First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Slips at End of Strong Week, Huobi Founder in Talks to Sell Majority Stake
Categories: Crypto News US
First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Slips at End of Strong Week, HuobiFounder in Talks to Sell Majority Stake
PricePoint: After astrong week for the crypto market, bitcoin and ether both slip. Cryptoentrepreneurs Sam Bankman-Fried and Justin Sun are in talks to buy a majoritystake of Huobi Global in what could be one of the biggest deals ever incrypto.Despite the crypto market showing some strength this week, bitcoin (BTC)was trading down on the day by 4%, while ether (ETH) declined by 2%.
Bitcoin hita two-month high of $24,900 on Thursday, but now appears to be struggling formomentum.Ether was up 10% on the week after the Ethereum blockchain had itsthird and final testnet ahead of the Merge. Ethereum Classic (ETC) and OKEx’stoken, OKB, were both up 6% in the last 24 hours.Bitcoin’s slower upwardmovement is in line with its declining dominance against altcoins. BTCdominance stands at about 40%, a decline from its recent high of 47% in June.
The declinein price for BTC on Friday might encourage some profit-taking over the weekend,according to Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.Coinbase was in the news on Thursday,too, as credit ratings agency S&P Global said in a note that the outlookfor the crypto exchange was "negative."On Friday, Binance CEOChangpeng Zhao said the exchange has frozen or recovered $450,000 in fundsstolen from decentralized finance (DeFi) Curve.Finance earlier this week.
MarketMoves: The valueof crypto derivative contracts traded rose 13.4% last month from June. That wasthe first uptick since March.The value of crypto derivative contracts tradedrose 13.4% last month from June, the first uptick since March, CryptoComparesaid.
TheLondon-based data aggregator and index provider said $3.17 trillion worth ofthe contracts changed hands in July, while turnover in the spot market fell1.34% to $1.39 trillion, the lowest level since December 2020. Spot tradingvolume on the Coinbase (COIN) crypto exchange, a venue preferred byinstitutional investors, declined 12.8% to $51.5 billion."The increase inderivatives trading volume was also amplified this month as traders speculatedon the impact of the Ethereum Merge and potential hard forks on Ethereum,"the report said of July."Investors continue to prefer safety undermacroeconomic conditions," CryptoCompare noted about the pickup inbitcoin-to-stablecoin volume.
The cryptomarket valuation on Thursday rose to a two-month high of $1.17 trillion,extending July's recovery. Volume could pick up further in coming weeks as thesupposedly bullish Ethereum Merge is due in mid-September.
Chartof The Day: Thebroadest tightening cycle in history signals pain for risky assets.Thehistorically unprecedented synchronized monetary tightening across countriesindicates that the path of least resistance for risky assets, includingcryptocurrencies, is to the downside.
Marketshaven't seen this kind of global tightening in decades. During the previousFederal Reserve rate hike cycle of late 2015 to late 2018, other major centralbanks held on to low rates and liquidity-pumping asset purchase programs,providing a cushion to risky assets.