First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Holds Steady as Crypto CEOs Testify, Ether Climbs

CEOs from six major crypto firms spoke before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee; stocks rose amid fading Omicron concerns.

AccessTimeIconDec 8, 2021 at 11:30 p.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 5:15 p.m. UTC
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Good morning. Here’s what’s happening this morning:

Market moves: Bitcoin moved little as the market watched six crypto leaders testify before Congress

Technician’s take: Selling pressure could slow heading into the Asia trading day as indicators appear oversold.

Catch the latest episodes of CoinDesk TV for insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis.

Prices

Bitcoin (BTC): $50,676 +0.5%

Ether (ETH): $4,422 +3.33%

Markets

S&P 500: $4,701 +0.3%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: $35,754 +.09%

Nasdaq: $15,786 +0.6%

Gold: $1,783 -0.9%

Market moves

Bitcoin hovered at around $50,000 on Wednesday, as the crypto market closely observed the CEOs of six major crypto companies share their opinions on regulation with the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. Ether spent a good part of the day at over $4,400.

At the time of publication, bitcoin was changing hands at $50,676, up slightly over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. Trading volume on major centralized exchanges fell again on Wednesday.

Credit: CoinDesk/CryptoCompare
Credit: CoinDesk/CryptoCompare

A good portion of the crypto world on Wednesday was focusing on the congressional hearing on digital currencies and stablecoins. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, FTX Trading CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Bitfury CEO Brian Brooks, Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla, Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon and Coinbase Global Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas all testified. CoinDesk’s Nikhilesh De live blogged the hearing, and the full coverage can be found here.

Amid Cascarilla’s participation, stellar (XLM) prices rose by roughly 6% on Wednesday. The performance of XLM tokens hasn’t been impressive on a relative basis, up just about 98.6% over the past year versus ether’s 691% increase during the same time period.

Stocks rose on Wednesday again as fears about the Omicron coronavirus continued to fade. Investors’ rising appetite for risk assets came after Pfizer and BioNTech announced that initial lab studies showed a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine could “neutralize” the new variant. That could potentially benefit the crypto market, as it usually follows the stock market.

Technician’s take

Bitcoin four-hour price chart shows support/resistance (Damanick Dantes/CoinDesk, TradingView)
Bitcoin four-hour price chart shows support/resistance (Damanick Dantes/CoinDesk, TradingView)

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to stabilize at about $50,000 after a near 20% sell-off over the past weekend.

For now, the cryptocurrency remains above $46,000 support, which could stabilize short-term pullbacks. Buyers will need to break above $55,000 resistance to yield further upside targets.

Momentum signals are improving on intraday charts, which suggests buyers could remain active at around current support levels. And the relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart is the most oversold since late September, which preceded a price rally.

Bitcoin is stuck in a short-term downtrend, defined by lower price highs over the past month. Price indicators, however, suggest selling pressure could slow heading into the Asia trading day. That means intraday trading volume could rise around the 100-period moving average (currently around $54,500) on the four-hour chart.

Important events

9:30 a.m. HGT/SGT (1:30 a.m. UTC): China consumer price index (Nov. YoY/MoM)

9:30 a.m. HGT/SGT (1:30 a.m. UTC): China producer price index (Nov. YoY)

2 p.m. HGT/SGT (6 a.m. UTC): Japan machine tool orders

3 p.m. HGT/SGT (7 a.m. UTC): Germany imports/exports (Oct. MoM)

Puerto Rico Blockchain week (Dec. 6-12)

CoinDesk TV

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

“First Mover” hosts spoke with Kalin Metodiev, co-founder and managing partner at Nexo, the day after an announcement that the fintech has formed a partnership with Fidelity Digital Assets to expand institutional access to crypto. MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright provided insights into its latest funding round that values the company at $3 billion. Crypto CEOs are testifying in front of lawmakers today. CoinDesk’s managing editor for global policy and regulation, Nikhilesh De, brought us the latest from the hearing. Plus, CoinDesk Chief Insights columnist David Z. Morris spoke with one of CoinDesk’s Most Influential winners, Strike CEO Jack Mallers.

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Longer reads

Most Influential: The Developers Who Wrote Bitcoin’s Taproot Upgrade: With Taproot, Bitcoin has gained a valuable set of tools for developers to integrate new features that will improve privacy, scalability and security.

Today’s crypto explainer: What Is a Bitcoin ETF?


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CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

Muyao Shen

Muyao was a markets reporter at CoinDesk.

Damanick Dantes

Damanick was a crypto market analyst at CoinDesk where he wrote the daily Market Wrap and provided technical analysis. He is a Chartered Market Technician designation holder and member of the CMT Association. Damanick is also a portfolio strategist and does not invest in digital assets.


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