at this important psychological and technical level. However, looking at potential resistance levels, XRP faces a strong barrier around $0.53. If XRP gathers enough momentum for a rally, this point could serve as an initial test. Breaking this resistance could send the token towards $0.58. If XRP fails to hold the $0.50 support level, the token could be vulnerable to a sell-off. The next strong support lies at $0.47, which could act as a buffer for buyers to regroup and potentially trigger another recovery.

WIF Team

Dogwifat price spiked 1,450% on Bybit, shortly after memecoin was listed on the exchange. Token trading began at 19:50 on April 29, 2024 (UTC). Just over 10 minutes later, the token's price rose from $2.7 to a high of $41.85. The exceptionally high price only lasted for a few minutes before returning to its previous market price.

Source: TradingView The spike appears to have been limited to Bybit. According to data from CoinGecko, there was no impact on prices on Binance.

USDC Team Interestingly, USD Coin (USDC) from Circle has surpassed the world's largest stablecoin Tether (USDT), in terms of stablecoin trading. According to online analytics provided by payment giant Visa, in April 2024, the number of USDC transactions surpassed the total monthly transactions of USDT, at 166.6 million.

Since the end of 2023, USDC has steadily increased its market share in the stablecoin trading industry. Visa reported that in December 2023, USDC's monthly transaction volume surpassed USDT for the first time, with 145 million transactions compared to 127 million transactions. Shiba Inu Team Dog-themed cryptocurrency, Shiba Inu (SHIB), has seen a 268% increase in whale activity amid a price recovery. Large trading volume, which indicates whale buying or selling activity, has increased by 268.26% over the past 24 hours. Large trading volume, defined as trades worth over $100,000, hit $98.12 million.

According to data from IntoTheBlock, the trading volume increased sharply, from 1.07 trillion SHIB on April 28 to 4.17 trillion SHIB on April 29. This increase followed the recovery of the price of Shiba Inu, which had been continuously falling for the previous four days. Binance Team Binance Earn launches promotions for SOL Locked Products, BNB Locked Products, and ETH Staking. Users complete SOL Locked Products, BNB Locked Products, and ETH Staking registrations to earn rewards such as: Share 7,777 ACE in airdrop rewards; Earn up to 8.9% APR rewards with SOL Locked Products positions; Earn up to 1.69% APR from BNB rewards, as well as ongoing Megadrop and Launchpool rewards with BNB Locked Products positions (where applicable); Earn around 3% Dynamic APR rewards with ETH Staking.