Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Fails at $10k, Ethereum Coins Explode, Coinbase Looks to Add 18 Altcoins

Another week, another round of Crypto Tidbits.

It’s been yet another volatile week for the Bitcoin market, just like the last. This week, the leading cryptocurrency made an attempt at breaking the crucial $10,000 resistance yet again, rallying as high as $10,050 on some exchanges and $10,160 on BitMEX.

Many were quick to think that this move was going to be it — that this was going to be the breakout that sends BTC into yet another full-blown market. But they were wrong.

Due to what seemed to be downward pressure in all asset markets, Bitcoin was strongly rejected at $10,000, plunging as low as $9,050 just 24 hours later. The drop lower liquidated approximately $80 million worth of long and short positions on BitMEX, according to data shared by crypto derivatives site Skew.com.

The cryptocurrency ends the week down approximately 2%, a performance that is better than that of most top 10 altcoins.

As aforementioned, Bitcoin’s latest bout of weakness coincides with weakness in other markets.

During Thursday’s trading session, top U.S. equity indices, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones, crashed by approximately 6%. This was the worst performance of these indices since March and April.

The weakness in the stock market comes on fears of a resurgence in the pandemic along with projections from the Federal Reserve and other economic and monetary bodies of a harrowing economic drawdown.

Related Reading: Crypto Tidbits: $200M of Bitcoin Liquidated, Ethereum DeFi Adoption Limited, Bloomberg Is Bullish

Bitcoin & Crypto Tidbits

• Coinbase Looks Into Adding Swath of Crypto Assets: After adding Maker and a swath of other altcoins over the past few weeks, Coinbase is looking to expand its horizons even further. In an announcement published on June 10th, the leading crypto exchange revealed that it is looking to add 18 new cryptocurrencies in the coming months. They include Aave, Aragon, Siacoin, Synthetix, Vechain, and Digibyte. The altcoins listed saw an immediate surge in value, with investors speculating that a listing on Coinbase would result in an influx of interest in the listed projects. To confirm that these assets will be supported, Coinbase will be running them through its Digital Asset Framework to “assess factors like security, compliance, and the project’s alignment with our mission of creating an open financial system for the world.”

• Fidelity Investments Find There Is Still Institutional Interest in Bitcoin and Crypto: $2 trillion asset manager Fidelity Investments released a survey this week outlining institutional habits in the cryptocurrency space. The report, conducted in association with a data firm, found that 36% of the respondents have a stake in the cryptocurrency space and that 80% of respondents are interested in the industry. Apparently, institutional interest in cryptocurrencies is being sparked by three core characteristics of cryptocurrencies: their uncorrelated nature, their “innovative technology,” and their “high potential upside.”
• Ethereum-Based DeFi Coins Surge Higher: Over the past few weeks, Ethereum-based decentralized finance coins have performed extremely well. MakerDAO’s MKR token is up 120% in the past month alone, benefiting from an influx of adoption, a strengthening DeFi ecosystem, and a listing on Coinbase. Kyber Network’s KNC, Loopring’s LRC, Aave’s LEND, Bancor’s BNT, Gnosis’ GNO, and Airswap’s AST have also done well, gaining dozens of percent over recent weeks.
• High Ethereum Fee Transactions Scream Hack, Analysts Say: One of the biggest crypto stories of the week is a series of high-fee transactions on Ethereum. One user sent two transactions of $130 and $87,000, but both had transaction fees in excess of $2.5 million. Another user paid $500,000 to transfer $750,000. The jury is out on what caused these abnormal transactions — some say its a bug in a wallet software, others say it’s an attempt to launder money, and others still say it’s a gift to miners. But Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, postulated that it is “blackmail” by hackers, who managed to take over addresses and are sending out high-fee transactions as a form of negotiation.
• Pentagon Documents Mention Bitcoin: According to official Pentagon documents, the U.S. Department of Defense postulated a scenario in which the Generation Z cohort used Bitcoin to undermine “the establishment.” This was but a mental exercise, but shows that the government is potentially aware of the impact cryptocurrencies could have on institutions.

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Tidbits: Bitcoin Fails at $10k, Ethereum Coins Explode, Coinbase Looks to Add 18 Altcoins