Good morning and welcome to First Mover. I'm Lyllah Ledesma and I'd like to update you on the latest crypto market developments, news and insights.
- Market Movements: BTC and Altcoins are trading in the green in the last 24 hours. ADA, SOL, AVAX are making 15%+ gains.
- Feature: we continue the Terra saga with a look at the latest exchanges to delist Terra's LUNA and UST.
Price Point.
Bitcoin (BTC) has gained 8% in the last 24 hours and has climbed back above the $30,000 mark after falling to a low of $25,000 on Thursday. The world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has still lost over 50% of its value from its November 2021 all-time high of $69,000.
After one of the most tumultuous weeks in the market's history, the total crypto market cap has fallen by over $300 billion in the last seven days. Several assets plunged more than 30% during the week, but began to regain ground early Friday.
And that's not even close to the disaster that Terra's LUNA was when the UST stablecoin lost its $1 peg. LUNA crashed 100% this week.
Solana's SOL token, which plummeted on Thursday as the overall market fell, dropping as low as $35, is now up 15% from the previous day and trading for around $51. Cardano's ADA is up 20% on the day, and Avalanche's AVAX is up 24%.
In traditional markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for the sixth straight day, and the S&P 500 was down 19.4% from its January high of 4,800. The S&P 500 is now at 3,868, and according to a rule of thumb popular among investors, a decline of 20% or more signals the start of a bear market.
Shares of Robinhood rose after a new report revealed that Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has acquired a 7.6% stake in the company.
Market Moves.
According to Florian Giovannacci, Head of Trading at Covario AG, the crypto market rally in the last 24 hours in BTC and altcoins is "more of a technical recovery after an overextended bear market/capitulation and unwinding of leveraged short positions (especially in alts)."
He said today's rise in cryptocurrency prices "will definitely help sentiment, but there's no news that really marks a definitive change in sentiment."
Looking ahead, Giobannaccii said that despite trading in the green for a number of assets on the day, correlation to U.S. equities is a key factor for BTC prices.
"Until we see an improvement in CPI data, the bears will be in charge."
Last Headlines
- Terra Blockchain Resumes Operations After 9-Hour Disruption The Terra blockchain has resumed activity after a roughly nine-hour disruption while validators sought a way out of the ongoing crisis.
- Elon Musk puts Twitter acquisition on hold, Twitter shares plummet The landmark deal to acquire Twitter by Elon Musk has stalled as Musk seeks to have the number of fake accounts verified.
- Nomura begins trading crypto derivatives, joining rivals Goldman and JPMorgan Nomura has been trading bitcoin futures and options with futures exchange CME Group and crypto market maker Cumberland DRW.
- Binance, OKX Delists Terra's LUNA and UST Citing User Protection The two crypto exchanges stopped trading Terra tokens after UST lost its peg and LUNA plunged more than 99%.
- Cardano's ADA Jumps 40% Leading Major Cryptocurrencies' Recovery; Sentiment Remains "Extremely Anxious" The market capitalization of cryptocurrencies rose more than 13% in the last 24 hours, although inflation concerns persist.
- Crypto-related stocks in Asia see volatile trading amid bitcoin recovery Traditional market investors risked exiting listed companies linked to the crypto sector amid a price drop this week.
- LUNA, UST Despite Terra Blockchain Halt Still Available on FTX and Other Exchanges Transactions executed during the blockchain halt are not considered final as they cannot be settled.
- Terra validators halt blockchain to determine next steps The blockchain was halted Thursday after the price of governance token LUNA fell.
- Yellen Call for 'Responsible' Crypto Innovation is Right Janet Yellen, speaking recently at American University, made erudite, common-sense remarks about the right approach to regulating digital currencies and assets, innovation and the policies surrounding them.
Binance, OKX Delist Terra's LUNA and UST Citing User Protection.
By Shaurya Malwa and Jamie Crawley
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, suspended spot trading for LUNA and UST against its own stablecoin BUSD on Friday after competitor OKX announced it would end spot listing of UST and cease margin and lending services for Terra ecosystem tokens such as LUNA, Anchor (ANC) and Mirror (MIR).
"An exponential amount of new LUNA was minted due to flaws in the Terra protocol design," Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao said in an explanatory tweet. "Some of our users, unaware of the large amounts of newly minted LUNA outside the exchange, have started buying LUNA again without understanding that the price is likely to crash further once deposits are allowed. Because of these significant risks, we suspended trading."
OKX planned to end exchange-traded UST trading for Bitcoin (BTC), Avalanche (AVAX), Solana (SOL), and Ether (ETH) starting at 10:00 a.m. UTC, in addition to earlier cancellations of margin trading and borrowing for LUNA, ANC, and MIR. Perpetual swaps were suspended at 8:00 a.m. UTC.
"Seismic crypto market moves like we've seen this week tend to teach some pretty brutal lessons," Lennix Lai, an OKX director, said in an email. "We are seeing a flight away from direct investment in DeFi protocols in the wake of the UST collapse."
"The reality is that centralized exchanges are set up to provide a much higher level of protection to users regardless of how the markets perform," Lai said.
UST fell as low as 22 cents earlier this week amid a run on the currency. The price of the related LUNA token fell 99.7 percent to pennies on Thursday from more than $60 earlier in the week.
LUNA and other tokens continue to trade on crypto exchanges FTX and Gate as we write.
"Withdrawals for LUNA and UST will open when the network becomes stable," Binance said.
Today's newsletter was edited by Lyllah Ledesma and produced by Parikshit Mishra and Stephen Alpher.