Last week in the news
Inflation figures were in the market spotlight during the previous week. Although the US prices are slowing down the increase, they were still modestly above market estimate during September. The US equity market finished another week with negative sentiment, while the crypto market continues to trade flat compared to the week before. Bitcoin is ending another week below $20K, while Ether broke the $1.3K support line.
The most important event during the previous week was a release of US inflation figures for September. As per official data, the US inflation continues to rise, reaching 8,2% when measured on a yearly basis, while market consensus was at 8.1%. The highest contributors to the inflation currently are prices of food, which surged in September by 13% y/y, while energy prices followed. Economists agree that latest figures show that the inflation is slowing down, due to imposed measures by the FED. However, as they note, there is still potential for another rate hike by FOMC by the end of this year.
In an interview, JPMorgan`s CEO, Jamie Dimon, expressed his views on the current state of the world economy. He noted his expectations for markets to continue to be volatile as long as FED is boosting interest rates, whose consequences would be seen over the rest of the world. Strong dollar might hurt other economies, while excess leverages in “unexpected places” , as with UK pension funds, might continue to “unwind”, Dimon noted.
As per announcement from Tether, the company has replaced its holdings of commercial papers with the US Treasury bills. This comes in an effort to provide back to their stablecoin with the “most secure reserves”. At the same time, as noted from the company, the aim of this asset switch is to increase transparency and trust “for the whole stablecoin industry”.
Online crypto exchanger Bittrex, based in Washington, was fined $24.3 million by the US Treasury department for providing services to clients from several other countries which are under US government sanctions, in which sense, they were not complying with the US sanctions rules.
As per announcements from Google, the company is aligning with Coinbase in order to allow its customers to pay for their cloud services in cryptocurrencies. The transactions should be available during next year. Availability of such transactions would certainly allow Google competitive advantage on the market, considering that other cloud services providers are still reluctant to accept cryptocurrencies as payment methods for their clients.
Crypto market cap
Although the crypto market is moving in a flat mode during the last three weeks, still during this time the market is modestly losing its strength. Total crypto market capitalisation has additionally decreased during the previous week by 3%, where a total $25B has been erased from the market. At the same time daily trading volumes continue to decrease, reaching $86B during the previous week, compared to $95B a week before, and $105B three weeks ago. This trend is a signal that the market is drying up and that it would need some significant influx in a future period in order to increase volatility, profitability and bring investors back. Total funds outflow from the beginning of this year has been modestly increased, to the level of $1.301B, which is a total drop of 60%.
During the previous week the majority of coins lost some of their value. Three major coins on the market, BTC, ETH and BNB participate with 50% in a total market capitalization decrease of 3% on a weekly basis, while the rest belongs to other altcoins. Bitcoin lost some $7B in value, dropping market cap by less than 2%. Last week Ether decreased its market cap by additional $5B or less than 3%, while BNB was down by $1.6B or more than 3%. As for other altcoins, Solana had a negative week with a drop in market cap by $1B or 8.7%, followed with Cardano, who lost $2B in market value or more than 13%. On the other side, one of rare coins that managed to increase market cap was Maker, with a surge by more than 9% on a weekly basis. During the previous week Filecoin increased its coins in circulation by 0.9%, while Solana had an increase of 0.8%.
Crypto futures market
In line with developments on the spot market, the crypto futures market was traded lower during the previous week. BTC short term futures were traded lower by some 1% on average. Closing price for the end of December this year was holding modestly above $19K. At the same time BTC`s long term futures were down by some 3.5%, where futures maturing in December 2023 were holding modestly below $20K. It is interesting to note that the futures range for all maturities started to be traded within a very tough range, between $19.2K for futures maturing in October this year, up to $19.9K for maturities in December 2023.
ETH short term futures were down by some $2% on average, with December this year ending the Friday`s trade at level modestly below $1.3K. Longer term ETH futures continue to be traded in inverse order, with decreasing of the price with increased maturities. Long term maturities were down by some 6% on average, with December 2023 ending the week at level of $1.272.
Inflation figures were in the market spotlight during the previous week. Although the US prices are slowing down the increase, they were still modestly above market estimate during September. The US equity market finished another week with negative sentiment, while the crypto market continues to trade flat compared to the week before. Bitcoin is ending another week below $20K, while Ether broke the $1.3K support line.
The most important event during the previous week was a release of US inflation figures for September. As per official data, the US inflation continues to rise, reaching 8,2% when measured on a yearly basis, while market consensus was at 8.1%. The highest contributors to the inflation currently are prices of food, which surged in September by 13% y/y, while energy prices followed. Economists agree that latest figures show that the inflation is slowing down, due to imposed measures by the FED. However, as they note, there is still potential for another rate hike by FOMC by the end of this year.
In an interview, JPMorgan`s CEO, Jamie Dimon, expressed his views on the current state of the world economy. He noted his expectations for markets to continue to be volatile as long as FED is boosting interest rates, whose consequences would be seen over the rest of the world. Strong dollar might hurt other economies, while excess leverages in “unexpected places” , as with UK pension funds, might continue to “unwind”, Dimon noted.
As per announcement from Tether, the company has replaced its holdings of commercial papers with the US Treasury bills. This comes in an effort to provide back to their stablecoin with the “most secure reserves”. At the same time, as noted from the company, the aim of this asset switch is to increase transparency and trust “for the whole stablecoin industry”.
Online crypto exchanger Bittrex, based in Washington, was fined $24.3 million by the US Treasury department for providing services to clients from several other countries which are under US government sanctions, in which sense, they were not complying with the US sanctions rules.
As per announcements from Google, the company is aligning with Coinbase in order to allow its customers to pay for their cloud services in cryptocurrencies. The transactions should be available during next year. Availability of such transactions would certainly allow Google competitive advantage on the market, considering that other cloud services providers are still reluctant to accept cryptocurrencies as payment methods for their clients.
Crypto market cap
Although the crypto market is moving in a flat mode during the last three weeks, still during this time the market is modestly losing its strength. Total crypto market capitalisation has additionally decreased during the previous week by 3%, where a total $25B has been erased from the market. At the same time daily trading volumes continue to decrease, reaching $86B during the previous week, compared to $95B a week before, and $105B three weeks ago. This trend is a signal that the market is drying up and that it would need some significant influx in a future period in order to increase volatility, profitability and bring investors back. Total funds outflow from the beginning of this year has been modestly increased, to the level of $1.301B, which is a total drop of 60%.
During the previous week the majority of coins lost some of their value. Three major coins on the market, BTC, ETH and BNB participate with 50% in a total market capitalization decrease of 3% on a weekly basis, while the rest belongs to other altcoins. Bitcoin lost some $7B in value, dropping market cap by less than 2%. Last week Ether decreased its market cap by additional $5B or less than 3%, while BNB was down by $1.6B or more than 3%. As for other altcoins, Solana had a negative week with a drop in market cap by $1B or 8.7%, followed with Cardano, who lost $2B in market value or more than 13%. On the other side, one of rare coins that managed to increase market cap was Maker, with a surge by more than 9% on a weekly basis. During the previous week Filecoin increased its coins in circulation by 0.9%, while Solana had an increase of 0.8%.
Crypto futures market
In line with developments on the spot market, the crypto futures market was traded lower during the previous week. BTC short term futures were traded lower by some 1% on average. Closing price for the end of December this year was holding modestly above $19K. At the same time BTC`s long term futures were down by some 3.5%, where futures maturing in December 2023 were holding modestly below $20K. It is interesting to note that the futures range for all maturities started to be traded within a very tough range, between $19.2K for futures maturing in October this year, up to $19.9K for maturities in December 2023.
ETH short term futures were down by some $2% on average, with December this year ending the Friday`s trade at level modestly below $1.3K. Longer term ETH futures continue to be traded in inverse order, with decreasing of the price with increased maturities. Long term maturities were down by some 6% on average, with December 2023 ending the week at level of $1.272.
