The Digest contains the following:

• Altcoins are under $42,000 due to bearish tendencies that engulf them amid growing economic pressure.

• Luna Foundation acquires $173M BTC and becomes the 19th largest Bitcoin holder.

• Binance receives approval to operate Abu Dhabi. Coinbase (NASDAQ) stops UPI payments in India

• Tesla (NASDAQ) will build a solar-powered mining facility with Blockstream and Blockstream.

Bitcoin Drops Below $42,000 As Bearish Trends Instill Altcoins in Increasing Economic Pressure

For the first time since March 23rd, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, traded below $42,000, having lost in seven out of the last eight days. Bitcoin dropped by 3% in the past 24 hours and fell to $41,425.

This is the 24 hour chart of Bitcoin’s price (BTC). Source: Tradingview

Bitcoin fell 10% in the past week. Experts believe this is due to growing fears that the Fed will raise the interest rates to above 4%. Further drops could be caused by a looser monetary policy in response to unstable economic conditions.

A seven day chart showing the price of Bitcoin (BTC) Source: Tradingview

Altcoins were also negatively affected by current conditions. Each Altcoin lost at least 5 percent of its value in the past 24 hours.

This is the 24 hour chart of Ethereum’s (ETH) price. Source: Tradingview

Here is the 24-hour price chart for XRP. Source: Tradingview

This is the 24 hour Solana price chart (SOL). Source: Tradingview

The top 10 lost the most, losing 9% over the past 24 hours. The global cryptocurrency market cap fell to $1.86 trillion due to market declines just 15 days after reaching its 2022 peak of $2.17 trillion.

Flipsider:

• Whales continue to acquire Bitcoin despite the bearish signs. There have been more offers filed. By Bitfinex Whales.

Why you should care

Bitcoin and tech stocks are expected to be affected by the interest rate rise. They have been moving in line with cryptocurrency.

Luna Foundation Purchases $173M in BTC, Becoming 19th Largest Bitcoin Holder

Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), in accordance with their proposal to support TerraUSD (UST), a stablecoin that has $10 million of Bitcoin, announced the purchase of $173 million more bitcoin.

Adding $173 million in bitcoin to its reserves over the weekend brought the total quantity of Bitcoin in Terra’s reserves to 39,879. LFG was the ninth largest Bitcoin-holder after this huge purchase.

Should the Luna Foundation Guard manage to successfully to back the UST with Bitcoin worth $10 billion, it would possess the world’s second-largest Bitcoin reserves, second only to the Binance cold wallet.

Top 100 Richest Bitcoin Addresses. Source: Bitinfocharts

Flipsider:

• As the LFG continues to accumulate Bitcoin, Terra’s total value locked (TVL) has dropped from its high of $32 billion down to $27 billion.

Why you should care

By purchasing $10 Billion in Bitcoin, the Luna Foundation Guard hopes to “open a new monetary era of the bitcoin standard.”

Binance Approved to Operate In Abu Dhabi; Coinbase Suspends Indian UPI Payments

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, has received in-principle approval from the Abu Dhabi Global Market. Binance has been approved to be a broker-dealer for digital assets, including cryptocurrency.

The approval marks Binance’s third in the Middle Eastern region, having previously received the go-ahead from Bahrain and Dubai. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao clarified that the exchange was “not shunned elsewhere,” further claiming that there’s “more to come.”

Flipsider:

• The other side of this coin is Regulative influenceCoinbase’s crypto trading operation in India was stopped by Coinbase just three days following its launch

• Coinbase has set up cryptocurrency purchases using Unified Payments Interface (NASDAQ:) The UPI is a central payment system for the country.
• The National Payments Corporation of India Statement releasedIt claimed that UPI was not aware of any crypto transactions. The option is now marked as “temporarily unavailable” on the Coinbase app.