First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Remains Above $19K as Long-Term Holders Stay the Course

  • Price Point: Bitcoin rose slightly to $19,200 on Monday, even as stocks fell around the world.
  • Market Moves: Long-term holders are keeping bitcoin, helping the cryptocurrency to remain resilient as other risky assets fall. One trader, however, sees a sell-off coming.
  • Chart of the Day: About $1.1 billion in bitcoin left centralized exchanges in the three days between last Thursday and Saturday, according to CryptoQuant.

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

Price Point

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading slightly up on the day at $19,200. The cryptocurrency appears to be showing resilience, while global stocks fell to a two-year low and U.S. stock futures struggled to find direction on Monday.

Bitcoin touched $20,000 on Friday and dipped to as low as $18,900 on Sunday.

Ethereum (ETH) was trading at around $1,293 on Monday, a small increase, while Uniswap (UNI) rose about 3.5%.

In traditional markets, the focus was on Credit Suisse. The bank’s shares fell by as much as 10% on Monday after the Swiss lender failed to calm investor fears about its financial health.

Digital-asset investment products saw inflows of $10.3 million last week, the third consecutive week of inflows, according to a report from CoinShares.

“The flows remain low implying a continued hesitancy amongst investors,”  the report stated. “This is highlighted in investment product trading volumes, which were $886 million for the week, the lowest level since October 2020.”

The report also noted that there was broadly negative sentiment for altcoins last week with outflows totaling $3.5  million. The most affected were the tokens for the Polygon, Avalanche and Cardano blockchains,  CoinShafes said.

In the news, CoinDesk’s Sam Reynolds reported that crypto futures and spot exchange BitMEX is planning to launch its exchange token, BMEX, by the end of the year, its CEO said at the Token2049 conference in Singapore.

Alex Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of Celsius Network, removed $10 million from the now bankrupt crypto lender weeks before Celsius halted customer withdrawals in June, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources.


CoinDesk Market Index

Biggest Gainers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector
LCX LCX +10.09% Currency
Ren REN +4.69% DeFi
Aragon ANT +4.34% DeFi

Biggest Losers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector
Celsius CEL -21.05% Currency
Rally RLY -14.86% Culture & Entertainment
Stellar XLM -3.31% Currency

Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) is a broad-based index designed to measure the market capitalization weighted performance of the digital asset market subject to minimum trading and exchange eligibility requirements.

Market Moves

Range-Bound Bitcoin Reminds Crypto Twitter of 2018 Lull That Ended With 50% Crash

By Omkar Godbole

It's the glass half-full, glass half-empty bitcoin market.

To bulls, factors like the absence of large sellers, persistent holding by long-term investors and the cryptocurrency's resilience in the face of turmoil in traditional financial markets provide hope.

To bears, the current lull is reminiscent of September-October 2018, when the largest cryptocurrency held steady at close to $6,000 for weeks before slumping by almost 50%.

Over the weekend, pseudonymous analyst and swing trader il Capo Of Crypto explained to his 540,000 followers that much like the 2018 consolidation near $6,000, current trading at around $20,000 represents a temporary pause that will pave the way for another price sell-off.

Read the full story here.

Chart of the Day

Bitcoin Worth $1B Leave Centralized Exchanges

By Omkar Godbole

(This chart shows the difference between coins flowing into and out of the exchange.)
  • Centralized exchanges registered an outflow of more than 60,000 BTC worth $1.1 billion between Thursday and Saturday, according to data tracked by South Korea-based analytics firm CryptoQuant.
  • "That's the highest amount [of outflows] in months. After months of lowering prices, this is a sign of demand coming back into the market," CryptoQuant's community manager, JA Maartun, said.
  • Exchange outflows are typically taken to represent investor intention to hold coins for a long term.

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