First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Nears $65K as Chinese Stocks Rebound

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Bitcoin moved to near $65,000 after Chinese stocks shrugged off mixed reactions to stimulus plans to finish the day higher. BTC traded at nearly $64,900 during the late European morning, over 3.4% higher in the last 24 hours. The broader digital asset market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index, has risen about 2.9%. Latest announcements from the Chinese government regarding stimulus plans fell short of expectations, but the Shanghai Composite Index still closed the day over 2% higher. “Chinese equities rebounded off the weekend disappointments, so risk sentiment will likely remain in 'buy everything' mode until further notice,” Augustine Fan, head of insights at SOFA, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.

Nearly $500 million worth of various tokens will be freed this week, potentially creating downward pressure on prices. Over $80 million in Worldcoin's WLD, $51 million in Arbitrum's ARB, and nearly $40 million each of Eigenlayer's EIGEN and Axis Infinity's AXS are set to be released in the next week. Solana's SOL will see $80 million worth unlocked as part of an ongoing "linear" plan, where tokens are emitted and absorbed by the market. The anticipation of investors or traders expecting recipients to sell their tokens can lead to a preemptive sell-off. However, if the market perceives the unlock as a sign of project progress or the tokens are expected to be used for staking governance, the price might remain stable or increase due to positive sentiment.

Investment firm Samara Asset Group will issue an up to 30 million euro ($32.78 million) bond to buy bitcoin. The bond will be used to expand Samara's diversified portfolio, which includes buying additional stakes in alternative investment funds and increasing its bitcoin holdings. Patrik Lowry, CEO of Samara, emphasized the importance of the bond, saying, "The proceeds will allow Samara to further expand and solidify its already robust balance sheet as we diversify into new emerging technologies through new fund investments. With Bitcoin as our primary treasury reserve asset, we also enhance our liquidity position with bond proceeds.” Samara Asset Group's share price was up over 6% at 2.04 euros on Monday.

Chart of the Day

• The annualized three-month BTC futures basis, or the gap between prices for futures and spot prices, is nearing 10% for the first time in nearly two months.
• Its a sign of renewed bullish sentiment and may attract arbitrage flows to the market.
• Source: Velo Data

- Omkar Godbole

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