First Mover Asia: Bitcoin drops following first us omicron case

Ether falls, breaking a four-day streak of gains; equity markets tumble.

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening this morning:

Market moves: Crypto markets opened December with mixed performances as traders remain in a wait-and-see mode.

Technician’s take: BTC’s uptrend is intact with improving price momentum. Downside appears to be limited around the $53K-$55K support zone.

Prices

Bitcoin (BTC): $57,095 -0.2%

Ether (ETH): $4,593 -1%

Markets

S&P 500: $4,513 -1.1%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: $34,022 -1.3%

Nasdaq: $15,254 -1.8%

Gold: $1,782 +.53%

Market moves

Bitcoin briefly dropped below $57,000 during U.S. trading hours on Wednesday after news broke that health officials in the country confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, in California. At the time of publication, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading just above $57,000 but still down for the day.

The drop wiped out bitcoin’s earlier gains when it increased above $59,000 from a low at roughly $55,920 a day ago. Stocks also fell, with the S&P 500 dropping by 0.49% on Wednesday.

One analyst remains positive about the potential Omicron’s long-term impact on crypto.

“While the new coronavirus variant has raised concerns over potentially tumbling down crypto prices, it is also essential to note that crypto markets had observed strong growth throughout [the pandemic],” Danny Chong, co-founder of Tranchess, a Binance Smart Chain-based, yield-enhancing, asset-tracking protocol, said via a representative.

Ether also retreated, down to about $4,575 from as high as $4,782.40, according to CoinDesk’s data, ending its four-day winning streak. As an investment asset, ether posted a strong monthly return in November, beating bitcoin and macro assets, including the S&P 500, gold and bonds.

(CoinDesk Research)

But a few other layer 1 blockchain tokens remained in the green on Wednesday, including polygon (MATIC), terra (LUNA) and solana (SOL).

Technician’s take

Bitcoin daily price chart (Damanick Dantes/CoinDesk, TradingView)

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price momentum is improving, which could limit further downside between the $53,000-$55,000 support range.

Buyers will need to make a decisive move above $60,000 resistance to yield an upside target toward the all-time price high of nearly $69,000.

For now, BTC is trading in a tight range and has been roughly flat over the past week. The relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart is rising from oversold levels of last week, which typically precedes a price bounce.

Support remains intact given the upward-sloping, 100-day moving average. This indicates a positive intermediate-term trend, which could encourage additional buying on pullbacks.

Important events

8:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (12:30 a.m. UTC): Australia imports/exports (Oct. MoM)

1 p.m. HKT/SGT (5 a.m. UTC): Japan consumer confidence index (Nov.)

6 p.m. HKT/SGT (10 a.m. UTC): Eurostat producer price index (Oct. YoY/MoM)

9:30 p.m. HKT/SGT (1:30 p.m. UTC): Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic speaks on housing prices