Bitcoin, Ethereum Stage Rebound as DeFi Tokens AAVE, LUNA Rally

Bitcoin and Ethereum have recovered slightly, after starting the week below $40,000 and $3,000, respectively. 

Bitcoin was trading at $42,067.17 and Ethereum at $3,148.42 on Wednesday morning, per CoinMarketCap; up around 3% in the last 24 hours at their peak. Since then, they have retraced to around $41,860 and $3,130, respectively—up 2% and 2.4% on the day.

The two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap have been making a gradual comeback now that the deadline for U.S. investors to file their 2021 taxes has passed. 

Tax day has become a regular source of turbulence for cryptocurrencies, as investors sell at a loss to offset capital gains on other assets. 

But it’s not the only downward pressure on crypto markets. 

Traditional markets have been floundering, too. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were both flat, after falling at the start of the month. 

DeFi Blue Chips Rally

The DeFi (decentralized finance) market has seeing the same modest gains over the past 24 hours as the broader crypto market, but there were some standout performers.

LUNA, the governance token on the Terra network, was up almost 6% over yesterday. The network and it’s LUNA token have been making headlines as the Luna Foundation Guard accumulates Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in its treasury to back its TerraUSA (UST) stablecoin. 

The reserve wallet had a balance equal to $2.6 billion as of Wednesday morning, held in Bitcoin, USD Coin (USDC), its own LUNA token, and Tether's stablecoin, USDT.

Meanwhile Thorchain’s native token, RUNE, is up 7%, and is trading at $9.30. Lending protocol Aave’s native AAVE token was up 13%, trading at $193.84. 

The Aave protocol was upgraded to “V3” last month, which included scaling solutions, optimized gas costs and new crypto wallet integrations.