Hello. Here is what happens:
Prices: Bitcoin, ether and other major cryptos traded sideways, albeit slightly green.
Knowledge: Asia is ready for large-scale, crypto-enabled banking.
Prices
Bitcoin watches and waits from its $17,000 perch
CoinDesk Market Index (CMI)
866.79
−0.9 ▼ 0.1%
Bitcoin (BTC)
$17,054
+13.5 ▲ 0.1%
Ethereum (ETH)
$1,266
+1.5 ▲ 0.1%
S&P 500 daily close
3,941.26
−57.6 ▼ 1.4%
Gold
$1,782
+12.2 ▲ 0.7%
10-year Treasury yield
3.51%
▼ 0.1
BTC/ETH Price by CoinDesk Indices; gold is the COMEX spot price. Prices from around 4 p.m. ET
By James Rubin
Bitcoin has spent another day watching and waiting.
The largest cryptocurrency by market value was recently trading just above $17,000, up just a little percentage point in the past 24 hours and roughly around its level of the past two weeks as investors continued to weigh economic indicators suggesting the US central bank still had work to do on the inflation front. BTC remained pegged to the handful of $17,000 it grabbed eight days ago when signs indicated the Federal Reserve was pulling back from its ultra-monetary policy.
But in a speech at the Brookings Institute on Dec. 1, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the bank could raise interest rates higher than expected in 2023, even if it considered lowering its next hike. rate later this month from its current rate of 75 basis points. (bps) changes to 50 bps. “The positive market response to Powell’s speech suggests that macro conditions will still play a substantial role in BTC price discovery,” Arcane Research, which provides digital asset trend analysis, wrote in a newsletter on Tuesday.
Arcane added, however, that regardless of the reaction to Powell’s remarks, markets remained “directionless…as BTC spent the first 6 days of December floating in a narrow trading range near $17,000. The market slowdown is reflected in sharply reduced trading volumes in cash and derivatives markets, and the past month appears to have caused market participants to hesitate [away from] the crypto market.”
Ether recently changed hands at around $1,260, up slightly from the same time on Monday. Most other major altcoins were in the green recently with AXS, the token of the Axie Infinity gaming platform, up over 4.5% to continue a recent surge. SUSHI, the decentralized exchange token Sushiswap lost more than 10%. The CoinDesk Market Index (CDI), an index measuring the performance of cryptos, climbed 0.33%.
In an increasingly common pattern, crypto prices have moved away from U.S. stock indices, which have fallen amid inflation concerns and macro uncertainties that plagued 2022. The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 2 % and the S&P 500, with its strong tech component, fell 1.4%.
Arcane wrote that the week-long calm in the crypto market is due to “an exodus of traders” following the collapse of crypto exchange giant FTX. “The crypto market has mostly traded as a coordinated body over the past week as evidenced by all indices trading in a very flat environment,” Arcane wrote.
In an emailed market analysis, Mark Conners, head of research at digital asset manager 3iQ, noted encouragingly that institutions have “doubled down on the promise of blockchain and digital assets, despite the FTX’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and other contagion”. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Goldman Sachs (GS), one of the world’s largest investment banks, was looking to spend tens of millions of dollars on crypto companies whose valuations have been hit hard by the implosion. from FTX.
3iQ’s Connors also highlighted Fidelity’s new retail-focused digital asset offering and comments from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on the potential of DeFi and a Financial Times op-ed from BNY Mellon CEO Robin Vince, who called for “embracing digital asset innovation” and wrote that “a regulatory framework is needed, but much of the foundation already exists and can be extended from traditional asset regulation. there is a way to find.
The biggest winners
The biggest losers
Knowledge
Asia ready for a crypto-friendly bank
By Sam Reynolds
Short sellers are circling Silvergate Bank, concerned about its FTX exposure and falling digital asset prices. But while the bank’s exposure to the FTX exchange is limited, its problem is that it is entirely dependent on US regulations.
Although Silvergate has no outstanding loans to FTX, the failed crypto exchange represents just under 10% of the bank’s total deposits. It’s not the worst case scenario, but the concentration of deposits has some short sellers worried: Coinbase, Paxos, Crypto.com and Kraken are the bank’s next biggest customers.
And all of them are based in the United States. For a bank specializing in an asset class that is, in theory, decentralized, the bank’s book is heavily centralized around the US regulatory regime.
The exact regulatory response to FTX’s collapse has yet to be written. But lawmakers are eager to figure out what happened, and there has been talk of establishing significant safeguards to make sure what happened doesn’t happen again.
We can all agree that the FTX-Alameda structure was problematic, but lawmakers are required to look beyond that and do what they can to severely restrict future crypto trading in the United States. 2023 and beyond – and Silvergate is going to have to deal with this much more regulated reality.
But the United States is not the only regulatory regime in town. Around Asia, there are countries and territories with much more industry-friendly regulations that provide regulatory clarity, an absence that many U.S. stakeholders have complained about.
Of course, some like Singapore discourage retail, but compensate with a high concentration of institutions and family offices that do retail. Then there’s Thailand, which bans meme coins and some non-fungible tokens (NFTs), citing a lack of substance, but doesn’t discourage retail crypto trading if the rules can be followed.
“…To protect consumers, we need regulatory guidelines for businesses that ensure trust and transparency. There’s a reason most cryptocurrency exchanges are offshore – businesses don’t have any indication of how to comply here in the US,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse tweeted in mid-November.
“Compare that with Singapore, which has a licensing framework, a defined token taxonomy, and so much more. They can regulate crypto appropriately because they’ve done the work to define what ‘good’ looks like and know that all tokens are ‘t titles (despite what [SEC Chair Gary Gensler] insist),” he added in a follow-up tweet.
If crypto gradually moves overseas due to reactionary over-regulation in the US, Silvergate will not be exposed to it.
Instead, crypto-friendly banks overseas, like Thailand’s SCB (which actively invests in crypto infrastructure) or DBS will fill this niche. It’s not hard to replicate, after all: Silvergate has developed its position in the market by not being outwardly hostile to crypto like other banks. A few competitors have already emerged, such as Hong Kong’s First Digital Trust (FDT), which directly names Silvergate as a competitor.
The market is ready to evolve, replicating Silvergate in a more conducive environment for crypto trading.
Important events
12:00 HKT/SGT (4:00 UTC) Australia’s Gross Domestic Product (QoQ)
21:30 HKT/SGT (13:30 UTC) Gross domestic product of the European Union sa (Annual)
02:30 HKT/SGT (18:30 UTC) Bank of Canada Interest Rate Decision
CoinDesk TV
In case you missed it, here’s the most recent episode of “First Mover” on CoinDesk TV:
Scottie Pippen on his Big NFT Splash and the future of sports in crypto; Bitcoin hovers around $17,000
NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen enters the metaverse with only shoes he can fill, or in this case, drop on OpenSea. Yes, we are talking about the NFT Pippen Sneaker! The legendary basketball champion joined ‘First Mover’ in the studio alongside Orange Comet CEO Dave Broome to discuss the latest project. Also, has bitcoin bottomed out? eToro Crypto consultant Glen Goodman has shared his analysis of the crypto markets. And, Molly White discussed her mission to expose crypto scams and hacks, earning her a spot on CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2022 list.
Securities
Ledger taps iPod creator Tony Fadell for a new crypto hardware wallet: The Ledger Stax is a sleek device with an e-ink screen that can display transaction details and even NFTs on the outside.
Sam Bankman-Fried hires Mark Cohen as attorney: Reuters: The former head of the now bankrupt crypto exchange, Bankman-Fried has yet to be charged with any crime.
The DESK upgrade on the CoinDesk website provides a tokenized reader experience: The social token expansion helps CoinDesk establish a Web3-based feedback loop with readers.
Blockchain data provider Chainlink launches staking of its native token LINK: Staking will provide incentives that will allow the Chainlink system to grow, according to co-founder Sergey Nazarov.
ConsenSys will update the MetaMask Crypto Wallet in response to the privacy backlash: The company clarified its data sharing practices and said it would rebuild MetaMask’s settings page to address user concerns.
