2024-01-30 10:12

Altcoins' consistent positive performance over the past six days is boosting optimism and setting up bitcoin to test $46,000, one analyst said. Altcoins are outperforming bitcoin and ether, a sign investor interest is broadening beyond the largest cryptocurrencies. The Fed is likely to keep rates unchanged on Wednesday. Potential dovish hints could bode well for bitcoin, one observer said. The total crypto market capitalization has bounced to $1.74 trillion from $1.61 trillion in a week, with alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) like (SOL), (AVAX), and (ICP) spearheading the recovery. According to Velo Data, Solana's SOL has risen 27% to $103, nearly reversing losses seen following the Jan. 11 debut of spot-based bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. The rally comes amid surging user interest in Solana-based trading aggregator Jupiter, where volumes topped the $500 million mark on Monday, surpassing the activity on industry-leading decentralized exchange Uniswap. AVAX, the native token of Ethereum rival Avalanche, has rallied over 25% in one week, while tokens such as ICP, NEAR, DOT, and XMR have added between 13% and 22%. Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market value, has gained nearly 10% to trade above the widely tracked 50-day simple moving average at $42,870. Crossovers above and below that level are said to signal the strengthening of bullish or bearish momentum. Ethereum's native token, ether (ETH), the second-largest coin, has risen just 0.6%. The underperformance likely stems from market makers trading against the direction of the price move, thereby arresting the upside price volatility. "Altcoins' consistent positive performance over the past six days is setting up optimism, setting up bitcoin for a test of $46,000," Alex Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at FxPro, said in an email. "The outperformance in major altcoins points to a broadening of participant interest beyond the two largest coins." Kuptsikevich said bitcoin's move above the 50-day average is important, but not yet solid evidence of a bullish trend, and the outperformance of altcoins may be short-lived. "Don't expect sustained demand for smaller altcoins or meme coins this year – it usually happens after a prolonged bull market," Kuptsikevich noted. Focus on Fed The U.S. Federal Reserve will announce its rate decision on Wednesday at 19:00 UTC. Half an hour later, Chairman Jerome Powell will speak at a press conference, explaining the decision and policy path. The central bank is likely to keep the benchmark borrowing cost between 5.25% and 5.5%, with markets now anticipating a first rate cut in May instead of the previously expected March. The focus will be on how fast policymakers intend to unwind the 11-rate-hike streak or the so-called policy tightening that began in March 2022 and peaked in June 2022. "The market is sensitive to the Fed's tone, with a dovish [policy easing] shift potentially boosting risk appetite and directing more capital into Bitcoin and related ETFs," Tagus Capital said in its daily newsletter on Tuesday. Read: U.S. Debt Announcement May Be Pivotal for Crypto Traders https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/01/30/sol-avax-lead-crypto-market-recovery-bitcoin-tops-50-day-average-before-fed-meeting/

2024-01-30 09:26

The move may reflect users' unease about Binance's regulatory dispute in the U.S., which saw it landed with a $4.3 billion fine in November Cryptocurrency exchange Binance now allows larger traders to keep their assets at independent banks, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Previously, they had to hold their assets on the exchange or at its custodial partner, Ceffu. They can now use crypto-friendly institutions such as Swiss banks Sygnum or FlowBank. The move may reflect users' unease about Binance's regulatory dispute in the U.S., which saw it landed with a $4.3 billion fine in November, heightening concerns brought about by the bankruptcy of rival exchange FTX a year earlier. "I'd much rather park my money with a Swiss bank than Binance," said the head of a crypto trading firm cited by the FT. Binance said in November it had been exploring a banking triparty arrangement for more than a year, referring to an arrangement with its customers and a bank custodian, though did not disclose the names of the banks. "Our banking triparty solution paves the way for greater adoption amongst institutional investors, as this long standing model allows investors to manage risk while maximizing their capital efficiency by pledging collateral in the form of traditional assets," a spokesperson for the exchange said in an emailed comment. Read More: Binance Thailand Crypto Exchange Open for Trading https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/01/30/binance-now-allows-larger-traders-to-keep-their-assets-elsewhere-ft/

2024-01-30 05:56

Trump recently won the first two Republican Party primaries. The U.S. presidential election is ten months away, and traders from Polymarket, a decentralized prediction platform, seem confident that former President Donald Trump will return to power. As of writing, the Yes side shares in the Trump prediction market tied to the "Presidential Election Winner 2024" contract traded at 55 cents, representing a 55% probability of Trump winning the election. Trump recently won the first two Republican Party primaries, which were conducted to choose the candidate best suited to lead their respective parties. Traders see a 38% chance of President Joe Biden holding on to power and just 1% odds of Indian-American aspirant and Republican Nikki Haley winning the election. Meanwhile, traders assign a 2% probability of Michelle Obama outshining the competition amid rumors that the former U.S. First Lady could soon join the presidential race. Since its debut in 2020, Polymarket has been one of the preferred destinations for traders looking to bet on binary events. Traders have bet over $22 million in the Presidential Election Winner 2024 contract, of which $3.4 million is currently locked in the Trump-focused prediction market. The contract will expire on Nov. 5, and Associated Press, Fox News, and NBC will be used as resolution sources for the market. Traditional sports betting books also have Trump and Biden as favorites to win the 2024 Presidential election. Last week, Biden had +156 election odds to become U.S. president again, narrowly beating Trump's 150+ odds. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/01/30/polymarket-traders-see-55-chance-of-second-trump-presidency/

2024-01-30 05:53

Crypto prices have decoupled from prices for luxury watches, ending a prolonged positive correlation caused by unprecedented monetary stimulus. If there is one thing common between bitcoin (BTC) and luxury goods, it is scarcity. And prices for bitcoin and luxury watches were positive correlated before the spot ETF optimism gripped the crypto market in the second half of 2023. Much has been written about the relationship between luxury watches and crypto. Prices for both rose during the Covid years as central banks and governments dumped record amount of easy, cheap money into the economy, and crypto traders needed something to buy with their riches. According to data from WatchCharts.com, the absolute pricing peak came at the end of the bull market of 2021, and the start of the 2022 crypto recession. Many traders, as expected, were cashing out at the peak and moving on to other assets. For most of 2023, prices for luxury watches and the CoinDesk 20, an index of the largest digital assets, moved in parallel. But then the two diverged in the third and fourth quarter of 2023 as excitement around a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) began to work its way through the crypto market, pushing CoinDesk 20 higher. The U.S. SEC green lighted 11 spot bitcoin ETFs early this month. Greta Yuan, Head of Research at VDX, a regulated Hong Kong exchange, points to the institutional interest that bitcoin has, thanks to the ETF, – and watches lack – as another reason for the pricing bump. "Bitcoin is essentially known as digital gold so It’s no surprise that it has held up value better than luxury watches over the past year," she said in an email interview with CoinDesk. "The market has recently bounced back to above 42K, showing strong demand from investors to buy the dip." Meanwhile, global monetary tightening continued to weigh over prices for luxury watches. "The decline in prices is partly due to tightening monetary policy and a reduction in speculative trading in luxury assets," wrote Morgan Stanley analysts in a January report about luxury watch prices. "While prices were relatively stable in 4Q23 and December 2023 (likely influenced by holiday shopping trends), overall market health indicators such as the age of inventory and total supply remain historically elevated," said Watch Charts founder Charles Tian in a note to CoinDesk. Although crypto naysayers will point at every decline of bitcoin's prices as an attestation of its lack of utility, ContentFi Labs' COO Nick Ruck questions the utility of watches. "Investors have finally caught on to the empty promises of watch utilities," he said in a note. "Their unique selling point to inform wearers of the time has long been replaced by modern technology such as the smartphone." There might be a point there. Not one watch on Watch Charts Luxury Index can measure your blood pressure or sleep cycles like a smartwatch can. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/01/30/bitcoin-etf-has-broken-btcs-pandemic-era-price-correlation-with-luxury-watches/

2024-01-30 04:09

The Foundation wants to preserve an 18-month runway through at least mid-2026. The Foundation supporting decentralized crypto exchange dYdX has requested $30 million in funding from the project's governing decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to be spent over the next three years. Switzerland-based dYdX Foundation provides legal, R&D, marketing and technical support to the crypto trading project, which includes a perpetual futures contract exchange and specialty blockchain in the Cosmos and Ethereum ecosystems. The Foundation's goal is to grow dYdX into "the exchange layer of the internet," according to its pitch. The budget request is hardly paltry; if honored by dYdX tokenholders (the voters in the DAO), it would award the Foundation 4% of the DAO's current treasury. At three years long, it would also free the dYdX Foundation from having to submit annual budgets for review and approval, a common practice for other DAOs and their respective foundations. The request garnered widespread approval from dYdX stakeholders ranging from validators to delegates when the Foundation first shared it last Friday. It will now go to a vote running through February 2. Nearly half of the requested budget would cover payroll, with 18% going to marketing and growth, 14% to various legal disbursements, and 5.5% to contractors, among other line items. In a forum post, the Foundation telegraphed its commitment to responsibly managing money through "capital preservation" strategies that reduce risk. It diversified away from USDC and into treasury bonds after last March's banking crisis-fueled stablecoin de-pegging, perhaps a step away from crypto but one that nonetheless reduced risk and tripled yields. The Foundation would "diversify" some of the acquired funds "into fiat and stablecoins" and also invest in expanding its staking operation, through which it currently earns staking yield on 2.5 million dYdX tokens. Its $30 million would comprise 10.5 million DYDX tokens and expand the Foundation's operational runway beyond 18 months. The Foundation's next budget request would come "when we approach 18 months of runway" – likely in mid or late 2026 at current projections. In lieu of annual budget votes, the Foundation said it would "aim to issue an annual report and a semi-annual report" that detailed its use of the funds. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/01/30/dydx-foundation-requests-30m-budget-pledges-to-issue-annual-spending-report/

2024-01-29 22:02

The index provider previously had one of the highest fees of 0.39% for its bitcoin ETF. Invesco and Galaxy Asset Management have lowered the fee of its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to 0.25% from 0.39%, the issuers announced Monday. The move puts the sponsor fee for the Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO) in line with that of most fellow issuers. Only Ark and 21Shares, Bitwise and Franklin Templeton offer lower fees versus their peers. Invesco said it will continue to waive fees for the first six months or until it reaches $5 billion in assets, according to the statement. The index provider has had a slightly worse start to the ETF race than some other TradFi issuers of the same caliber, including BlackRock and Fidelity, which both attracted roughly $2 billion in total volume in the first 11 days. Since its inception, Invesco's bitcoin spot ETF has only seen a little over $280 million in inflows into its fund. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/01/29/invesco-lowers-fee-of-its-bitcoin-etf-now-at-025/