The latest moves in crypto markets, in context Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here. |
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Good morning, and welcome to First Mover. Here’s what’s happening this morning: - Market Moves: Bitcoin bounce stalls, dollar breaks multi-decade bearish trendline.
- Featured Story: The fast-growing popularity of the TerraUSD stablecoin comes with some risk.
And check out the CoinDesk TV show “First Mover,” hosted by Christine Lee, Emily Parker and Lawrence Lewitinn at 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern time. - Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research, VanEck
- Tigran Gambaryan, Vice President of Global Intelligence and Investigations, Binance
- Joshua Ellul, director, Centre for Distributed Ledger Technology
Today’s newsletter was edited by Omkar Godbole and produced by Parikshit Mishra. Let us know what you think by replying to this email. |
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While bitcoin has held vital support, the cryptocurrency does not appear to be out of the woods yet, given the continued strength of the U.S. dollar. The top cryptocurrency by market value traded near $40,700 at press time, having printed a high of $41,250 during the Asian hours. On Monday, buyers held the three-day chart 200-period moving average, staving off a major technical breakdown. The dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against majors, rose to 101 early today, refreshing two-year highs and taking the month-to-date gain to 2.5%. The global reserve currency has risen 12% since May 2021, marking its best stretch since its run-up in late 2014 – early 2015, per data provided by charting platform TradingView. The DXY may see further gains, as the monthly chart shows the two-decade bearish trendline has been breached to the upside. "We’ve been warning that USD strength is one of the biggest headwinds for markets, including BTC and crypto. As BTC struggles to keep its head above $40K, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) just broke 100 for the first time in almost two years," analysts at Delphi Digital wrote in a note published Monday. "The greenback is now on the verge of a multi-decade breakout as two of its major currency pairs (EUR and JPY) are both vulnerable of technical breakdowns of their own. The EUR and JPY make up ~70% of the DXY index." |
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DXY's monthly chart showing a bullish breakout. (TradingView, CoinDesk) |
"Looking back over the last 10 years, we can see how BTC’s price tends to trend in the opposite direction of DXY momentum. In other words, when the dollar is gaining momentum, BTC underperforms (and vice versa)," Delphi's analysts added. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, traded flat at around $3,050, having tested dip demand under the psychological support of $3,000 yesterday. The cryptocurrency has seen increased demand for December call options in recent weeks. "Ethereum is caught between two powerful colliding forces: (declining on-chain activity + market correlation) vs. (institutional adoption + Web3)," Ilan Solot, partner at the Tagus Capital Multi-Strategy Fund, said in an email. "The latter will prove a secular shift, while the former is merely a cyclical dynamic. These cyclical forces are coiling ETH ever tighter into a spring." While top cryptocurrencies traded sideways, Terra's LUNA and privacy-focused monero (XMR) chalked up double-digit gains. Terra's algorithmic stablecoin UST replaced Binance USD (BUSD) as the third-largest stablecoin by circulation during the later hours of Monday. Monero is set to implement a hard fork in July to improve network security and fee changes, developers confirmed in a GitHub post. |
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The following are the biggest movers in the CoinDesk 20 digital assets over the past 24 hours: |
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Top Gainers Top Losers There are no losers in CoinDesk 20 today. |
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Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive, and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk 20 is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges. |
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Tether's Paolo Ardoino on UST: 'It's All Fun and Games' Until You're a $100B Coin By Helene Braun |
The fast-growing popularity of the TerraUSD stablecoin comes with some risk because of its dependence on algorithms to hold its dollar peg. “It’s all fun and games if you’re a $5 [billion] or $10 billion market cap stablecoin,” Tether Chief Technology Officer Paolo Ardoino said in an interview with CoinDesk at the Paris Blockchain Week Summit. But that can change the bigger that stablecoin's market cap gets. UST is now the third-biggest stablecoin on the market after Tether's USDT and Circle's USD coin (USDC), which are still significantly larger in terms of market cap. However, the native stablecoin of the Terra ecosystem has grown rapidly, from $180 million at the beginning of 2021 to over $17 billion in market capitalization as of April 18. Read The Full Story Here |
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Disclaimer: The information presented in this message is intended as a news item that provides a brief summary of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of one or more of the cryptocurrencies described above. The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments. |
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