Major cryptos fell sharply over the past 24 hours, reacting to the FOMC minutes release of faster rate hikes. All three major US indices fell heavily on the news that Fed officials are planning faster hikes and a quicker start to bond sales than expected. The NASDAQ100 was hit hardest, falling 3.34%.
The Fed-driven selloff marks the worst start to a calendar year for tech stocks since the 2008 financial crisis, with a range of tech firms taking US markets lower in the session. Leading the NASDAQ100 lower was MercadoLibre, down 9%, while Datadog fell 7.76% and Moderna was off by 7.65%.
The biggest faller in the SPX500 was Enphase Energy, down 11.82% after Bank of America downgraded the stock from buy to neutral.
Top cryptos
Solana and Polkadot plunged more than 11%, while Ethereum, BNB, Cardano and XRP fell more than 8%. Bitcoin dropped almost 7% and was trading just above $43,000 at time of writing. Nonetheless, a Goldman Sachs report this week sees Bitcoin potentially doubling to $100,000 within the coming five years.
Polygon lost 15%. It has taken a dive since being pushed to a new all-time high of $2.92 on 27 December. It has since lost over 25% to today's price of $2.08 following news of a malicious hack on the network in early December.
Top movers
Almost all of the top 100 coins by market cap have lost value today. Metaverse tokens were hit the hardest. The biggest losers are Axie Infinity, Internet Computer, and Loopring with -20%, Elrond, Tezos, Curve DAO, ThorChain, and Compound with -19%, Gala, Arweave, and Kadena with -18%, Hedera, Theta, Nexo, and SushiSwap with -17%, privacy protocol Secret with -16%, and Sandbox, Harmony, BAT, The Graph, Helium, Enjin Coin, Chiliz, Waves, YFI, Algorand, IoTeX, and Velas with 15%.
At #100, APENFT is the only winner of today with gains of around 3%. Its core businesses include investing in top NFT platforms and artworks, incubating leading NFT artists, sponsoring galleries, organizing art exhibitions or publications, setting up awards to support art creation and criticism, and establishing art collections.
Trending
PAPPAY, a cryptocurrency that can be used for digital purchases and payments on the internet and a tool that generates passive income, soldiers on with gains of 900% today, a level typical of its recent trajectory.
Another winner is AquaGoat.Finance, which gained 8.65% in the last 24 hours. Recognizing the harmful impacts of cryptocurrency mining on the environment, AquaGoat focuses on ocean conversation efforts, helping to offset, mitigate, and potentially reverse the damage done by humans and conventional mining processes of the past, all while generating income for network participants.