# DeFi tokens bag double-digit gains as bears pin Bitcoin price below $33K

Today Bitcoin (BTC) price continued to face selling pressure in the $32,500 to $33,000 resistance cluster and this led to a mild 3% to 5% pull back from most altcoins.

Despite the recent revelation that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has given the green light for two of its funds to invest in Bitcoin futures, BTC price still struggles to gain momentum above the $33,000 level.

Meanwhile, the DeFi sector continues to flourish as Venus (XVS) and Fantom (FTM) saw their prices increase 23% overnight and the total value locked in DeFi protocols currently stands at $25.77 billion.

Following the confirmation of Janet Yellen as the new secretary of the United States Treasury, the department’s dreaded cryptocurrency monitoring rule is now back in motion and the public has 60 days to comment on the proposed self-hosted wallet requirement.

Selling wasn’t limited to just the cryptocurrency sector as global financial markets also fell under pressure following news that the upcoming stimulus package offered by the Biden administration might not be as large as previously suggested.

The S&P 500 and Dow both faced selling pressure at the opening bell and finished the day down 0.15% and 0.07% respectively, while the NASDAQ was able to eke out a positive gain of 0.05%.

The Reddit-based investing group that recently put the squeeze on short-sellers betting against GameStop (GME) were able to regroup overnight and managed to push the price of GME up to $145.57 on Jan. 26, near its all-time high of $159.18.

DeFi tokens take the lead

DeFi related coins continue to surge higher despite the waning momentum seen from Bitcoin and Ether (ETH).

Uniswap’s trading volume surged above $6 billion earlier today and this helped lift the price of it’s governance token (UNI) to a new 2021 high at $13.67. Terra (LUNA), a stablecoin-oriented project, also saw its price increase by more than 37% and currently trades at $1.22.

Fantom (FTM) and Alpha Finance (ALPHA) have also seen an influx of buying activity in the past 24-hours and both rallied 22% and 35% during today’s trading session.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $947.6 billion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 62.9%.