Market Wrap: Ether, Other Cryptos Rise Despite Unsettling Inflationary Concerns
Bitcoin was trading sideways but other major cryptos were solidly in the green despite a jumbo interest rate hike by the Bank of England and a dip in jobless claims.
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Price Action
More storm clouds formed over the global economy on Thursday as the U.S. Labor Department announced a small dip in weekly jobless claims just a few hours after the Bank of England boosted its interest rate by a jumbo-sized 75 basis points, matching recent U.S. hikes.
The two unrelated events underscored the difficulties central banks are facing in cooling the economy and stemming inflation, and they sent equities downward.
However, bitcoin and ether, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, were recently trading flat at roughly the same levels they’ve maintained for much of the past two weeks. BTC was holding steady at about $20,200, up a smidgen over the past 24 hours, while ETH continued to hover over $1,500, a 2% gain for the same period.
“Hawkish monetary policy and macroeconomic uncertainty rage on,” CoinDesk crypto markets analyst Glenn Williams wrote. “But crypto investors ultimately have little else on their mind than cost basis.”
Most other major tokens were trading solidly in the green, with the tokens of Web3 platforms Filecoin and Storj rising more than 14% and 10%, respectively. The increases followed an announcement by Meta Platforms, parent of Facebook and Instagram, that it would use decentralized storage product Arweave to archive creators' digital collectibles. AR, the native token of Arweave, rose 60% earlier in the day. The CoinDesk Market Index rose by about 2%.
The job market may soon offer more concrete evidence that central bank measures to tame rising prices are working. Job cuts by online retail giant Amazon and ride-share service Uber sent equity markets falling. The tech-focused Nasdaq dropped 1.7%, while the S&P 500 was off 1%. Amazon warned that business would be declining. Safe haven gold continued a recent series of declines, and was down 0.4%.
Latest Prices
● CoinDesk Market Index (CMI): 1,016.04 +1.4%
● Bitcoin (BTC): $20,244 +0.4%
● Ether (ETH): $1,542 +2.1%
● S&P 500 daily close: 3,719.89 −1.1%
● Gold: $1,632 per troy ounce −0.8%
● Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 4.12% +0.1
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.
Technical Take
Bitcoin Holders Continue to Shrug Off Macro Data
By Glenn Williams Jr
Bitcoin’s relative strength index (RSI) is currently 56, which is only slightly above neutral, and bitcoin’s price is within 2% of its 20-day moving average.
Much of the pain from 2022’s price declines appears to have already flushed through the market.
Glassnode’s UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) graphic highlights a spike in BTC acquired near the $20,000 price point.
Altcoin Roundup
- Decentralized Storage System Arweave's Native Token Surges 60% on Meta Integration: Meta, a Web2 giant, is bringing data permanency to Instagram with the help of Arweave's decentralized storage technology. The rally has boosted the cryptocurrency's market cap to $838 million, making it the third-largest Web3 token worldwide. Read more here.
- SuperRare NFT Marketplace Launches RarePass for Exclusive Curated Art Drops: SuperRare is a non-fungible token (NFT) market for aspiring digital artists and fine-art collectors. The decentralized digital art marketplace will airdrop exclusive art to 250 holders of the subscription-like passes over the course of a year. Read more here.
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CoinDesk Market Index
Biggest Gainers
Asset | Ticker | Returns | DACS Sector |
---|---|---|---|
Gala | GALA | +3.42% | Culture & Entertainment |
Ribbon Finance | RBN | +2.7% | DeFi |
Augur | REP | +1.99% | Culture & Entertainment |
Biggest Losers
Asset | Ticker | Returns | DACS Sector |
---|---|---|---|
Band Protocol | BAND | -58.6% | Computing |
Gitcoin | GTC | -39.36% | Currency |
Arweave | AR | -33.1% | Computing |
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 Market Index (CMI) is a broad-based index designed to measure the market capitalization weighted performance of the digital asset market subject to minimum trading and exchange eligibility requirements.