Share this article
First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Holds $40K
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Jan. 25, 2024.
Updated Mar 9, 2024, 5:46 a.m. Published Jan 25, 2024, 1:01 p.m.
Make us preferred on Google
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.
Latest Prices
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Top Stories
Bitcoin treaded water around $40,000 during European trading hours, largely unmoved in the last 24 hours, down around 0.6%. "It's clear the market is steadily recovering from the initial shocks of the ETF introduction and GBTC unwind. Notably, call-put skew has been increasing from an earlier low, indicating a shift in market sentiment," Luuk Strijers, CCO at Deribit, said. Bitcoin options worth $3.75 billion expire on Deribit on Friday at 08:00 UTC. Strijers said traders have been rolling their positions forward from January expiry contracts to February expiry contracts. Data show the max pain point (the level at which options buyers stand to lose the most on expiry) for bitcoin's January expiry options is $41,000. The theory is that options sellers, usually institutions with ample capital supply, try to move the underlying spot market closer to the max pain point ahead of the expiry to inflict maximum damage on buyers.
Swiss cryptocurrency banking group Sygnum closed a $40 million funding round, which gave it a $900 million valuation in a further sign of crypto winter 's thawing. The collapse of U.S. crypto-friendly banking firms Silvergate and Signature in early 2023 was one of many touchpoints of the 2022-23 bear market. “Closing a successful funding round in this macro environment with such strong partners is exciting, and we are thankful for our investors’ trust in us,” Mathias Imbach, Sygnum’s co-founder and CEO, said. Sygnum plans to use the proceeds to expand its offerings into European and Asian news markets.
Tesla's bitcoin holdings remained unchanged in Q4 2023, according to the company's latest earnings report. The report didn't mention bitcoin, suggesting the company did not buy or sell any BTC in the last three months of the year. Tesla holds over 9,720 BTC, according to data tracked by Bitcoin Treasuries, and is the third-largest public holder of the asset behind MicroStrategy and mining firm Marathon. The firm acquired 43,000 BTC in 2021 for $1.5 billion in February 2021 but had sold 75% of these by Q2 2022. Tesla's remaining holdings are worth $387 million at current prices.
Chart of The Day
- The chart shows that the ether-bitcoin (ETH/BTC) ratio has reversed nearly half of the early January rally.
- The pullback is consistent with the bearish positioning in the ether options market.
- Some analysts are confident ether will be a standout performer in the coming months.
- Source: Trading View
- Omkar Godbole
Trending Posts
More For You
Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
More For You
Meta and Microsoft continue going big on AI Spending. Here's how bitcoin miners could benefit
In its fourth quarter earnings report, Meta said capital spending plans for 2026 should be in the range of $115-$135 billion, well ahead of consensus forecasts.
What to know:
- Fourth-quarter earnings results from Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META) suggested no slowdown in AI-related spending.
- Microsoft highlighted that AI is now one of its largest businesses and pointed to long-term growth.
- Meta projected sharply higher capital spending in 2026 to fund its Meta Super Intelligence Labs and core business.
Top Stories
