Bitcoin falls another 10% as DeFi coins show resilience
Bitcoin is searching for firm footing around $35K after another week of volatility has washed over the market.
The leading cryptoasset hit lows above $33K on Sunday before bouncing, with bullish momentum supported by some of the loudest voices in institutional investing. Ray Dalio admitted to owning Bitcoin at Consensus last week, saying he’d prefer holding it over bonds in the event of inflation. Meanwhile, famed investor Stanley Druckenmiller said that he thinks “Bitcoin has won the store of value game.”
Although the entire market has shrunk in the latest sell-off, DeFi coins represent a growing slice of the pie. Chainlink and Uniswap have shown resilience by staying relatively flat over the last week, and smart contract platform EOS has risen 3%.
This Week’s Highlights
- Ray Dalio prefers Bitcoin to bonds
- Apple job ad sparks adoption speculation
- eToro lists DeFi tokens
Ray Dalio prefers Bitcoin to bonds
Speaking at the Consensus conference last week, hedge fund legend Ray Dalio said that the U.S. dollar is on the verge of devaluation, and the gold-like properties of Bitcoin make it increasingly attractive as a store of value.
“Personally, I’d rather have Bitcoin than a bond” in an inflationary scenario, said Dalio, who admitted to owning an undisclosed amount of the cryptoasset.
Joining Dalio in voicing support for Bitcoin was billionaire businessman Carl Icahn, who said in an interview with Bloomberg that he is contemplating a $1.5 billion investment in crypto.
Apple job ad sparks adoption speculation
Rumors are flying that Apple could be adopting crypto, after the world’s biggest tech firm posted a job for a business development manager with experience working on alternative payment systems such as crypto.
The backing of such a big brand would be a mega endorsement for the crypto market, and
could potentially bring millions of new users into the ecosystem through Apple Pay.
In another possible scenario, Apple could be following the lead of Samsung and creating a digital wallet for users to securely hold crypto on their iPhone.
eToro lists DeFi tokens
As DeFi continues to gain traction and shows resilience in the recent sell-off, eToro is listing four new ERC-20 tokens from top projects.
Aave (AAVE), Compound (COMP), Yearn.Finance (YFI) and Decentraland (MANA) are now available on eToro, making a total of 23 cryptoassets for investors to diversify their portfolios.
The week ahead
Unless Bitcoin makes a rapid recovery, the month of May will close with around 36% losses — marking the worst monthly performance since September 2011. Such a deep drop needs time to heal, and traders will now be looking for a period of consolidation to see if Bitcoin can hold above the local bottom at $30K.
Later in the week, the Bitcoin 2021 Conference in Miami is likely to boost awareness and could help support prices by driving more mainstream adoption.