First Mover Asia: Bearish Crypto Sentiment Continues as Dollar Strengthens

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:

Market moves: Bitcoin extends driblet earlier rising slightly; Crypto Twitter was dominated by the DeFi Wonderland drama.

Technician's take: BTC's upside remains constricted fixed the intermediate-term downtrend.

Catch the latest episodes of CoinDesk TV for insightful interviews with crypto manufacture leaders and analysis.

Bitcoin (BTC): $36,948 +0.2%

Ether (ETH): $2,407 -2.6%

Bitcoin extended its losses for overmuch of Thursday, a time aft hawkish comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, arsenic the banal marketplace also fell with immoderate traders betting that the cardinal slope volition rise involvement rates much than 4 times this year.

At the clip of publication, the largest cryptocurrency by marketplace capitalization was changing hands adjacent $37,000, up somewhat implicit the past 24 hours but inactive good disconnected its precocious of a week ago, according to CoinDesk data. Ether, the 2nd biggest cryptocurrency by marketplace capitalization, was down implicit the aforesaid clip play and was trading astatine astir $2,400. Most different large altcoins were besides successful the red.

Amid the bearish crypto movement, the U.S. dollar was a strengthening. At the clip of publication, the U.S. dollar currency scale (DXY) was up by 0.79% implicit the past 24 hours to 97.2, according to TradingView.

A strengthening dollar is usually bearish for bitcoin, arsenic CoinDesk has reported before. Bitcoin and the dollar scale successful the past person moved successful other directions. Such inverse correlation became much noticeable past July.

Data compiled by CoinDesk shows that bitcoin’s trading measurement crossed large crypto exchanges was down from a time agone to its lowest level this week truthful far.

Instead of bitcoin, astatine the halfway of the marketplace and crypto Twitter was the astonishing play astir Wonderland, a fashionable decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol.

As CoinDesk reported, the individuality of the pseudonymous treasury manager for Wonderland was revealed connected Twitter arsenic Michael Patryn, co-founder of QuadrigaCX, a notorious Canadian crypto speech that defrauded investors of much than $190 million. The shocking information has shaken “Frog Nation,” a radical of protocols including Wonderland led by well-known DeFi developer Daniele Sestagalli.

At the clip of publication, the terms of wonderland (TIME) was down by much than 25% to $396, according to information from CoinGecko. Prices of cryptocurrencies specified arsenic SPELL that are besides portion of “Frog Nation” were besides down significantly.

Bitcoin has failed to prolong a little terms emergence from $32,900 to $39,000 implicit the past fewer days. The cryptocurrency is trading successful a choky scope connected intraday charts, and method indicators are mostly neutral implicit the abbreviated term.

Price enactment has remained beneath a downward-sloping 100-day moving mean connected the four-hour illustration implicit the past fewer weeks, which indicates beardown selling pressure. So far, oversold signals person preceded little terms rises, suggesting constricted upside up fixed the persistent downtrend since November.

For now, buyers volition request to clasp support astatine betwixt $30,000 and $37,000 successful bid to stabilize the pullback.

8:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (12:30 a.m. UTC): Australia shaper terms scale (Q4, QoQ/YoY)

2:30 p.m. HKT/SGT (6:30 a.m. UTC): France user spending (Dec. MoM)

3 p.m. HKT/SGT (7 a.m. UTC): Germany important terms scale (Dec. MoM/YoY)

6 p.m. HKT/SGT (10 a.m. UTC): European Commission concern clime (Jan.)

9:30 p.m. HKT/SGT (1:30 p.m. UTC): U.S. idiosyncratic spending (Dec.)

"First Mover" hosts spoke with Rio de Janeiro Municipal Secretary for Economic Development Chicão Bulhões arsenic the metropolis reportedly plans to allocate 1% of treasury reserves to crypto. From Brazil to China, the hosts spoke with Michael Sung from China's Fudan University. He shared details of China's integer yuan rollout and the imaginable planetary reactions during the Beijing Winter Olympics adjacent week. Toroso Investments Chief Investment Officer Michael Venuto provided insights into the crypto markets a time aft the Fed pointed to a March complaint hike. Plus, the latest regulatory quality was provided by CoinDesk Managing Editor for Global Policy & Regulation Nikhilesh De.

Don’t Let Web 3 Repeat Web 2’s Mistakes: Web 3 indispensable beryllium backstage by default, Tor Bair of the Secret Foundation writes for CoinDesk’s Privacy Week.

"The way of the system continues to beryllium connected the people of the virus. Progress connected vaccinations and an easing of proviso constraints are expected to enactment continued gains successful economical enactment and employment arsenic good arsenic a simplification successful inflation. Risks to the economical outlook remain, including from caller variants of the virus." (The Federal Reserve) ... "Blockchains correspond a terrific accidental to erase the information silos betwixt companies with standardized and integrated information." (EY Global Blockchain Leader Paul Brody) ... “The U.S. has learned to accommodate to the caller satellite of variants and continues to produce." (S&P Global Ratings Chief U.S. Economist Beth Ann Bovino to the Wall Street Journal)