Crypto Weekly: 28 November – 6 December 2022
JP Morgan is reportedly developing its own digital wallets for cryptocurrencies and has filed a patent for the traditional finance giant to officially venture into the Web3 world. JP Morgan had previously executed its first DeFi trade with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian program in a cross-border Polygon transaction in early November. Additionally, JP Morgan was one of the first banks to enter the Metaverse, opening a lounge in Decentraland earlier this year.
Google’s Web3 push appears to be pushing full steam ahead, with the tech behemoth having invested over $1.506 billion between August 2021 and mid-2022 in the blockchain space. Google has investments in Fireblocks, Dapper Labs, Voltage, and Digital Currency Group.
Curve, the second largest decentralized exchange on Ethereum, has released a whitepaper detailing its forthcoming stablecoin, crvUSD. According to the white paper, crvUSD will use a novel lending-liquidating AMM algorithm (LLAMMA) to protect borrowers whose collateral drops below the liquidation price. As the ETH used as collateral drops in value, approaching its liquidation price, the protocol will convert it to US Dollars; as the price of ETH rises, the dollars are converted to ETH. The LLAMMA ecosystem is structured in such a way that each type of collateral serves as its own publicly tradable AMM, providing a liquid market for the collateral and crvUSD.
Leading crypto tracker CoinMarketCap has announced the launch of its new Proof of Reserves (PoR) feature on its platform to give users clearer financial insights on exchanges by auditing them. The PoR tracker will be updated every 5 minutes and details exchanges’ total assets, their affiliated public wallet addresses, and the balances, current prices, and values of the respective wallets. Currently, the PoR tracker feature supports major exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, Bitfinex, OKX, Bybit, Crypto.com, and Huobi.
Data from analytics site CryptoQuant recently revealed that Binance has surpassed Coinbase Pro as the exchange with the largest Bitcoin reserves. Binance leads all exchanges with its current 584,083 BTC reserve, a gain of more than 137,011 BTC over the past week.
El Salvador appears to be going ahead with plans to issue Bitcoin-backed bonds, informally referred to as “Volcano bonds”. The bonds are expected to raise $1 billion for the government, with 50% of the money allocated for purchasing Bitcoin and 50% earmarked for investments in Bitcoin mining infrastructure. The bonds are expected to pay interest at an annual rate of 6.5% and are anticipated to be officially passed by the El Salvador government by Christmas.
According to blockchain analytics company Glassnode, the number of wallets holding at least 1 BTC or more reached 950,000, setting a new all-time high.
ConsenSys, the parent company of MetaMask, announced a revision to its privacy policy that will allow them to collect users’ IP addresses and Ethereum Wallet addresses when making transactions as part of its KYC and anti-money laundering policies. Metamask is currently the most popular self-custody wallet, with over 21 million monthly active users.
Coinbase’s 2022 Institutional Investor Digital Assets Outlook Survey revealed that the number of institutional investors in the crypto space has grown by 62%, with 58% expecting to increase their allocation further over the next three years, suggesting a bullish long-term view on the asset class. The survey queried 140 US-based institutional investors with a combined $2.6 trillion of assets under management.
Weekly Technical Analysis: 28 November – 6 December 2022
Bitcoin (BTC)
BTC continues to perform poorly, with many anticipating that the market will likely trend sideways for the foreseeable future. Support is set as low as the $15,500 mark; however, if this support cannot remain intact, prices could fall as low as $13.000. As long as prices cannot surpass the $18,000 resistance level, the trend may remain downward for some time.
Ethereum (ETH)
ETH remains stagnant with no signals of a reversal. Support and resistance are set at $1,000 and $1,350, respectively, and ETH prices are expected to bounce around within this range until ETH picks a clear direction to move in.
Ren (REN)
REN is up by +46.6% over the past week and is likely to maintain its upward momentum in the short term. Keep an eye on support at 3.60 baht and its resistance at REN’s previous high of 5.20 baht. Traders looking to enter a position could potentially consider entering a position when prices fall towards support.
Curve DAO (CRV)
CRV is up by +27.40% over the past week, with the DeFi platform rallying thanks to the launch of its crvUSD stablecoin. CRV’s short-term trend is bullish, and support and resistance are set at 19 and 28 baht, respectively.
Trading and Investment Considerations For The Week
This week, keep a close eye on any fallout from FED Chairman Jerome Powell’s scheduled talk on 30 November. Powell’s speech could provide a greater indication of which direction the FED is planning to move in regarding interest rates, with many analysts currently anticipating a relatively more minor 0.5% rate increase.
The FED slowing down its interest rate hikes, or the expectation that they will do so, may provide the opportunity for asset prices to recover. However, if it looks like the FED will be maintaining its current trend over the past few sessions of 0.75% rate increases, the market may potentially respond negatively.
Over the next two weeks, critical highlights include the release of CPI/inflation figures on 13 December as well as 2022’s final FED session on 14 December. If inflation numbers can continue to improve, the FED may begin to relax its aggressive interest rate hikes, which will likely benefit the crypto market.
Additionally, investors are advised to keep up to date on any news or developments regarding the consequences of the FTX collapse. It remains to be seen if FTX’s bankruptcy will affect other exchanges, platforms, or projects, so traders are advised to focus only on short-term moves and be ready to cut losses if things take a turn for the worse.
Disclaimer:
-Cryptocurrency and Digital tokens are highly risky; investors may lose all investment money. Investors should study information carefully and make investments according to own risk profile.
– Past Returns/Past Performance does not guarantee future returns/performance.
*Materials on Bitazza Weekly Newsletter are intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. The views, information, or opinions expressed are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Bitazza and its employees. The information contained herein is not intended to be a source of advice or financial analysis with respect to the material presented, and the information and/or documents contained in this website do not constitute investment advice.
Sources:
https://www.theblock.co/post/185626/coinbase-layoffs-more-than-60-recruiting-onboarding-employees
https://cointelegraph.com/news/marathon-is-now-the-2nd-largest-listed-holder-of-bitcoin-says-ceo
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