Christmas has come and gone, yet the cryptocurrency market apparently has not seen surging activity beyond its sluggish state. Even though the wider market has shown signs of a post-Christmas consolidation, the cryptocurrency market at large appears to rest at a standstill. Bitcoin climbed by hardly 0.3% in the last 5 days, whereas Ethereum too hovers close to its ceiling point of $1280, gaining 0.5% in 5 days. Both these top crypto-names reflect a wider sense of immobility permeating throughout the overall market.
Crypto-Highlights of the week
As we venture into the beginning of a new year, analysts have been gauging the performance of the crypto-market during 2022. Given all the shocks and crashes the market faced, the year had proven to be especially adverse. What is remarkable to note is that both gold and silver have outperformed cryptocurrencies as superior stores of value, with their prices approximately the same across the year.
According to a recent report by Moneycontrol, the Indian cryptocurrency market has suffered significantly during the year, with trade volume dipping drastically in 12 months. The FTX fiasco has been a major driver behind this with large Indian crypto exchanges seeing their volumes plunge by up to 50%, with no real recovery seeming likely.
In the fast-growing list of celebrities who have been disappointed by crypto-hype, pop singer Akon recently shared his frustrations with his ‘token of appreciation’ not performing as anticipated. He has assured donors of a full refund, and has stated that he is willing to conduct a world tour, just to raise the funds to do so.
A recently published report by Google Trends highlights that the NFT market had particularly felt the brunt of the crypto-market slowdown seen in 2022. At this point in 2021, monthly NFT sales stood at $2.8 billion, whereas the present figure hovers at barely $530 million. Google search statistics further point out that interest in NFTs have plummeted drastically from January of 2022.
Amid the gloomy outlook of the cryptocurrency industry, we find a glimmer of hope, with the banking giant HSBC readying itself for a major move. The bank has reportedly filed for several trademark applications covering digital asset products, related services, as well as NFT and metaverse-related tokens. Many are suggesting that something major may be brewing in the background.
