The global crypto market exhibited heightened volatility yesterday as fake news of Walmart accepting Litecoin (LTC) as payment sent the market into a frenzy. LTC experienced a classic pump and dump with a 35 per cent increase being pulled back all within an hour. Bitcoin (BTC) briefly gained by 4 per cent before retracting along with the rest of the market. The press release was distributed by the GlobeNewsWire agency.

The global crypto market cap however recovered marginally after the incident to stand at $2.06 trillion, down by 0.1 per cent as of 9 am IST. Trade volumes across exchanges soared by 24 per cent as traders took advantage of the momentary market volatility.

BTC breezed past $46,500 as MicroStrategy announced an additional investment in the cryptocurrency before getting rejected at the level possibly as a reaction to the Litecoin news. However, BTC bounced back from support at $43,400, the 100-day EMA, to close the day at $45,200 with an increase of 0.4 per cent. It enjoys support at $44,000 while the next major resistance will come at $45,800, the 200-day moving average.

Ethereum’s (ETH) price is landlocked between $3,150 and $3,400 without a clear trend. After losing all of its weekend gains, ETH had a successful retest at $3,140 to close the day at $3,303. Critical support for ETH comes in at $3,000, followed by $2,640. If ETH closes below $3,300, it can flip to resistance in the upcoming days.

Amongst the top 20 altcoins, Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX) registered over 3 per cent gains while Litecoin (LTC) and Uniswap (UNI) managed to break even. Cardano (ADA) continued its sell-off post the smart contract upgrade with a 1 per cent drop. Other altcoins took losses varying between 1-4 per cent.

For the short-term, BTC continues to remain range bound with critical support at $42,450 below which sub $40,000 levels come into play.

Top Gainers today:

1. Mina (MINA): 22.0%
2. Quant (QNT): 17.3%
3. Synthetix (SNX): 17.1%

Top Losers today:

1. Harmony (ONE): -8.7%
2. Revain (REV): -6.6%
3. Waves (WAVES): -6.3%

Analysis includes the top 100 cryptocurrencies only as of 9 am IST

Source: CoinMarketCap

Crypto News at a Glance:

1. MicroStrategy, a strong institutional investor in Bitcoin, has purchased an additional 5,050 bitcoins for ~$242.9 million in cash at an average price of ~$48,099 per Bitcoin. Michael Saylor’s firm now holds 114,042 Bitcoins.
2. UK-based hedge fund Brevan Howard is reportedly launching a new business division to manage its cryptocurrency and digital assets. The company has also hired a top executive from venture capital firm CMT Digital to lead investments in crypto.
3. Global crypto exchange Coinbase is planning to raise $1.5 billion via debt offering to further grow the company’s balance sheet for general corporate purposes as well as potential investments and acquisitions of other companies, products or technology.
4. El Salvador is reportedly planning to exempt investors from paying a capital gains tax and an income tax on Bitcoin according to its presidential legal counsel.

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