Highlights March 1: Cryptos stage comeback, defence stocks on the rise

The crypto market is rallying across the board today. Price growth is provoked by Ukrainians buying goods with crypto donations and Russians stocking up on crypto as a store of value.  

Defence companies surged yesterday after Germany pledged to boost its armed forces in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Germany’s Rheinmetall (+24.94%) took off. Several US companies in the sector also recorded gains.

Energy companies shone yesterday as US stocks climbed higher. Solar firms Enphase Energy (+8.44%) and SolarEdge Technologies (+14.93%) leapt over concerns for global oil supplies, as did hydrocarbon exploration company Occidental Petroleum Corp (+12.88%).

Markets today may be impacted by the release of the ISM Manufacturing PMI at 15:00 GMT. 

Top cryptos

Bitcoin jumped around 14%, trading above $43,000 at time of writing. Ethereum and Cardano were both up around 11%, and XRP registered gains of around 7%.

LUNA has enjoyed a standout performance this week. It gained another 21% today, bringing its weekly surge to just under 80%. It is rallying on news of an FTX listing, slated for today.

Outside the top 10, Wrapped Bitcoin is doing the best. It added 13% to its value. Other prominent gainers include Avalanche and Cosmos.  

Top movers

Most top 100 coins are rallying too. One of the biggest winners is WAVES, the token of Waves, a multipurpose blockchain platform created by Ukrainian-born Alexander Ivanov. In what could be a show of support for Ukraine, WAVES added almost 38% to its value today.

As it usually happens, one day’s biggest losers are the next one’s biggest winners. In that vein of thought, THORChain gained 23% today. NEAR Protocol is also one of the leaders with gains of 22%.

Other coins conforming to bulls’ expectations include Kadena (+19%), Fantom (+15%), Neo (+16%), and Theta Network (+17%). Most of those were plummeting yesterday.  

Trending

The biggest gainer of lesser-known coins is OBROk, a limited-supply asset launched in 2021. The OBRok Token team is working on the Metaverse, Web3, renewable energy, and aeronautical sciences. They also provide R&D services in these areas via blockchain technology. OBROk is up 275% today.

The live UMA (Universal Market Access) price today is $8.33 with a 24-hour trading volume of $462.7 million. UMA is up 73.45% in the last 24 hours.

Qredo, an ecosystem that claims to be rearchitecting digital asset ownership and blockchain connectivity, has seen its native token gain steadily over the past few weeks. Its fully diluted market cap increased by 28% today.