Bitcoin’s price fell below $20,000 this week after the Federal Reserve affirmed it would continue to tighten policy to bring down inflation.
“Risky assets are struggling as Powell’s fight against
inflation will remain aggressive even as it will trigger an economic slowdown,”
says Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at brokerage firm Oanda.
The largest crypto is down nearly 8% over the last week.
“The next major move for bitcoin will likely come after the nonfarm payroll
report, which could show signs of cooling and prompt a short-term relief
rally.”
The largest cryptocurrency by market value was recently
trading at about $19,900, up a few ticks of a percentage point over the past 24
hours and about where it ended Friday. BTC has held support at roughly this
level for a week as investors eyed employment data that could give them some
hint about the U.S. central bank's next interest rate intentions later this
month and wisdom of committing to higher risk assets.
"We continue to see Bitcoin struggling to maintain
$20,000 support," Joe DiPasquale, the CEO of crypto asset manager BitBull
Capital, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.
DiPasquale called bitcoin's current range "good...to
begin accumulation," although he advised "being mindful of further
drops" that might occur around Sept. 13, when the Bureau of Labor
Statistics releases the August Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Ether maintained a similar level of crypto price stasis with
a little more than half the U.S. Labor Day weekend over. The second largest
cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently changing hands just below
$1,600, up approximately 1% over the previous day but just about where it ended
Friday.
ETH investors now await the Bellatrix upgrade on Tuesday.
This enhancement on the Beacon Chain will be responsible for setting the rest
of the Merge process in motion. The Merge will shift ether from proof-of-work
to a more energy efficient proof-of-stake protocol.
Other altcoins were mostly in the green with ADA, ATOM and
SHIB all recently up over 4% over the previous 24 hours. The native token for
GMX, a decentralized exchange on Arbitrum, rose more than 9% and has climbed
significantly in recent weeks.
Stocks
U.S. equity markets closed down on Friday after the Labor
Department's latest jobs data offered little hope that the Federal Reserve, which
has boosted interest rates a hefty 75 basis points at its last two Federal Open
Market Committee (FOMC) meetings, would ratchet back its hawkishness. The
tech-heavy Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) all
dropped more than a percentage point and have fallen three consecutive weeks.
U.S. markets will be closed on Monday.
The Institute for Supply Management will release its monthly
services index on Tuesday with expectations for a slight decline. And the U.S.
Census Bureau will publish its wholesale inventories report for July.
Crypto news
On Saturday, MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor
told an audience at the Baltic Honeybadger conference in Riga, Latvia that the
non-crypto part of the software firm is working on bitcoin-related projects as
well. The firm's developers are working on solutions that would allow the
onboarding large numbers of people onto the Lightning network, a payment
network on top of bitcoin allowing faster and cheaper transactions.
CoinDesk's Jocelyn Yang reported, unusual blockchain data
appears to show large blocks of bitcoin worth more than $200 million moving for
the first time in years, prompting crypto analysts to puzzle over its
significance. On Aug. 28, according to a post from crypto data analysis
platform CryptoQuant, 5,000 BTC that hadn’t moved for at least seven years was
transacted. The next day, LookIntoBitcoin’s data tracker showed another 5,000
BTC was transferred again.
And the saga of troubled crypto lender Celsius Network
continued when the company, which is going through bankruptcy proceedings, said
in a legal filing Thursday that a freshly found $70 million pile of cash would
likely help it continue operating through the end of 2022. According to the
document, Celsius expects “approximately $70 million of proceeds from the
repayment of USD denominated loans.”
BitBull's DiPasquale remains wary about predicting any
long-term, crypto price movement upward. "If the current macro economic
conditions persist, we may see a prolonged consolidation period for crypto and
markets in general, as opposed to a sharp upward recovery," he wrote.
Biggest Gainers
Asset | Ticker | Returns | DACS Sector |
---|---|---|---|
Cardano | +4.8% | ||
Cosmos | +4.5% | ||
Shiba Inu | +4.2% |
Biggest Losers
Asset | Ticker | Returns | DACS Sector |
---|---|---|---|
Terra | −2.7% |