First Mover Asia: Bitcoin holds steady as crypto CEOs testify, Ether climbs

CEOs from six major crypto firms spoke before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee; stocks rose amid fading Omicron concerns.

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

Market moves: Bitcoin moved little as the market watched six crypto leaders testify before Congress

Technician’s take: Selling pressure could slow heading into the Asia trading day as indicators appear oversold.

Prices

Bitcoin (BTC): $50,676 +0.5%

Ether (ETH): $4,422 +3.33%

Markets

S&P 500: $4,701 +0.3%

Dow Jones Industrial Average: $35,754 +.09%

Nasdaq: $15,786 +0.6%

Gold: $1,783 -0.9%

Market moves

Bitcoin hovered at around $50,000 on Wednesday, as the crypto market closely observed the CEOs of six major crypto companies share their opinions on regulation with the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. Ether spent a good part of the day at over $4,400.

At the time of publication, bitcoin was changing hands at $50,676, up slightly over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. Trading volume on major centralized exchanges fell again on Wednesday.

Credit: CoinDesk/CryptoCompare

A good portion of the crypto world on Wednesday was focusing on the congressional hearing on digital currencies and stablecoins. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Bitfury CEO Brian Brooks, Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla, Stellar Development Foundation CEO Denelle Dixon and Coinbase CEO Alesia Haas (who is also chief financial officer of the Coinbase Global parent company) all testified. CoinDesk’s Nikhilesh De live blogged the hearing, and the full coverage can be found here.

Amid Cascarilla’s participation, stellar (XLM) prices rose by roughly 6% on Wednesday. The performance of XLM tokens hasn’t been impressive on a relative basis, up just about 98.6% over the past year versus ether’s 691% increase during the same time period.

Stocks rose on Wednesday again as fears about the Omicron coronavirus continued to fade. Investors’ rising appetite for risk assets came after Pfizer and BioNTech announced that initial lab studies showed a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine could “neutralize” the new variant. That could potentially benefit the crypto market, as it usually follows the stock market.

Technician’s take

Bitcoin four-hour price chart shows support/resistance (Damanick Dantes/CoinDesk, TradingView)

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to stabilize at about $50,000 after a near 20% sell-off over the past weekend.

For now, the cryptocurrency remains above $46,000 support, which could stabilize short-term pullbacks. Buyers will need to break above $55,000 resistance to yield further upside targets.

Momentum signals are improving on intraday charts, which suggests buyers could remain active at around current support levels. And the relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart is the most oversold since late September, which preceded a price rally.

Bitcoin is stuck in a short-term downtrend, defined by lower price highs over the past month. Price indicators, however, suggest selling pressure could slow heading into the Asia trading day. That means intraday trading volume could rise around the 100-period moving average (currently around $54,500) on the four-hour chart.

Important events

9:30 a.m. HGT/SGT (1:30 a.m. UTC): China consumer price index (Nov. YoY/MoM)

9:30 a.m. HGT/SGT (1:30 a.m. UTC): China producer price index (Nov. YoY)

2 p.m. HGT/SGT (6 a.m. UTC): Japan machine tool orders

3 p.m. HGT/SGT (7 a.m. UTC): Germany imports/exports (Oct. MoM)