Bitcoin once again slipped below the $42,000 mark but Ethereum was able to hold $3,200 levels. The trading volumes remained light during early trade as the market witnessed a sharp churn due to the changing economic environment.
Barring Terra and dollar-pegged stablecoins, all other seven out of top-10 digital tokens were trading lower during the early trade on Thursday. Cardano posted double digit cuts.
The global crypto market cap dropped more than a per cent and breached the $2 trillion mark, thanks to constant selling. Also, the total crypto market volumes were down about 3 per cent at $75.18 billion.
Ethereum is starting to test the closely watched $3,000 price threshold as the broader drop in risk appetite in some of the more speculative areas of market continues to weigh on some of last year’s best performing assets.
What’s cooking in India
The government has sought the views of tax experts on disclosure and taxation guidelines for companies and family offices that hold cryptocurrencies, said two people aware of the matter.
Companies currently have to disclose any holdings or dealings in cryptocurrencies or crypto assets in their filings with the Registrar of Companies. The government could clarify the tax implications of such investments in the upcoming Budget.
In other news, Sahicoin, a social platform for crypto users, raised $1.75 million in seed funding from Alameda Ventures (FTX), Better Capital, and other institutional investors.
Sahicoin brings together crypto experts and new investors to share crypto updates, trends, knowledge, and intelligent signals. The funding will be deployed to scale the team across engineering & product, and grow the platform.
Expert Take
The weak macroeconomic outlook and prospect of the Fed reducing its balance sheet continued to cast an overhang on the market. This was exacerbated by a sharp rise in bond yields, with tech and growth stocks most punished, said CoinDCX Research Team.
“Cryptocurrencies weren’t spared either, with fierce selling seen initially, although there was some respite nearing the final hours. The $40,000 and $3,000 mark for bitcoin and ether, respectively remain key support levels to watch as a break below these levels on strong volume could see significant downwards pressure for crypto at large,” it added.
Global updates
Crypto exchange Gemini is introducing a prime brokerage following the acquisition of trading technology platform Omniex less than a week after it bought digital-asset management company Bitria as it looks to woo institutional buyers.
Streamlining the NFTs
Autograph, a non-fungible token (NFT) platform co-founded by National Football League star Tom Brady, has closed a $170 million Series B funding round that was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Kleiner Perkins.
Damien Hirst’s first non-fungible token (NFT) collection is getting a dedicated price index courtesy of Chainlink, a crypto network and data provider.
Tech view by Giottus Crypto Exchange
XRP is one of the most popular (and oldest) altcoins in the market. A token of the Ripple network, it has done exceedingly well in previous bull runs, and currently remains subdued largely due to its ongoing SEC case in the US where it is the centre of a debate on whether it qualifies as a security and thus subject to regulation.
XRP corrected from a high of above $1 in December to about $0.7 in January. Its correction was consistent on a resistance trendline that it recently broke out of. However, it quickly faced rejection at the .382 retracement of the drop and soon lost the .236 support to resistance as well.
If this is part of a 3-wave ABC correction, XRP may currently be a B-wave bounce if it holds support at $0.69. Else, it may be experiencing a larger A wave correction that could take it further lower, perhaps to $0.6.
Any resumption of a bullish structure would require XRP flipping the golden pocket resistance of the drop (at $0.9) into support. This is not entirely difficult if its looming SEC case delivers positive updates.
Major levels
Support: $0.72, $0.69
Resistance: $0.81, $0.85, $0.90