Cheer returns to cryptocurrency markets

Cheer returned to cryptocurrency markets this week, with the global crypto market cap holding steady above $2 trillion. Bitcoin broke the $47,000 level, but its ride has been a bit bumpier since.

Helping bitcoin this week was Singapore-based Luna Foundation Guard, which says it is buying bitcoin as reserves for its dollar-pegged stablecoin TerraUSD (UST). The foundation plans to acquire over $100 million of bitcoin each day until it meets a target of $3 billion in bitcoin reserves. As of Wednesday, the firm had purchased bitcoin valued at approximately $1.31 billion, according to Will Hamilton, head of trading and research at Trovio Capital Management.

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency dropped to around $44,000 on Friday, but bounced back and is currently trading just above $46,000. It’s on track to lose 1.4% this week after jumping more than 13% last week. “If (bitcoin) can not hold above the $44,000 level that would be seen as a fake breakout and therefore suggest downside in the short term,” Marcus Sotiriou, analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock wrote.

Meanwhile, the LUNA token which backs UST has jumped nearly 20% in the last seven days, and is trading near an all-time high of $107.57, as per CoinMarketCap. Ether, is set for a third straight week of gains, up 4% this week and trading around $3,435.

Of the 10 top tokens by market capitalization, solana is the strongest performer this week, gaining around 28% with its market cap back above $43 billion. From a sectoral view, the decentralized finance sector tracked by research firm Messari rose 13.91% this week and the Web3-related sector rose 10.27%. However, tokens tied to the gaming space dropped 1.27% after multiple double-digit weeks of positive returns.

The token tied to online game Axie Infinity (AXS) is up 5%. News broke earlier this weak that hackers had stolen millions of dollars from the blockchain used to power it.