Bitcoin remained lifeless for most of the day as the index remained entrenched in a tight trading zone between $42k-$44k. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is looking to recover from a multi-month low of around $39.6k but is now stuck in this narrow trading range for the last few days. Altcoins on the other hand were also steady for most of the day except for a few outliers. More on that later on.
In other news, a young Indonesian man has made a whopping $1 million in trading Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs). He made these NFT sales by clicking selfies with his smartphone for the last five years. More on that later on.
Speaking of NFTs, nowadays it is being widely speculated where the NFT market is going to go from here onwards. While the current trends are running their course right now, it is widely expected that they will give way for new ones in the near future. Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated art is expected to become one of the next in line to be tokenized and sell as NFTs. The concept is quite old but was recently promoted by Dan Brown’s new book Origin in which an AI makes its own art pieces and is in every way smarter than human beings.
The acting US Comptroller of currency has stated that the immediate need of crypto intermediaries to collaborate and coordinate with each other and federal agencies. Michael J. Hsu, the current temporary incharge of the currency regulator recently spoke at the international event called TransAtlantic Finance Forum and spoke in length on the topic “the future of Crypto Assets and Regulation”.
Bitcoin is Steady above $43k
Bitcoin had an uneventful day overall as the index refused to go below $42.5k and move to $44k throughout the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency survived a move below $43k just before press time but that was too shallow on its own.
The last 24 hours started with the cryptocurrency at around $43.3k and it didn’t fluctuate much for the rest of the day. Early in the day, the index rose to as high as $44.7k before midnight. However, that proved to be the highest valuation the digital currency would have during this time. The price immediately came down to $43k and traded sideways around it for the most of the rest of the day. Just a few hours before press time at 2:30 PM, the index posted a low of around $42.6k in a dip but recovered quickly back above $43k. At press time, it is trading at around $43.4k.
Moving onwards, Bitcoin is currently looking to consolidate itself just above $40k before making the next move. The index has remained within a tight space for the last few days and is expected to carry on in the near future until either the bulls or the bears can make a definitive move.
The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $821 billion and its share of the proceedings was 39.5%.
Altcoins Remain Steady
Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins remained largely steady during the last 24 hours apart from a few exceptions. Cardano (ADA, 9%), Uniswap (UNI, 6%) and Cosmos (ATOM, 7.25%) were the three big performers. Dogecoin (DOGE, -5%) posted a noticeable loss. But, the rest of the market was very steady and didn’t post any real change during this time.
In Other News…..
Indonesian Guy Raises $1 Million from NFT Sales
A 22-year old Indonesian man has raised a massive $1 million from his NFT sales on OpenSea. Interestingly, the NFT collection was made up of 1,000 selfies which Ghulam Gustaf Ali took during the last few years. It was kind of a throwback to his entire graduation from university. He also mentioned what was happening around the time time when he took each particular picture which added a sense of uniqueness to it. Like this one:
Ali didn’t know he was getting into this kind of money. Initially he had placed a price of around $3 for each selfie and didn’t expect much activity from the buyers. However, like a viral meme, the NFT caught on and crypto users on Twitter really promoted it. Now, the NFT has sold for a whopping $1 million.
The NFT sector in general has really taken off in 2021 and is continuing on this year as well. Despite the crypto market in a sizable dip at the moment, the the NFT market is continuing on with its amazing progress.
