By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless otherwise noted)
While bitcoin And other major tokens remain under pressure, an AI-generated memecoin on the Solana blockchain is shining.
Pippin (PIPPIN), which started as a unicorn image generated by ChatGPT and evolved into an autonomous AI agent that interacts on social media platforms, has surged 135% in the past four weeks, rising 10% in 24 hours alone.
The rally in the token created by Yohei Nakajima, an innovator and thought leader in AI venture capital, appears to be driven by speculation, according to market intelligence platform LunarCrush.
“Pippin’s price action is currently driven by strong speculative interest and rapid market cap growth, but concerns about manipulation and ‘crime’ suggest the current price may be influenced by artificial pumps rather than organic demand, creating a volatile environment,” he said.
Several social media accounts have alleged that the rally involves money laundering, increasing the reputational risk of the digital asset ecosystem.
Whatever the case, PIPPIN’s performance is evidence of persistent speculative froth in the market despite Bitcoin falling nearly 50% since October. This suggests the possibility of more pain to come.
As Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone said: “A Bitcoin fund may require further cleanup of millions of cryptocurrencies that track nothing and a recovery from stock market volatility.”
Bitcoin fell below $63,000 during Asian hours and has since stabilized near $63,200. Still, it is down about 4% in 24 hours and ether (ETH), solana (SOL), XRP, and the CoinDesk 20 index have fallen at least as much.
US tariffs and fears that AI will cause disruptions to global growth and employment keep risk assets under pressure.
According to CryptoQuant, stable institutional demand is lacking, as evidenced by the persistently negative Coinbase Premium Index, which measures the bitcoin price premium on Coinbase relative to Binance.
Observers continue to highlight $60,000 as a key level.
“If we lose $60,000, violent cascading liquidations will occur and you can kiss any recovery goodbye, at least until the next halving approaches. You’ll likely see a bunch of treasury companies for both BTC and ETH explode, along with MSTR falling below $100 if we lose $60,000,” said Vinny Lingham, serial entrepreneur and technology investor.
“I expect a blowout like 2022 if we lose $60,000,” Lingham said.
In traditional markets, the yen weakened 1% against the US dollar on reports that the Japanese prime minister is taking a tough stance against the Bank of Japan’s plans to raise interest rates. The yen and bitcoin have developed a surprisingly positive relationship in recent months. Stay alert!
Read more: For an analysis of current activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today
What to watch
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Crypto
- Macro
- February 24, 8:15 am: ADP US employment changes weekly (Previous 10.25K)
- February 24, 9am: S&P Case-Shiller House Prices YoY (was 1.4%)
- February 24, 10:00 am: US CB Consumer Confidence est. 86 (Previous 84.5)
- February 24, 1:00 p.m.: January US money supply (M2) (previous: $22.4 trillion)
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- February 24: Cipher Mining (CIFR), pre-market, $0.03
symbolic events
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
- Governance votes and calls
- February 24: KAST will host an X Spaces session on the launch of the Pengu Card.
- GMX DAO is voting to neutralize CEX oversupply by restructuring liquidity, establishing a temporary $5 buy wall, and pausing staking rewards until the token price reaches $90. Voting ends on February 24.
- Unlock
- Token releases
- February 24: WAR (WAR) will appear on Kraken.
Conferences
For a more complete list of this week’s events, check out CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
Market movements
- BTC is down 2.05% as of 4 pm ET Monday to $63,257.26 (24 hours: -4.54%)
- ETH is down 1.95% to $1,826.78 (24 hours: -4.92%)
- CoinDesk 20 is down 1.95% to 1,826.19 (24 hours: -4.53%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate Up 5 Basis Points to 2.81%
- BTC funding rate is at -0.0032% (-3.5489% annualized) on Binance
- DXY rises 0.1% to 97.81
- Gold futures fall 0.69% to $5,189.50
- Silver futures rise 1.32% to $87.71
- The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.87% at 57,321.09
- Hang Seng closed down 1.82% at 26,590.32
- The FTSE is down 0.25% at 10,657.66
- The Euro Stoxx 50 falls 0.13% to 6,106.15
- DJIA closed Monday down 1.66% at 48,804.06
- The S&P 500 closed down 1.04% at 6,837.75
- Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.13% at 22,627.27
- S&P/TSX Composite closed down 0.12% at 33,776.50
- The S&P 40 Latin America closed with a fall of 1.48% to 3,743.45
- The 10-year US Treasury rate rises 0.8 basis points to 4.035%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures up 0.22% to 6,866.75
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures rise 0.33% to 24,843.50
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures rise 0.15% to 48,922.00
Bitcoin Statistics
- BTC dominance: 58.35% (-0.51%)
- Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.02881 (0.32%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,014 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $27.70
- Total fees: 2.6 BTC / $170,446
- CME Futures Open Interest: 113,640 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 12.2 oz.
- BTC market capitalization against gold: 4.23%
Technical analysis
- The chart shows daily ether price swings in candlestick format.
- Ether is facing renewed selling pressure and could soon retest the recent low of $1,781.
- If buyers fail to defend that, attention would shift to $1,385, the low recorded in April of last year. This level marked the end of the downtrend at that time.
Crypto Stocks
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Monday at $160.24 (-6.48%), -1.49% to $157.85 in premarket
- Circle Internet (CRCL): closed at $61.17 (-2.94%), -1.05% at $60.53
- Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $20.34 (-4.06%), -1.52% at $20.03
- Bullish (BLSH): closed at $30.63 (-3.59%), -1.40% at $30.20
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $7.88 (-1.13%), -1.90% at $7.73
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $15.65 (-0.19%), -1.47% at $15.42
- Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $16.89 (-2.37%), -0.47% at $16.81
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.82 (+1.76%), -1.93% to $9.63
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $39.76 (+2.36%), -0.58% at $39.53
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $9.55 (-3.14%)
Crypto treasury companies
- Strategy (MSTR): closed at $123.71 (-5.60%), -1.06% at $122.40
- Strive (ASST): closed at $7.36 (-9.69%), +0.27% to $7.38
- SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $6.49 (-3.42%), -1.23% at $6.41
- Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.56 (-8.58%)
- Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.07 (-3.60%)
ETF Flows
BTC Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$203.8 million
- Accumulated net flows: $53.79 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~1.26 million
ETH Spot ETF
- Daily net flows: -$49.5 million
- Accumulated net flows: 11,510 million dollars
- Total ETH holdings ~5.66 million
Source: Farside Investors
