Bitcoin and Ethereum get stung as US central bank plans fresh rate hikes

A reversal on the crypto markets over the past 24 hours saw 4% knocked off total market capitalisation, bringing combined value down to US$1.12tn.

The dip comes on the back of comments from the US central bank suggesting further interest rate hikes are on the way. 

Bitcoin encountered low-single-digit losses and was unable to maintain the key US$24,000 level, whereas Ethereum fell back around 5% as it too was unable to sustain US$1,900.

Among the day’s biggest fallers were the US$1.4bn EOS blockchain and Mina Protocol blockchains, which both lost over 10% of their market capitalisations.

Red candlesticks mounted across most of the large-cap blockchain networks, with Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, Avalanche and Polygon all dropping between 5% and 10%.

Binance’s US$50bn BNB coin performed slightly better with under 5% in losses chalked up.

Total volumes across the decentralised finance (DeFi) space lost nearly 2%, bringing the figure down to US$65.1bn.

Lido and Curve performed particularly poorly, having lost over 9% on the markets.

CEL token was one of the few bullish cryptocurrencies, as the #CelShortSqueeze Twitter activists rallied in support of the bankrupt Celsius platform.

In the news

Ukraine’s vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov has thanked the crypto community for raising US$54mln through the Aid For Ukraine crypto fund.

With $54 M raised by @_AidForUkraine, we’ve supplied our defenders with military equipment, armor clothes, medicines and even vehicles. Thanks to the crypto community for support since the start of the full-scale invasion! Donation by donation to the big victory. Report below. pic.twitter.com/lifHAP8R4f

— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) August 17, 2022

Donations have been used to supply military equipment, armour, medicine and even vehicles in the ongoing conflict with Russia.