Decentral Block Post

Cardano's (ADA) long-awaited Vasil update went live on Sept. 22, which promises to make its blockchain more scalable and cheaper than before. However, this has failed to bring bullish momentum to the ADA market.

Sell-the-news hampers Cardano

ADA's price has dropped by approximately 9.5% since the update and was changing hands for $0.43 on Sept. 26. The ADA/USD pair's drop was accompanied by a rejection candlestick on its daily price chart, confirmed by a brief rally to $0.48 on the day of the fork and a sharp correction thereafter.

ADA bulls' muted reaction to the successful Vasil update is similar to what transpired across the Ether (ETH) market after Ethereum's Merge.

In other words, a buy the rumor, sell the news event, resembling most of Cardano's previous hard forks, which have a history of preceding ADA price crashes, as shown below.

In addition, macro risks led by a very hawkish Federal Reserve also weighed down ADA's bullish expectations post-Vasil.

The market capitalization of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin issued by U.S.-based payment tech firm Circle, has dropped below $50 billion for the first time since January 2022.

On the weekly chart, USDC's market cap, which reflects the number of U.S. dollar-backed tokens in circulation, fell to $49.39 billion on Sep. 26, down almost 12% from its record high of $55.88 billion, established merely three months ago. 

In contrast, the market cap of Tether (USDT), which risked losing its top stablecoin position to USDC in May, crossed above $68 billion on Sep. 26, albeit still down 17.4% from its record high of $82.33 billion in May 2022.

The divergence between USDT and USDC shows investors' renewed preference for the former. Let's take a look at the factors boosting Tether as the top stablecoin.

Binance's USDC suspension

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, announced earlier in September that it would convert its users' USDC balances for its own stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD). The conversion will commence on Sep. 29 and does not apply to USDT.

The market capitalization of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin issued by U.S.-based payment tech firm Circle, has dropped below $50 billion for the first time since January 2022.

On the weekly chart, USDC's market cap, which reflects the number of U.S. dollar-backed tokens in circulation, fell to $49.39 billion on Sept. 26, down almost 12% from its record high of $55.88 billion, established merely three months ago. 

In contrast, the market cap of Tether (USDT), which risked losing its top stablecoin position to USDC in May, crossed above $68 billion on Sept. 26, albeit still down 17.4% from its record high of $82.33 billion in May 2022.

The divergence between USDT and USDC shows investors' renewed preference for the former. Let's take a look at the factors boosting Tether as the top stablecoin.

Binance's USDC suspension

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, announced earlier in September that it would convert its users' USDC balances for its own stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD). The conversion will commence on Sept. 29 and does not apply to USDT.

To support the Terra community’s efforts to revive the Terra LUNA Classic (LUNC) token, crypto exchange Binance announced an off-chain burning mechanism last week. However, after receiving mixed reactions from community members, the exchange revised its burning approach. 

On Sept. 23, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote that the exchange will create an optional 1.2% tax when trading LUNC. Zhao added that they will roll out the 1.2% tax for all LUNC trading if traders who opt-in to pay the tax reach 50% of the total LUNC trading volume on the exchange, leaving the decision to users.

However, days after the post, Zhao laid out the flaws of their previous plan. Because of this, Binance announced a revised method to support the revival of LUNC. According to Zhao, the exchange will now completely burn all the trading fees that it will collect from its LUNC/BUSD and LUNC/USDT spot and margin trading pairs. The fees collected will be converted into LUNC and sent to LUNC's official burning address.

Through this, the Binance CEO believes that the exchange will be able to contribute to decreasing the supply of LUNC and be "fair" to all users.

Related: Exchanges criticized for 'nothingburger PR' posts on upcoming LUNC tax burn

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week staring down a wild macro environment after sealing its lowest weekly close in nearly two years.

As risk assets across the global economy take a hammering and the United States dollar surges, the largest cryptocurrency is on a limp footing.

September, having started out on the bulls’ side, is now living up to its informal crypto market nickname, “Septembear,” and BTC/USD is currently down 6.2% since the start of the month.

The bad news keeps coming for hodlers, who are clinging to dormant coins in increasing numbers as the dollar runs rampant and mainstream appetite to diversify into riskier plays continues to evaporate.

With macro set to remain the key focus for everyone this week, Cointelegraph takes a look at what might lie in store for BTC price action.