Bitcoin chugs above $40K

All investments and trading are risky and may result in the loss of capital. Cryptoassets are largely unregulated and are therefore not subject to protection.

Bitcoin shot above $40,000 then became scarily parabolic on route to $42,000 before plunging back to within pennies of sub-$39,000, only to catapult once again, returning above the coveted big 4-0 mark. And that was in just the past few hours.

As of 8:30 a.m. (EST), BTC was, per CoinGecko, trading at about $40,500, having gained 4.6% in the past 24 hours.

Second-largest crypto, Ethereum, gained 5.7% in that same span, reaching $2,685.

Whipsaws happen, especially in crypto on a day when the Fed is set to raise rates. Still, someone had to pay a price. Across exchanges, short sellers, waiting on a late afternoon risk-off stampede, wound up getting crushed.

Bitstamp data cited by Cointelegraph showed the BTC/USD pair suddenly surging to intra-day highs of $41,700 before instantly reversing.

"Two hourly candles were all it took for the entire market to rise by $2,000, break significant resistance levels and come all the way back down again," Cointelegraph said.

No. 55 coin Thorchain (RUNE) has been rapidly rising in recent days with some analysts predicting a further spike that'll be reminiscent of Solana's 2021 ascension, when it went from a few dollars to above $200.

No question, RUNE has been on a run. It was well under $5 on March 10. Yesterday, it nearly hit $8. In between days, faster, inexpensive cross-chain liquidity alternatives became more expansive by way of the RUNE-powered protocol's newly alive synthetic assets (CoinDesk).

Thorchain, and newly launched Thorswap (where synthetics have garnered $10 million worth of trading volume) as well as the coming DeFi launch, ThorFi, are coming in hot to challenge wrapped tokens and atomic swaps for cross-chain viability.

Its burgeoning ecosystem aside, RUNE was bound to cool off. Over the past 24 hours, RUNE shed 10.6%. At last check, about 9 a.m. (EST), RUNE was just below $7.

"What's causing the pump in privacy coins?"

So began a Crypto Twitter thread last week, right around the time the Biden administration was set to announce an executive order.

"None of your business," quipped one responder.

Whether it was concern over a coming regulatory crackdown or the sanctions being hurled against Russia, some of the biggest privacy coins took sharp, sudden flight on March 8. The 38th-largest digital asset, Monero, the least-kept secret in the space, spiked 20% in one hour.

Privacy coins are of course controversial. Industry members are keen to point out that coins enabling private transactions should not by default be assumed to be a means of illicit transactions.

And, furthermore, don't call us privacy coins, insists Bitcoin-fork Dash (DASH).

The 92nd-largest coin, DASH is staking a claim in the payments space, right alongside BTC, LTC and XRP. What makes a good payment system, and where Dash fits in – these and other topics are actually about to get the deep dive treatment.

Ernesto Contreras, Dash's global head of business development, will have a "Conversation with Uphold," a webinar set for next Tuesday.

To register for this exclusive event, click here.

Authoritarian capitalism and free market democracies have for the most part peacefully coexisted in recent decades, but old fissures run deep. Within corporate-behemoth-run free markets, there are new tensions, even as the allure of truly leveled playing fields is fueling innovations in decentralized commerce. What could be called a radical grassroots revolution happens to be locked in a twin struggle – one versus traditional, centralized enormity, the other, a battle for its soul.

"The Sandbox is becoming a playground for big brands to begin exploring the hype-driven metaverse," Decrypt said.

As quickly as McDonald's pulled out of Russia, it's already in a sprint to file trademarks for use in the metaverse. Walmart, Nike, Pepsi and Red Bull are also staking out virtual turf.

And now Europe's second-largest bank, HSBC, and Paris Hilton, famous for being famous, together just announced a new partnership with The Sandbox to "create innovative brand experiences," said Suresh Balaji, chief marketing officer of HSBC's Asia-Pacific branch, in a statement.

No matter who owns the emergent metaverse, Decrypt said, it will most likely be tokenized.