On Thursday, Stader Labs, a crypto firm building decentralized finance, or DeFi, products for proof-of-stake blockchain networks, announced that it raised $12.5 million in a private sale. The funding round was led by Three Arrows Capital with additional participation from Blockchain.com, Accomplice, DACM, GoldenTree Asset Management, Accel, Amber, 4RC, Figment, and anger investors. This puts Staber Labs at a valuation of $450 million. Amitej Gajjala, CEO of Stader Labs, issued the following comment regarding the development: This capital will be strategically deployed to accelerate our cross-chain expansion, as well as to nurture our growing ecosystem of third-parties developing staking applications …

The first week of the new year saw a vicious pullback across all cryptocurrencies in the market. Ether (ETH) price dropped from its November peak at $4,800 peak to under $3,000 on Jan. 8 and Terra’s LUNA governance token also dropped from $85 on Dec. 31 to $67 on Jan. 8, 2022. These unexpected dramatic moves often cause liquidation cascades in the lending market, but they also create unique buying opportunities in the collateral liquidation markets. Kujira’s Orca protocol is a platform built on the Terra network and it allows investors to bid on bETH (bonded asset of Ether) and …

Bitcoin (BTC) and select altcoins are showing signs of some buying near support levels. According to Arcane Research, the seven-day average real Bitcoin trading volume has dropped to the lowest level since July 2021. During the previous instance, the sharp drop in volume marked a bottom and led to a strong rally from August to October 2021. However, Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist McGlone warned in a recent podcast that risk assets may correct as the United States Federal Reserve increases rates and reduces asset purchases. After the corrective phase is over, McGlone expects Bitcoin to transition from a “risk-on …

Bitcoin (BTC) rebounded strongly from $41,000 during Jan. 20 as bears hoping for a step into lower territory stayed disappointed. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD adding $1,000 after dipping to near the $41,000 mark for the first time since Jan. 11. In what could be a temporary reprieve, Bitcoin nonetheless stayed rangebound, with no noticeable attacks on resistance — behavior all too familiar for spot traders in recent days. "Good bounce from Bitcoin, but I'd be happier if we reclaim $42.4K region," Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe summarized in his latest Twitter update. In a …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) volatility has been shrinking in the past few days. The standard deviation of daily Bitcoin returns for the last 30 and 60 days as calculated by the Bitcoin Volatility Index is at 2.63%, the least volatile it has been since November 2020. Generally, tight ranges are followed by strong price expansions. In 2020, the low volatility period in November was followed by a sharp rally in mid-December, which resulted in a supercycle that carried the price all the way to $64,854 on April 14, 2021. However, there is no certainty that the volatility expansion will happen only to …

Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins are facing selling at higher levels and buying on dips, indicating the possibility of a range formation. On-chain analysis firm Whalemap said that a “reclaim of $46,500 will look like a trend reversal,” for Bitcoin as the previous accumulation phase of 90,000 BTC was at this level. Fidelity Digital Assets said in its annual report that the “massive “ Bitcoin accumulation by Bitcoin miners suggests that the “Bitcoin cycle is far from over.” The report went on to add that more sovereign nations may “acquire Bitcoin in 2022 and perhaps even see a central …

Terra’s native staking token, LUNA, was one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies of 2021, with gains north of 13,000%. Terra has also surpassed Binance Smart Chain (BSC) in total locked value with $17.62 billion, making it the second-biggest DeFi chain just after Ethereum. Much of this growth is due to Terra’s ecosystem, with a community of developers continually building decentralized applications on top of Terra. But it may come as a surprise to know that before there were hundreds of apps built on Terra, there were only two that existed at the start of 2021 in the Mirror Protocol and Chai. …

Bitcoin (BTC) and most major altcoins appear to have started a relief rally. Glassnode data suggests that Bitcoin addresses with a non-zero balance have risen to about 40 million, indicating increasing adoption by retail traders. Edelman Financial Engines founder Ric Edelman said that the number of Americans owning Bitcoin could rise from 24% currently to one-third by 2022. He expects this to happen as “Bitcoin is becoming more and more mainstream. People are hearing about it everywhere — it isn’t going away.” The investors buying Bitcoin seem to be in it for the long haul, if the outflows from major …

Bitcoin (BTC) surged almost $1,000 in minutes during Jan. 12 as encouraging signs emerged from exchanges. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $43,468 Wednesday, its highest since Jan. 6. The pair had been due to continue volatile moves, traders said, with more and more favoring a push higher rather than a renewed downside. This would likely come in the form of a "short squeeze" against latecomer shorters, they argued, and Wednesday's sudden wick higher appeared to support the theory. Funding rates across derivatives platforms stayed either neutral or negative during the volatility, further hinting that the …

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below the $40,000 level on Jan. 10 for the first time since September 2021. The crypto markets were not alone as the U.S. equity markets also witnessed strong selling when traders chose to reduce risk and piled into the 10-year Treasury yield which surged to 1.8% from 1.51% at the end of 2021. On Jan. 9, Goldman Sachs chief economist, Jan Hatzius, said that the U.S. Federal Reserve may increase rates by four quarter-percentage points in 2022. Analyst Alex Krüeger also warned that crypto markets may not be able to ignore the Fed if it “decides to …

Stablecoins have emerged as a foundational part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem over the past couple of years due to their ability to provide crypto traders with an offramp during times of volatility and their widespread integration with decentralized finance (DeFi). These are necessary for the health of the ecosystem as a whole. Currently, Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are the dominant stablecoins in the market, but their centralized nature and the persistent threat of stablecoin regulation have prompted many in the crypto community to shun them and search for decentralized alternatives. Binance USD (BUSD) is the third-ranked stablecoin and …

The end of the year is normally a time to wind down and prepare for the holiday season, but the last few weeks of 2021 saw a crypto market that showed no signs of resting. One of the headline-grabbing stories related to Terra reaching an all-time high in terms of the total value locked (TVL), and the project surpassed Binance Smart Chain (BSC) as the second-largest decentralized finance blockchain after Ethereum. After reaching the $20-billion TVL mark on Dec. 24, Terra’s TVL has come down to around $19.3 billion at the time of writing according to data from Defi Llama, …