First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Cracks $44K as Short-Term Investors Take Profits

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:

Market moves: Bitcoin broke above $44,000 as short-term holders profited for the first time since November.

Technician's take: BTC has confirmed a break above its two month-long downtrend.

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

Bitcoin (BTC): $43,906 +3.4%

Ether (ETH): $3,147 +3.4%

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S&P 500: 4,483 -0.3%

DJIA: 35.091 +1.3%

Nasdaq: 14.015 -0.5%

Gold: $1,820 +0.6%

Bitcoin (BTC) broke above a key price level at $44,000 as bitcoin short-term holders earned profits for the first time since late November.

At the time of publication, the oldest cryptocurrency was changing hands at $43,906, up 3.4% during the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.

Bitcoin got another price boost on Monday after more than 11% price gains last Friday. The last time bitcoin gained by more than 11% in a 24-hour period was in June, according to data from TradingView and Bitstamp.

As CoinDesk reported, about $71 million flowed into bitcoin-focused funds last week, the largest amount since early December.

As bitcoin’s price increased, coins that were spent and younger than 155 days, or those coins owned by short-term holders (STH), realized profits on aggregate for the first time since late November, according to blockchain data firm Glassnode.

Since March 2020, the market has managed to “break into a bullish uptrend” once the short-term holders broke into profitability, Glassnode wrote in its newsletter on Monday.

In the broader cryptocurrency market, prices of most tokens also rallied on Monday. Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was trading at $3,147, up 3.4% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.

At the time of writing, polygon (MATIC), the token of scaling systems project Polygon, was leading the latest price rally, up by almost 20% in the past 24 hours, according to Messari. The project announced on Monday that it raised $450 million in a round of funding led by Sequoia Capital India.

Bitcoin's Rally Faces Initial Resistance at $45K-$47K, Support Is at $40K

Bitcoin (BTC) maintained support above $40,000 over the weekend and is up 6% over the past 24 hours.

The cryptocurrency was trading at around $44,200 at press time and has confirmed a break above its two month-long downtrend.

The intermediate-term outlook has become less bearish for BTC given the recent price bounce. That means buyers could remain active toward the next level of resistance of $45,000 to $47,000. At that point, a brief pullback is to be expected after retracing 38% of the prior downtrend.

The relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart is not yet overbought, which leaves additional room for price gains this week. Buying activity has stalled over the past few weeks after the RSI first signaled oversold conditions on Dec. 10.

Still, momentum signals remain negative on the weekly and monthly chart, indicating some caution behind the latest price rally.

2:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (10:30 a.m. UTC): Japan labor cash earnings (Dec. YoY)

2:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (10:30 a.m. UTC): Japan overall household spending (Dec. YoY)

2:50 a.m. HKT/SGT (10:50 a.m. UTC): Japan bank lending (Jan. YoY)

3:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (11:30 a.m. UTC): National Australia Bank's business conditions (Jan.)

3:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (11:30 a.m. UTC): National Australia Bank's business confidence (Jan.)

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

Bitcoin Holds Above $42K as Major Cryptos Rebound, Privacy-Focused Web 3 Application Builder Aleo Raised $200M at $1.45B Valuation

"First Mover" hosts spoke with Voyager Digital co-founder and CEO Steve Ehrlich for an in-depth analysis on the crypto markets as major cryptocurrencies bounced back. Privacy-focused Web 3 application builder Aleo raised $200 million in a Series B funding round at a valuation of about $1.45 billion. Aleo CEO and Chief Technology Officer Howard Wu shared his plan for expansion.

Polygon Raises $450M From Sequoia Capital India, Galaxy, SoftBank to Support Web 3 Plans: Polygon will use the funding to build Web 3 applications and invest in zero-knowledge technology.

Japan's Biggest Bank to Issue Yen-Pegged Stablecoin for Settlement: Report: The trust banking arm of Mitsubishi UFJ plans to use blockchain technology for securities trading with the stablecoin acting as a payment instrument.

North Korea Used Stolen Crypto to Fund Missile Program: Report: The estimate of $50 million is significantly lower than the $400 million identified by Chainalysis in a report released in January.

$4.4M Stolen in Hack of Blockchain Infrastructure Firm Meter: According to PeckShield, the hack on Saturday saw more than 1,391 ETH and 2.74 BTC stolen.

Ethereum Name Service Removes Brantly Millegan as Steward Over 2016 Tweet: Millegan says he will keep his position as director of operations of True Names Ltd., the legal entity of the ENS DAO.

How Crypto Can Power the Future of Work for People of Color: This post is part of CoinDesk's Black History Month series.

Today's crypto explainer: 4 Tips to Maximize Your Crypto Investment

Other voices: Despite Decades of Hacking Attacks, Companies Leave Vast Amounts of Sensitive Data Unprotected

“The real question is, ‘How do we get countries like Vietnam and Indonesia into this?’ I think these are the countries that are going to be cautious, that are going to take a wait-and-see approach to see how it evolves entering into these kinds of commitments.” (Bill Reinsch, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to The Wall Street Journal) ... "Recent data shows that Black and Latinx communities are driving national mainstream adoption. A Harvard-Harris poll noted that 'while only 11% of white Americans report owning cryptos, 23% of Black Americans and 17% of Hispanic Americans own such assets.'" (Blockchain Association Public Policy Advisor Cleve Mesidor in a CoinDesk op-ed)