Decentral Block Post

Unus Sed Leo (LEO) has not only survived the crypto market bloodbath in the first half of 2022, but has actually posted major gains, bucking the big crypto crash.

LEO beats crypto kingpin Bitcoin

LEO, a utility token used across the iFinex ecosystem, finished the first half of 2022 against Bitcoin at 32,793 satoshis, up almost 300%.

The token also rallied 55% against the U.S. dollar in the same period, hitting $5.8 for the first time since February 2022. In contrast, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), the top two crypto assets by market cap, fell by over 60% and 70%, respectively.

That has made it the best-performing crypto asset in the top ranks so far into 2022.

What's driving LEO price higher?

The crypto market wiped more than $2 trillion off its valuation in the first half of 2022, led by rate hikes, the collapse of Terra, and systemic insolvency troubles across leading cryptocurrency lending platforms and hedge funds.

Unus Sed Leo (LEO) has not only survived the crypto market bloodbath in the first half of 2022 but has actually posted major gains, bucking the big crypto crash.

LEO beats crypto kingpin Bitcoin

LEO, a utility token used across the iFinex ecosystem, finished the first half of 2022 against Bitcoin at 32,793 satoshis, up almost 300%.

The token also rallied 55% against the U.S. dollar in the same period, hitting $5.8 for the first time since February 2022. In contrast, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), the top two crypto assets by market cap, fell by over 60% and 70%, respectively.

That has made it the best-performing crypto asset in the top ranks so far into 2022.

What's driving LEO price higher?

The crypto market wiped more than $2 trillion off its valuation in the first half of 2022, led by rate hikes, the collapse of Terra (LUNA) — now officially Terra Classic (LUNC), and systemic insolvency troubles across leading cryptocurrency lending platforms and hedge funds.

Bitcoin (BTC) finished June 2022 just below $20,000 after a last-minute pump saw bulls escape 40% monthly losses.

Analyst: Bitcoin could stay "boring" for months

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD spiking higher into the monthly close, which came in at $19,924 on Bitstamp.

With that, the pair narrowly avoided its first-ever monthly close below a previous halving cycle’s all-time high. On Bitstamp in November 2017, Bitcoin reached approximately $19,770.

The success was at best touch-and-go for a market which nonetheless sealed its worst monthly losses since September 2011, these coming in at around 37.3%. It was also short lived, with BTC/USD diving toward $19,000 at the time of writing on July 1.

“Steadily carving out a cycle bottom here,” Philip Swift, indicator creator and analyst at trading suite Decentrader summarized in part of Twitter comments after the close.

The historic deleveraging of the cryptocurrency market could be coming to an end, which could signal the close of the worst of the bear market, according to a JPMorgan analyst.

In a Wednesday note, JPMorgan strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou highlighted increased willingness of firms to bail out companies, and a healthy pace of venture capital funding in May and June as the basis for his optimism. He said key indicators support the assessment:

"Indicators like our Net Leverage metric suggest that deleveraging is already well advanced."

The deleveraging of major crypto firms, where their assets have been sold either willingly, in a rush, or via liquidation, began largely in May when the Terra ecosystem collapsed and wiped out tens of billions of dollars. Since then, crypto lenders BlockFi and Celsius, and investment firm Three Arrows Capital have run into their own problems.

Panigirtzoglou added that the severity of deleveraging of some crypto firms could be so severe that they "suggest that the tremors from this year's crypto market fall continue to reverberate."