The crypto markets held the line over the weekend following a bullish end to last week supported by strong equity markets in the US.
Bitcoin managed to hit a three-week high of US$22,000 this Monday morning, although some downward price pressure is being observed at the time of writing.
Worth mention is Bitcoin’s market dominance, which rebounded above 38% after hitting a four-year low on Friday.
Ethereum similarly held onto Friday gains, hitting its own three-week high of US$1,790 on Saturday, although this morning's reversal has been more pronounced, with a 2% drop bringing Ethereum’s price closer to a flat US$1,700.
The top-dollar network tokens including Cardano, Polkadot and Polygon followed a similar trend, although Solana outperformed by adding 1.4% to its now-US$12.2bn market capitalisation.
Shiba Inu, the US$7bn meme coin, was one of Monday’s top movers, having added 2.2%; more bullish still was Bored Ape Yacht Club’s APE token, having added 6% to bring its market cap up to US$1.7bn.
But the morning’s strongest performer was easily CEL, the native cryptocurrency of insolvent lending protocol Celsius Network.
Activist investors have managed to drive the token up nearly 15% to a US$371mln market cap through the ongoing #CelShortSqueeze campaign.
In the decentralised finance (DeFi) space, Binance-based decentralised exchange PancakeSwap was the strongest performer, having added around 5% this morning.
In comparison, Ethereum-based alternative Uniswap traded sideways.
Total value locked across all DeFi protocols currently stands at US$59.8bn.
In the news
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing to open the Office of Crypto Assets aimed at addressing “ the unique and evolving filing review issues related to crypto assets”.
The announcement comes as SEC head Gary Gensler reiterated his hawkish stance on crypto assets, stating that “the vast majority are securities” at a recent Practising Law Institute conference.
Stakeholders wait on bated breath as the landmark Ethereum Merge is expected to occur early Thursday morning, according to Google’s official countdown timer.