BTC sputters; AVAX races ahead

In the race to deliver a scalable blockchain, Avalanche (AVAX) is merely one of numerous competitors. But in terms of one-day performance among the Big Ten, AVAX, for the moment, is unrivaled. As of Wednesday, at 7:35 a.m. (EST), the No. 9 coin had gained 7% over 24 hours, sitting at about $95, though not comfortably. It faces resistance at the $95 level, which it failed to break in January, said CoinDesk, citing bearish-looking relative strength index (RSI) readings.

Ethereum, second-largest coin and lately reacquainting itself with its groove, rose 0.5% to about $3,120.

Metaverse coins, meanwhile, were surging as of mid-week. Leading the way was Decentraland (MANA), up 8% since this time yesterday.

Banking behemoth JP Morgan has launched a virtual lounge in Decentraland, and it also published a new report asserting new forms of virtual and augmented realities will likely infiltrate every sector of the economy, calling the metaverse a $1 trillion market opportunity. Axie Infinity and Enjin Coin likewise bumped up following JP Morgan's report which coincided with the launch of the bank's virtual Onyx Lounge in Decentraland's Metajuku district (Decrypt).

Bitcoin is sputtering in early hours after failing to crack $45,000 on Tuesday. Despite the rejection, BTC, at last glance early this morning, remained above $44,000, having shed 0.4% in 24 hours.

"Holding firm at $44K" sure sounds better than "failing to crack $45K," does it not? Especially with the largest crypto awash in fresh optimism that worst-case scenarios could be off the table.

With the world one big bundle of dry kindling right now, even the slightest negative spark could ignite a risk-asset bonfire.

But even in a sell-off, the odds of BTC sinking below $30,000 seem low. At least that's the bottom line as seen through on-chain data, according to the pundit/analyst TXMC. After three months of global de-risking, with fear/uncertainty/doubt (FUD) baked in, and also taking into account the sheer resiliency of long-term holders, the AlphaBetSoup host begs the question, "who remains to sell here?"

As it happens, the “on-balance volume” metric, estimating buy/sell pressure, has recovered in a fashion reminiscent of last year’s rebound from $30,000 (Cointelegraph).

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in one fell swoop earlier this week brought, revealed and settled landmark charges with crypto lending platform BlockFi Lending, slapped with the biggest penalty the industry has ever seen.

To settle the SEC’s charges that it violated three areas of federal securities laws – including selling unregistered securities, operating as an unregistered investment company and making “material false and misleading statements” on its website that the loans were over collateralized – BlockFi agreed to pay $100 million in penalties, as well as cease its unregistered offers and sales of the lending product, BlockFi Interest Accounts (BIAs), the SEC said. BlockFi’s parent company also announced that it intends to register a new lending product under purview of the Securities Act of 1933.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Decrypt Editor-in-Chief Dan Roberts referred to BlockFi as some kind of sacrificial lamb, adding that this admit-nothing settlement sets the stage for more competitors to perhaps come in from the cold.

"A number of these other companies are certainly watching closely," Roberts said. "Their products are basically the same. Some of them allow you to deposit one of eight different cryptos. Some of them, it's only Bitcoin and Ethereum. They vary in the details. But I think it's a safe bet the SEC probably has the same view on all of these products – they see them as securities."