First Mover: Bitcoin Suffers Steepest Drop in 10 Days as US Monetary Policy Causes ‘Short-Term Jitters’

PLUS: Ether Price Indicator Turns Bearish for First Time Since October

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 June 8, 2021 Sponsored by     Bitcoin (BTC) -9.3%  $33,114 Ether (ETH)  -10.7%   $2,519 (Price data as of June 8 @10:15 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: Bitcoin Suffers Steepest Drop in 10 Days as US Monetary Policy Causes 'Short-Term Jitters'   Technician's Take: Ether Price Indicator Turns Bearish for First Time Since October Check out the CoinDesk TV show "First Mover," hosted by Christine Lee, Lawrence Lewitinn and Emily Parker at 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern time. Today the show will feature guests: Juanjo Benitez Rickmann, bitcoin.com.py CEO Andres Portilho, BTG Pactual Head Digital Assets Diogo Mónica, Anchorage Co-Founder & President Biggest Movers These are the biggest movers in the CoinDesk 20 over the past 24 hours:   Gainers: None of the assets in the CoinDesk 20 is up today.   Losers: Tezos (XTZ): -17.5% The Graph (GRT): -15.6% Chainlink (LINK): -15.4% EOS (EOS): -15.1%   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 Sebastian Sinclair Bitcoin Suffers Steepest Drop in 10 Days as US Monetary Policy Causes 'Short-Term Jitters' Bitcoin's (BTC) price has fallen to its lowest point in over a week as traders stare down prospects of shifting U.S. monetary policy and continued tightening of regulation of cryptocurrencies in China.   At 20:00 UTC on Monday, the price of the world's foremost crypto began declining from around $35,466 to a low of $32,211.    The move marked the largest single daily loss for the bulls after dropping 6.2%, the most since May 28, amid sell pressure egged on by fading bullish investor sentiment. Bitcoin prices, June 7 - 8, 2021 (Source: CoinDesk) Some are pointing toward the ongoing pressure from mainland China on crypto mining operations and trading where Weibo accounts from key opinion leaders in crypto have been blocked.   "China continues to pressure crypto with rolling mining bans wiping out its most popular social media platform, Weibo, clean of crypto influencer accounts," said Jehan Chu, managing partner at Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm Kenetic Capital. "This signals a tightening noose around crypto on the mainland."   Markets worldwide have also been trading on shaky ground as investors eye the possibility that the U.S. Federal Reserve could begin to unwind from its liquidity-boosting quantitative easing program. Though some, including $7.5 billion hedge fund Skybridge Capital, whose bitcoin holdings exceed $310 million, say tapering of U.S. monetary policy is unlikely to affect crypto and gold, arguing those asset classes possess resilience.   Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender, has said the U.S. could be in for one of its worst inflationary periods in history with government spending and loose monetary policy likely catalysts for creating conditions last seen in the 1940s and 1970s.   "While long-term fundamentals remain intact, U.S. monetary and macroeconomic policy are causing short-term jitters," Chu said. Indeed, investors have been offloading some of their investments in hopes of entering at lower points as U.S. monetary and fiscal policy grows clearer, he also said.   Other notable cryptos were also trading in the red, with the top 10 by market capitalization having fallen between 9% and 17% over the previous 24 hours.    Read the original story here: Bitcoin Suffers Steepest Drop in 10 Days as US Monetary Policy Causes 'Short-Term Jitters' A message from Nexo Your digital assets deserve a savings account in their BEST INTEREST. 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Get started at nexo.io Technician's Take by Omkar Godbole Ether Price Indicator Turns Bearish for First Time Since October The path of least resistance for ether (ETH) appears to be to the downside as a widely tracked indicator rolls over in favor of the bears.   "The weekly MACD indicator has flashed a sell signal for the first time since going positive in October 2020, which suggests the correction may resume beyond the near-term," Katie Stockton, founder and managing partner of Fairlead Strategies, said in a weekly research note published Monday.   Moving average convergence divergence (MACD) is a technical indicator used to gauge trend changes and strength. Chart analysts consider a move below zero to signify a bearish shift in momentum and a move into positive territory as a bullish reversal signal. Ether and bitcoin weekly charts (Source: TradingView) Not only has the MACD dropped below zero, it is also now at the most negative since September 2018, implying the strongest bearish bias in nearly three years.   Bitcoin's weekly MACD turned bearish in the second half of April, signaling scope for a sell-off. Back then, the biggest cryptocurrency was trading above $50,000. Prices fell by 35% in May, hitting lows near $30,000.   Ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, was trading near $2,500 at press time, representing a 3% drop on the day and a 9% decline on a 24-hour basis, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Ether daily chart (Source: TradingView) The latest drop follows repeated bull failures at the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) hurdle in the past two weeks. The 50-day SMA currently resides just above $2,900.   "Intermediate-term momentum has deteriorated, supporting a lower high versus the May peak near $4,380," Stockton said, adding that immediate support is located at $2,038, under which the focus would shift to the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement near $1,730.   "We would not rule out a retest of the 61.8% retracement level," Stockton wrote. "As long as the 61.8% retracement level is intact, so is the long-term uptrend behind ether, which remains supported by the monthly MACD." Read the original story here: Ether Price Indicator Turns Bearish for First Time Since October A message from Farsite Ever dreamed of owning a spaceship? It is possible in Farsite - upcoming DeFi powered MMO RTS, where NFTs acquired a new meaning. Designed for Ethereum 2.0, Farsite runs cNFT protocol to allow collateral staking against game assets. Explore a myriad of galaxies in the everlasting search for rare resources, modernize your vessel, and trade assets on the open market. Preorder launches May 31 - join the Airdrop to charter your first spacecraft, traveler, the countdown begins. BOLO Be on the look out for some of these upcoming events:   14:00 UTC (10:00 a.m. ET): JOLT Job openings (April). Expected: 8.3 million. The cryptocurrency movement has never been so sprawling, reaching every corner of the planet. Crypto State by CoinDesk aims to connect with local communities to explore this movement of financial disruption and how it trickles down to every corner of the globe, from DeFi investment opportunities to alternative ways to transact and store wealth. We're making virtual stops with audiences in Nigeria, the Middle East and Southeast Asia this year. Register for the Crypto State virtual tour. ICYMI In case you missed it, here are the most recent episodes of "First Mover" on CoinDesk TV:   Crypto Community Responds With Enthusiasm to Historic Development for Bitcoin in El Salvador but Markets Remain Quiet "First Mover" goes to El Salvador for reaction to President Nayib Bukele's proposal to use bitcoin as legal tender. Micheal Peterson, director of Bitcoin Beach, discusses an experiment underway to turn a town in El Salvador into a self-sufficient community that operates on bitcoin. Nischal Shetty of Indian crypto exchange WazirX joins our crypto markets discussion. Plus, Jesse Proudman discusses Makara, a crypto robo-advisor product that claims to be the first of its kind registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). CoinDesk's new reward token soft-launched at Consensus 2021, but $DESK lives on. Attendees can still cash in at the $DESK store, or hodl and accumulate. Join the Telegram group for announcements and airdrops. Latest Headlines     El Salvador Commerce Secretary: Bitcoin Won't Replace Dollar Miguel Kattán, a member of President Nayib Bukele's cabinet, sought to reassure Salvadorans fearful of a full pivot to a bitcoin standard. Top White House Adviser Tim Wu Holds Millions in Bitcoin: Report White House antitrust adviser Tim Wu holds bitcoin and filecoin, according to a recent financial disclosure.   US Luxury Penthouse Sells for Record-Breaking $22.5M in Crypto As per confidentiality agreements, the buyer and the type of cryptocurrency used to make the purchase have not been revealed.   CEO of Colonial Pipeline to Face Congress Grilling Over Bitcoin Ransom The CEO will face the Senate Homeland Security Committee to explain the reasoning behind his decision to pay a $4.4M bitcoin ransom.   Ripple Proposes Adding Federated Sidechains Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz cites demand from users for smart contract implementation.     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. 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