First Mover: Bitcoin Drops After Musk Suggests Tesla May Sell Holdings, Says It Hasn't Yet

Everything you need to make sense of the crypto markets and beyond

By the CoinDesk Markets Team

Edited by Bradley Keoun, Managing Editor, Markets

May 17, 2021

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Bitcoin (BTC)

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(Price data as of May 17 @11:00 UTC)

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Good morning. Here's what we're writing about:

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

John Wu, Ava Labs President

Andy Kim, Chamber of Digital Commerce Chief Policy Officer

Biggest Movers

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

Gainers:

Losers:

BCH (BCH): -13.4%

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.

Market Moves

by Muyao Shen

Bitcoin Drops After Musk Suggests Tesla May Sell Holdings, Says It Hasn't Yet

Bitcoin's weekend price slide took the largest cryptocurrency down to nearly $42,000 before it rebounded to just over $45,000, down 8.9% over the past 24 hours.

It was the third straight daily decline, to a two-month low, coinciding with a series of tweets by Tesla CEO Elon Musk during which he initially failed to outright deny that his electric-car company has sold or could soon sell all of its more than $1 billion holdings of bitcoin because of the criticism he's received after suspending the world's largest cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

Later, he clarified that Tesla had not sold any bitcoin.

Bitcoin daily price chart. (TradingView)

Bitcoin's price dropped immediately after the tweet, to near $45,100 and eventually sank to as low as $42,185.

BTC bounced to above $45,000 after Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla has not sold its bitcoin holdings some 10 hours after this story was published. He tweeted: "To clarify speculation, Tesla has not sold any Bitcoin."

In recent trading, bitcoin had bounced back a bit to $45,627.90, down 8.1% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk 20.

Earlier the day, Musk also tweeted at Peter McCormack, who posted a Twitter thread about Musk's criticism of bitcoin and support for dogecoin, saying that "obnoxious threads like this make me want to go all in on Doge."

At press time, dogecoin (DOGE) was changing hands at $0.505, down 5.1% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk 20.

Musk on May 12 announced that Tesla was discontinuing bitcoin payments due to concerns around its environmental impact, which sent bitcoin down by $2,000.

Read the original story here:

Bitcoin Drops After Musk Suggests Tesla May Sell Holdings, Says It Hasn’t Yet

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Technician's Take

by Damanick Dantes

Bitcoin Holds Support; Faces Resistance At $50K

Bitcoin continued to slide over the weekend and is now down about 20% month-to-date. The cryptocurrency approached initial support around $42,000 which could stabilize the sell-off. Price recoveries remain limited, evidenced by several months of slowing momentum, suggesting that sellers remain in control.

Daily bitcoin chart shows support and resistance levels with oversold RSI. (Trading View)

The relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart is now oversold similar to April 25 which preceded a near 20% price recovery.

Bitcoin is below the 100-day moving average, which is now resistance at $54,000. However, BTC will likely face immediate resistance at the $50,000 level as the uptrend weakens.

If initial support at $42,000 is broken, the next level of support is seen around $34,286, which is roughly a 50% retracement of the March 2020 low.

Bitcoin remains in a consolidation phase after failing to sustain moves above $64,000. An intermediate term bullish to bearish trend reversal is on watch, especially as sell signals appear on the weekly chart.

Original story found here:

Bitcoin Holds Support; Faces Resistance At $50K

A message from CME

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BOLO

Be on the look out for these upcoming events:

14:05 UTC (10:05 a.m. ET):

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard H. Clarida speaks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Financial Markets Conference on “Sovereign Markets, Global Factors” Watch live here.

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Riot Blockchain (RIOT). EPS Est: $0.20

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Countdown to #Consensus2021

Will bitcoin pump? Is a pullback around the corner? Is ether a better way to position?

Next week at Consensus by CoinDesk, our virtual big-tent conference, we help investors hone their skill sets with trading and yield generation strategies. investment theses and market intelligence and get up to speed on crypto market developments.

Join our Explorations track "Trade Secrets" with Philip Gradwell of Chainalysis, Matthew Roszak of Bloq, Darius Sit of QCP Capital and more at Consensus by CoinDesk, May 24-27. Register today.

ICYMI

In case you missed it, here's the most recent episode of "First Mover" on CoinDesk TV:

Crypto Markets, Coinbase Earnings; NFTs Off to the Races

Bitcoin, ether slowly recovering from Thursday's pullback as Dogecoin (DOGE) soars. "First Mover" discusses the crypto markets and Coinbase's first-ever earnings report. Also, Yulong Liu of China-based Babel Finance on their $40 million raise and expansion into the crypto lending business. Exclusive to CoinDesk: Collin Plume of Noble Gold Investments discusses a new crypto IRA and trading platform. And coinciding with Saturday's big race, the Preakness puts NFTs of historic racing moments up for auction.

A message from CoinDesk

Bitcoin Miner Metrics: Hashrate and Thermocap

How is hashrate calculated? What does thermocap represent? What do hashrate ribbons say about bitcoin price cycles? This research note looks at Bitcoin miner metrics and how investors can use them to glean insight into the asset’s price and network fundamentals. Download the free report 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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