Crypto Markets See Mixed Session as Terra Falls, NEAR Sets All-Time High

Thursday’s morning session remained muted with mixed results for altcoin traders.

AccessTimeIconDec 23, 2021 at 11:41 a.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 5:29 p.m. UTC
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Crypto markets had a mixed session early Thursday, with bitcoin and ether little changed while some alternative coins posted gains of more than 10%.

Leading the advance among top altcoins with a market capitalization of over $1 billion was NEAR, the token of the Near high-speed blockchain Ethereum rival, which surged 33% in 24 hours to an all-time high of $13.52.

This move came after decentralized payments network Terra said it would issue its UST stablecoins – pegged 1:1 with the U.S. dollar – on the Near network, as CoinDesk reported on Wednesday.

”NEAR has developed an [impressive] scaling solution that surpasses most available alternatives,” Jack Tao, CEO of crypto exchange Phemex told CoinDesk on Telegram. “It comes as no surprise that more and more projects will integrate or begin to develop on this ecosystem. With the launch of its Aurora EVM solution, I expect to see even more growth in the years to come.”

NEAR tokens set new all-time highs on Thursday morning. (TradingView)
NEAR tokens set new all-time highs on Thursday morning. (TradingView)

Data from CoinGecko showed $1.3 billion worth of NEAR traded on Wednesday. The price jump caused $6 million in liquidations on NEAR futures, a relatively small value that implies the rally was mainly led by spot traders.

Memecoin shiba inu (SHIB) was a top performer among other large-cap altcoins. The price of SHIB increased 7% on Thursday morning as whales – or large holders – further increased their exposure.

Terra gives back gains while DeFi tokens rally

LUNA, the native token of Terra, fell 11% as of Thursday morning to $85 after setting an all-time high of $97 on Wednesday. The volatility caused over $10 million worth of liquidations on LUNA futures in the past 24 hours, data from Coinglass showed.

LUNA’s drop came after a nearly month-long rally from $42 driven by the broader market’s interest in Ethereum rivals including Terra, Solana and Avalanche and increasing decentralized finance (DeFi) activity on the Terra network.

LUNA corrected on Thursday morning after a nearly month-long uptrend. (TradingView)
LUNA corrected on Thursday morning after a nearly month-long uptrend. (TradingView)

Other DeFi-centric tokens were less volatile. DeFi refers to a financial system based on smart contracts on blockchain networks instead of centralized middlemen for services like lending, trading and borrowing.

Ethereum is the current DeFi market leader, with over $155 billion locked in protocols on its network, DeFi Llama data shows. Terra overtook Binance Smart Chain earlier this week to become the second-largest platform, locking over $18.97 billion in value on its network.

In the past 24 hours, prices of Polkadot’s DOT token rose 4% to $27, while Avalanche’s AVAX and Solana’s SOL both lost 2.5%, according to CoinGecko. Tokens of Ethereum-based decentralized exchange Uniswap (UNI) surged nearly 9% after developers said they would launch the platform on Polygon, a scaling solution for Ethereum that has its own blockchain.

Another top gainer was lending protocol Aave, with its token recording a 15% surge in the past 24 hours. Prices soared as Switzerland’s SEBA Bank proposed joining Aave Arc, a permissioned DeFi product aimed at institutions. The regulated bank said in a post that its clients were interested in accessing DeFi services via Aave and becoming active participants in the broader DeFi ecosystem.

Bitcoin lost 0.6% after failing to break a resistance level of $49,000 on Thursday, while ether has dropped 1.6% in the past 24 hours. The moves came as trading volumes remained low across major centralized exchanges in advance of the year-end holiday season.

(CoinDesk/CryptoCompare)
(CoinDesk/CryptoCompare)

Similar trading conditions were observed on global markets in European hours on Thursday. The Stoxx Europe 600, a European equities index tracking 600 companies, and futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were little changed, Bloomberg reported.

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CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

Shaurya Malwa

Shaurya is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Data & Tokens team, focusing on decentralized finance, markets, on-chain data, and governance across all major and minor blockchains.


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