First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Turns South Toward $20K, Huobi Cuts Ties With the HUSD Stablecoin

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

Price Point

Bitcoin (BTC) has erased previous day gains but was still holding at above $20,000 Friday. The cryptocurrency is up 5% on the week after going as high as $21,000 on Wednesday.

Popular meme token dogecoin continued its rally Friday, up 7% on the day after Tesla (TSLA) CEO and DOGE supporter Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter (TWTR). Crypto exchange Binance also confirmed on Friday that it was as an equity investor in Musk's acquisition.

Dogecoin has gained 33% over the last seven days, making it the top-performing crypto asset with a market capitalization of more than $1 billion.

Ether (ETH) was down 3.5% on the day at around $1,500.

Crypto exchange Huobi Global announced Thursday it is cutting ties with its closely linked stablecoin, the troubled asset HUSD. In a notice to users, Huobi, the top trading venue for the $219 million market-cap stablecoin, cited its rules for performing “regular inspection” on listed assets. In August, the stablecoin briefly lost its dollar peg and crashed 8% after its issuer closed “several accounts” because of regulatory concerns.

The stablecoin HUSD was down 8% over the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The price of HT$0.2358, an ecosystem token launched by Huobi Global, was also down 7% on the day.

In traditional markets, stocks slid along with U.S. equity futures after some disappointing earnings results from tech giants. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 led declined by 1.1%, and S&P 500 futures fell 0.6%. Amazon’s (AMZN) shares tumbled 13% in premarket trading. Late Thursday, the company gave a sales estimate for the fourth quarter below analysts’ expectations.

CoinDesk Market Index

Biggest Gainers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Chain XCN +9.17% Currency Augur REP +3.8% Culture & Entertainment LCX LCX +3.18% Currency

Biggest Losers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Alchemix ALCX -17.47% DeFi Mask Network MASK -13.72% Computing Dogecoin DOGE -11.29% Currency

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 (CMI) is a broad-based index designed to measure the market capitalization weighted performance of the digital asset market subject to minimum trading and exchange eligibility requirements.

Chart of the Day

• The chart shows changes in ether and bitcoin's annual issuance rate since the Ethereum blockchain switched to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism on Sept. 15.
• The annual issuance continues to slide toward 0.0%. Since the technological upgrade, ether's annual token supply change has decreased from 3.6% to 0.009%, making it more attractive than bitcoin.
• Therefore, ether may continue to outperform bitcoin.
• "Any increase in on-chain activity should bring ethereum firmly into deflationary issuance territory and may have a substantial outsized effect on ether's price," Josh Olszewicz, head of research at digital-asset fund manager Valkyrie Investments, said.