BTC Decouples From Equities; PartyBid Raises $16.4M Led by a16z

Chart of the Day

All's quiet in the crypto space despite U.S. stocks falling for a second day running amid rising inflation concerns. Despite BTC's volatile price, it has remained in a narrow range for much of the past month. As of the time of writing, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading above the $30k threshold after experiencing a marginal dip over the last 24 hours. Some analysts believe that BTC will continue to hover around the $30k level until the release of key data points that could sway investors' expectations of the looming inflation.

One potential market-moving data is the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is scheduled to be released later today. BTC's Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) ratio is also a key metric to gauge whether a bear market has bottomed out. Market bottoms in previous bear runs have all occurred when the MVRV ratio plummets below 1. The current reading sits near 1.3, suggesting that BTC's price may experience further declines before reaching a cyclical bottom. 

In a similar vein, ETH is trading below the $1,800 mark, a level that it has been trying to break above in the past week. The $1,800 to $1,820 zone is a major hurdle to overcome before ETH could accelerate its upside gains. Meanwhile, most top altcoins saw mixed performances, with XTZ hitting a one-month high following the news of the upcoming USDT launch on the Tezos blockchain. 

Talk of the Town

PartyDAO, the decentralized organization behind the NFT bidding platform PartyBid, has raised $16.4 million in a funding round led by a16z. PartyBid is a protocol that seeks to coordinate group NFT ownership, and transform the normative user experience into a multi-dimensional one, thus opening up new opportunities for average retail buyers to work together towards a common goal. The funding round, with notable participants in the industry, proves that there is a growing interest in fractional NFT ownership even amid the broader market downturn.