First Mover Asia: Bitcoin inches upward in Sunday trading

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:

Market moves: Bitcoin rose slightly on Sunday but was still way off its price of a week ago; most major altcoins dipped over the weekend.

Can You Trust the Celebrity Crypto Endorsements at the Super Bowl This Year? MATIC Token Surges as Polygon Raises $450M to Support Web 3 Plans

"First Mover" hosts spoke with CoinDesk columnist David Morris for his views on crypto firms like FTX and Crypto.com becoming major advertising players at this year's Super Bowl. Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal shared details behind the firm's latest raise that allow it to build Web 3 applications and invest in zero-knowledge technology. Plus, Kareem Sadek of KPMG Canada spoke about the firm's decision to add crypto to its balance sheet.

Prices

Bitcoin (BTC): $42,176 +0.1%

Ether (ETH): $2,879 -0.7%

Top Gainers

Top Losers

Markets

S&P 500: 4,418 -1.9%

DJ IA: 34,738 -1.4%

Nasdaq: 13,791 -2.7%

Gold: $1,858 +1.7%

Market moves

Bitcoin inched upward on Sunday but remained well off where it started the week amid investors' concerns about ongoing inflationary pressure and a possible war with Russia.

At the time of publication, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading at about $42,200 up slightly over the past 24 hours Ether and other major altcoins fell. Ether was trading at about $2,880, off slightly.

"Overall, crypto is down this week, including a slide in prices Friday that some believe is correlated to reports of Russian military exercises indicating that an invasion and possible resulting war is imminent," said Joe DiPasquale, the CEO of fund manager BitBull Capital.

Trading volume for the past week was about half its level of a year ago, leading to the high price volatility. "This week has seen the prices of major cryptos both rise and fall sharply," DiPasquale said.

Crypto's choppy performance has largely emulated major stock indexes, which fell sharply on Friday. The S&P 500 dropped nearly 2% on Friday and the tech-focused Nasdaq plummeted 2.7%.

To be sure, bitcoin and ether are up for February after a lackluster first month of the year. But Solana and other altcoins are down "due to jitters over insecurities in the wormhole protocol," DiPasquale noted.

He added that "anything can happen" if bitcoin approaches $40,000 because of the lower trading volumes. "If the support. line holds, we could see a large bounce, but it does not, we could see a significant drop," he said.

Technician's take

Bitcoin (BTC) sellers were active after buyers failed to sustain a break above $45,0000 this week. The cryptocurrency was roughly flat over the past 24 hours and was confined to a tight range over the weekend. Initial support at $40,000 could stabilize pullbacks.

The relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart approached oversold territory on Wednesday, which preceded the recent downturn in price. On the weekly chart, however, the RSI is rising from oversold levels similar to what occurred in March 2020, which could keep buyers active over the short term.

Momentum indicators improved on the weekly chart after BTC rose 4% over the past seven days. That suggests a neutral outlook so long as support holds above $35,000-$40,000 over the weekend.

Still, the monthly chart appears bearish similar to July 2018, which was the middle of a crypto bear market.

Important events

New Zealand REINZ house price index (Jan. MoM)

Australia housing new home sales (Jan. MoM)

4:30 p.m. HKT/SGT (8:30 a.m. UTC): U.S. 3/6-month bill auction

11:50 p.m. HKT/SGT (3:50 p.m. UTC): Japan gross domestic product (Q4/QoQ preliminary)