Stacks (STX), which is the Bitcoin blockchain’s layer-2 chain for smart contracts, outperformed the rest of the crypto market on Wednesday, surging 15% on the day. The token, which gained over 200% in February, is said to be climbing on the back of strong growth for Bitcoin-based non-fungible tokens. In the past 24 hours, bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, and ether each rose about 1.5%.
24-hour price chart for Stacks’ STX token
Former FTX Director of Engineering Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to six criminal charges in a New York court on Tuesday, becoming the third former executive from the FTX web of entities to do so. Singh, who worked with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried at the defunct crypto exchange, was reported to have been looking for a plea deal with prosecutors last month. Singh pleaded guilty to charges including fraud and conspiracy. Reuters reported the news on Tuesday. Bankman-Fried has been charged with 12 different counts, ranging from bank fraud to securities and commodities fraud to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty and faces a trial this fall.
Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options exchange by volume, will soon launch bitcoin volatility futures, offering digital-asset investors a simpler way than options to hedge against market volatility. Futures tied to Deribit’s forward-looking bitcoin volatility index will be available to Deribit under the ticker BTCDVOL at the end of March, Luuk Strijers, the exchange’s chief commercial officer, told CoinDesk. DVOL, which was released early 2021, measures bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility calculated using Deribit’s options order book. Implied volatility refers to the options market’s expectation for price turbulence over a specific period of time.
Market Insight: Gaming Tokens Sag in Feb.
January euphoria in crypto markets turned to February worry as investors sent prices of most major digital assets down.
Gaming- and metaverse-affiliated tokens, which led January’s winner board, were among February’s biggest laggards. GMT, the native token of the STEPN ecosystem in CoinDesk Indices’ Culture and Entertainment sector, fell 33% in February, and Gala Games’ native GALA token, which surged 233% in January, dropped 28% in February.
The table shows bitcoin’s monthly performance since 2009.
March has been an unpromising month for the leading cryptocurrency, with prices falling in seven out of the past 12 years.
– Omkar Godbole
Over the past few months, CoinDesk has been developing a reward system for Consensus 2023 attendees to bring long-term value. We’ve partnered with Art Blocks Engine, TokenProof and Passage Protocol to launch the Consensus Multi-Year, Multi-Tiered NFT Ticket, coming on March 2. Learn more.
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