May 16, 2024

Bitcoin is priced at around $66,200, up about 6% in the last 24 hours, following its best day in two months. BTC rose more than 7.5% on Wednesday after U.S. inflation data raised the probability of an interest-rate cut by the Fed in coming months. Like other risk assets, BTC is sensitive to expected changes in the monetary policy of major central banks and rallies when the cost of borrowing is forecast to decline. Markets also expect the Bank of England and European Central Bank to cut rates in June. The broader digital asset market has risen over 6% in the last 24 hours, as measured by CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20).

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) plans to offer spot bitcoin trading in response to demand from clients, according to the Financial Times. Already the top bitcoin futures exchange, CME is aiming to take on the likes of Binance and Coinbase, who dominate the spot market. “Crypto exchanges might lose some business with the potential debut of a bitcoin spot market on the CME, a global derivatives giant, as the present bull run is particularly driven by institutions, who prefer to trade on regulated avenues," Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, said. The spot trading business could be run through the EBC currency trading venue in Switzerland, the report added.

ShibaSwap, the decentralized exchange associated with meme coin Shiba Inu has expanded to Ethereum layer 2 Shibarium. Users can now float new liquidity pools on Shibarium, allowing traders to swap tokens on the network and earn a cut of trading fees for providing liquidity. The developers said the increased use of the Shibarium blockchain for transactions will result in a higher burn rate for the SHIB token, reducing supply. The SHIB price has risen 8.8% in the past 24 hours, in line with the broader market jump. “The more transactions will run on Shibarium blockchain, the more the protocol will burn base gas fees which will impact the overall burn rate of $SHIB,” they said.

Bullish sentiment for risk assets following Wednesday's U.S. inflation figures could propel bitcoin back toward its all-time high, Singapore-based QCP Capital said, citing increased institutional demand.

“We expect bullish momentum here that could take us back to the highs of nearly $74,000,” QCP traders said. “The desk saw sizable buyers of $100K-$120k BTC Calls for Dec 2024 on this move higher in spot.”

Big-name funds such as Millenium Management and Elliot Capital hold millions worth of bitcoin ETFs in their portfolios, new filings have shown, and some analysts say the selling pressure on bitcoin appears to have eased, citing on-chain and exchange data.

“Short-term Bitcoin holders are selling at basically zero profit and traders are depleting their unrealized profits in the last few months,” CryptoQuant analysts wrote in a Thursday report. “Bitcoin balances at OTC desks are stabilizing, which suggests there is less Bitcoin supply coming into the market to sell via these entities.”