Bitcoin news – live: Crypto price meltdown slows as market counts losses from Terra collapse

The overall crypto market has surged by nearly 10 per cent in the last day following its dramatic crash on Thursday.

Bitcoin has surged in price by about 9 per cent in the last 24 hours, inching close to $30,500.

The leading cryptocurrency is still down by over 15 per cent compared to its value a week earlier.

Ethereum has also grown by about 9 per cent in the last day.

Cardano, dogecoin, polkadot, and avalanche have each risen by over 20 per cent in the last 24 hours as Thursday’s crypto market meltdown appears to be slowing down.

The crypto market is currently valued at $ 1.3 tn, which is still close to half of its value last November.

US SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has said stricter regulations on stablecoins may likely be around.

Following collapse of the stablecoin TerraUSD and Tether crashing below its dollar peg Ms Peirce has said there could be some movement for regulations around stablecoins, Reuters reported on Thursday.

“That’s an area that has obviously this week gotten a lot of attention,” she said, adding that there be room for a “trial-and-error” regulatory framework.

“There are different potential options for approaching stablecoins…and with experimentation, we need to allow room for there to be failure,” the SEC’s lone Republican commissioner said.

After reaching a record-breaking price of over $67 thousand in Early November, bitcoin has since lost over half of its value and is now close to $30,000.

In early 2022, bitcoin crashed largely due to political unrest and subsequent internet shutdown in Kazakhstan, a crypto mining hub.

Now, the latest crash is tied to stable coin terra breaking its $1 peg, and the collapse of Luna.

Some experts say the worst may not be over yet.

Scottie Siu, investment director of Axion Global Asset Management – a Hong Kong-based company that runs a crypto index fund, told Reuters that there may be “more downside in the coming days.”

“I think what we need to see is the open interest collapse a lot more, so the speculators are really out of it, and that’s when I think the market will stabilize,” he has said.

Global crypto exchange Binance has suspended spot trading with Terra ecosystem’s cryptocurrencies LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) following Thursday’s crash.

It said withdrawals for the cryptocurrencies will open when the network becomes stable.

“We are continuing to work with the project team to create a more stable environment for users, and will keep the community updated accordingly,” Binance said in a statement.

With Bitcoin falling in value by about 40 per cent since September last year, El Salvador may have lost about $35 million from its crypto investments.

The country spent about $105 million buying bitcoins in September 2021 after becoming the world’s first government to make it legal tender, Bloomberg reported.

The country’s reported 2,301 bitcoins now have an estimated value of close to $70 million.

Cardano has surged by over 30 per cent in the last 24 hours as Thursday’s crypto market meltdown appears to be slowing down.

In the last 12 hours, cardano (ada) has grown in value by over 25 per cent and is currently valued at $ 0.5764.

However, it is still down by over 25 per cent compared to its value a week earlier.

Polkadot has also grown by over 30 per cent in the last day.

Other top cryptocurrencies including avalanche and solana have also surged by nearly 20 per cent in the last 24 hours, gaining back some of the value lost during Thursday’s slide.

UAE airliner Emirates has announced it will embrace blockchain, metaverse, and cryptocurrency as part of its new strategy to connect with customers.

Emirates Chief Operating Officer Adel Ahmed Al-Redha reportedly said the company is planning to employ bitcoin as a payment service and is adding NFT collectibles on the company’s websites, according to Arab News.

The Dubai-headquartered airline said it will also hire new staff for metaverse and NFTs. The company said it also seeks to use blockchain technology in tracing records of aircraft.

“NFTs and metaverse are two different applications and approaches. With the metaverse, you will be able to transform your whole processes — whether it is in operation, training, sales on the website, or complete experience — into a metaverse type application, but more importantly making it interactive,” Mr Al-Rehda said.

In the midst of Terra Luna’s collapse – since when it has fallen even more – its creator Do Kwon posted a thread in which he urged investors to stay strong and keep belief that the cryptocurrency would return. After laying out the technical reasons he believed the cryptocurrency would bounce back, he ended with a firm commitment:

“Terra’s return to form will be a sight to behold,” he wrote. “We’re here to stay. And we’re gonna keep making noise.”

He has not posted since, and the price of the cryptocurrency is looking worse than ever.

After users reported difficulty withdrawing funds amid fears of a widespread crypto market crash, Coinbase tweeted it is “implementing a fix.”

“We are aware that some customers are having issues trading and accessing accounts on Coinbase and Coinbase Pro. Your funds are safe, and we are actively working on the issue. We’ll provide an update here soon,” the company tweeted.

Several users said they were unable to withdraw funds with some reporting on Reddit they were unable to access the app or the website.

The outage hit Coinbase at a particularly uneasy time when users attempted to urgently withdraw.

The company has since said the “underlying issue that caused difficulties is resolved and full service has been restored.”

US treasury secretary Janet Yellen called for additional federal regulations amid crypto market crash following the dramatic fall in the value of Terra (LUNA) cryptocurrency.

“We’ve had a real-life demonstration of the risks,” she said of stable coins, during a House committee hearing on Thursday.

Stable coins are cryptocurrencies pegged to a specific value, such as the US dollar, or gold, and are expected theoretically to be stable similar to cash.

With the collapse of Terra, or UST, which collapsed, losing almost all of its value on Thursday, Ms Yellen said “the government’s role should be to ensure responsible innovation – innovation that works for all Americans, protects our national security interests and our planet, and contributes to our economic competitiveness and growth.”