Bitcoin (BTC) trades in red, slipping below $116,000 at the time of writing on Monday, after notching a record high of $124,474 the previous week. Fading optimism over a potential Federal Reserve (Fed) rate cut following mixed US macroeconomic data last week has weighed on risk sentiment.
Circle, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin, USDC, and Stripe, an Irish-American financial services and software as a service (SaaS) provider, have both announced plans to build their own Layer-1 blockchain protocols, seemingly ditching the largest smart contracts protocol, Ethereum (ETH).
Bitcoin (BTC) surged to $122,200 on Monday, inching closer to its all-time high of $123,091 before settling at $120,000. The rally preceded Trump Media and Technology Group's (DJT) amendment to its S-1 registration statement for a proposed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).