As Bitcoiners celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day (May 22 in the States), the coin’s price action appears as limp as a slice of undercooked, microwaved meatlover’s.
What is Bitcoin Pizza Day, you ask? It’s the date enthusiasts of the OG digital asset mark the anniversary of the occasion a BTC whale back in the day (13 years ago) spent 10,000 of the digital coins on a couple of Papa John’s pizzas.
As of right now, that amount of Bitcoin would be worth about US$268.6 million. Good thing he didn’t buy garlic bread, too.
Laszlo Hanyecz is his name. And he’s survived to still tell his bitter-tasting tale.
By the way, the person on the other end of the transaction, one Jeremy Sturdivant, looks like this…
Unfortunately for Sturdivant, according to the Aussie Twitter account JP Technology (a “Bitcoin evangelist”), he also wasn’t of a HODLing mindset, apparently selling his potential fortune on “travelling expenses”.
Surely someone or someones managed to get rich off these early transactions… or perhaps the fortune has been spread out and/or lost in the blockchain amid lost Bitcoin “keys”.
Whatever the case, the day is of significance in the world of Bitcoin and crypto, as it marks the first time BTC was publicly used as a medium of exchange.
Top 10 overview
With the overall crypto market cap at US$1.17 trillion, up about 0.5% since this time yesterday, here’s the current state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.
If you’re obsessed with short-term crypto price action, then the past few days in the Crypto Town has kind of sucked for you, unfortunately.
A quick check of the Crypto Fear & Greed Index pretty much shows the overriding market sentiment just lately – Neutral, in other words: “meh”.
There’s a bit for investors to be fearful about right now, or at least somewhat concerned. The US debt ceiling impasse is, in theory, one of those factors.
The Democrats and Republicans apparently have about 10 days to reach a deal on raising America’s debt ceiling so it doesn’t default, which would supposedly steepen the US into recession, unemployment chaos and cause seismic wider global economic repercussions.
You’d like to think they can sort that out between them in that timeframe, wouldn’t you.
In any case, is there anything to be slightly hopeful about with the crypto market right now? If you’re taking a longer timeframe view on it all, sure.
Roman Trading is one Crypto Twittering analyst who is still seeing shortish-term explosive upside and is still calling for that short squeeze…
Meanwhile, according to emailed notes we received this morning from eToro market analyst Josh Gilbert, he summarises that there is a “wait-and-see approach taking hold of markets”, adding:
“Bitcoin demand continues to flatline as markets move nervously toward the second half of the year Uncertainty in markets continues to be driven by waiting and watching central bank moves.
“US Fed chair Jerome Powell indicated on Friday that rate hikes could now pause. The central bank, however, has garnered something of an unreliable partner reputation among markets in recent months, leaving asset movements to trade on uncertainty.”
Uppers and downers: ‘Chinese coins’ pumping again?
Some of the biggest 24-hour gainers and losers at press time. (Stats accurate at time of publishing, based on CoinGecko.com data.)
PUMPERS (11-100 market cap position)
• Conflux (CFX), (market cap: US$677 million) +9%
• NEO (NEO), (market cap: US$698 million) +7%
• Kava (KAVA), (market cap: US$570 million) +5%
• IOTA (MIOTA), (market cap: US$511 million) +4%
• Synthetix (SNX), (market cap: US$768 million) +3%
Conflux and NEO are having reasonably decent pumps today on an otherwise fairly flattish day in the market… so what gives?
As we’ve mentioned in recent articles, the Chinese coin narrative has been rearing its head out of the woods periodically this year.
Some keen-eyed traders, such as perhaps this bloke here, “David, The Crypto Bull” (erm, absolutely not financial advice), are eyeing up June 1 as a date of significance that’s playing into these pumps.
That’s the date that Hong Kong is officially taking its first steps towards allowing retail investors to participate in crypto trading/buying and selling once again.
One for the hopium crack crypto pipe, perhaps.
PUMPERS (lower, lower caps)
• Ovr (OVR), (market cap: US$35 million) +58%
• SafeMoon (SFM), (market cap: US$103 million) +27%
• STEPN (GMT), (market cap: US$257 million) +10%
SLUMPERS
• Pepe (PEPE), (market cap: US$645 million) -4%
• Rocket Pool (RPL), (mc: US$926 million) -4%
• Bitget Token (BGB), (mc: US$658 million) -2%
• Lido DAO (LDO), (mc: US$1.78 billion) -2%
SLUMPERS (lower, lower caps)
• NUM Token (NUM), (market cap: US$18 million) -44%
• Bob Token (BOB), (market cap: US$34 million) -25%
• Milady Meme Token (LADYS), (market cap: US$43 million) -18%
Around the blocks
Some pertinence and randomness that stuck with us on our morning moves through the Crypto Twitterverse.
