Some analysts believe BTC’s consolidation above the SMA could propel the token’s recovery.Read MoreFeedzy
Hi, I’m Jimmy He, here to take you through the day’s crypto market highlights and news.
BTC was trading at around $23,700, up 0.5% over the past 24 hours. The gains add to Monday’s 7.9% rise and Tuesday’s 4.3% advance.
Bitcoin is attempting to climb above its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) following ether’s breach of the average on Monday. Bitcoin’s 50-day SMA now sits at 24,862.
Alex Kuptsikevich, senior markets analyst at FxPro, wrote in an email that bitcoin’s price, when it’s near a key moving average, can be a reliable indicator of medium-term trends.
“Only a strong buy above this level can serve as a firm reversal indicator in the next few days,” Kuptsikevich wrote. “If the upside momentum stalls, as it did in February and March this year, we should be prepared for a sharp increase in selling.”
Many altcoins rose with Monero (XMR) leading the charts, up 3.8% over the past 24 hours.
Ether (ETH) was down 1.1%.
The S&P 500 was up 0.6%, and the Nasdaq rose 1.6%.
Today’s edition of “Market Wrap” was produced by Sage D. Young.
?Bitcoin (BTC): $23,621 +0.6%
?Ether (ETH): $1,549 -1.3%
?S&P 500 daily close: 3,962.24 +0.6%
?Gold: $1,698 per troy ounce -0.7%
?Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 3.04% +0.02
Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found at coindesk.com/indices.
By Glenn Williams Jr.
On the macroeconomic front, there isn’t much in the form of price-changing catalysts.
Crypto investors, however, may wish to keep an eye on Wednesday’s weekly petroleum status report – the rationale being that it allows investors to get an early read on the potential direction of energy prices and their impact on inflation data.
The report for the week ended July 15 showed total motor gasoline inventories increased by 3.5 million barrels and remained 3% below the five-year average for this time of year.
The importance of gasoline inventory levels is one of supply and demand. Traditionally, an increase in supplies can be read as bearish for prices, and a decrease in supplies can be read as bullish. This is especially true if and when inventory changes move outside of the band of expectations. Wednesday’s expectations were for an increase of 71,000 barrels.
The relevance to crypto investors is tied to the extent to which energy prices will or will not prod the Federal Reserve to increase interest rates more than the 75 basis points currently priced in.
Crypto investors will probably examine any and all data points that affect the total macro environment, particularly given the correlation (0.77) between BTC prices and the S&P 500. Correlations range between 0-1.0. A “zero” indicates no correlation, and 1.0 shows perfect correlation.
In Wednesday’s trading activity, BTC moved higher on above-average volume, with increasing relative strength (RSI).
Investors may interpret this as bullish in nature, as more longs are moving into BTC at an increasing pace. There was a slight departure when examining ETH, however.
While BTC and ETH are strongly correlated (0.92 as of this writing), investors may note that the increase in ETH prices has come on lower than average volume. Moreover, ETH’s RSI level of 66.41 is approaching 70, which is often interpreted as indicating overbought conditions.
A quick look at futures perpetual funding rates indicates a slight distinction between BTC and ETH, as well. Investors should note that funding rates represent payments to traders who are long (or short) a particular crypto currency. Positive rates indicate strength among buyers wishing to go long (bullish), while negative rates indicate greater strength among short position traders (bearish). As it stands, BTC has seen positive funding rates the last four trading days and eight out of the last 10.
Comparatively, ETH funding rates (while currently positive) have managed to do so in five of the last 10 trading days. Moreover, the lower funding rate implies that traders expecting to go long ETH are willing to pay less to do so at the moment.
Solana’s New Daily Address Growth Outpaces Other Blockchains: Data shows that active wallets using the popular network have grown by over 58% since the start of this year. Solana’s native SOL tokens have grown amid the increase. Read more here.
Polygon Readies ZK Rollup Testnet: The Ethereum scaling tool announced Polygon zkEVM, which the company said would be the “first Ethereum-equivalent scaling solution that works seamlessly with all existing smart contracts, developer tools and wallets, harnessing advanced cryptography called zero-knowledge proofs.” Read more here.
Optic Raises $11M to Put the ‘NF’ in NFTs: The artificial intelligence-based startup will use the funds toward building out cost-intensive infrastructure and hiring engineers. Optic’s near-term plans include creating a public application programming interface (API) for Web3 developers and new tools for non-fungible token (NFT) creators and collectors. Read more here.
Listen: Today’s “CoinDesk Markets Daily” podcast discusses the latest market movements.
Crypto Exchange Zipmex Suspends Withdrawals, Citing Market Volatility:The outfit becomes the latest digital-assets platform to make that move.
Coinbase Had No Financial Exposure to Troubled Celsius, Three Arrows Capital, Voyager:The crypto exchange said it hasn’t been hurt by the crypto companies that are all seeking bankruptcy protection.
UK Regulators to Introduce Rules for Stablecoins in New Markets Bill:The much-anticipated financial services and markets bill to be presented to Parliament includes rules for the use of stablecoins as a means of payment.
The Sandbox Brings on Security Firm BrandShield to Prevent Rising NFT Fraud:Cybersecurity company BrandShield removed 120 phishing sites and 58 fake social media accounts in March and April.
Tesla Could Face $460M Impairment Charge on Bitcoin Holdings in Q2 Earnings:The value of the electric automaker’s sizable bitcoin holdings fell significantly in the second quarter.
Binance.US Starts Affiliate Marketing Program, Taking Aim at Coinbase: A Binance.US representative pointed to recent reports that rival exchange Coinbase is shuttering its affiliate program.
Japan’s Self-Regulatory Project in Peril as Financial Regulator Reprimands Crypto Advocacy Group, Financial Times Report:The JVCEA has received an “extremely stern warning” over delays in anti-money-laundering rules and poor governance.
Matter Labs Schedules zkSync 2.0 Mainnet Launch for October:As Ethereum scaling competition heats up, Matter Labs says it will bring the first EVM-compatible ZK rollup to market.
UK Markets Bill Extends Banking Rules to Crypto Assets:The U.K. introduced the bill, which also addresses stablecoins, to Parliament earlier Wednesday, but lawmakers won’t take up the measure until later in the week.
Prosecutors Raid 7 Korean Exchanges Amid Terra Probe, Yonhap News Agency Reports:Seven exchanges and eight other addresses have been raided in connection to the Terraform Labs fraud investigation.
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