Bitcoin Dips Below $57,000 Amid Crypto Market Turbulence
- Written by Shipra Sanganeria Cybersecurity & Tech Writer
- Fact-Checked by
Bitcoin (BTC) slid by over 6% to trade just below $57,000 on May 1, ahead of an interest rate announcement by the US Federal Reserve scheduled for the same day. The fall was in line with the broader crypto market, with major altcoins like Ethereum (ETH) also registering a decline. ETH was down by almost 6%, trading just below $2,900, according to Coingecko .
Bitcoin’s performance on May 1st marked one of its poorest showings since November 2022, following the notable decline observed last month. The world’s most valued crypto fell by almost 16% in April, as investors capitalized on gains from a previous rally that had pushed the coin’s value over $70,000.
The value of Bitcoin is currently 22% below March’s record of $73,803, which technically places the crypto in a bear market. However, Bitcoin has still registered an increase of 35% year-to-date and doubled in value when compared to the same time last year. This increase can be attributed to the billions of dollars flowing into the newly established Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) since January.
“The recent downtrend can be attributed to increased profit-taking by investors who entered the market during the downturns of 2022 and 2023, as well as ETF investors who witnessed significant price appreciation on their shares after entering the market in the early weeks of 2024” Fineqia research analyst Matteo Greco said to Reuters in a statement.
The decline in crypto also affected related stocks in US pre-market trading. Shares of major crypto exchanges like Coinbase, as well as crypto mining companies like Riot and Marathon Digital, also registered a decline of over 4%.
Growing belief over the Fed maintaining a steady interest rate throughout the year had investors pulling funds out of risk-sensitive assets like cryptocurrencies. However, the decline was momentary as the wider crypto market registered a rebound after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)’s interest rate decision.
LinkedIn Expands Into Gaming: Launches 3 New Logic Puzzles
- Written by Shipra Sanganeria Cybersecurity & Tech Writer
- Fact-Checked by
LinkedIn has officially entered the world of gaming with the launch of three free “thinking-oriented” games on its platform. The logic puzzles – Pinpoint, Queens, and Crossclimb — can be found under the “News” and “My Network” tabs of LinkedIn profiles on desktop and mobile.
The Microsoft-owned professional networking site was first spotted testing games on its platform in March 2024. “We’re playing with adding puzzle-based games within the LinkedIn experience to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations,” a LinkedIn spokesperson confirmed in a statement to Techcrunch .
Rolled out globally on May 1 , the company is initially starting out with three Wordle -style games. The first, Pinpoint is a simple word association game, where players must guess the common category that the 5 words belong to.
The second game, Queens , is a time-based logic puzzle that shares similarities with Sudoku but doesn’t use numbers. Here a player has to place a queen emoji in every row, column, and region, without touching one another.
The third puzzle, Crossclimb , is a trivia game that is “a combination of a crossword and a word ladder.” Players guess a list of words based on a set of clues, then rearrange the words to unlock the final (more difficult) clue to win the game.
For now, these games can be played once per day and scores can be shared to users’ personal LinkedIn networks. Leaderboards can also be accessed to check rankings and high scores and to engage in conversations related to the games with the wider LinkedIn community.
According to Lakshman Somasundaram , LinkedIn’s product director, “It’s time we turn over a new leaf in how we deepen and reignite relationships at work, and put fun at the heart of it.”
LinkedIn is not the first company to use gaming to refresh and boost user engagement. For instance, with the 2022 acquisition of Wordle, The New York Times reportedly saw tens of millions of new players across its games and puzzle section.
