BTC Whale Activities Present Potential Turning Point; Instagram Plans to Introduce NFT Minting



Chart of the Day 





Stocks plummeted after the Federal Reserve unambiguously signaled that it would continue to push ahead with the aggressive tightening campaign, with the Fed chair Jerome Powell saying that “it’s premature to think about a pause” in rate hikes. S&P 500 suffered the largest daily drop since January 2021, wiping out an earlier rally driven by speculations of a slower pace of rate increases 



The broader crypto market tumbled alongside the equity markets. As of the time of writing, BTC manages to defend the $20k psychological threshold despite posting a moderate loss over the last 24 hours. The largest cryptocurrency seems to be supported by solid on-chain price walls in the region. At the same time, on-chain whale activities are starting to form a discernable pattern that can help to gauge the bottom of the current bear run. Historical data shows that whales have a tendency to offload their coins at the beginning of a bearish cycle, and accumulate again when a market bottom is formed. If the accumulation score for whales starts to turn warmer in the following weeks, it means that the market may have entered the recovery phase. 



ETH suffers greater losses, down 2.54% in the same period but manages to hover near the $1,550 handle. Mid-to-large-cap altcoins mostly flipped red, with the exception of MATIC and LTC. Both defied the market-wide sell-off with double-digit percentage gains in a similar time frame. 







Talk of the Town 





Social media platform Instagram is developing an NFT minting and sale feature through its app, according to an announcement made by its parent company Meta on Wednesday. The app, once launched for trial runs, will “allow a small group of creators to create digital collectibles (NFTs) and sell them right on Instagram”, says Meta’s Head of Commerce and Fintech, Stephane Kasriel, in the statement. The enhanced NFT minting functionality will be powered by the Polygon blockchain. Meanwhile, Instagram has also added support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet, joining the long list of blockchains and wallets that the social media platform already supports.