Bitcoin (BTC) faced selling pressure early Tuesday as the cryptocurrency’s reward halving approaches, causing the leading cryptocurrency by market value to fall 5.7% to $65,742. This drop marked a bearish resolution of the recent week-long consolidation between $68,000 and $72,000. The halving event for Bitcoin is expected on April 21, which will reduce the pace of BTC production by 50%. Despite the anticipation surrounding this event, some analysts believe that the market has already priced in the halving, limiting any major reaction.
LMAX Digital noted in a morning note that as Bitcoin approaches the halving event, it has recently hit a fresh record high and may be less inclined to extend its record run before experiencing a period of correction and consolidation. The broader crypto market also saw losses, with ether (ETH), Solana’s SOL, and dogecoin (DOGE) registering larger drops. The broader CoinDesk 20 index fell nearly 8% in response to the market movements.
In other news, Ethena Labs, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol offering the $1.3 billion yield-earning USDe, has opened claims for its new governance token, ENA. Holders of USDe were invited to claim their share of the airdrop of 750 million ENA tokens, which represents 5% of the total supply and is set to list on centralized exchanges. Following the commencement of the airdrop, ENA saw an increase of over 8% in value, trading at around 64 cents with a market cap close to $500 million.
Deribit, the world’s leading crypto options exchange, announced on Tuesday that its Dubai-based unit, Deribit FZE, has won a conditional virtual asset provider (VASP) license from the local regulator. This license will allow FZE to operate as a virtual asset exchange for spot and derivatives trading once all remaining conditions and local requirements of Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) are satisfied. This development will enable Deribit to serve institutional and qualified investors while continuing to cater to retail investors through its Panama-based broker affiliate.
In the world of blockchain projects, a chart analyzing smart contracts, unique active wallets (UAW), decentralized applications, and other metrics revealed that NEAR has seen the biggest increase in unique active wallets in the past seven days, followed by Solana and Polygon. BNB Chain slipped to fourth place, with Ethereum ranking at number 12.
Overall, the cryptocurrency market continues to experience fluctuations and developments as various projects and platforms navigate regulatory requirements and market dynamics. Investors and traders are closely monitoring these movements to make informed decisions in the volatile crypto space.