Market picture
The crypto market has significantly slowed its decline, losing 0.3% in the last 24 hours to $2.12 trillion. However, this calm is more due to a lull ahead of major news than a change in sentiment.
Bitcoin remains just above its 50-day moving average at $61,150 and is virtually unchanged for the day. The prolonged consolidation sets up a strong move in the event of a breakout or bounce from a key level. A local victory for the bulls can be declared on a break above $64K and for the bears on a failure below $60K.
Ethereum is trading at $2,380 (-0.3% in 24 hours), near the bottom of its range since early August. The lacklustre performance of the second-largest cryptocurrency is perhaps indicative of the market’s true sentiment, as it is less tied to traditional finance.
News background
Investors remain confident in the long-term prospects of BTC-ETFs despite the correction. Issuers of spot bitcoin-ETFs have redeemed 911,000 BTC – 4.6 per cent of the available supply of digital gold, Glassnode calculated.
Bitcoin’s bullish phase has accelerated and is 100 days ahead of historical data, according to a CoinMarketCap report. Based on this assumption, BTC’s potential peak would come in mid-May or June 2025.
The U.S. SEC has appealed an August court ruling in a lawsuit against Ripple. CEO Brad Garlinghouse confirmed that Ripple has no concerns about the status of XRP and is prepared to continue its legal battle with the regulator.
The SEC announced Gurbir Grewal’s resignation as director of the Division of Enforcement after three years on the job. The crypto community called him the ‘mastermind behind the SEC’s attack’ on cryptocurrencies but questioned the change in policy after his departure.
The bankrupt FTX will sell 22.3 million blocked Worldcoin (WLD) tokens valued at approximately $36.1 million via auction at a significant discount. The discount to the current price of the asset could be 40%-75%.
