Crypto Markets Weary Ahead Of US Committee Hearing On Blockchains’ Energy Impact

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 1/18/2022 9:12 AM ET

Crypto market capitalization dropped around 3.21 percent overnight, to $1.98 trillion, ahead of the crucial U.S. House Committee hearing scheduled for Thursday.

The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce has scheduled a hearing titled “Cleaning up of Cryptocurrency: The Energy Impact of Blockchains” at 10.30 am on 20th January. The hearing is likely to spur further debate on the environmental impact of mining cryptocurrencies and updates from the hearing could influence prices of cryptocurrencies.

At the current price of $41,534.16, Bitcoin has shed 2.54 percent on an overnight basis. Ethereum has lost 4.34 percent overnight and is currently trading at $3125.65.

Bitcoin is commanding 39.8 percent of the cryptocurrency market; Ethereum is dominating 19 percent of the market whereas the remaining 41.2 percent is held by the remaining altcoins.

Stablecoins’ market capitalization, a barometer of risk-aversion in the crypto market increased to 8.44 percent, versus 8.18 percent on January 12th, when aggregate market capitalization was at $2.04 trillion.

At press-time, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP), Terra (LUNA), Polkadot (DOT), Dogecoin (DOGE), Avalanche (AVAX), Polygon (MATIC), NEAR Protocol (NEAR), TerraUSD (UST), Litecoin (LTC), and Cosmos (ATOM) are the 15 top ranking coins in terms of market capitalization.

Compared to our review of the position as on the 30th December, only 7 of the top-15 coins viz Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Terra, Polkadot and Polygon have retained their rankings based on market capitalization.

Cardano (ADA) has risen close to 8.8 percent, to $1.48 from $1.36 during the period and replaced Solana (SOL) at the fourth position among crypto coins.

The Cardano network has beaten the bearish sentiment in the broader crypto market ahead of its Sundae Swap upgrade on Thursday, January 20. The launch of the pavio.io project that introduces metaverse to the Cardano blockchain has also added to the frenzy on ADA. The metaverse, built on proof of stake blockchain technology, has some 100,000 land parcels, each being minted as a unique NFT with coordinates.

Solana (SOL) on the contrary lost almost 21 percent during the same period, having fallen from $172.75 to $136.30 amidst repeated instances of network error.

SOL had recently earned favorable commentary in a recent Bank of America report which said Solana could become the “Visa of the digital asset ecosystem” but is still down more than 4 percent on an overnight basis.

Avalanche (AVAX) which slipped to 10th rank and Dogecoin (DOGE) which improved to 9th rank too swapped positions in the hierarchy since the previous review. AVAX’s 16 percent plunge was large as compared to DOGE’s 4 percent drop during the period.

In other notable market movements, NEAR Protocol (NEAR) jumped to 12th rank, from 15th rank earlier on the strength of a 14 percent uptick. Stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), moved up to 13th rank, from 14th earlier. Algorand (ALGO) is no longer in the top-15 and has been replaced by Cosmos (ATOM). Litecoin (LTC) has fallen from rank 13 to rank 14.

In the tokens category, Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), SHIBA INU (SHIB), Binance USD (BUSD), Crypto.com coin (CRO), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Chainlink (LINK), Uniswap (UNI), Dai (DAI), FTX Token (FTT), Decentraland (MANA), Axie Infinity (AXS), Bitcoin BEP2 (BTCB), The SandBox (SAND), and UNUS SED LEO (LEO) rank in the order of market capitalization.

FTX Token (FTT) has advanced two notches while Chainlink (LINK) and Bitcoin BEP2 (BTCB) have moved up one point each. Uniswap (UNI), Decentraland (MANA), Axie Infinity (AXS) and The SandBox (SAND), have moved down one slot each.

Market sentiment continues to be influenced by the likelihood of the regulatory arm of governments catching up with various facets of the crypto world. The latest hearing on the environmental impact is an example.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Markethive Advertisement

Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe