New Ethereum high overshadowed by mega gains for Shiba and Mana
Bitcoin is holding above $60K as traders celebrate the thirteenth anniversary of the release of the whitepaper.
The arrival of the cryptoasset’s teenage years has been marked by several milestones: Mastercard announced last week that millions of merchants will be able to integrate crypto, the top U.S. banking regulator said it is exploring how banks can hold cryptoassets, and El Salvador’s president bought another 420 Bitcoin. However, the leading cryptoasset fell 3% over the week, outpaced by Ethereum which briefly surpassed $4,400 to make new all-time highs on the successful Altair upgrade.
Meanwhile in the action-packed altcoin market, Metaverse token MANA made triple-digit gains in the wake of Facebook’s rebranding to Meta, Shiba Inu jumped over 70% to get the upper hand on rival Dogecoin, and Polkadot fell 5% after surging in anticipation of the Parachain launches.
This Week’s Highlights
- Shiba surges over 70% as battle for dog coin dominance intensifies
- MANA makes new highs on Facebook rebrand
- eToro announces DeFi webinar
Shiba surges over 70% as battle for dog coin dominance intensifies
After weeks of jostling paw to paw with Dogecoin for the top positions on the crypto leaderboard, Shiba Inu has broken into the top 10 with a new all-time high.
Shiba’s jaw-dropping rally marks over 70% weekly gains, and is thought to be driven by two forces; Chinese buyers catching up with Western affections for the canine-themed crypto, and big traders moving into the memecoin market from DeFi.
Meanwhile, rival Dogecoin finished the week flat after Elon Musk teased the idea of accepting tuition payments in the cryptoasset for his latest tongue-in-cheek project — a new university named the Texas Institute of Technology & Science.
MANA makes new highs on Facebook rebrand
Metaverse projects caught an unexpected tailwind last week after Facebook rebranded to Meta to reflect its newfound focus on building a shared 3D virtual world.
Decentraland’s MANA token made monster weekly gains of over 250% on the news, briefly hitting highs of almost $5. Enjin, another metaverse token focused on NFTs, added almost 50%.
This price action reflects speculation that Facebook’s play will spread understanding of the metaverse, and lead to more exposure for the tokens of established projects seeking to build virtual worlds.
eToro announces DeFi webinar
This week, eToro is offering the opportunity to dive into the innovative world of DeFi without spending hours on research.
Join Chief Blockchain Scientist Professor Dr. Omri Ross on Wednesday to get a glimpse of the financial revolution everyone’s talking about, and learn how you can invest through eToro’s new DeFiPortfolio.
Register now to join the exclusive webinar on November 3rd 2021 at 3:00 pm GMT.
Week ahead
As Uptober ends with a cool 40% monthly gain for Bitcoin, expectations are high for the coming, already optimistically named Moonvember.
This bullish view is supported by onchain data, with the amount of BTC held by exchanges falling again last week, suggesting that investors are holding their coins in personal storage and not selling.
In the week ahead, traders will be listening carefully for the outcome of the Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday. This could influence the direction of the market by indicating whether the Fed will be pulling back the stimulus they’ve provided during the pandemic.