Oct. 7, 2022

The latest moves in crypto markets, in context

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Supported by

Good morning, and welcome to First Mover. I'm Lyllah Ledesma, here to take you through the latest in crypto markets, news and insights.

Price Point: Bitcoin was clinging to the $20K mark as traders in both crypto and traditional markets awaited a crucial report from the U.S. Labor Department on the employment situation during September. A Binance-linked blockchain may have suffered from a potential exploit, resulting in a suspension of the BSC chain.

Market Moves: Bitcoin is trading more in sync with gold these adys, according to the research firm Kaiko. Jocelyn Yang examines the implications. As recently as a few months ago, the correlation was negative.

Chart of the Day: An expected slowdown in the headline nonfarm payrolls report may do little to bring relief to risk unless accompanied by a meaningful deceleration in the average hourly earnings.

Price Point

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below the $20,000 mark Friday, down almost 1% on the day, as traders in both crypto and stock markets awaited September's jobs report in the U.S.

The world's largest cryptocurrency by market value has spent the last four months hovering around the $20,000 mark with little movement either side.

"This could be really important for bitcoin that it has found a base around $20,000 that traders are seemingly comfortable with in these turbulent times," wrote Craig Erlam, an analyst at OANDA, in a morning note. "It now looks like a very strong region of support that's been reinforced with every test below."

Erlam said there could well be a case for this level forming a bottom for the cryptocurrency, but of course, another risk-off panic could put this theory to test.

Ether (ETH) was also trading down on the day slightly, but has been slowly making its way back up after the post-Merge drop.

A blockchain linked to the big crypto exchange Binance ordered a suspension on Thursday, after an estimated $100 million to $110 million in assets were moved off chain.

BNB Chain, composed of BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain, tweeted the suspension on BSC from its official account, later confirming that the activity stemmed from a "potential exploit."

Some $7 million of the total crypto has already been frozen.

BNB token is down 3.35%.

In the news, Citigroup's director of blockchain and digital assets is leaving the U.S. bank to take a role at Six Digital Exchange, according to his LinkedIn page.

A report from Morgan Stanley said the market for cryptocurrency exchange products continues to grow, a sign that institutional interest in the digital assets sector remains strong despite concerns of a crypto winter.

Crypto lender Celsius' top executives withdrew a little over $17 million in cryptocurrency between May and June 2022, right before the company suspended withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy, new court records show.

With nearly a decade-long track record of being the world's largest digital currency asset manager, Grayscale is an industry leader in offering investors secure and regulated access to crypto.

Grayscale brought the world's first publicly-traded Bitcoin investment fund, GBTC, to market, and have since expanded our full product suite to 17 products total, including both single-asset funds as well as diversified funds that cover industry themes such as the metaverse, privacy, and data.

Grayscale is committed to the crypto economy and our investors. This includes working closely with regulators, selecting best-in-class service providers, and collaborating with industry participants to discover and bring to market exciting new products.

Learn more about Grayscale here. Investing involves risks and the possible loss of principal.

Market Moves:

Bitcoin's Correlation With Gold Hits Highest Level in Over a Year

By Jocelyn Yang

Bitcoin's reduced tendency to move in tandem with U.S. stocks has refocused analysts on a correlation that's suddenly strengthening: the cryptocurrency's connection to gold.

The two assets' merging paths follow a recent trend, branching away from stock prices, which have sunk dramatically this year, and buttressing arguments by bitcoin evangelists that so-called digital gold offers the same safe-haven advantages as the real stuff. But the correlation remains only mildly strong, leaving open the question whether BTC and gold will continue to travel in sync.

"We could be seeing a slight decoupling of crypto and equity markets, which is reflected in BTC's rising correlation with gold," said Clara Medalie, head of research at crypto research group Kaiko.

Bitcoin was recently trading just above $20,000, a nearly 3% gain over the past seven days, while gold was changing hands at $1,700, up more than 3% during the same period.

Bitcoin's rolling 30-day correlation of daily returns with gold hit the highest level in over a year (Kaiko).

Read the full story here.

Experience what everyone in crypto is raving about! CoinScan has created the best next-gen tools available to the public for the first time.

A few examples:

Fastest Buy/Sell Feed
Holder Analytics
Real-Time Developer Transactions Tracker
SCAN Safety Checks
15s & 30s Charts
Pending Transactions
Airdrop Distribution Tools
Live Telegram/ Twitter/ Social feeds (no account needed)

Premium features will be free for a limited time. Experience the difference today!

CoinDesk Market Index

The following are the biggest movers in the CoinDesk Market Index over the past 24 hours:

Biggest Gainers

Asset	Ticker	Returns	DACS Sector
Enzyme	MLN	+5.38%	DeFi
STEPN	GMT	+4.37%	Culture & Entertainment
Terra Luna Classic	LUNC	+3.72%	Smart Contract Platform

Biggest Losers

Asset	Ticker	Returns	DACS Sector
Alien Worlds	TLM	-2.28%	Culture & Entertainment
COTI	COTI	-2.25%	Currency
Project Galaxy	GAL	-1.65%	Digitization

Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive, and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk Market Index is a broad-market index of digital assets, weighted by market capitalization. A full description of the methodology is here.

Chart of the Day:

US Wage Growth May Be The Most Important Figure for Risk Assets

By Omkar Godbole

The chart shows the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, the core personal consumption expenditure or core PCE, is closely tied to wage growth. Source: Nordea.

An expected slowdown in the headline nonfarm payrolls (NFP) report may do little to bring relief to risk unless accompanied by a meaningful deceleration in the average hourly earnings.

Latest Headlines

FTT Token Surges 7% as FTX Partners With Visa
FTX has partnered with Visa to roll out crypto debit cards across 40 countries.
Will Comatose Bitcoin Market Come Alive After NFP Data?
Bitcoin has returned exactly 0.0%, on average, on NFP days in 2022, but picture changes during the week after the data release, past data show.
Zcash May Be Getting Spammed, but the Blockchain is Doing Just Fine, the Company Behind it Says
The Electronic Coin Company, the organization behind Zcash, claims that concerns of a spam attack are mostly just fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD)
Lido's stETH Token Expands to Layer 2 Networks Optimism and Arbitrum
Users of Ethereum's quicker, cheaper layer 2 networks will have access to the new wrapped staked ETH (wstETH) token.
Crypto Exchange Crypto.com's Downsizing Larger Than Previously Reported: Ad Age
In addition to job cuts of as much as 40% of staff, the company has also been pulling back from marketing deals, according to the story.
Crypto Bank Silvergate Capital's Shares Fall After Wells Fargo's Bearish Call
The bank's analysts say Silvergate's growth potential is limited during crypto winter.

What to watch

Check out the CoinDesk TV show "First Mover," hosted by Christine Lee, Emily Parker and Lawrence Lewitinn at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern time.

Marc Chandler, managing director at Bannockburn Global Forex
Steven McClurg, CIO at Valkyrie
Driss Benamour, CEO of Exponential DeFi
Frank Downing, director of research at ARK invest

The Investing in Digital Enterprises and Assets Summit reveals the most scalable and fastest-growing market opportunities in blockchain, digital assets, Web3 and the metaverse for traditional asset managers and institutional investors. Learn directly from the founders and developers pioneering breakthrough innovations that will drive large-scale adoption. Use code FM_20 for 20% off the General Pass. Register now.

Want to receive our 5 pm ET update?

Subscribe to Market Wrap below!

Sign up

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.