By order, crypto spikes

Bitcoin spiked nearly 9% to above $42,000. It happened over the past 24 hours as of today at 7:45 a.m. (EST).

Yesterday, at about 6 p.m. (EST), U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen released, perhaps inadvertently, a statement regarding an executive order from President Biden on crypto. The Treasury statement was later unpublished and then republished as traders twice pounced on news reports painting U.S. regulators as being generally supportive toward the industry.

Signed hours ago, Biden's actual executive order on crypto is mostly neutrally couched. It directs federal agencies to coordinate their approach to the sector; it did not lay out specific positions the administration wants agencies to adopt, nor did it impose new regulations on the sector. The “whole-of-government” effort to regulate the crypto industry focuses on the following: consumer protection; financial stability; illicit uses; global financial sector leadership; financial inclusion; and responsible innovation, according to an overview of the order (CoinDesk).

BTC going back above $40K is comforting, but reclaiming $46,000 would signify that momentum has been regained, said William Clemente, lead insights analyst, Blockware, per Cointelegraph.

Also lifted by executive decree was the second-largest crypto, Ethereum (+6.6%), as well as some privacy coins.

Monero (XMR), the best-known coin of this realm and, per CoinGecko, the 39th-largest digital asset, has spiked by 17% since yesterday at this time.

It's no secret which Big Ten coin tore off the largest increase: Terra (LUNA) surged 20% in 24 hours to nearly $98.

Demand for the Terra UST dollar-pegged, decentralized stablecoin is significantly increasing, driving up the price of Terra's ecosystem enabler, LUNA; or, as Terra enthusiast Argonauts tweeted: "$UST is liquid hydrogen. $LUNA is the rocket."

Surprise! Oil fell.

It fell even as Russian exports are being shunned by the U.S. and by other major countries (as well as by a global community of commodities brokers, financiers, shippers, refiners, banks and insurers).

It fell amidst chatter of $300 per barrel of oil – countered by quips of "not if the Saudis have anything to say about it."

It has been two weeks since Russia, the world’s second-largest crude exporter, attacked Ukraine.

Supply uncertainty has caused oil prices to skyrocket. Consumers are reeling from gas price shock, with the U.S. national average going well above $4 for the first time in 14 years.

On Wednesday, Brent crude fell 1.8% to $125.71 a barrel. Brent reached $139 on Monday, its highest level since 2008.

Pariah-status-infused Iranian oil is now said to be back in play. Iran has been in talks with Western leaders who are open to reviving a deal which would lift sanctions, provided Iran curbs nuclear aspirations.

Meanwhile, CNBC, citing sources, citing the American Petroleum Institute, floated figures suggesting U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels.

Avalanche (AVAX) announced the launch of Avalanche Multiverse, an incentive program that will accelerate app-specific blockchain ecosystems known as subnets.

The director of the Avalanche Foundation, Emin Gün Sirer, has declared subnets – which enable functions that are only possible with network-level control and open experimentation – as the next big thing (Cointelegraph).

Avalanche’s funding of the future follows FTX’s newly created FTX Future Fund to support massively scalable projects that provide long-term solutions for humanity.

This fund, which will deploy up to $2 billion, is not to be confused with the month-old Grayscale Future of Finance ETF which tracks the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index comprising a range of digital domain dominators, including Paypal, Coinbase and Block, formerly Square.