Positive signs for crypto and top performing tokens

Following the revival of technology stocks and stock indices amid comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Bitcoin, reluctant to separate from these markets, showed some signs of recovery as well, following a steep drop of 22.9% during the previous week. 

Bitcoin has recently been under selling pressure after Celcius cryptocurrency lender suspended withdrawals and cryptocurrency fund Three Arrows Capital suffered heavy losses in the aftermath of the LUNA collapse, as well as broader market concerns.

Stocks and bonds rallied after Powell's remarks, as the Fed chief reiterated his commitment to combat inflation, which has now reached a 40-year high. Powell also said he thought economic growth would pick up in the second half of the year. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points, the highest increase in 28 years, at its June meeting. In July, the rate is expected to rise by another 50-75 basis points.

The flagship cryptocurrency managed to recover by 4% since last Monday. Even so, it is still way too early to expect a sustained upward trend considering the negative fundamentals impacting BTC's price. 

Still, there are signs of hope for crypto. The Grayscale Discount, a metric used by some in the crypto market to predict whether the SEC will approve Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) as an ETF, has been narrowing. Grayscale initially applied to convert its GBTC to a spot ETF in October 2021. Since then, the SEC has put off a decision, but currently plans to render its ruling by July 6. 

Shares of GBTC are currently trading at a discount of 29% to Bitcoin's price, compared to 34% on June 17th – this could be interpreted as a positive indication of the upcoming approval.

GBTC discount or premium to NAV 

Source: Ycharts.com

The price approaching the net asset value of the underlying asset could also mean that traders are buying BTC at a discount, or that there have been fewer worries about a deepening liquidity crisis within the cryptocurrency industry.

My picks for the top performing cryptos

THORChain (RUNE)

THORChain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that allows users to exchange digital assets across a range of networks without giving up full custody of their holdings. In this case, RUNE acts as an intermediary so that funds can be moved between asset pools without relying on order books for liquidity. Following nearly four years of development, THORChain's native blockchain went live on seven supported networks on Thursday, according to developers. Following the launch of the mainnet, developers plan to integrate the protocol with more decentralized exchanges and exchange aggregators. 

Source: Messari.io 

The announcement sent RUNE up 23.06% on Thursday, and another 5.70% on Friday. Nevertheless, the token went down with the broader market weakness on the weekend, erasing a large portion of its gains, bringing it up to a 24.5% weekly gain. 

Solana (SOL)

Solana has introduced mobile phones to Web3 after it revealed Saga, the Android mobile device that will accompany the latest Web3 stack, the Solana Mobile Stack.  Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana, described it as helping cryptocurrency “go mobile”. Thursday and Friday saw the SOL token gain approximately 12% each. With the weekend sell-off, Solana lost part of its gains for the week, bringing the weekly gain to 19.8%. Solana has now surpassed Terra as the asset with the largest circulating market capitalization. 

Source: Messari.io

Avalanche (AVAX)

On Friday, Avalanche's AVAX gained 12.25%, continuing Thursday's 13.82% gain after the project launched a native bridge to the Bitcoin network. Avalanche's newly-launched wallet allows users to bridge Bitcoin and Avalanche's DeFi ecosystems, opening up new possibilities for users. The Avalanche Bridge was launched last August, allowing users to transfer ERC20 assets between the Ethereum and Avalanche networks. More than $50 billion has been transferred through the bridge in less than a year since the launch, facilitating rapid growth of the Avalanche DeFi ecosystem.

Source: Messari.io

AVAX gained 30.50% over the past seven days and outperformed Bitcoin by 21.68%. 

Polygon (MATIC) 

In a notable increase to its price, MATIC reached $0.50 on June 23, just a few days after it had fallen to $0.317, its lowest level since April 2021. This is an impressive gain of 60%, outperforming Bitcoin and Ether in the same period of time. Data provided by Santiment suggests an accumulation of MATIC during which Polygon token holders from 10,000 to 10 million coins "collectively added 8.7% more to their bags."

Source: Messari.io

MATIC's 23.74% run on Thursday was followed by a 7.99% rise on Friday, giving it a seven-day gain of 53.1%