The overall crypto market rallied today. President Biden is expected to sign an executive order this week that would represent an initial step toward regulating cryptocurrencies. The move comes amid concerns that Russia could use crypto assets to evade sanctions.
The head of Singapore’s largest bank said he sees cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin continuing to “grow as a meaningful store of value, in a way similar to gold.”
The war in Ukraine and heavy sanctions on Russia have pushed commodity prices to levels not seen in years.
U.S. indices closed lower yesterday after President Joe Biden announced plans to boycott Russian energy imports.
Top cryptos
Terra jumped more than a fifth today and traded just under $100. Terra was listed on Wirex two days ago, a development that helped drive its price surge.
Avalanche rose 10%. The platform recently announced its Multiverse program, funded with 4 million AVAX—roughly $290 million at current prices—designed to stimulate subnet growth. AVAX was also listed on Bitstamp two days ago.
Ethereum gained more than 7%, while Cardano and Solana both climbed over 4%. Bitcoin traded above $41,000 at the time of writing, up nearly 8% over the past 24 hours.
Biggest movers
Among the top 100 coins by market cap, Monero posted the largest percentage increase today. Privacy coins broadly saw gains, but Monero led the pack.
Analysts expect sanctions on Russia to fuel more cybercrime, and privacy-focused tokens are likely to become more popular as attackers prefer receiving payments in them. Secret, another privacy token, rose 15% in the last 24 hours.
NEAR Protocol’s live price today is $11.12, with a 24-hour trading volume of $750.6 million. The 22nd-largest coin by market cap rose 12.61% in the past day.
Waves climbed another 12% today. Other notable gainers include privacy coins Oasis and Zcash (+12% and +16%, respectively), THORChain (+11%), Arweave (+18%), and Anchor and Dash (each up 13%).
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