The crypto markets opened fairly flat across the board today, adding 1.3% to bring total market capitalisation up to US$1.08tn.
Bitcoin edged slightly over the US$23,000 line, while Ethereum stayed close to US$1,650.
Ethereum scaling solution Optimism continued its strong rally with a 25% rise, while Binance’s US$49bn BNB coin was also among the biggest risers, adding 6.7%.
Following Bored Ape Yacht Club’s partnership announcement with Gucci, the NFT project's native token ApeCoin enjoyed a 10% rally to bring its market capitalisation up to US$2.3bn.
Crypto.com’s US$3.7bn CRO token fell nearly 4% while privacy coin Monero and the Qtum network token were also among the biggest losers on Thursday morning.
Among the biggest gainers in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space were 1inch Network with 7.7%, Uniswap with 6.2% and staking platform Lido DAO with 11.5%.
However, total value locked across the wider DeFi space did suffer a 2% drop to US$88.4bn.
In the news
Another day, another crypto hack, this time directed at the China-based ZB centralised exchange, which labels itself “the world’s most secure digital asset exchange”.
Approximately US$4.8mln was purportedly stolen, according to blockchain security company Peckshied.
ZB has temporarily paused deposits and withdrawal “while we resolve the issue”.
MicroStrategy shares surged nearly 13% following former Chief executive Michael Saylor’s decision to step down from the position to focus on the company’s Bitcoin strategy as executive chairman.
Under Bitcoin evangelist Saylor, MicroStrategy became the largest corporate Bitcoin holder in the world, a decision which has proved polarising in the current bear market.
The Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act bill introduced into the US House of Representatives on Wednesday by senators Debbie Stabenow and John Boozman has been met with approval within the crypto community.
If passed, the bill would enlarge the role of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in regulating crypto while limiting the influence of the hawkish Securities Exchange Commission.