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The broader crypto market seems to be demonstrating great resilience in the face of strong adversity, as some initial signs of downside exhaustion have already begun to surface. On Friday, BTC managed to reverse its previous day's losses by clocking in an 8% gain within the last 24 hours. The largest crypto by market cap has since established a strong foothold near the $34k support, and is now trading above the $38k region and the 100-hourly moving average (as of the time of writing). However, upside momentum may still be limited as the $40k psychological barrier remains the greatest resistance in the near-term. In a similar vein, ETH saw a swift recovery after tumbling to the $2,300 level, and is currently trading near the $2,600 handle after surging by 9% from 24 hours ago. Most major altcoins are also seeing double-digit percentage gains in a similar timeframe, with the top performer, LUNA, posting a staggering 23% increase on the back of fresh capital inflows into its reserve. All in all, the crypto market's recovery can largely be attributed to the whales' reactions to the escalating geopolitical tensions, with many buying the dip in anticipation of a bounce. This brought about five times more on-chain activities than on a typical day, and as much as some of these whales seem to be dumping, many are accumulating too. The crypto market's price bounce aside, macroeconomic conditions are still not taking a turn for the better. For one, and in spite of the traditional markets being sorely shaken by the Russian-Ukraine crisis, the U.S. Federal Reserve looks to still be sticking to its plan to raise interest rates by at least a half-point in March. If the crypto market manages to pull through this immediate crisis, it will still face the acid test of rate hikes.
On Wednesday, a landmark event for the world's oldest auction house took a surprising turn. On that evening, Sotheby's held a single-lot sale of 104 CryptoPunks, a collection that was worth approximately $20-30 million as of the time of writing (the highest-valued estimate for a digital art collection ever offered at an auction). However, the lot was withdrawn at the last minute just as attendees were getting ready for the auction. While Sotheby's did not immediately disclose a reason for the withdrawal, an anonymous collector "0x650d" tweeted at the time of the sale, "nvm, decide to hodl", alluding to the souring conditions within the crypto market as a key reason for the withdrawal.