1. Market Wrap: Bitcoin Trading Tepidly at $33.7K While SushiSwap Eats Raw Market Share
Bitcoin is taking a break, staying in a tight trading range with lower than average volume compared to the past month. Meanwhile, alternative cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance are stealing the spotlight.
Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $33,782 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 2.5% over the previous 24 hours.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $32,341-$34,715
BTC above the 10-hour and the 50-hour moving average just slightly on the hourly chart, a sideways-to-bullish signal for market technicians.
2. IBM Blockchain Is a Shell of Its Former Self After Revenue Misses, Job Cuts: Sources
IBM has cut its blockchain team down to almost nothing, according to four people familiar with the situation.
Job losses at IBM (NYSE: IBM) escalated as the company failed to meet its revenue targets for the once-fêted technology by 90% this year, according to one of the sources.
“IBM is doing a major reorganization,” said a source at a startup that has been interviewing former IBM blockchain staffers. “There is not really going to be a blockchain team any longer. Most of the blockchain people at IBM have left.”
3. XRP Pump Fails to Materialize as Price Crashes 40% From Day’s High
XRP has crashed hard from a two-month high reached early Monday, with a planned community buying effort failing to yield desired results.
The cryptocurrency is trading near $0.42 at time of writing — down 40% from the high of $0.75 reached at around 11:10 UTC, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
A coordinated buying effort by some 200,000 members of the two-day-old Telegram group called “Buy & Hold XRP” at 08:30 a.m. ET was supposed to push the cryptocurrency to higher resistance levels. Instead, XRP pulled back from $0.75 to $0.60 ahead of the crowd buying and extended losses to $0.40 after 08:30 a.m. ET.
4. Exchange Tokens Hit New All-time Highs as Stock Traders Rush to Crypto
Some retail equities traders, frustrated with recent restrictions on stock buying on trading platforms including Robinhood, are turning their attention to centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEX and DEX, respectively), according to new data. That’s helping to drive several of these exchanges’ tokens to new highs.
Last week GameStop (GME) and and other stocks involved in a battle between a short-selling hedge fund and a Reddit group captured the imagination of the general public, a battle that drove these stocks’ prices higher and squeezed the short seller.
Now, some of that buying excitement has spilled over to crypto where CEX and DEX trading volumes have risen over the past week, according to several crypto trading data sites.
5. Grayscale Reopens Its Ethereum Trust to Investors
Digital asset manager Grayscale Investments said Monday its Ethereum Trust (OTCQX: ETHE) is again open to accredited investors.
The company said the private placement of its shares in the trust is periodically offered throughout the year. The Ethereum Trust last closed its doors in late December, along with five other trusts.
Grayscale offers its various trusts for investors looking for exposure to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC, +0.92%) and ether (ETH, +4.77%) without the challenges of buying and storing the cryptocurrency directly.
As of Jan. 29, the Grayscale Ethereum Trust had more than $4 billion in assets under management, the firm said Monday.
Grayscale — owned by Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk — last week registered five new trusts for cryptocurrency assets, several being linked to the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.
These and other recent trust registrations do not necessarily mean the investment vehicles will actually be launched, however.
Founded in July 2018, ZBG is a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, a global platform of ZB.COM.
ZBG.com has quickly become one of the top 10 exchanges in the world with its innovative, efficient and global operations, and is known as a “New First-Tier” exchange.
Currently, ZBG supports 11 languages, with an average daily activity of more than 160,000, providing over 3 million users around the world with trustworthy cryptocurrency trading, contract trading and other crypto asset investment services.
In the future, ZBG will continue to expand its global market and provide stable, safe and fast blockchain project listing, diversified crypto assets and blockchain derivatives investment services to more blockchain enthusiasts around the world.
ZBG Official English (Telegram): https://t.me/ZBG_Exchange
ZBG Official Chinese(Telegram): https://t.me/ZBG_ChineseOfficial
ZBG Official Bangladesh (Telegram): https://t.me/zbgbangladesh
Twitter：https://twitter.com/ZBG_Exchange
ZBG, World’s top 10 crypto currency exchange.
Link to future value!
ZBG Team
February 02, 2021
