12.36pm: UK watchdog looking into Worldcoin
UK watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office, which is in charge of upholding data protection and GDPR rules, has its eyes on Worldcoin, the cryptocurrency project launched by OpenAI boss Sam Altman.
"We note the launch of WorldCoin in the UK and will be making further enquiries," a spokesperson for the ICO told Reuters.
Worldcoin, which was launched on Monday by Tools For Humanity, a company Altman co-founded in 2029, uses iris-scanning technology to create a digital passport of oneself.
To do this, Tools For Humanity is deploying 1,500 Orbs, biometric imaging devices built for the Worldcoin project to “verify humanness and uniqueness in a secure and privacy-preserving way”.
Altman has suggested that the Worldcoin project could help preserve people’s identity in a world where artificial intelligence will play an increasingly central role.
“If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy, enable global democratic processes, and eventually show a potential path to AI-funded UBI (Universal Basic Income),” reads the Worldcoin website.
The Ethereum-based WLD cryptocurrency is distributed to users who have their iris scanned for a digital passport.
WLD briefly spiked to US$3.3 when it launched on Monday. It has since fallen back to US$2.13.
9am: Bitcoin at 10-week lows
Bitcoin (BTC) put in its worst performance in 10 days on Monday, with the BTC/USDT pair getting smashed by 3% to close at its lowest point in nearly four weeks.
The pair went as far south as US$28,850, though some late-afternoon support managed to bring bitcoin back above US$29,150 by the midnight bell.
Bitcoin sentiment has cooled off in the past week, with the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index flipping back to neutral from bullish as of this morning, while bitcoin dominance dipped below 50% once again.
Concurrently, the US dollar has been on a rip in anticipation of Wednesday’s interest rate decision from the US Federal Reserve, with the US Dollar Index (DXY) adding around 1.2% in the past week.
At the time of writing, BTC/USDT was skirting close to US$29,100, with resistance pitched at US$29,500.
Sellers send bitcoin lower – Source: currency.com
Ethereum (ETH) also went bearish on Monday, dipping 2% to US$1,850 where it has remained this morning.
A Dogecoin (DOGE) rally is contributing to bitcoin’s fall in market dominance, with the meme coin rallying close to 12% week on week.
DOGE’s market capitalisation has surged to a 10-week high of US$10.8bn after Twitter head Elon Musk gave a wry nod to the meme coin by adding the Dogecoin ticker symbol (Ð) to his Twitter bio.
DOGE often rallies on the back of a seeming endorsement from Musk, who has professed his love of the Shiba Inu-themed token numerous times in the past.
Elsewhere in the altcoin space, Tron (TRX) has pulled ahead of the market with a 1.8% week-on-week gain, while Stellar (XLM) and Filecoin (FIL) are among the top mid-cap risers.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation concurrently stands at US$1.17tn, having dipped 1.8% overnight.