Ethereum as a canary in the coal mine

Market picture

The crypto market is not yet showing sustained growth. The positive momentum seen on Tuesday morning was replaced by selling pressure. The cryptocurrency market quickly recovered to the $3.50 trillion level, where it consolidated after reaching the $3.6 trillion mark late last week.

Bitcoin gained 2% on Wednesday, trading around the $102.5K mark. It should be noted that the previous four daily candles closed with declines, undermining investor confidence. Nevertheless, bitcoin remains above its 50-day moving average, and the current lull can be attributed to risk aversion ahead of the Fed meeting.

Ethereum bounced off the $3,000 level on Wednesday morning, near the 200-day moving average and 61.8% retracement level of the November rally. Ethereum may serve as the canary in the coal mine: a significant drop below the $3,000 mark could trigger a widespread sell-off in crypto assets.

News background

Experts at Standard Chartered see bitcoin's fall caused by DeepSeek as a buying opportunity ahead of potential market stabilisation. The key role in the dynamics will be played by the Fed meeting and reports of high-tech companies on 30 January.

Over the past week, MicroStrategy sold shares and additionally bought 10,107 BTC for about $1.1 billion at an average price of about $105,596. The company's balance sheet shows 471,107 BTC purchased for $30.4 billion at an average price of $64,511 per coin.

Jim Cramer, former hedge fund manager at Cramer & Co and host of the Mad Money show, said he'd rather invest in bitcoin than MicroStrategy stock. MicroStrategy accounts for 76% of public company bitcoin reserves and 2.24% of its overall supply.

Tuttle Capital Management has filed a proposal with the SEC to register ten crypto-ETFs with leverage of 2x, including meme-based products TRUMP and MELANIA. Other ETFs will be based on XRP, Solana, Litecoin, Bonk, BNP, Cardano, Chainlink and Polkadot.

French law enforcement authorities have launched a judicial investigation into the largest crypto exchange Binance, accusing the platform of money laundering and drug trafficking.