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Market Wrap: Bitcoin Cracks $12.4K; DeFi Crosses $6B Locked
Bitcoin experienced a big jump Monday as investors continue to drop crypto into DeFi.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 9:44 a.m. Published Aug 17, 2020, 8:40 p.m.
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Bitcoin made a major gain Monday while investors have locked over $6 billion in crypto into various DeFi services.
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- Bitcoin trading around $12,332 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 4.1% over the previous 24 hours.
- Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $11,774-$12,485
- BTC slightly above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization opened the week with higher-than-normal volume pushing bitcoin to as high as $12,485. For some market observers it was only a matter of time before it happened.
Read More: Bitcoin Surges Past $12,000 to New 2020 High
“Bitcoin has been trading in a $11,000-$12,000 range for two weeks or so,” said Darius Sit, managing partner of Singapore-based QCP Capital. “It has been consolidating, threatening to break past $12,000, so this is not too surprising,” he added.
Thus far in August, Coinbase’s daily average bitcoin volume has been $182 million, but on Monday volume was at $245 million as of press time. “Unlike last week, today's attempt to break through the $12,000 level carried enough momentum to make a convincing break, sending BTC all the way to the $12,500 area,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research for crypto brokerage BeQuant.
William Purdy, an options trader and founder of analysis firm PurdyAlerts, says the derivatives market is showing where traders think bitcoin's price will be in the future as the cryptocurrency trends upward. “I think what is most interesting right now is how clear the upcoming expected price targets for bitcoin are via the option open interest,” he told CoinDesk, adding, “$12,000, $13,000, $14,100 and $16,000 are the spots with the greatest open interest, so the price is likely to settle on these as upcoming support/resistance.”
Read More: Bitcoin DeFi May Be Unstoppable: What Does It Look Like?
Of note is how traders view price movements of ether relative to bitcoin.
“Ether was largely a bystander Monday, mimicking the surge higher instead of being the driving force behind it,'' BeQuant's Vinokourov said. “This issuggesting a growing unease towards the current valuation.” Skyrocketing Ethereum transaction costs were among the reasons for this sentiment, Vinokourov noted.
Read More: DeFi Frenzy Drives Ethereum Transaction Fees to All-Time Highs
Ether options bearish
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Monday trading around $438 and climbing 1.9% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Read More: Huobi Launches Consortium of DeFi Providers and Platforms
The total value locked in decentralized finance, or DeFi, crossed the $6 billion threshold over the weekend, and it is currently up to $6.4 billion Monday. Over half of the value locked is in just three DeFi services: Maker ($1.51 billion), Aave ($1.15 billion) and Curve Finance ($1 billion).
Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner for Tellurian Capital, which has been investing in crypto projects since 2014, says some of this DeFi frenzy seems to be proceeding unchecked, and warned that caution is needed.
“Some of these DeFi applications are going to market too quickly and without even testing the code. That is highly risky,” he said to CoinDesk. “There will be a flight to quality towards those protocols that have sound operational foundations and also real added business value.”
Read More: YAM’s Market Cap Falls From $60M to Zero in 35 Minutes
Other markets
Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly green Monday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
Read More: Litecoin Gets Bullish Speculation, at Last, as Upgrade Approaches
Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
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Equities:
- Asia’s Nikkei 225 ended the day in the red 0.82% as data indicated Japan has experienced a record contraction in its economy in the past year.
- In Europe, the FTSE 100 closed in the green 0.61% as gains in mining stocks sent the index higher.
- The United States’ S&P 500 gained 0.40% as the consumer discretionary and mining sectors made gains on Monday.
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Commodities:
- Oil is up 1.4%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $41.81.
- Gold was in the green 2.1% and at $1,985 as of press time.
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Treasurys:
- U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Monday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the 10-year in the red 3.3%.
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What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
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- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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XRP drops 4% as traders watch whether $1.88 support holds
Price stabilizes near recent lows after a volatile pullback from above $2.
What to know:
- XRP slipped nearly 4% as bitcoin fell below $88,000, with price action driven more by market structure and positioning than by changes to Ripple’s fundamentals.
- Spot XRP ETFs saw about $40.6 million in weekly outflows, suggesting institutional profit-taking and rotation rather than a loss of confidence in the asset.
- XRP remains range-bound in a tight consolidation between support around $1.88 and resistance near $1.93–$1.95, with fading volume pointing to a larger move once the current stalemate resolves.
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