Editor’s Note: Happy Chinese Lunar New Year! First Mover will not publish on Monday, February 15, which is Presidents’ Day in the U.S. Cryptocurrency markets will be open, as they always are. Price Point Bitcoin (BTC) was lower, after pushing early Friday to an all-time high price of $48,925, based on CoinDesk pricing. Market activity was quiet due to the Lunar New Year celebrations across Asia and the upcoming Presidents’ Day holiday in the U.S. on Monday, according to Craig Erlam, senior market analyst for the foreign-exchange brokerage Oanda. (It’s the Year of the Ox, by the way, which is seen […]
Bradley Keoun
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Bitcoin (BTC) which seemed uncannily listless for most of this wild week, suddenly found energy after Elon Musk, the electric-vehicle and private-spaceflight entrepreneur who’s also reportedly the world’s richest man, changed his Twitter bio to mention the cryptocurrency. (See screen grab below, in Omkar Godbole’s Bitcoin Watch column.) The price of bitcoin, the oldest and largest cryptocurrency, surged 12% to about $37,400, around the highest in two weeks. According to Decrypt, the sudden surge higher caused some $420 million of trader positions to be liquidated – a delicious bit of irony given Musk’s very public aversion to short-sellers, or traders who […]
Bitcoin prices were higher, though staying in their range over the past week between roughly $30,000 and $34,000. “Signs of market exhaustion from the bulls are becoming more prevalent,” said Lennard Neo, head of research for the cryptocurrency-focused Stack Funds. And in what appears to be a crypto segue from the GameStop episode that has riveted global financial markets, CoinDesk’s Tanzeel Akhtar reported Thursday that prices for the digital token dogecoin (DOGE) more than doubled after the Twitter account @WSBChairman posted the following: “A lot of you are talking about dogecoin. What’s that? A meme crypto?” (EDITOR’S NOTE: Dogecoin is a […]
(EDITOR’S NOTE: First Mover will not publish Monday, Jan. 18, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the U.S., a CoinDesk company holiday. The cryptocurrency market will be open, as it always is.) Bitcoin (BTC) was lower, trading around the $38,000 level where prices have gravitated for the past week. The market faces price resistance around $41,000, with support seen around $34,000, Mark Warner, head of trading for London-based BCB Group, a financial firm focused on digital assets, said in comments emailed by a spokeswoman. “A move above $42,000 will likely see a resumption of the heady gains we […]
Bitcoin (BTC) was higher, pushing back toward $40,000 after a 9.9% surge on Wednesday, the biggest calendar-day gain in a month. Such a powerful recovery after a steep sell-off earlier in the week has quickly reinvigorated trader spirits. “This bubble doesn’t look set to burst,” said Don Guo, CEO of Broctagon Fintech Group, which helps smaller cryptocurrency exchanges tap into bigger pools of liquidity available from large exchanges. In traditional markets, U.S. government bond yields rose along with stocks after CNN reported that President-elect Joe Biden will unveil on Thursday a new coronavirus relief proposal, and that his advisers have told allies in Congress […]
With a runway of a year or more before the Federal Reserve and other major central banks can launch digital currencies, bitcoin and other private cryptocurrencies could gain a foothold in electronic commerce. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde says bitcoin needs to be regulated. (European Central Bank, modified by CoinDesk) Source link
Bitcoin (BTC) was down for a fourth straight day, though changing hands well above Monday’s low around $30,000. After soaring to a new all-time high around $40,000 last week, prices have tumbled about 13% since Saturday, the most for a three-day stretch since March 2020, according to TradingView. “Volatility is the price you pay for performance,” as the investing-legend-turned-bitcoin-bull Bill Miller put it last week to CNBC. In traditional markets, Asian shares rose on Tuesday and European indexes were little changed. U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The possibility of further economic stimulus and turbulent U.S. politics helped push yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes to […]
Cryptocurrencies could grow fivefold by 2025 into a $3 trillion market, under new projections from Bakkt Holdings, the digital-asset financial firm. Bakkt published the estimate as part of an investor presentation released Monday in connection with its new plan to go public via a merger with Victory Park Capital, a special-purpose acquisition company. Bakkt is majority-owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which also owns the New York Stock Exchange. The deal would give Bakkt an enterprise value of about $2.1 billion, according to a press release. The underlying assumptions behind the transaction show just how bullish investors, entrepreneurs and financial executives have […]
Bitcoin’s momentum showed few signs of slowing on Friday, as prices pushed to a new all-time high after blowing through $40,000 for the first time. In traditional markets, Asian and European shares rose and U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open, as investors bet that a dismal jobs report expected early Friday from the Labor Department on the December employment situation would strengthen the case for additional economic stimulus. Gold weakened 1.1% to $1,893 an ounce. Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes jumped Thursday to 1.07%, the highest since March, as traders focused on the potential for faster inflation under a U.S. government controlled by President-elect Joe […]
Bitcoin’s prices reached all-time highs above $40,000 less than a month after breaking $20,000 for the first time. Since the start of the most recent rally, ostensibly begun in October, its value has increased fourfold. So for pros and newbies alike, or if you want to be the cryptocurrency expert at your next Zoom party, it’s natural to ask: Why are prices going up, and will bitcoin crash? Bitcoin (BTC) was just invented 12 years ago as a new type of electronic payment system, built atop an Internet-based computing network that no single person, company or government could control. The reality […]
SkyBridge’s bitcoin investment has already climbed to more than $300 million, mostly due to price appreciation in the past couple of months. Source link
For many reasons 2020 will loom large in future textbooks on financial history. This year saw the biggest drop-off in economic output since the Great Depression, the biggest spate of money printing in the Federal Reserve’s 107-year history spurred by a coronavirus pandemic, an epochal shift toward remote working and negative prices for crude oil futures. Perhaps as important in the pantheon of monetary milestones, 2020 saw the first real signs banks, money managers, insurance firms and companies started to embrace fast-growing markets for cryptocurrencies and digital assets. An open-source software programmer going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto designed bitcoin 11 […]
Bitcoin (BTC) was lower for a second day, slipping below $18,000 to the lowest in almost two weeks. “The momentum that characterized bitcoin throughout October and November seems to have cooled down,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading for the cryptocurrency-focused financial firm Diginex, told clients Friday in a note. “Prices retrace even in light of positive news.” In traditional markets, European shares fell as Germany reported record virus cases and deaths, and U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open amid fading optimism over stimulus talks in Washington. Gold weakened 0.1% to $1,834 an ounce. Market moves If everyone says […]
Bitcoin (BTC) was lower while staying mostly within this month’s range of roughly $18,200 to $19,700. “Upward price action seems to stall, and our analysts believe more inertia is required to push bitcoin beyond the $20,000 psychology barrier,” Lennard Neo, head of research for the cryptocurrency investment firm Stack Funds, wrote Thursday in a report. In traditional markets, European shares were lower even after the European Central Bank boosted the size of an emergency bond-buying program to combat the economic toll of a resurgent coronavirus. U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. Gold rose 0.3% to $1,843 an ounce. Market moves It’s becoming […]
Bitcoin was lower, staying in the past week’s range of roughly $18,500 to $19,700. Prices are up 167% year to date, having started off 2020 at around $7,160. “There is no doubt that $20,000 remains a barrier, both from a technical perspective and on an ideological level,” Simon Peters, an analyst for the trading platform eToro, wrote Monday in an email. In traditional markets, European shares fell, led by banks and retailers. U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open as investors worried a coronavirus resurgence might weigh on the economic recovery. The British pound slid 1.5% against the dollar on concern Brexit talks […]
Bitcoin was higher, in an indecisive-looking market swinging between about $18,300 and $19,300. Prices have failed to push higher after surging to a new all-time high of $19,920 earlier this week. “Expect additional short-term volatility,” Katie Stockton, a technical analyst for Fairlead Strategies, told CoinDesk’s Daniel Cawrey. In traditional markets, European stocks slipped and U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open as lawmakers discussed new economic-stimulus measures and traders awaited new data on U.S. jobs growth during November. Gold strengthened 0.7% to $1,827 an ounce. The 10-year U.S. breakeven rate, representing inflation expectations as implied by bond markets, rose to 1.81% […]
Bitcoin surged Monday to a new all-time high price of $19,864, extending its year-to-date rise to an astounding 170% during a 2020 that has seen tumultuous swings in global markets. Here are five reasons why the oldest and largest cryptocurrency has pushed to new highs. Some institutional investors are taking on bitcoin exposure, such as buying into the publicly traded Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), according to a Nov. 20 report from analysts at JPMorgan Chase. (Note: Grayscale is a unit of Digital Currency Group, which owns CoinDesk.) Guggenheim, a money manager that oversees $233 billion for investors, said in regulatory filings […]
Bitcoin is trading above $18,500, having charted a minor pullback to $17,800 over the weekend. The cryptocurrency’s one-month implied volatility metric has jumped to four-month highs, suggesting increased expectations for price turbulence over the next four weeks. “It’s likely the week ahead is filled with volatility with the possibility of a trading range between $19,000 and $17,000 the likely outcome. However, if the bulls take charge, then we could be discussing new all-time highs for BTC,” noted crypto exchange EQUOS in its daily bitcoin analysis email. In traditional markets, safe havens such as the U.S. dollar and gold are trading heavily […]
Bitcoin was higher, climbing back above $16,000 on Monday after dipping below the mark over the weekend. “Should we trade back above $16,490, then we expect to see the bulls take the market by the horns and drive prices to a $17,000 handle,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading at the cryptocurrency financial firm Diginex, told clients in an email. “If we remain capped by $16,490. then we look for another period of consolidation.” In traditional markets, European and Asian shares rose and U.S. futures pointed to a higher open as a coronavirus vaccine from Moderna was shown to be 95% […]
Bitcoin was lower after surging nearly $600 on Thursday to climb above $16,000 for the first time in almost three years. “Investors should plan for volatility as well as price appreciation,” the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis wrote in a newsletter. In traditional markets, European shares fluctuated and U.S. stock futures pointed toward a higher open as investors weighed prospects for a new stimulus package against record coronavirus cases. Gold strengthened 0.1% to $1,879 an ounce. Market moves Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been sticking with his talking points lately. It goes something like this: They’re all key themes cryptocurrency traders are […]
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said she believes the region’s monetary authority will move to launch a digital version of the euro in the next two to four years. “We might well go in that direction,” Lagarde said Thursday on a virtual panel with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey. “My hunch is that it will come.” ECB officials have previously disclosed that they are conducting research into a central bank digital currency, and Bank of Finland Governor Olli Rehn told Reuters last month that he believes a digital euro is “very likely” to […]
Bitcoin briefly climbed above $16,000 for the first time in three years before quickly falling back below the psychological threshold. Digital-asset market traders and analysts say the cryptocurrency is likely to make another run higher, with strong demand expected from traditional investors looking for a hedge against inflation, at a time when sellers appear unwilling to part with their bitcoin holdings. “Against the backdrop of stimulus from the Federal Reserve, we expect investors holding cash to continue to allocate to bitcoin,” said Kyle Davies, co-founder of the digital-asset fund Three Arrows Capital. In traditional markets, European shares headed toward their first […]
Bitcoin was higher for a second day, staying in a range between roughly $15,200 and $15,600, as news of progress in developing a coronavirus vaccine appeared to touch off a rally in U.S. stocks. With the outcome of last week’s U.S. presidential election now mostly settled, crypto analysts turned to other market factors, such as whether investors and bitcoin miners might take advantage of the recent price increase to pocket gains. “The week ahead is not as easy to call,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading at the cryptocurrency-focused financial firm Diginex, wrote in a note to clients. “The initial thoughts lead […]
Bitcoin was lower, pausing after after a three-day rally that saw prices approach $16,000, their highest since early 2018. The recent rally left the largest cryptocurrency up 116% year to date, and some bullish digital-asset market analysts were already looking at even higher levels. Denis Vinokourov, head of research at the crypto prime broker Bequant, said in an email there’s the potential for a squeeze in the options market to push up prices in the next several days. “This, coupled with continued uncertainty around U.S. election results and the economic fallout from the Covid pandemic’s resurgence, could see us push towards […]
The statement is in keeping with economists’ expectations for the U.S. central bank to take no new monetary policy actions. Source link
Bitcoin (BTC) was lower, searching for direction as uncertainty over U.S. election results hung over global markets. Prices were down about 2.2% to about $13,700, staying roughly in their range over the past week. With major states yet to be called in the U.S. presidential race and Republican incumbent Donald Trump accusing Democrats of trying to “STEAL” the election, the early read is that bitcoin prices are reflecting an increased likelihood of prolonged uncertainty or political gridlock that might hamper a quick economic recovery. In traditional markets, yields on U.S. Treasury bonds fell by 0.11 percentage point, the most since April, signaling […]
Bitcoin (BTC) was lower for a third straight day around $13,500, having fallen back from a fleeting 33-month high of $14,093 over the weekend. In traditional markets, Asian and European shares rose and U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries increased 0.03 percentage point to 0.88%. Gold strengthened 0.2% to $1,899 an ounce. Market Moves The U.S. presidential election is finally here. President Donald Trump’s Republicans are as convinced that Democratic challenger Joe Biden will lead America down an irreversible path toward socialism and disorder as Democrats are convinced another four years of Trump could […]
Bitcoin was lower around $13,400 though on track to gain 24% in October, an impressive performance since U.S. stocks declined 1.6% on the month and gold slid 0.5%. “With the U.S. election just days away, we are going to have to be patient when it comes to headwinds lifting BTC to new multi-year highs,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading for the cryptocurrency-focused financial firm Diginex, wrote in a note to clients. In traditional markets, European stocks fluctuated and U.S. futures pointed to a lower open. The dollar was steady in foreign exchange markets and 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rose 0.01 […]
Bitcoin was lower, pausing a powerful rally that has seen the largest cryptocurrency jump 25% in October to the highest levels since June 2019. Traditional financial-media outlets like Bloomberg News were writing about it. Prices appeared to hit resistance just below $13,900, close to last year’s high. But analysts said that if the level is breached, there appear to be few brake points before the 11-year-old cryptocurrency ascends to $14,000 or beyond. “Between the levels of $14,000 and $20,000, there is insufficient price data to single out any specific points of resistance,” Mati Greenspan, founder of the foreign-exchange and cryptocurrency research firm Quantum […]
Bitcoin reached a new 2020 high around $13,420 after rising on nine of the past 11 days. The cryptocurrency’s recent rally despite a stall-out in U.S. stocks has rekindled speculation that prices for the two asset classes are starting to diverge, after a recent stretch in which they appeared highly correlated. “We have discussed the potential for a decoupling from traditional financial markets,” analysts for the blockchain data firm Glassnode wrote Monday. “It is too early to tell.” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading for Diginex, said bitcoin bulls might try to push prices by the end of October above […]
Bitcoin was lower, tracking what appears to be a new range between roughly $11,200 and $11,700. It’s a step up from levels that prevailed over most of September, between $10,100 and $11,000. “As the bulls push for a return to a $12,000 handle, resistance will be found just below, at $11,900,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading for the cryptocurrency exchange owner Diginex, wrote in a daily newsletter. In traditional markets, US stock futures rose on fresh optimism that lawmakers might reach agreement on a new federal stimulus package. Gold strengthened. Happening Monday: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to […]
The outcome of next month’s U.S. presidential election may not matter much for bitcoin’s price: Economic stimulus in the trillions of dollars is likely no matter who wins, bolstering the largest cryptocurrency’s appeal as a hedge against inflation. President Donald Trump over the past week has reversed his opposition to another big government-spending bill following April’s $2 trillion coronavirus-aid package. He signaled his eagerness to strike a deal with leaders of the opposition Democratic party, who have proposed a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill. According to Axios, he told senior lawmakers in his own Republican party that he wants “a big deal.” If Trump wins in November, he’s likely to […]
Payments company Square’s announcement that it would put some $50 million, or 1% of its assets, into bitcoin has touched off speculation that more corporations might do the same. Jack Dorsey, the Twitter CEO who also helms Square, is a longtime bitcoin bull, so it wasn’t a huge surprise his company would put some of its corporate liquidity into the cryptocurrency. He’s following the path of MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, who has invested at least $425 million of the company’s assets in bitcoin. None other than Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, tweeted a question: “Who’s going to be the […]
A slowdown in cryptocurrency trading on so-called decentralized exchanges has helped to alleviate congestion on the Ethereum blockchain, at least temporarily mitigating concerns the network was becoming overloaded. The trading lull comes as prices tumble for many of the hottest tokens from the fast-growing arena of decentralized finance, or DeFi. SushiSwap’s SUSHI token, one of this year’s splashiest debuts , fell by 77% in the past 30 days, while DeFi lender Compound’s COMP tokens lost 37%. On Uniswap, the biggest decentralized exchange, or DEX, daily trading volumes have crashed to $224 million, versus a record high of $954 million on Sept. 1. “Low volatility in the crypto market […]
Chinese tech companies were once seen as copycats of their Western peers: Alibaba was a knockoff of eBay and Baidu imitated Google. More recently, Chinese firms like TikTok and Huawei have established such dominant international positions that U.S. authorities have tried to hold them back. Now, the technological arms race is playing out in the cryptocurrency industry, where one Chinese company is taking on Ethereum, the world’s second-largest blockchain, which U.S.-based developers have used to build semi-automated trading and lending networks under the rubric of decentralized finance, or DeFi. Neo took aim at DeFi in late September with its launch of […]
U.S. regulators and law-enforcement officials brought charges on Thursday against BitMEX, a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange that has grown in recent years to be one of the industry’s biggest players. According to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, prosecutors accused BitMEX of facilitating unregistered trading and other violations, including “conducting significant aspects of its business from the U.S. and accepting orders and funds from U.S. customers,” as reported by CoinDesk’s Nikhilesh De. The news dominated cryptocurrency news headlines and sent traders and analysts scrambling to assess the damage and implications. Some 23,000 bitcoin were apparently withdrawn from BitMEX addresses in a single hour, the cryptocurrency-markets data […]
A lot of crypto investors like to think of bitcoin as a bet on higher inflation, or as a futuristic hedge on some imagined economic-armageddon scenario – Gold 2.0, as they say. Lately, it’s looking more like Gold 2x: As bitcoin heads into the final months of 2020, the largest cryptocurrency’s 2020 investment returns are twice those of the yellow metal. Bitcoin gained 50% in the nine months through September versus gold’s 25%, during a year when a global pandemic ravaged economies and prompted central banks to print trillions of dollars. Many investors, while acknowledging that recessions are usually deflationary, say the extra flood […]
That was the story in cryptocurrency markets in September as prices tumbled for digital tokens from “decentralized finance” (DeFi), the fast-evolving arena of blockchain-based lending and trading platforms. Chainlink, which supplies data feeds to DeFi systems, saw its LINK token fall 42% month to date, the worst return among digital assets in the CoinDesk 20. The DeFi market correction came at a time when traditional markets also were hit hard by growing anxiety over the increasingly contentious U.S. presidential elections in November and resurgent coronavirus cases in the U.S. and Europe, according to Anil Lulla, co-founder of the cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital. It […]
There’s a degree of transparency in cryptocurrencies that doesn’t exist in traditional markets like stocks and bonds: Thanks to data that’s easily extracted from blockchains, everyone can see everyone else moving their money around. That means traders can keep an eye on exchange wallets to gauge whether investors and crypto miners are getting their bitcoin into position for a possible sale — or taking balances down from the exchanges in anticipation of holding for the longer term. The latter might be what’s happening now, CoinDesk’s Muyao Shen reported Monday. Total balances of bitcoin on major exchanges has hit its lowest levels since […]
The super-charged trajectory of the cryptocurrency industry is translating to faster growth at the publicly traded digital-asset brokerage Voyager Digital, where revenue this quarter is tracking at an eightfold increase over the prior 12 months’ average pace. Voyager CEO Steve Ehrlich told CoinDesk in a Zoom interview that the company’s on pace for revenue of about $2 million during the fiscal first quarter that ends Sept. 30. That compares with $1.1 million during the fiscal year that ended in June. The company’s shares, listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange, have rallied about 250% year, far surpassing the 49% year-to-date gains for […]
Compared with the traditional financial system, the cryptocurrency industry is evolving fast. Technologists are experimenting with the vast-reaching potential of blockchain. And regulation is typically immature, inconsistent and unevenly applied across international borders, allowing entrepreneurs to move fast and break things, as it were. But there’s also no shortage of competition. The latest example comes from CoinDesk’s Ian Allison, who reported Thursday that Tron, the three-year-old blockchain headed by Justin Sun (the crypto executive who paid $4.5 million to have a meal with Warren Buffett), has entered into a strategic alliance with custody specialist BitGo to accommodate wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) tokens. Wrapped bitcoin is a […]
The upcoming U.S. presidential election has become one of the most contentious in history, fraught with searing divisions over everything from the economy to race to the continued health of democracy itself. So it’s not surprising that Wall Street options traders are now pricing in expectations of elevated market volatility around the November election. Analysts for the investment banking giant Goldman Sachs noted earlier this month that price swings of nearly 3% are implied around election day in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks. What’s surprising is that options trading on notoriously volatile bitcoin prices, which often trade in sync with stocks, […]
In seeking to explain Monday’s sell-off across traditional markets and cryptocurrencies, the digital-asset firm QCP Capital rattled off a list of seven major market events that occurred in Septembers past, from the 1929 stock-market crash to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008. There might be some deep human connection with the fall equinox — when the days turn shorter than nights in the northern hemisphere and summer turns to fall, according to the firm. “The human nervous system typically undergoes major measurable perturbations” during this period, QCP wrote Monday in its daily market update. The outlook is cloudy but there’s a risk of a steep […]
It’s pretty much guaranteed at this point that higher inflation is coming. The Federal Reserve, which has already printed about $3 trillion of new money this year, is now explicitly devoted to reducing the dollar’s purchasing power in a bid to revive the economy. Higher inflation also typically happens when a country gets laden with debt and interest rates are cut to zero, as is now the case in the U.S. “We’re at a moment where you may see some inflation,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said last week. The trend could be good for bitcoin, which many crypto investors believe […]
Earlier this week, analysts with the cryptocurrency analysis firm Arcane Research were musing that new developments appeared to have slowed in the fast-growing blockchain arena of decentralized finance, known as DeFi. But they predicted any lull was likely to be temporary. “A new boost for DeFi tokens could be right around the corner,” Arcane wrote Tuesday in a report. “The sector seems determined to grow further.” As if on cue, the decentralized exchange Uniswap late Wednesday made a surprise delivery of its new governance tokens to anyone who had ever used the project. Traders each got at least 400 of the UNI tokens, worth about $1,200 – […]
Blockchain-based lending and trading systems known as “decentralized finance,” or DeFi, have dominated recent cryptocurrency-market headlines, with collateral locked into the semi-automated platforms surging 10-fold this year to more than $9 billion. DeFi trading platforms like Uniswap, Curve and Balancer have appealed to cryptocurrency traders with their low cost and ease of use, and they’re now starting to steal a growing and no-longer-negligible share of market trading volumes from bigger, established exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, Huobi and OKEx. These “centralized” exchanges — the term is sometimes tossed around with a sneer — are rolling out new business initiatives they describe as decentralized, in an apparent bid to cash in on the trend and stanch a further […]
One of the interesting things about cryptocurrency investors is that they really do look at the world very differently from many of their counterparts in traditional finance. The thinking goes something like this: The efforts of governments and central banks to repair the economy are doomed to fail, and likely to make the situation worse. There is no point in moving to a defensive investment strategy, because prices for digital assets are going to the moon. Every time the stock market goes up, it just validates the reality that the dollar is being debased by trillions of dollars of central-bank money printing. […]
This column has written in recent weeks about the surprising possibility that cryptocurrency markets might have become the new home for capitalism, in an environment where central banks and governments are intervening deeply in markets while picking corporate winners via emergency aid. If anything, the ridiculousness of the recent weeks’ saga involving the deliciously named startup protocol SushiSwap shows that not only are market signals alive and well in digital assets, but competition is, too. While from the outside these markets may seem like a den of rampant speculation, the innovative mania now taking place in the fast-growing arena of decentralized finance , known as DeFi, is providing a test of […]
Bitcoin was rising for a second straight day, to about $10,281, after a rapid sell-off earlier in the week. “In a flash, investors have gone from running for the hills to buying the dip,” Mati Greenspan, founder of the cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange analysis firm Quantum Economics, told clients in an email. The crypto investment firm Stack Funds wrote in a weekly report that prices appear to have found a temporary floor around $10,000. Taimur Baig, chief economist for Singapore’s DBS bank, told CoinDesk that the pandemic and the associated central-bank money-printing have strengthened the case for bitcoin. “People are worried about […]
You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team and edited by Bradley Keoun, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. Price Point Bitcoin was down early Tuesday, barely holding above the important psychological threshold of $10,000. Prices for the cryptocurrency, up 40% year-to-date, have held above $10,000 for more than six weeks. The digital-asset firm Diginex wrote in a newsletter post that “prices will need to […]
You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team and edited by Bradley Keoun, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here. HOLIDAY NOTICE: First Mover will publish next on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Happy Labor Day to our U.S. readers. Price Point Bitcoin (BTC) was up in early trading to $10,500, rebounding after Thursday’s 11% tumble, the biggest single-day decline since March. The sell-off, which took prices as […]
Bitcoin prices tumbled 6.2% Thursday, falling below $11,000 for the first time in a month. The price drop trimmed the largest cryptocurrency’s 2020 rally to 50% and sent digital-asset market traders and analysts scrambling to explain the sell-off. Here are three reasons cited by analysts: 1. Bitcoin slid in sync with traditional markets The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of large U.S. stocks retreated Thursday after climbing to a new record high earlier in the week. A report showing new U.S. jobless claims at 881,000 in the final week of August was better than feared – and the lowest since the […]
You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team and edited by Bradley Keoun, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here. Price Point Bitcoin was down early Thursday to about $11,250, extending Wednesday’s sell-off and falling to its lowest price since early August. [Update: At press time prices had slumped further to around $10,850.] The cryptocurrency tumbled 4.4% on Wednesday, the most in a month, […]
You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team and edited by Bradley Keoun, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here. Price Point Bitcoin (BTC) was up 2.2% early Tuesday, starting off September on a strong note after an anemic performance last month. The dollar dropped to a two-year low against major trading partners’ currencies. The largest cryptocurrency climbed 2.6% in August, underperforming the 25% gain […]
Price point Bitcoin was rising along with gold and U.S. stock futures early Friday as traders reacted to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s plan to let inflation run hot in coming years as the economy heals from the coronavirus-induced recession. The largest cryptocurrency, seen by some investors as a hedge against inflation, changed hands around $11,451, staying in the range between $10,900 and $12,400, where it has been stuck since late July. In Asian markets, the Japanese yen jumped on haven buying after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has pursued inflation-boosting policies, said he would resign due to an illness. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily […]
A speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell scheduled for Thursday offers a reminder of just how dramatically once-slow-moving monetary forces have accelerated due to the devastating economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic. This time last year, President Donald Trump was vehemently criticizing Powell on Twitter for setting interest rates too high, as U.S. economic growth slowed and the national debt swelled past $22 trillion. This time last year, then-Bank of England Governor Mark Carney delivered a speech at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in Wyoming warning the U.S. dollar’s status as the de facto global currency contributes to […]
Market moves The explosive growth of decentralized finance, or DeFi, on the Ethereum blockchain has brought unwanted attention to the recent surge in congestion on the network, with a resulting jump in transaction fees. There’s another consequence for crypto traders: Rising volatility in prices for ether, the blockchain’s native cryptocurrency. That’s especially true when ether’s volatility is compared with that of bitcoin. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team and edited by Bradley Keoun, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context […]
Price point Bitcoin was up slightly at about $11,776 early Monday, rising along with European equities, stock futures, gold, copper and oil amid optimism over a coronavirus vaccine and treatments. The dollar weakened. The largest cryptocurrency is coming off a 2.2% decline in the seven days through Aug. 23, breaking a four-week string of gains. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you […]
Price Point Bitcoin was slightly lower early Friday, leaving the cryptocurrency on track for its first weekly price decline since mid-July. The largest cryptocurrency broke above $12,000 earlier in the week and failed to hold the gains, though John Willock, CEO of crypto asset manager Tritum, told CoinDesk Thursday that “maybe we’ve got $13,500 in the next phase up in the coming days.” You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. […]
Price Point Bitcoin traded slightly higher early Thursday at $11,772 after falling for two straight days. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has declined 1.3% this week as the U.S. dollar strengthened in foreign exchange markets. The greenback gained support Wednesday as the Federal Reserve said it wasn’t immediately planning to implement a “yield curve control” program that probably would have brought an accelerated pace of money printing. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in […]
Price Point It’s been two steps forward, one step back for bitcoin (BTC) over the past couple months. Prices were down early Wednesday for a second straight day after pushing earlier this week past $12,000 to a new 2020 high. The price move accelerated as traders got hit with margin calls on the BitMEX exchange. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have […]
PRICE POINT Bitcoin (BTC) was flat after jumping on Monday to a new 2020 high above $12,400. Analysts are now speculating whether the largest cryptocurrency can hold the higher ground. The latest move up came on high volume, and it was a “convincing break,” Denis Vinokourov, head of research for the crypto prime broker BeQuant, told CoinDesk. Monday’s high was just 11% off the 2019 peak of $13,880. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every […]
Price Point Bitcoin was mostly subdued over the weekend, staying in its recent range between $11,000 and $12,000. Ether, trading around $430, is looking to extend a run of four straight weeks of gains during which prices have nearly doubled. In traditional markets, U.S. equity futures and European stocks advanced, after China’s central bank pumped about $100 billion into the country’s banking system. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and […]
Bitcoin climbed above $12,000 early Monday, before dipping once more, as traders weighed U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to provide emergency aid amid new signs that the labor market recovery is stalling. The oldest and largest cryptocurrency is up 63% on the year. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here. Trump announced a series of executive […]
The Federal Reserve appears ready to pursue yet another untested strategy that could ultimately boost inflation – and possibly prices for bitcoin. The Fed is “preparing to effectively abandon its strategy of pre-emptively lifting interest rates to head off higher inflation,” according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal. The shift signals an explicit willingness by the central bank to tolerate higher inflation, at a time when the spreading coronavirus continues to ravage the economy. The U.S. unemployment rate stands at 11%, a level not witnessed since the early 1940s until this year. The Fed’s extra loosening of monetary policy could help support prices for bitcoin, which many cryptocurrency investors speculate […]
Crypto traders didn’t need to work too hard to make money last month. They just had to be in the market. Every digital asset in the CoinDesk 20 ended the month in the black. Bitcoin benefited from bets against the U.S. dollar while ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, gained from speculation over the future of “decentralized finance,” known as DeFi. Source: CoinDesk/Coin Metrics Bitcoin rose 24% during the month, its best July in eight years, and was changing hands as of late Sunday at around $11,100 – even after a flash crash earlier in the day that saw the […]
After a two-day closed-door meeting this week, the Federal Reserve issued a six-paragraph statement on Wednesday and held an hour-long press conference. None of that was news, of course, and neither was anything else emanating from the U.S. central bank, which announced no policy changes. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here. But here’s what […]
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it would hold benchmark U.S. interest rates close to zero and continue buying Treasury bonds to support the coronavirus-devastated economy. Source link
In the race to become the dominant cryptocurrency platform, Ethereum is gaining on Bitcoin. Take a look at the market capitalization of ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain. Currently, the value stands at about $26 billion. But that figure doesn’t include all of the digital assets built atop the Ethereum blockchain, including some of this year’s hottest tokens: stablecoins like tether and USDC and altcoins like Crypto.com’s CRO, Chainlink’s LINK, Compound’s COMP and Kyber’s KNC. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never […]
Cryptocurrency traders yawned at one of the year’s biggest news stories for bitcoin, with prices barely budging as the digital-asset industry became a primary victim of this week’s massive hack on Twitter accounts. The notoriously volatile bitcoin slid just 0.8% to about $9,100 on Thursday after slipping a meager 0.7% on Wednesday as the news hit. That’s in a market where it’s not uncomon, at least until recently, for prices to swing 8% in a day. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of […]
Bitcoin’s notorious volatility has practically disappeared during the most-recent phase of the coronavirus-induced economic crisis – and that’s now taking a toll on trading volumes at cryptocurrency exchanges around the world. For more than two months, bitcoin has stayed in a range between roughly $8,500 and $10,200, an astonishing stretch of stability for an asset whose price rose 13-fold in 2017, tumbled 73% in 2018 and then jumped 94% last year. It’s up 29% so far in 2020, after wild gyrations earlier in the year that have mostly faded since late April. The largest cryptocurrency changed hands Tuesday at $9,257, down […]
Bitcoiners, already rocked by this year’s coronavirus-inflicted turbulence, face a fresh source of volatility as the market heads into the second half of 2020: the U.S. presidential elections. According to Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest lender, a reelection victory by President Donald Trump could threaten the U.S. dollar’s century-long reign as the world’s de facto reserve currency. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t […]
Bitcoin has traded in an ever-tightening range for two months, and digital-market analysts say a new wave of coronavirus cases and emergency measures could provoke the largest cryptocurrency by market cap out of the doldrums. The backdrop is an anemic economy, with the International Monetary Fund projecting last week that global output will shrink 4.9% this year: worse than its April forecast for 3% contraction. Confirmed deaths from the coronavirus passed half a million on Sunday, and authorities from China to the U.S. states of Florida and Texas enacted new restrictions to curb rising caseloads. The World Health Organization has also warned that the worst is yet to come. […]
The speculative fervor surrounding the autonomous lender Compound’s new digital token rose another notch Thursday as its already relatively lofty price more than doubled in 24 hours. The rapid ascent of the COMP “governance” token comes as something a surprise given it was released just Monday and is still only trading on a handful of lesser cryptocurrency exchanges. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so […]
Whether or not the Federal Reserve eventually cuts interest rates to negative levels, it might be a case of heads: bitcoin wins, tails: bitcoin wins. So far this year, the Fed has created about $3 trillion of new money, an amount equivalent to more than 70% of the total assets created since its founding in 1913. The question now is what the Fed will do next if the economy fails to recover quickly from the devastation of the coronavirus, and markets enter a new tailspin. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts […]
Federal Reserve officials see U.S. inflation as likely to stay below 2% over the next three years, based on a new summary of economic predictions released Wednesday by the central bank. Prices for personal consumption expenditures are expected to climb just 1% this year, down from a December projection of 1.9%, according to the document. Inflation will average 1.5% next year and 1.7% in 2022, the officials projected. “Weaker demand and significantly lower oil prices are holding down consumer price inflation,” the Fed’s monetary-policy committee said Wednesday at the conclusion of a two-day, closed-door meeting. The Fed made no change to its […]
Based on a slew of recent predictions, bitcoin prices could more than double this year to $20,000. Or go to $250,000 by early 2023. Or $300,000 within five years. What’s confounding cryptocurrency traders now is the wide gap between such lofty forecasts and the banal reality: Since late April, bitcoin has traded in a range between roughly $8,500 and $10,200. Thursday’s market action was no different, with prices rising 1.3% to about $9,800. The highest in two days. Not much to get excited about. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment […]
Cryptocurrency traders don’t seem to care that Goldman Sachs is such a bitcoin hater. At least, that’s the signal markets are sending. Bitcoin prices have surged since the Wall Street heavyweight’s money-management division declared in a presentation this week that the cryptocurrency is “not a suitable investment for our clients,” merely a beneficiary of a “mania” worse than the infamous run on Dutch tulips in the 1600s. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild […]
Bitcoin’s rally last week as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks floundered served to underscore just how different the conversations are right now in digital asset markets and traditional finance. As high-profile investors including Stanley Druckenmiller and David Tepper were warning of looming bankruptcies, overvalued stocks and the increasingly distant chances of a rapid economic recovery, bitcoiners celebrated the cryptocurrency’s third halving and held spirited discussions on the future of money during a virtual New York Blockchain Week. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, […]
Bitcoin is rallying again, and some analysts are looking at a potential driver of even higher prices: new data showing that mining pools are hanging onto the cryptocurrency rather than sending it to exchanges for a quick sale. But as with a lot of bitcoin analysis, the interpretation isn’t always clear-cut; the data might be seen differently as a sign of a weak market. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing […]
After bitcoin’s much-hyped halving failed to generate a price rally, crypto traders are already turning to a new bullish investment thesis: the possibility the Federal Reserve might cut its benchmark interest rate below zero. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a televised interview Wednesday that negative rates are “not something that we’re looking at.” The remark disappointed U.S. stock traders who were hoping for an easier monetary stance, helping to send the Standard & Poor’s 500 down by 1.7% to a three-week low. You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date […]