The bogged-down crypto market
Market picture
Bitcoin has lost 1.9% over the past 24 hours, trading just below $20K at the time of writing. A sharp spike in stock markets has bogged down in indecision over the past few days, keeping investors in the crypto market, whose capitalisation lost 1.6% overnight to $956, from buying as well.
Once again, the 50-day moving average in BTCUSD acted as local resistance, keeping the market inside the range that has prevailed since the second half of September. Buyers' hesitancy at the 50-day moving average indicates a persistent wait-and-see attitude, which has almost equal chances to both translates into a new downside momentum and reborn into growth.
The cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index dropped 3 points to 23 by Friday and moved back into "extreme fear".
News background
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, said that we had recently seen some stability in the crypto market. However, the Fed's tightening monetary policy affects all assets, causing cryptocurrencies to fluctuate along with fiat currencies and stock indices.
According to Ark Invest, hoarders have accumulated a record 13.7 million coins, or 71.5% of the total BTC supply, buying the cryptocurrency on the decline since spring. In addition, sellers have all but exhausted their sales potential.
Last week, bitcoin's correlation with gold reached its highest level in more than a year due to a stronger dollar, Kaiko noted. Gold and BTC failed to reassert their haven asset status amid a Fed rate hike.
The EU has imposed a ban on Russian crypto wallets, which will primarily affect the large centralised and regulated Binance and Coinbase, potentially increasing interest in smaller exchanges with softer KYC but generally risking more active cryptocurrency sales.
Author
Alexander Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at FxPro, has been with the company since its foundation. From time to time, he gives commentaries on radio and television. He publishes in major economic and socio-political media.
