Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Best Week in 3 Months

Price Action

Bitcoin (BTC) rose Friday after a U.S. government report showed the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rose slower than expected last month. The reason that matters is because it shows progress in the Fed’s campaign to tamp down the pace of price increases, in turn signaling that it might be able to let up sooner rather than later in tightening monetary policy – seen as a negative for prices of risky assets, from stocks to bitcoin.

The oldest cryptocurrency’s push past $20,000 has turned the market mood more bullish. Bitcoin’s 5.6% gain since Sunday represents the biggest weekly gain in three months. But the crucial test will come next week when the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee meets. Most traders expect the U.S. central bank to raise the main interest rate by 75 basis points (0.75 percentage point), but the drama is likely to come from whatever Fed Chair Jerome Powell signals about the committee’s plans for its December meeting.

The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a broad-based market index that measures the performance of a basket of cryptocurrencies, recently rose 1.8% over the past 24 hours.

In traditional markets, the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose, with tech stocks boosted by an encouraging earnings report from Apple.

Among crypto stocks on Friday, shares of bitcoin miner Core Scientific (CORZ) tanked after the company warned it may have to explore bankruptcy.

Latest Prices

● CoinDesk Market Index (CMI): 1,018.27 +0.4%

● Bitcoin (BTC): $20,646 +0.8%

● Ether (ETH): $1,562 +2.0%

● S&P 500 daily close: 3,901.06 +2.5%

● Gold: $1,648 per troy ounce −0.8%

● Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 4.01% +0.1

Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found at coindesk.com/indices.

Technical Take

Bitcoin, Ether Press Higher as Momentum Increases

By Glenn Williams Jr

Investors should also weigh on-chain analytics to ensure they are adopting a measured approach. Over the past week, large BTC holders have been moving coins to exchanges.

For investors with a bullish outlook, this isn't the best sign because coins are often moved to exchanges to ready them for rapid sale.

However, this trend may just be a preventative measure ahead of Nov. 10 consumer price index data. Still, the move to exchanges appears to have stabilized as of Oct. 25.

Read the full technical take by CoinDesk analyst Glenn Williams Jr.

Altcoin Roundup

• Stablecoin Issuer Frax Finance Unveils Ether Staking Service With a Dual Token Model: The model will simplify decentralized finance integrations and supposedly allow users to earn above-average ether staking yields. Read more here.
• NFTs Are Going Big in Latin America Amid a Crypto Boom: With an increasing number of financial and political crises in recent years, Latin American citizens have found in crypto a powerful tool to cope with the instability. Now, non-fungible tokens (NFT) are booming in the region, with the goal of solving real problems and not speculation. Read more here.

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• Binance’s CEO Confirms Participating as Equity Investor in Musk’s Twitter Takeover:Changpeng Zhao said Binance had wired some $500 million “two days ago” as part of the move.
• Morgan Stanley Says Record Number of Bitcoin Have Not Been Used for 6 Months:Bitcoin has traded in the narrowest range since late 2020, suggesting investors are holding on for higher prices, the report said.
• Troubled Bitcoin Miner Core Scientific's Shares Continue to Plunge on Bankruptcy Risk:The shares fell another 15% Friday after a rough week amid financial woes and analyst downgrades.
• WisdomTree's Q3 Crypto Assets Under Management Falls 36%:The decline was 33% from the second quarter, which coincides with a downturn across the digital-asset market.
• Crypto Dominates the Worst ETF Debuts, Financial Times Reports: Many crypto exchange-traded funds started during the last bull market and enjoyed an initial boom before crashing months later when valuations tanked.
• El Salvador, Lugano Sign Agreement to Help Spread Bitcoin Adoption and Education: El Salvador also announced it was opening a “bitcoin office” in the southern Swiss city.

CoinDesk Market Index

Biggest Gainers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Quant QNT +6.15% Currency Optimism OP +6.11% Smart Contract Platform NEAR Protocol NEAR +5.35% Smart Contract Platform

Biggest Losers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Mask Network MASK -15.72% Computing Dogecoin DOGE -9.61% Currency Ocean Protocol OCEAN -8.84% Computing

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.