Gm,
Welcome back from the break.
BTC opened lower on the first day of trading in the US yesterday, while Apple topped a cool 3trn market cap. At that time of writing, bitcoin is exchanging hands around $46,500 and is down about 1.5% on the day.
Bitcoin’s trading volume on all the major centralised exchanges remains low today, far from the volumes seen pre-Christmas. It is likely that the absence of trading activity over the past week is to blame for the total crypto market pullback.
Bitcoin, specifically, is off to a slow start, with the cryptocurrency in the red to the tune of about 8% since last week as buyers remain on the sidelines amidst the macro uncertainty of interest rate hikes expected to come in 2022. Notching the belt on monetary policy is considered a bearish move for assets, bitcoin included.
Beyond the fear of IR hikes, bitcoin is currently stuck in between the $45k support and $52k resistance level seen in the chart below, it needs to get back to its 200 days moving average, $47,962, to propel new highs for the months.
Let’s get started.
Markets
As of 4th Jan 2022
(source: coinmarketcap)
Headline roundup
Swisscom Blockchaoin partners with Orell Fussli for identity (LI)
Grayscale holds $43bn in crypto AUM (CD)
Evolution of blockchain, smart contracts, and its role in data distribution (LI)
Eminem purchases Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT for $462k (CD)
What next for SDX? (LI)
Marathon Digital named top mining pick heading into 2022 by DA Davidson (CD)
SWIFT in tokenized asset pilot with Clearstream, Northern Trust, SETL (LI)
Crypto needs centralised systems to integrate with traditional finance - Binance CEO (CD)
Blockchain anti-fraud platform UAE Trade Connect processes $2.7bn (LI)
Binance invests $12m in liquidity platform WOO Netwok (CD)
Salvadoran president Bukele expects bitcoin to reach $100k this year (CD)
Cosmos-based exchange osmosis crosses $1bn in locked value (CD)
VC
Miner bitfarms raises $100m bitcoin-backed loan from Galaxy Digital (CD)
Aoki, Alameda back algorithmic stablecoin on Arbitrum at $200m valuation (CD)
DeFi portfolio tracking firm DeBank raises $25m in a round led by Sequoia China (CD)
Miner bitfarms raises $100m bitcoin-backed loan from Galaxy Digital (CD)
Meme of the week
About me
About Me
My name is Michael Burke, and I started working in the blockchain space about 4 years ago, firstly with Deloitte, now with R3, where I help our customers build enterprise solutions utilising the Corda platform. My interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency stems from the sheer potential of the technology to completely transform industries and value chains for the better.