Record Shorts

The latest moves in crypto markets, in context

Edited by Omkar Godbole

October 26, 2021

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Bitcoin (BTC)

+0.30% $62,960

Ether (ETH)

+2.26% $4,225

(Price data as of October 26 @ 11:30 UTC)

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Good morning, Here's what's happening this morning:

Market Moves: Leveraged Funds Boost Record Bets on Bitcoin

Technician's Take: MATIC Hits Highest Since Early June

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. Today's show will feature guests:

– Omkar Godbole

Biggest Movers

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

Top Gainers:

Top Losers:

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.

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Event ends Nov. 18, 2021, 10AM UTC.

Market Moves

by Omkar Godbole

Bitcoin traded near $63,000 early Tuesday and looked north as futures tied to Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 125 points, signaling a strong risk appetite in traditional markets and inflation expectations continued to surge across Europe.

Blockchain metrics favored the bullish case in the top cryptocurrency, with the balance held on centralized exchanges tallying 2.43 million, a fresh three-year low, according to data provided by Glassnode. The data points to decreased selling pressure in the market.

"There has been a minor loss of short-term momentum near resistance, but we expect the consolidation phase to refresh the rally with no signs of exhaustion having arisen on bitcoin's chart," Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner of Fairlead Strategies, said in a weekly research note published Monday.

Bitcoin saw a minor pullback to nearly $60,000 over the weekend, having surged to a new record high of $66,975 early last week on optimism generated by ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF's impressive debut on the New York Stock Exchange.

Alternative cryptocurrencies like Polygon's MATIC token, ether and a few coins associated with the decentralized finance protocols were flashing relatedly bigger gains than bitcoin.

Activity in the ether market could pick up the pace as Ethereum developers are set to implement the Altair upgrade on Wednesday, which is widely expected to make Ethereum much greener and faster.

Ether's options market is biased bullish ahead of the upgrade, with short duration and long duration calls or bullish bets drawing higher prices than puts or bearish bets.

Record Bitcoin Bearish Bets

Bitcoin's MVRV Z-score (Source: Glassnode)

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Commitments of Traders report released on Friday showed leveraged funds held a net short position of 31,000 contracts in the seven days to Oct. 19, marking an increase of 6,000 from the previous week.

Record shorts do not necessarily mean traders had a bearish bias. They may have raised short positions in the futures market and simultaneously bought the cryptocurrency in the spot market, booking the so-called carry trade to profit from the widening gap between prices in futures and spot markets.

Read the full story here:

CME Leveraged Funds Raise Bets Against Bitcoin to Record High as Futures Premium Spikes

Technician's Take

by Omkar Godbole

MATIC Hits Highest Since Early June

Scaling solution Polygon's MATIC token has crossed key resistance at $1.8 to hit the highest level in nearly five months.

MATIC's daily price chart (Source: TradingView)

A UTC close above $1.8 would strengthen the bullish case put forward by the triangle breakout confirmed earlier this month and perhaps bring more chart-driven buyers.

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BOLO

Be on the lookout for the following events today:

ICYMI

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

Nigeria Central Bank Digital Currency eNaira Goes Live Today, Matt West Becomes First DeFi Developer to Run for Congress

"First Mover" hosts discuss today's hot topics: Olumide Adesina, a Nigeria-based certified Investment Trader and CoinDesk Contributor, shares insights into the launch of eNaira, Nigeria's central bank digital currency, and David Nage of crypto asset manager Arca and Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly Capital, weigh in on market movements as bitcoin holds steady above $60K. Plus, what Matt West, the first DeFi developer to run for Congress, has to say about his platform as he runs for Oregon's congressional 6th District as a Democrat.

A Message from CoinDesk

What will 2022 bring? Crypto 2022 is CoinDesk’s ambitious effort to scope out what’s next. This week it's Policy Week, a week devoted to exploring the complex ways governments are interacting with the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and how policy decisions or lack thereof will affect the year ahead. Read more here.

Latest Headlines

Bitcoin dominated this week’s inflows, with a 99% share. Last week, bitcoin’s weekly inflows were at $70 million.

Bakkt Shares Surge 180% After Pacts With Mastercard, Fiserv for Crypto Payments

In true crypto fashion, two partnership announcements are causing BKKT to soar.

75% of all circulating FXS supply is locked away for an average 1.08 years, one analyst said.

The partnership aims to combat money laundering in cross-border exchange-to-exchange transactions.

ComplyAdvantage is already working with crypto firms like Paxos and Gemini, but mainly on the fiat AML side of things.

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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