 March 9, 2021  Everything you need to make sense of the crypto markets and beyond Sponsored By:  By the CoinDesk Markets Team Edited by Lawrence Lewitinn If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here. Bitcoin (BTC) +7.4% $54,240 Ether (ETH) +5.9% $1,827 (Price data as of Mar. 9 @12:00 UTC) Good morning. Here's what we're writing about:
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MARKET MOVES by OMKAR GODBOLE Bitcoin Eyes Record Highs as Market Cap Bounces Back Over $1T Bitcoin is marching north once more, having shown resilience in the face of a rallying U.S. dollar in recent days.
“While many were concerned about the USD strength and a turbulent macro market, BTC has continued to break recent highs,” Matthew Dibb, COO and co-founder of Stack Funds, told Coindesk. “We believe the risk-off correlation between these markets is slowly unwinding, and the cryptocurrency could challenge record highs.”
The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback’s value against major currencies, jumped 1.21% last week, as rising U.S. Treasury yields and losses in the stock market boosted haven demand.
However, despite the dollar charting its biggest weekly gain since October, bitcoin jumped over 12% in the same period. The top cryptocurrency was last seen trading above $54,170, representing an 8% gain over 24 hours, and with a market capitalization tat has now returned over $1 trillion, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
A convincing move above resistance at $52,666 has exposed the record high of $58,332 reached on Feb. 22.
 Bitcoin prices (Source: TradingView, Patrick Heusser)
“There are other positive signs on the technical chart,” Patrick Heusser, head of trading at Swiss-based Crypto Finance AG, said, while drawing attention to a breakout above the Ichimoku cloud red line – a technical-analysis tool used to help identify support and resistance levels and other essential information such as trend direction and momentum.
According to Hessuer, the bitcoin market has witnessed positive structural changes over the recent weeks, that would pave the way for a more sustainable move to lifetime highs. The futures premium has dropped, alongside continuously increasing futures open interest, and spot and futures trading volumes, he told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat.
 Bitcoin 3-month futures premium (Source: Skew)
Futures listed on major exchanges are trading at a considerably lower premium to spot market prices compared to the record spread seen in mid-February when bitcoin reached new highs above $58,000. The peak premium represented excess bullish leverage, which has been cleared by the pullback to sub-$50,000 seen at the end of last month.
 Bitcoin futures open interest, in bitcoin terms (Source: Glassnode)
Futures open interest, or the number of open positions, jumped to 334,328 BTC on Monday – the highest level since Feb. 19 – having dropped along with prices in the second half of February.
A rise in prices alongside an uptick in open interest is said to validate an uptrend. Meanwhile, a price drop is said to be temporary if it is accompanied by a decline in open interest. That’s what happened during bitcoin’s recent correction to $43,000.
And lastly, blockchain data shows holding sentiment remains strong as ever, with the balance held on exchanges continuing its uninterrupted decline last week with an outflow of 35,200 BTC.
Turbulence ahead?
With key events such as Federal Reserve’s rate decision due next week, Dibb foresees some price turbulence ahead of a possible breakout above $60,000.
At the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on March 16-17, Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to reaffirm his pro-stimulus stance. Traders, however, will have an ear out for his comments on rising bond yields. Powell recently refrained from sounding too worried about the turmoil in the bond market, however, an unchecked rise in yields may force him into action.
Heusser, meanwhile, has some concerns that the bitcoin order books are currently skewed to the sell-side. However, he remains confident that these offers will be absorbed by strong inflows.
 Bitcoin's order book shows sell-side bias (red shaded area) (Source: okotoki.com, Patrick Heusser)
“We have seen this before, and continuous market spot buying (mainly on Coinbase) made it possible for the price to go up,” Heusser said.
The cryptocurrency may still see losses if the stock market suffers a big drawdown on a continued rise in yields, if any. Heusser, however, does not expect a drop below $47,000.
“During consolidation, we built a solid liquidity pool at around $47K, which I believe should be the local bottom until we reach a new all-time high,” he noted.
--Omkar Godbole
Read the original story here: Bitcoin Eyes Record Highs as Market Cap Bounces Back Over $1T
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DAMANICK DANTES Goldman Sachs, the storied Wall Street firm, didn't start including bitcoin in its weekly ranking of global asset-class returns until late January, when the largest cryptocurrency quietly appeared atop the chart.
But since then, bitcoin's lead over assets from stocks to bonds, oil, banks, gold and tech stocks and the euro has widened.
As of March 4, bitcoin's year-to-date return, at about 70%, was roughly double that for the next-closest competitor, the energy sector, at about 35%, according to Goldman Sachs's latest "US Weekly Kickstart" report.
The comparisons could become even more flattering to bitcoin now that a recent bout of selling in U.S. stocks has taken the Standard & Poor's 500 Index's year-to-date return to roughly zero – flat on the year.  Chart from Goldman Sachs research report shows how drastically bitcoin is beating all major traditional asset classes so far this year (Source: Goldman Sachs)
--Damanick Dantes Original story found here: Bitcoin's 2021 Returns Destroy Everything on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs Says
BIGGEST MOVERS These are the biggest movers in the CoinDesk 20 over the past 24 hours:
Gainers:
No free-floating asset in the CoinDesk 20 is down today.
The CoinDesk 20 filters from the larger universe of thousands of cryptocurrencies and digital assets to define a core group of 20. These assets constitute roughly 99% of the market by volume at eight of the largest and most trustworthy exchanges.
ICYMI In case you missed it, here is yesterday's episode of First Mover: The Latest Crypto Market Moves, Can Bitcoin Be Shut down, Cipher Mining’s Plans to Go Public and Tory Lanez’s Big NFT Sale Markets Analysis from Quantum Economics' Jason Deane who explains why he's convinced bitcoin cannot be shut down. Also, Cipher Mining CEO Tyler Page on going public and the NFT craze in music industry.
BOLO Be on the lookout for this event today:
15:00 UTC (10:00 a.m. ET): Senate Banking hearing on GameStop. Description: Full committee hearing: “Who Wins on Wall Street? GameStop, Robinhood, and the State of Retail Investing” Witnesses:
Where to watch it: Streaming live on www.banking.senate.gov
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