cryptocurrencies: Market manipulation technique in meme coins continues to worry investors

The past week has been yet another massively volatile week for the cryptocurrency market. The sleeping giant Bitcoin finally woke up and crossed the $55,000 mark marking a period of massive rally. Most of the other altcoins followed the momentum in the largest cryptocurrency.

The largest altcoin, Ether, went past the $3600 mark. A message from JP Morgan to clients suggested that this price action was largely the result of institutional investors looking for a hedge against inflation. It seems that large investors are beginning to see the merits of BTC in comparison to gold. One of the most popular cryptos, Polkadot, has held up quite well in recent market downturns. Polkadot is still waiting to start its parachain slot auctions. Once that happens, DOT could likely scale massive heights.

The weak was also eventful in terms of all the macro news affecting the cryptocurrency market. Reports claim that several hedge funds have recently increased their holdings in the cryptocurrency asset class.

In a massive turn of events, the US Federal Reserve stated that they do not plan to ban cryptocurrencies. It gives faith that some of the policy makers in the US really do see the incredible potential that cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies will have in the not-so-distant future. The US Department of Justice stated that they would set up a national cryptocurrency enforcement team to protect against crimes in cryptocurrencies.

The NFT ecosystem is heating up. In Q3 2021 we saw the NFT sales volume surging past 10.7 billion dollars. That is a massive rise of nine hundred percent quarter on quarter. One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase, recently acknowledged that almost 6,000 accounts were affected when hackers attacked their databases. Coinbase recently sent a letter to all 6,000 probable affected customers.

The crypto world continues to be affected by social media interventions of influencers. Elon Musk yet again disrupts the momentum in the market after he tweeted out a picture of his pet dog, Floki. This event alone made all Floki-themed cryptocurrencies soaring. One of the highest gainers of the week was the meme coin, Shiba Inu. This sort of market manipulation technique continues to worry a lot of investors, who are in for the long haul.

Top 5 crypto gainers during the week:
1.
Shiba Inu, SHIB up by around 275%

2.
Fantom, FTM: 56.59%

3.
KLAYTN up by: 37.38%

4.
SIA Coin: 36%

5.
Harmony’s ONE token: 31%

Top 5 crypto losers this week:
1.
eCash: 11.5% down

2.
dYdX: 10.4%

3.
Avalanche, AVAX token:9.42%

4.
Huobi token down by 8.2%

5.
XDC Network: 7.3%

(The author, Edul Patel, is CEO & Co-founder of Mudrex. The views are his own)