‘Large Price Swings’—Crypto Braced For $9 Trillion Fed Earthquake As Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Solana And Cardano Soar

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Prices are … climbing 🤯

Cryptocurrency prices are surging this morning despite a warning that low volume during the U.S. Memorial Day holiday could cause things to “get weird.” Sean Farrell, head of digital-asset strategy at Fundstrat, wrote in a note seen by Bloomberg that a lull “could lead to large price swings, and potentially further volatility to the downside in the immediate term.”

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The rally, put down to investor enthusiasm for riskier assets being stoked by China’s easing of Covid curbs, has seen the bitcoin price jump 5% over the last 24 hours, putting it back above $30,000. Ethereum has followed bitcoin higher, also up 5%, while challenger cardano is leading the top ten, up 10%.

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Further down the charts, tron is the only major cryptocurrency in the green for May, having surged 30%. Blockworks has a good rundown of the ethereum rival’s recent fortunes. Elsewhere, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk gave his favorite cryptocurrency dogecoin a boost over the weekend after he announced his rocket company SpaceX would follow Tesla in allowing fans to buy SpaceX merchandise with the meme-based cryptocurrency.

Good to know: Nobody learned anything from the crypto crash

Lessons for lunatics 📚

You only long twice: The reborn terra blockchain and its native token luna have struggled this weekend after Saturday’s relaunch with the luna price cratering 70% immediately after going live, data from Coingecko shows.

Catch up quick: Terra’s blockchain ecosystem, including the two top ten cryptocurrencies terraUSD (UST), a so-called algorithmic stablecoin designed to be pegged one-to-one with the U.S. dollar and its support coin luna, went into meltdown at the beginning on May, sending shockwaves through the wider crypto market. Despite attempts by terra backers, led by Terraform Labs, to shore up the coins, their prices fell to near zero, wiping out many investors. Terraform Labs chief executive Do Kwon then put forward a so-called revival plan in which new holders of both UST, luna and other ecosystem coins would receive new, rebranded luna tokens.

But but but… The terra collapse is not the industry’s Bear Stearns moment (referring to the fall of a major Wall Street bank that ultimately signaled the 2008 financial crisis), it was reported by CNBC after reporters gauged industry sentiment during last week’s DC Blockchain Summit.

Do Kwon or die: Terra’s outspoken creator Do Kwon has returned in force to Twitter after a period of relative silence since the terra meltdown, giving advice, offering support and again going after naysayers.

Disturbing: Luna 2.0’s plummet appears to suggest a lack of faith in Do Kwon’s revamp, Cointelegraph reports, citing a flood of Twitter posts that show investors, sometimes called lunatics, are looking only to recover as much of their funds as possible before quitting the project altogether.

Go slow: Luna’s collapse shows the need for crypto projects to go slow, according to cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, who told Coindesk: “If you move too quickly … everybody loses their money.”

Meanwhile… details from the collapse of the UST and luna crash are continuing to emerge. Researchers now think trades of a small number of players, including lender Celsius Network, contributed to sudden luna sell-off and UST’s depegging, it was reported by Bloomberg, refuting the earlier narrative that one large attacker or hacker was responsible.

The rich got richer: Not everyone lost out on luna, it seems, with venture capital company Pantera Capital telling CNBC “their $1.7 million investment turned into $170 million, while Hack VC and CMCC Global exited their luna position in December and March, respectively.”

Now read this: First she documented the alt-right. Now she’s coming for crypto.

Droning on 🕹️

🎙️Estonia-based cryptocurrency exchange WhiteBit has bought the Eurovision winner’s crystal mic from the Ukrainian rap-folk band Kalush Orchestra at auction.

🚁 WhiteBit bought the trophy for $900,000 in an auction held on Instagram over the weekend to raise funds for Ukraine’s fight against a Russian invasion and is expected to be spent on drones, it was reported by Bloomberg.

💰 Since Russia’s invasion began the Ukrainian government used social media to ask for cryptocurrency donations, with the Aid for Ukraine fund raising around $50 million worth of cryptocurrency as of mid-May, according to a CNBC report.

Now read this: How influencers hype crypto, without disclosing their financial ties

The week ahead 📆

Look out for these cryptocurrency and crypto-related events this week.

🧾 On Wednesday, June 1, the Federal Reserve is expected to begin reducing its bloated $9 trillion balance sheet in a well-telegraphed move that traders hope won’t have too much of an effect on the market.

💬 Speeches to look out for this week include European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane, who’s speaking on Wednesday, with New York Federal Reserve president John Williams and St. Louis Fed president James Bullard also speaking at separate events.

– ECB top economist lays out interest rate hikes for July, September

🎩 On Friday, it’s the U.K.’s Bank of England deadline for the country’s banks to present crypto plans after the central bank began sketching out the U.K.’s first regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in March.

– Government sets out plan to make UK a global cryptoasset technology hub

💼 Rounding out the week are the latest U.S. non-farm payroll numbers for May, expected to show the U.S. added another 300,000 jobs, after a gain of 428,000 in April. The unemployment rate is also expected to inch down to match a half-century low.

Good to know: Farmers fear crypto boss Sam Bankman-Fried will cost them sleep