Bitcoin rebounds after the Federal Reserve news, Litecoin still flying, and MetaMask’s users are not happy about its latest update… The week’s crypto highlights are here.
Bitcoin rebounds above $16K after Federal Reserve news
The crypto industry was shocked by another FTX development, as the FTX hacker tried to cash out the stolen tokens, causing an industry-wide bear run. Bitcoin’s price dropped as low as $15,476 on Tuesday, before getting a push from the markets’ positive reaction to news pointing out the Federal Reserve might start slowing down its interest rate hikes in 2023. Bitcoin’s price since then rebounded above $16K, fluctuating between the $16,800 and $16,343 levels, ending the week with a drop of 1.8%.
Litecoin’s exceptional performance continues
Litecoin has become the 13th biggest cryptocurrency this week, taking over Solana and Shiba Innu, with a market capitalization of $5.4 billion, and trading above the $70 mark, the highest since May. The exceptional performance of Litecoin continued this week, as it recorded gains of more than 25% in the last 7 days, defying the downtrend of the market, and showing little vulnerability to the ongoing negative effects of FTX and Alameda’s collapse on the crypto markets.
Cardano-based stablecoin project shuts down
DeFi ecosystem Ardana announced on Thursday that it’s halting the development of its Cardano-based stablecoin project due to funding and project timeline uncertainty. The fundraising for the project was coming from staking yields, which have declined on the Cardano network, causing a decline in the funding for the DANA stablecoin’s development team. In a brief announcement on Twitter, Ardana said the code “will remain open source for builders to continue our work going forward as they wish”.
Rage in the crypto space as MetaMask starts collecting IPs
The crypto community worldwide has been vocal this week about a new update in MetaMask’s privacy policy, stating that it will begin collecting users’ IP addresses and Ethereum wallet addresses during on-chain transactions. ConsenSys, Metamask’s owner, said that the collection of users’ data will only apply if they use MetaMask’s default Remote Procedure Call (RPC) application, Infura. MetaMask is one of the most popular self-custody wallet software, with more than 21 million monthly active users.
Japan prepares to run a digital yen experiment
Reuters cited a source familiar with the matter saying that the (central) Bank of Japan will begin preparations to conduct a pilot experiment with private financial institutions next year towards issuing a digital yen. This step is coming after the BOJ wraps up the second phase of its CBDC experiment which started in April, and which will last about a year. According to another report by Nikkei, the new experiment will last for two years and will involve the country’s top three banks and other regional financial institutions.
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