Akther002

The cryptocurrency surged past $94K on Wednesday morning before retreating to $93K and has shown signs of decoupling from traditional stock indices.

BTC Breaks $94K, Shows Signs of Market Decoupling
Bitcoin has maintained an upward trajectory all week despite an uncertain economic environment dogged by President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy shifts. One interesting development has been a steady drop in the digital asset’s correlation with the Nasdaq and S&P 500.

Overview of Market Metrics

BTC traded between $94,535.73 and 90,455.69 before settling at $93,406.06 at the time of reporting. The cryptocurrency is up 2.97% since yesterday and has had a week of solid gains at 10.09% over the last seven days.

Bitcoin Cracks $94K as Correlation With Stocks Fades
( BTC price / Trading View)
Trading volume jumped significantly, rising 19.93% to $52.74 billion, pointing to increased investor participation. Bitcoin’s market capitalization also rose to $1.83 trillion, up 2.16% from the previous day. However, despite the price appreciation, bitcoin’s dominance edged down slightly to 64.30%, suggesting slightly more traction from altcoins in relative terms.

Bitcoin Cracks $94K as Correlation With Stocks Fades
( BTC dominance / Trading View)
Futures activity offered a mixed picture. Total BTC futures open interest dropped by 6.03% to $63.94 billion, a sign that some leveraged positions were reduced. According to Coinglass, $10.33 million in positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, with long traders taking the brunt of the damage, accounting for $8.74 million in losses. Shorts only saw $1.59 million in liquidations.

The Great Decoupling?

Bitcoin, once considered a symbol of financial counterculture, has been strongly correlated with the stock market lately, registering a 30-day Pearson correlation coefficient above 0.80 with both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 at the beginning of April.

Bitcoin Cracks $94K as Correlation With Stocks Fades
( BTC correlation with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 / The Block)
That number has dropped significantly over the past week, indicating a decoupling of the cryptocurrency from stocks. Data from The Block at the time of reporting shows a correlation coefficient of 0.34 and 0.35 with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500, respectively, suggesting BTC’s increasing divergence from equities.

Although it’s too early to tell, the trend could be signaling the arrival of an era where the digital asset becomes the de facto safe haven in times of economic uncertainty.

Founders believe that the ‘magic of crypto’ may have been lost amid the ongoing push for mainstream adoption. In this process, some proposals, such as bitcoin’s ‘digital gold’ narrative, have demonstrated staying power, while others are struggling as the space matures.

Is the ‘Magic of Crypto’ Gone? Founders Ponder
Bitcoin, created as a revolutionary asset designed to allow transactions without trusted middlemen, spurred a set of ambitious changes and a wave of altcoins destined to change the world of finance. Nonetheless, given the recent irruption of digital assets into the mainstream, some believe that the “magic of crypto,” the revolutionary essence of digital assets, might have been lost.

Rune Christensen, founder of Sky, referred to this phenomenon on social media, claiming that this magic was gone as the knowledge of the possibilities of the space went mainstream, and that crypto as such would become yet another part of the technological, futuristic evolution movement.

He stated:

Wonky and deeply idiosyncratic crypto community has become more mainstream, cross-pollinating with other futurist communities. As that’s happening it will also naturally become less crypto and more general technooptimism/-pessimism.

Others have signaled the difficulties that the crypto movement is currently experiencing, affected by a slew of fraud and scams that have hurt the credibility of these projects. David Bailey, co-founder and CEO of BTC Inc., declared that cynicism and pessimism were at all-time highs, and that the only way for some projects to survive was to pledge to traditional finance rules.

“Lot of crypto companies have to be contemplating full pivot. For crypto to survive it has to embrace being a security. Generate profits. Pay dividends. There’s no other way,” Bailey assessed.

Yu Hu, founder of Kaito, a Web3 data platform, also discussed the problems that crypto projects are facing after the initial promise of tokenization.

Hu mentioned that the crypto space is becoming less attractive for builders as it faces several hurdles, including dried-up funding, increasingly aggressive listing agreements, growing airdrop expectations, and stigmatized selling of assets. If these issues are not solved, Hu noted the industry risks “being left with no users, no builders – only a bunch of intermediaries.”

Read more: ‘Mainstream Era Has Started’: Bitwise CEO Signals Bitcoin’s Institutional Breakout$XRP

Today commemorates the 13th anniversary of the first altcoin, the crypto asset Namecoin (NMC), whose network debuted on April 18, 2011. Although the token has dimmed over time, the network remains under active development and its proof-of-work (PoW) hashrate ranks among the highest in the crypto ecosystem.

While Often Forgotten, the First Altcoin Turns 13 Today
Thirteen years ago today, the first and longest-standing altcoin came into being. Following Satoshi Nakamoto’s launch of Bitcoin on Jan. 3, 2009, exactly 835 days later, the Namecoin network went live. The initiative is a decentralized, open-source cryptocurrency and blockchain forked from Bitcoin’s codebase.

At its core, Namecoin establishes a decentralized domain name system (DNS) and identity management framework, fortifying internet infrastructure against censorship and privacy incursions. The principal application lies in registering and resolving “.bit” domains, none of which answer to a single authority. Notably, the “bitcoin.bit” DNS name holds the distinction of being the first non-fungible token (NFT) asset.

The First Altcoin Network Namecoin Marks 13 Years With Unwavering Hashpower

Thus far, people have minted hundreds of thousands of .bit domains. To secure one of these domains, you must first obtain Namecoin’s native token NMC, and install the Namecoin Core client or an alternative wallet equipped for name management. Within the client, initiate the `name_new` command (omitting the .bit extension) to reserve your desired moniker, carefully noting the transaction ID and random salt.

After patiently awaiting roughly 12 blocks to deter front‑running attacks, execute `name_firstupdate` with your salt and chosen data—such as an IP address—to finalize ownership. Thereafter, holders may employ `name_update` to modify or renew their domain and resolve .bit addresses via browser extensions, private DNS servers or compatible software—paying all fees in NMC and assuming the role of registrar.

On April 18, 2025, NMC trades at $0.98 per coin, a far cry from its all-time peak of $13.11 on Nov. 29, 2013. It has not revisited those lofty price levels since, and the token often slips from collective memory. Still, development remains vibrant: in December 2024, Namecoin Core 28.0 Beta was released, contributors presented at key conferences throughout 2024 and 2025, and new features like SocksTrace continue to receive funding from the NLnet Foundation’s NGI0 Core Fund.

Although the network and token fade from mainstream crypto conversation as years roll by, Namecoin boasts one of the highest proof-of-work hashrates today. At 487.40 exahash per second (EH/s) on April 18, 2025, its computational power is immense. This exceptional hashpower derives from merged mining with bitcoin. Merged mining allows bitcoin miners to secure NMC without extra processing cost. Consequently, several leading BTC mining pools allocate a share of their vast hashpower to Namecoin.

Namecoin’s enduring existence, sustained by merged mining and continuous developer contributions, highlights its role as a pioneering experiment in decentralized domain services. Its sustained hashrate and ongoing protocol enhancements illustrate the crypto community’s commitment to Bitcoin’s sister chain. While its token price remains modest, Namecoin’s security achievements could very well reaffirm its influence in the space going forward.