Good morning, and welcome to First Mover. Here's what's happening this morning:

Market Moves: Bitcoin Trims Gains as PBOC Steps Up Crypto Crackdown
- The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) reiterated its long-held anti-crypto stance.

Technician's Take: Bitcoin Rangebound at Support; Resistance at $36K
- Bitcoin is trading sideways in a $3,000 range.

And check out the CoinDesk TV show "First Mover," hosted by Michael Casey, Emily Parker and me at 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern time. Today the show will feature guests:

Esteban Castaño, TRM Labs CEO
Nischal Shetty, WazirX CEO
Martin Gasper, CrossTower Research Analyst

– Lawrence Lewitinn

These are the biggest movers in the CoinDesk 20 over the past 24 hours:

Gainers:

Aave (AAVE): +15.3%
Uniswap (UNI): +6.1%
Yearn Finance (YFI): +4.4%

Losers:

The Graph (GRT): -7.6%
Tezos (XTZ): -4.0%
Litecoin (LTC): -3.4%

The CoinDesk 20 are 20 digital assets filtered from the larger universe of thousands of cryptocurrencies and constitute roughly 99% of the market by volume at eight of the largest and most trustworthy exchanges.

Bitcoin Trims Gains as PBOC Steps Up Crypto Crackdown

Bitcoin trimmed early gains after the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) reiterated its long-held anti-crypto stance, warning institutions against providing services to crypto-related companies.

Bitcoin prices, July 5-6, 2021 (Source: CoinDesk)

China's central bank closed down a Beijing-based company providing software services for virtual currency transactions and reiterated that no institution under its jurisdiction should engage in such transactions.
Bitcoin fell from $35,100 to nearly $34,000 after the news started doing the rounds on Twitter at 9:27 UTC (5:27 a.m. ET).
Both the PBOC and the Chinese government stepped up their anti-crypto rhetoric in May, adding to bearish pressures around the cryptocurrency.
China's crypto restrictions have been dominating the headlines and taking a toll on the market sentiment since mid-May.
The National Internet Finance Association of China, the China Banking Association, and the Payment and Clearing Association of China published a note on May 18, confirming a ban on crypto services and initial coin offerings originally implemented in 2013 and 2017.
In June, China's Qinghai province banned virtual currency mining. The crackdown was later extended to the southwest province of Sichuan.
According to some observers, China's mining ban has dramatically reduced competition for block rewards and improved the profitability for miners based elsewhere.
However, China's mining crackdown is a one-off event, meaning most of the hash power will return, eventually boosting competition and difficulty. There are reports of miners banned in China moving to Kazakhstan, Russia, and the U.S.
Bitcoin's sensitivity to negative newsflow out of China has declined in recent weeks. The cryptocurrency appears to have stabilized near $34,000 at press time, having dropped by nearly $1,000 early today in a knee-jerk reaction to PBOC's comments.
While similar comments rocked the market in the second half of June, bitcoin (BTC) buyers were able to defend the psychological support of $30,000.

Read the original story here:

Bitcoin Trims Gains as PBOC Steps Up Crypto Crackdown

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Bitcoin Rangebound at Support; Resistance at $36K

Bitcoin (BTC) was holding support around $33,000 at press time and is down about 5% over the past week. The cryptocurrency had a choppy trading session during Asia hours and is stuck in a tight range since June. Initial resistance is seen at $36,000 as short-term buyers continue to take profits.

Bitcoin four-hour price chart shows short-term support and resistance levels (Source: TradingView)

A series of lower price highs over the past two weeks has prevented bitcoin from reaching $40,000, which is the top of the trading range.
Minor support is seen at $33,000 which is near the 100-period moving average on the four-hour chart.
Bitcoin also has a series of higher price lows from the June 22 shakeout around $29,000. Lower price highs and higher prices lows indicates a period of consolidation as buyers and sellers are undecided about future price direction.
The relative strength index (RSI) is broadly neutral after reaching overbought levels on July 4, which preceded a pullback in price.

Read the original story here:

Bitcoin Rangebound at Support; Resistance at $36K

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In case you missed it, here are the most recent episodes of "First Mover" on CoinDesk TV:

US Jobs Growth Beats Expectations, Crypto Markets Outlook, New Bitcoin Mining Sustainability Report and More

"First Mover" dives into today's top markets and business news, including the just-released jobs report and the increasingly contentious crypto conversations in Congress. Guests include U.S. Congressman Warren Davidson, Rayne Steinberg of crypto investment firm Arca, and Jaime Leverton of crypto mining firm Hut 8 on the Bitcoin Mining Council's latest meeting and its just-released survey on sustainable mining.

The Investor’s Perspective on the Bitcoin Taproot Upgrade

Taproot is a bundle of three upgrades to Bitcoin aimed at improving network security, privacy and scalability. At the same time, it poses some potential drawbacks to Bitcoin including risks of low adoption, unintended privacy shortcomings and Bitcoin community disappointment and fracturing.

CoinDesk Research's newest report dives into the economic impact and investment implications of the Taproot upgrade.

Download the full report.

UK Bank Barclays Blocks Payments to Binance
The move follows the FCA's announcement that Binance cannot conduct regulated activities in the country.
Bitcoin.org Hit With DDoS Attack, Bitcoin Demanded as Ransom
Bitcoin.org is being hit with an "absolutely massive" distributed denial of service attack, according to the site's pseudo operator.
Brazil’s Bitcoin Banco Group and Leader Arrested for Alleged Embezzlement of $300M in Crypto
The operation was carried out on intelligence gathered over a three-year investigation into alleged fraud and and embezzlement scams.
UBS Says Regulatory Crackdown Could Pop ‘Bubble-Like Crypto Markets’: Report
Though it was looking to offer crypto to wealthier clients in May, the bank is now warning clients to avoid it altogether.
DeFi Exchange PancakeSwap’s Token Jumps 15% Amid Burn Event
Today's jump in value represents the highest single daily gain for PancakeSwap's token since June 23.
CoinShares to Buy Elwood’s ETF Index Business for $17M
The purchase also gives CoinShares Elwood’s equity-research team.
NFT Sales Climb to $2.47B in First-Half 2021: Report
Sales in Q2 were $1.24 billion, in line with $1.23 billion in Q1.
Barclays Block Is Based on ‘Inaccurate Understanding,’ Binance Says
An FCA warning refers to Binance Markets, not Binance.com, the crypto exchange said.
LSE-Listed Argo Blockchain Is Weighing Listing on Nasdaq
Argo also said it mined 167 bitcoin in June, compared with 166 in May.

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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