Price Point: Bitcoin was flat after a six-day winning streak that was the longest in 14 months.
Market Moves: A lot's riding on next month's U.S. election, including the future of democracy. Stimulus in the trillions of dollars is assured whoever wins.
What's Hot: Zcash shifts to non-profit status, Ethereum Classic tries MESS to thwart 51% attacks, Larry Summers sees $16T economic hit.
PRICE POINT
Bitcoin was flat after a six-day winning streak that took the largest cryptocurrency's year-to-date gains to 61%.
Market sentiment is turning more positive, the Norwegian cryptocurrency analysis firm Arcane Research wrote Tuesday in a report.
"Resistance levels were swept aside and today become support levels," wrote Matt Blom, head of sales and trading at the digital-asset-focused financial firm Diginex. "This year's high of $12,486 remains the key focus for the bulls."
In traditional markets, U.S. futures were lower on dimmed prospects for a speedy delivery of a coronavirus vaccine, even as the giant financial firms BlackRock and JPMorgan announced revenue that topped expectations. Gold weakened 0.1% to $1922 an ounce.
MARKET MOVES
The outcome of next month's U.S. presidential election may not matter much for bitcoin's price: Economic stimulus in the trillions of dollars is likely no matter who wins, bolstering the largest cryptocurrency's appeal as a hedge against inflation.
President Donald Trump over the past week has reversed his opposition to a new government-spending bill following April's $2 trillion coronavirus-aid package. He signaled his eagerness to strike a deal with leaders of the opposition Democratic party, who have proposed a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill. According to Axios, he told senior lawmakers in his own Republican party that he wants "a big deal."
If Trump wins in November, he's likely to continue supporting stimulus spending or easy monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, given his four-year track record of jawboning the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates whenever signs of weakness appear, while boasting about U.S. jobs growth and stock-market increases. He also could push for a new round of tax cuts.
Trump's Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, has already rolled out his own $5.4 trillion agenda that includes increased budget allocations for education, housing, health care, paid leave and fixing crumbling infrastructure, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Biden campaign has pledged to cancel a substantial portion of Americans' $1.5 trillion in federal student debt.
Such expenses would come on top of what already seems like an unending sea of red ink: The U.S. government's budget deficit for the 2020 fiscal year tripled to $3.1 trillion. And economists say the Federal Reserve is likely to keep printing money in coming years to help finance the budget gap.
"Because the economy's hands are tied and policymakers' hands are tied, the wiggle room that any party in power is going to have is limited," said Chris Wallis, chief investment officer of Vaughan Nelson Investment Management, a division of the French financial firm Natixis, told First Mover in a Zoom interview. "There's no atheists in a foxhole. Nobody is going to worry about deficits."
Wall Street analysts have debated in recent weeks whether a Trump or Biden victory would be better for stocks. What's good for bitcoin might be easier to pinpoint, since most digital-asset market analysts say the Federal Reserve's $3 trillion of freshly printed money this year has helped to push up prices for the largest cryptocurrency.
The upshot? For voters, it's a choice between Trump and Biden. But bitcoin might be a winner either way.
Ethereum is now part of the Flipside Data Cooperative - a transparency initiative that provides public and shareable views of networks’ on-chain activity in real time. Flipside Crypto transformed Ethereum’s blockchain data by labeling every stakeholder and transaction that has ever taken place on the network. The labeled data now powers public interactive dashboards, so anyone can watch what is happening between users, contracts, exchanges, DEXes, DeFi protocols, NFTS and all other Dapps.
Bitcoin bulls are taking a breather, having powered gains for the sixth consecutive day on Monday. That's the longest daily winning run since August 2019.
The momentum is likely to continue as the growing institutional participation highlighted by the payment company Square's recent $50 million investment in bitcoin has bolstered investor confidence in the cryptocurrency's long-term prospects.
Technical charts have turned bullish with the cryptocurrency's convincing move above the Sept. 18 high of $11,200.
Last, open interest in futures listed on major exchanges across the globe has increased by 20% alongside a rally in prices. Futures trading volume also doubled to $14 billion on Monday.
A rise in open interest and volumes alongside an increase in prices is said to validate the uptrend. In other words, the latest bullish move has legs.
"The probability of bitcoin rising to $14,000 from current levels is stronger than the odds of a decline to $10,500," Patrick Heusser, a senior cryptocurrency trader at Zurich-based Crypto Broker AG told CoinDesk in a Twitter chat.
- Omkar Godbole
The move to ETH 2.0 will bring the Ethereum network ever closer to fulfilling its original vision: that of a "world computer" that plays host to a parallel, decentralized financial system. Will it be the rocket fuel that takes Ethereum's financial engine mainstream?
CoinDesk's invest: ethereum economy virtual event Oct. 14 will address the ramifications for investors of the sweeping changes underway within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Keynote speakers and panelists including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman and CEO Heath P. Tarbert will offer deep dives into Ethereum’s adoption of a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, sharding and other elements of its impending 2.0 upgrade, as well how the new framework impacts the rapidly advancing business of DeFi, stablecoins and decentralized exchanges.
Ether (ETH): Cryptocurrency rallies after Grayscale (owned by CoinDesk parent Digital Currency Group) announces that Ethereum Trust has become SEC reporting company.
Zcash (ZEC): Token's developer, Electric Coin Company, shifts to non-profit status following stockholder vote.
Ethereum Classic (ETC): Developers on frequently-targeted blockchain attempts "modified exponential subjective scoring" as latest solution for warding off 51% attacks.
Filecoin (FIL): Trading in decentralized file-storage service's tokens begins on Kraken Oct. 15, exchange says.
The latest quarterly review from CoinDesk Research is out! In this 24-chart report, we look at major developments in crypto markets over the third quarter, focusing on growth in stablecoin liquidity, surging interest in decentralized finance applications, and the notable uptick in crypto derivatives volumes.
In the run up to our invest: ethereum economy event Oct. 14, get up to speed on recent developments in the Ethereum ecosystem. CoinDesk Research's recent note covers ETH's performance, the impact of decentralized finance and stablecoins, and an update on the launch of Ethereum 2.0.
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First Mover: Stimulus Winning as Biden Surges in Polls and Bitcoin Eyes $12K