First Mover: Amid New Price Highs, Ether Flips Bitcoin on Options Volume

PLUS: Bitcoin Stabilizes After Pullback; Faces Resistance At $58K

Everything you need to make sense of the crypto markets and beyond By the CoinDesk Markets Team Edited by Lawrence Lewitinn, Managing Editor, Global Capital Markets May 4, 2021 Sponsored by     Bitcoin (BTC) -3.6%   $56,454 Ether (ETH)  +8.7%   $3,438 (Price data as of May 4 @11:00 UTC) If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.  Good morning. Here's what we're writing about: Market Moves: Amid New Price Highs, Ether Flips Bitcoin on Options Volume   Technician's Take: Bitcoin Stabilizes After Pullback; Faces Resistance At $58K   Check out the CoinDesk TV show "First Mover," hosted by Christine Lee, Lawrence Lewitinn and Emily Parker, at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern time. Today the show will feature guests: Anthony Di Iorio, Ethereum Co-Founder and Decentral Co-Founder and CEO Michele Schneider, MarketGauge Managing Director Sam Kim, Umbrella Network Founding Partner Biggest Movers These are the biggest movers in the CoinDesk 20 over the past 24 hours:   Gainers: Litecoin (LTC): +12.7% Ethereum (ETH): +8.7% Yearn Finance (YFI): +8.6%   Losers:  XRP (XRP): -6.3% The Graph (GRT): -5.4% Stellar (XLM): -4.0%   The CoinDesk 20 are 20 digital assets filtered from the larger universe of thousands of cryptocurrencies and constitute roughly 99% of the market by volume at eight of the largest and most trustworthy exchanges. Market Moves by Omkar Godbole Amid New Price Highs, Ether Flips Bitcoin on Options Volume   Ether (ETH)'s record price rally has triggered a flurry of activity in the options market, driving the cryptocurrency to surpass bitcoin (BTC) in terms of trading volumes for the first time.   The "flippening," along with ether's strong price performance in recent weeks, is a further sign of market focus temporarily shifting away from bitcoin, the top crypto asset by market value.   On Monday, four larger exchanges offering ETH options – Deribit, OKEx, Huobi, and bit.com – registered a combined trading volume high of $1.32 billion, surpassing bitcoin's tally for the first time on record. Bitcoin's options market traded contracts worth $879 million on the same day, according to data source Skew.    Ether's options volume soared as prices for the native token of the Ethereum blockchain rose toward a new lifetime high above $3,400 reached Tuesday. While ether has rallied by over 60% in the past four weeks, bitcoin has dropped by 3%, according to CoinDesk 20 data.    Options are derivatives contracts that give the purchaser the right but not the obligation to buy the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. A call option gives the right to purchase, and the put represents the right to sell.    Ether options volume (Source: Skew) Ether options volume has picked up materially since mid-April, with dominant exchange Deribit contributing over 80% of the total activity.  Ether options open interest (Source: Skew) Ether options open interest, or the number of contracts traded but not settled with offsetting positions, has risen sharply to new record highs above $5 billion, per Skew. Meanwhile, open interest in bitcoin's options market has been trending lower in recent weeks, as seen below. Bitcoin options open interest (Source: Skew) A similar divergence is seen in the activity in futures tied to the two top cryptocurrencies.    The data represents a shift in investor focus from bitcoin to ether, with Ethereum seeing solid organic growth this year, as recently tweeted by DTC Capital's Spencer Noon.    A report published by digital-asset manager CoinShares on April 26 showed that ether funds and investment products saw an inflow of $34 million in the third week of April, while bitcoin funds lost $21 million.   "New investor money has been flowing into digital assets since the 3rd quarter of last year, but the investor goals are changing," Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca, noted in a market recap published on Monday. "And in the last few months, the investor interest has narrowed even further to 'can I specifically diversify away from Bitcoin into Ethereum and other digital assets?'"   Analysts foresee a continued bull run in ether, with some betting on a rally to $10,000. Therefore, more traders and investors could join ether's derivatives market in a bid to hedge their spot market exposure, or to take plain bullish or bearish bets.  Ether put-call skew (Source: Skew) At press time, ether's options market is decisively bullish on the cryptocurrency with one, three and six-month put-call skews trading well below zero – a sign of calls (bullish bets) drawing higher than demand than puts.  Read the original story here: Amid New Price Highs, Ether Flips Bitcoin on Options Volume A message from Nexo Your digital assets deserve a savings account in their BEST INTEREST. Leading crypto lender Nexo treats you, your crypto and your fiat to industry-best Crypto & Fiat services, featuring:    * Up to 12% interest on digital assets, paid out daily! * Yields available on BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, XRP, XLM, EOS, TRX, LINK, BNB, PAXG, USDT, USDC, TUSD, PAX, DAI, HUSD, GBP and EUR. * No minimum or maximum limits on funds deposited, offering infinite opportunities to earn. * #ZeroFees on all transactions. * Military-grade wallet security and top-tier insurance on all custodial assets with SOC 2 Type 2 certified crypto custodian BitGo. Get started at nexo.io Technician's Take by Damanick Dantes Bitcoin Stabilizes After Pullback; Faces Resistance At $58K Bitcoin (BTC) declined about 5% during Asia hours as buyers took profit near the $58,000 resistance level. The cryptocurrency was trading around $56,200 at the time of writing. Price recoveries remain limited around $58,000 and $60,000 as long-term momentum slows.  Hourly bitcoin chart shows support and resistance levels with RSI (Source: TradingView) BTC held support around the 50-period volume weighted moving average on the four-hour chart, similar to April 29, which preceded a near 10% price rally. However, a pattern of lower highs on the four-hour relative strength index (RSI) suggests continued selling on rallies.   Bitcoin returned below the 50-day moving average and has traded within a tight range since the April 17 sell-off. Lower support is seen around $52,000 which could settle additional profit taking. Original story found here: Bitcoin Stabilizes After Pullback; Faces Resistance At $58K A message from CME Announcing CME Micro Bitcoin Futures (MBT) : Ready for Trading  Tap into the precision of a smaller-sized Bitcoin contract At 1/10 the size of one bitcoin, MBT futures provide an efficient, cost-effective way to fine-tune bitcoin exposure and to enhance your trading strategies. Enjoy the features of Bitcoin futures, but in a smaller size that gives active traders more choices for managing bitcoin price risk. BOLO Be on the look out for these upcoming events: Nothing notable scheduled today.  A message from CoinDesk Unlocked 101 at Consensus by CoinDesk 2021   The countdown is on to Consensus by CoinDesk, our virtual big-tent event this May.   For those who need a primer or to brush up on the fundamentals, we're hosting Unlocked 101, a free educational series designed to give you the tools you need to navigate crypto.   Sessions run May 4–20, covering the basics of Bitcoin, DeFi, scams and hacks and the NFT boom.   Register for Unlocked 101. ICYMI In case you missed it, here's the most recent episode of "First Mover" on CoinDesk TV:   Digital Dollar in Focus: Accenture and Former CFTC Chair Team Up to Launch Pilots; Ether Record High While crypto markets soar with Ether leading the way, today also brings news of new development in the digital dollar research project. Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo and Accenture's Senior Managing Director David Treat join "First Mover" to discuss their new partnership to launch digital dollar pilots. Also, CrossTower's Martin Gaspar joins our crypto markets discussion, and Alchemy's Nikil Viswanathan discusses its $80M raise to chase Amazon in the lucrative web services space. Introducing CoinDesk Indexes TradeBlock, the leader in providing crypto asset indexes to financial institutions, will now assume the CoinDesk name. Introducing CoinDesk Indexes: the industry standard for institutional-grade digital currency price references with billions of dollars in monthly trading volume quoted against them. Underlying new brand names, TradeBlock's index methodology will continue to adhere to the standards of integrity and reliability that have always differentiated its indexes. Read more about CoinDesk Indexes, the industry standard in crypto benchmarks. Latest Headlines Mastercard Survey Offers Tentative Encouragement for Crypto Adoption The payments giant polled 15,569 consumers in 18 countries; 40% said they plan to use cryptocurrency in the next year. Coinbase Expands Support for Tether Stablecoin The exchange's Pro platform launched USDT trading on Monday. Dogecoin Hits New All-Time High After eToro Listing Multi-asset brokerage eToro announced support for the cryptocurrency Monday. In-Person ID Checks May Be on the Way for Thai Crypto Exchange Users: Report New exchange users will have to use machines to scan their ID card chips before they can open a crypto account, says an industry exec. Oakland A's Make MLB's First Dogecoin Ticket Sale The pro baseball team had announced it was selling two-seat pods for 100 DOGE for its series with the Toronto Blue Jays.   CoinDesk Research: Does Bitcoin Have an Energy Problem? Is Bitcoin bad for the environment? This CoinDesk Research report looks at the data behind the most common critiques and shows that, while Bitcoin uses a lot of energy, the mix is evolving toward renewables. Bitcoin also incentivizes investment in clean energy sources, can convert pollution into value, and redistributes wasted power production.  Download the free report.   Disclaimer: The information presented in this message is intended as a news item that provides a brief summary of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of one or more of the cryptocurrencies described above. The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments.  ATTENTION: Scammers have been sending fraudulent emails with links to sites disguised to look like coindesk.com. If you are in doubt about a link, type https://www.coindesk.com directly into your browser; do not copy and paste. Remember, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. First Mover   A newsletter from CoinDesk Copyright © 2021 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.    250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA You can manage your preferences here or unsubscribe from all CoinDesk email.