Bitcoin Slips Below $29k Again as Paypal Announces Its New Stablecoin
Bitcoin is currently trading just southwards of the major $29k support level at press time. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization didn’t post a lot of price change but what it did furthered the bears' cause once again. Altcoins on the other hand were slightly in the red as well as the market followed BTC’s lead. More on that later on.
In other news, major payment solution provider Paypal has unveiled a new major digital currency product of its own; the PYUSD stablecoin. The company has been involved in the crypto sector for quite some time and announced its crypto wallet service a couple of years ago. Now, it appears like it is looking to get a slice of the stablecoin pie as well. More on that later on.
Also, Elon Musk is continuing to inculcate radical changes on its X (formerly Twitter) social media platform. After announcing a major change in its revenue model and an entirely new rebranding exercise, Musk has unveiled the new name for former Twitter’s paid blue tick subscription services; X Premium. Musk has taken a liking to the new name X and he has rebranded the platform to this alphabet. This naming scheme is expected to continue with other products and features on the platform. Musk also announced a new groundbreaking initiative to hold X’s employees accountable. He stated that the platform will bear the legal expenses of all users who are able to prove that they were unfairly treated by employees and fact-checkers. This is a drastic change on the platform and is likely to open a whole new can of worms for him. This is because every second person you meet who is active on Twitter believes that he is wronged by the former Twitter’s employees. These accusations have been particularly strong from certain conservatives, anti-vaxxer groups, and other far-right and far-left organizations. Musk has said that the action will cover all actions on the platform including liking and sharing. His dislike of content moderation on former Twitter was an open secret as he has ranted about it often. This measure too, seems like a way to rein in what he describes as an attack on freedom of speech. This will result in more controversial topics becoming the norm on the trending spaces, which is likely to bring further legal trouble and government wrath.
Bitcoin Slips Below $29k
Bitcoin is currently changing hands at around $28.8k at press time after a slight bearish start to the week. The cryptocurrency is trading sideways after some initial losses but major price change has remained elusive.
The last 24 hours started with BTC at around $29k. The cryptocurrency traded above this valuation for a big portion of the rest of the day. It mostly hovered between $29k and $29.1k and volatility was very low overall. However, the index eventually began to lose value just before press time and slipped below the key level. The bears did make this happen but couldn’t make any major inroads. The cryptocurrency dropped to just above $28.7k just before press time but the bulls fought hard and forced the index back above $28.9k at press time.
Going forward, Bitcoin is now looking to make a move below $29k but today’s price drop isn’t convincing enough to say that a definitive price move has happened. The bears are expected to charge back in the near future but they need to do better if they are to pull the index towards $28k soon enough.
The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $562 billion and its share of the proceedings was 50.44%.
Altcoins Record Small Drops
Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins were largely steady during the last 24 hours but did show some losses at the end. Noteworthy price movers included Binance Coin (BNB, -1.3%), Ripple (XRP, -3.3%), Dogecoin (DOGE, -2.6%), Cardano (ADA, -1.9%), Polygon (MATIC, -2.1%), Litecoin (LTC, -2%), Shiba Inu (SHIB, -4.8%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH, 5.5%), and Uniswap (UNI, -2.8%).
In Other News….
Paypal Announces New Stablecoin PYUSD
The stablecoin wars are becoming more and more competitive as major payments player Paypal announced its own overture into the segment. The new PYUSD will be issued by the Paxos Trust which formerly maintained its own stablecoin the Paxos Dollar as well prior engagements with Binance for its stablecoin as well. It will be backed 100% by USD reserves like other stablecoins.
Paypal has been steadily building up its crypto products and services in the last couple of years. Its decision to allow a crypto wallet in its ecosystem was well-received by its users despite its limitations. Now it aims to capture a portion of the USD stablecoin market as several big players have exited it or are in the process of doing so.