Good morning Here’s what happens:
Prices: Labor and services reports caused bitcoin to fall below $30,000 previously, although the cryptocurrency later revisited that threshold. Sentiment is increasingly optimistic, a market watcher wrote to CoinDesk.
Insights: The number of major bitcoin holders is increasing, but BTC sent to exchanges is declining. Is the trend bullish?
A bitcoin break from the recent uptrend
Crypto investors gleaned more from a better-than-expected ADP private sector jobs report and a surprisingly resilient ISM services index than a weaker job vacancies survey.
They dropped bitcoin below $30,000 for the first time in almost two weeks. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap had recently bounced back to $30,100, down 1.3% over the past 24 hours. The decline came just hours after Bitcoin hit a fresh three-month high above $31,500, a continuation of optimistic investor sentiment that was driven by multiple spot Bitcoin ETF filings over the past month.
Markets have grown hopeful that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will reverse its pattern of rejecting filings by some of the world’s top financial services firms. But on Thursday, worries about economic growth, a precursor to inflation, outweighed any euphoria.
Ether followed a similar downtrend, quickly falling from a peak above $1,950 after the ADP report that showed the private sector added 497,000 jobs, more than double forecasts. The ISM Services Index rose to 53.9 in June, ahead of the consensus estimate of 51.2 and May’s reading of 50.3. The reports give the Federal Reserve new impetus to justify further rate cuts in its bid to contain inflation. Such a restrictive stance has often weighed heavily on cryptocurrency and other asset markets amid fears that the Federal Reserve could plunge the economy into a deep recession.
Investors were less impressed by May’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report, which showed a decline in job vacancies to 9.82 million, compared to an upwardly revised reading of 10.3 million in April.
ETH, the cryptocurrency with the second largest market value, recently changed hands at $1,853, down 3.1% from the same time Wednesday. Most other major cryptos plunged deep into the red before regaining some ground. Litecoin and popular memecoin SHIB were still down more than 6% and 3%, respectively. SOL, the token on the Solana blockchain, was up over 11% at times and was still up more than 4%. The CoinDesk Market Index, a measure of the overall performance of crypto markets, recently fell 1.7%.
Asian stock markets were down in early trade, with the Hang Seng and Nikkei down about 1% and 0.5%, respectively. They followed falls in US indices, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq and S&P 500 each down 0.8%. Meanwhile, both 2- and 10-year US Treasury yields rose and safe-haven gold edged higher.
In an email to CoinDesk early Thursday, Richard Mico, US CEO of Banxa, a provider of crypto payments and compliance infrastructure, pointed to support for Bitcoin at $30,000 amid spot BTC bullishness. applications and a number of positive technical and other signals.
“We may have another rate hike or two ahead of us, but the Federal Reserve certainly appears to be nearing peak rates if they haven’t already,” Mico wrote. “We’ll likely have to wait until next year’s Bitcoin halving to see a full bull market, but we’re getting closer by the day and many are anxious to drive the continued uptrend they’ve been anticipating.”
He added, “The market is reflecting an increasingly bullish mood and the next 18 months are going to be very exciting.”
Whale Activity a Bullish Signal?
Despite a recent surge in Bitcoin whales, major BTC holders remain reluctant to transfer assets to centralized exchanges, Glassnode data shows.
Bitcoin whales and whales transferring assets to exchanges have taken different paths as large investors seem reluctant to move their assets out of cold storage.
Bitcoin investors are likely cautious about exchange rate risk, regulatory hurdles, or a combination of both.
The combination of large companies holding rising bitcoin supplies and declining supply on exchanges suggests an uptick among investors.
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