Market Wrap: Cryptos Mixed as Bitcoin Trades Near $40K
BTC is on track for a 15% decline this month, compared with a 13% loss in ETH.
Apr 28, 2022 at 8:18 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/N5OGMJS2RJGUTDXUGRID556OQY.jpg)
Searching for signs of stability (Julian Hochgesang/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)
Bitcoin (BTC) stabilized around the $40,00 price level, the midpoint of a three-month price range.
The cryptocurrency is on track for a 15% decline this month, although some analysts expect a brief relief bounce, similar to what occurred in late February and March.
Most cryptocurrencies were mixed on Thursday, indicating uncertainty among traders. Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is also trading around the midpoint of its three-month price range around $3,000. ETH is down 13% so far this month, compared with an 11% drop in Solana's SOL token and 4% drop in DOGE over the same period.
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Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices were also higher on Thursday, albeit stuck near the lows of their three-month trading range, indicating lower volatility relative to cryptos. Meanwhile, both the U.S. dollar and gold ticked higher.
Latest prices
●Bitcoin (BTC): $39,924, +2.86%
●Ether (ETH): $2,945, +3.29%
●S&P 500 daily close: $4,288, +2.48%
●Gold: $1,896 per troy ounce, +0.53%
●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 2.86%
Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found at coindesk.com/indices.
Bitcoin network activity stable, for now
Activity on the Bitcoin blockchain continues to hold up despite BTC's 40% price dip from the November peak around $69,000. Still, it remains uncertain whether transaction activity on the blockchain leads or reacts to changes in crypto prices.
For now, high transaction activity does not indicate a breakdown in bitcoin's fundamentals (use of the blockchain), according to some analysts.
The chart below plots the daily amount of BTC transferred as a percentage of total supply. CryptoQuant distinguishes high transaction activity as when the indicator is above its historical average. Further, the 30-day moving average remains elevated in a high range, unlike the 2018 bear market – a period when activity declined with price.
Still, not all indicators show persistent network strength.
The next chart shows the number of active addresses on the Bitcoin network, according to data compiled by Glassnode. The metric only counts successful transactions and has been smoothed using a 30-day exponential moving average.
The number of active addresses has not surpassed its peak on May 13 of last year when BTC was trading around $49,700.
Altcoin roundup
- Coinbase NFT marketplace Beta: Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) finally launched the beta of its non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace last week, and some initial activity data has become available. According to data from crypto analytics site Dune, Coinbase’s marketplace has seen less than 900 total transactions since its launch on April 20 (the data is routed through 0x Project, which Coinbase tapped for the marketplace’s backend). Read more here.
- Dogecoin whale transactions reach 3.5 month high: Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter (TWTR) may have galvanized holders of large amounts of dogecoin into activity. Dogecoin is seeing renewed activity from whales, or large holders of the meme-focused cryptocurrency, according to on-chain data tracked by analytics firm IntoTheBlock. The number of transactions with a value of at least $100,000 rose to 2,440 on Monday, the highest since Jan. 14. Read more here.
- DeFi trading platform Hashflow introduces bridgeless cross-chain swaps: Decentralized finance (DeFi) trading platform Hashflow is offering a new feature to enable bridgeless cross-chain swaps, the company said Wednesday. Hashflow said its trading platform uses a request-for-quote (RFQ) model, where professional market makers set token prices. Unlike Hashflow, most prominent decentralized finance (DeFi) trading platforms use automated market makers (AMM) to facilitate trades, but larger AMM trades can lead to high slippage. Read more here.
Relevant insight
- Listen 🎧: The CoinDesk Markets Daily podcast team takes a peek behind the curtain at Ethereum’s beginnings.
- U.S. Economy Shrinks Unexpectedly, Amplifying Recession Fears: Headline GDP shrank 1.4%, data by the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed Thursday. Analysts were expecting a 1% increase.
- Panama Legislature Passes Bill Regulating Crypto: The legislation now moves to the desk of President Laurentino Cortizo for his signature or veto.
- Telegram Adds Crypto to Messaging App, Opening Path to Payments: Users can use a bot to buy bitcoin and toncoin (TON) within the app, and can send the latter to other users.
- Dubai Real Estate Developer to Accept Crypto Payments Amid UAE Push for Crypto Hub Status: Several of the world's biggest crypto exchanges have flocked to the emirates in the last few months.
- Apollo Hires JPMorgan's Christine Moy to Lead Digital Assets Strategy: The investment giant will be looking to make investments between $50 million and $250 million in blockchain and Web 3.
Other markets
Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher.
Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk 20 is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges.
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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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