1. Market Wrap: ‘Elon Candle’ Effect Fades Quickly as Bitcoin Retreats Below $55K
Tesla got the market excited briefly, but bitcoin is still in consolidation mode.
Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $54,771.18 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 0.63% over the previous 24 hours.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $53,577.33-$57,225.30
BTC trades below its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bearish signal for market technicians.
The “Elon Candle” effect on bitcoin appears to be short-lived.
The market jumped early Wednesday after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the electric vehicle maker plans to now accept bitcoin as a payment option, and that it won’t convert any receipts of the cryptocurrency back into U.S. dollars.
On the U.S.-based Coinbase exchange, bitcoin’s price briefly shot above $57,000, compared with the prior day’s $54,400. The reaction recalled the action on Feb. 8 when prices jumped more than $7,000 — the most ever for a single day — after Musk tweeted that Tesla had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. Traders and T-shirt marketers nicknamed the episode “Elon’s Candle,” after the corresponding vertical shape created on a daily price chart.
2. Fed Chair Powell: Digital Dollar Would Need Stronger Privacy Than Digital Yuan
“The lack of privacy in the Chinese system is just not something we could do here,” Powell told a House committee.
China’s central bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve agree that a fully anonymous national digital currency is not feasible. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell believes when a digital dollar is developed it must provide users with more privacy than the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) planned digital yuan.
“The lack of privacy in the Chinese system is just not something we could do here,” Powell said while testifying before the House Committee on Financial Services on Tuesday. “We’re only beginning to think carefully about these things and it’s going to be a careful, detailed and probably lengthy process of consideration.”
Powell’s comments came after Changchun Mu, the head of PBOC’s digital currency arm, was reported as claiming the digital yuan will offer greater privacy protection than any other digital payment system.
3. Bitcoin Traders Brace for Record $6B in Options to Expire Friday
The record bitcoin options expiry could be bearish overhang on the market.
They call it “max pain” in the bitcoin options market: How to make one’s trading counterparty suffer the most.
Although the largest cryptocurrency was changing hands Wednesday around $56,500, traders were handicapping the odds of a plunge to about $44,000 by Friday, when a record $6 billion of options contracts is set to expire.
A drop to that price level would inflict “max pain” on buyers of options contracts, and it might be the most profitable price point for options sellers. It’s a remote risk, but not one to be discounted.
4. Fidelity-Affiliated Fund Files for Bitcoin ETF
Peter Jubber, the managing director of Fidelity Digital Funds, serves as president of the trust.
An affiliate of investment giant Fidelity is seeking to offer a bitcoin (BTC, -1.95%) exchange-traded fund in the U.S. market.
A Wednesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeks approval for the “Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust,” an exchange-traded fund with multiple ties to Fidelity.
Fidelity affiliates serve as the fund’s sponsor, administrator, custodian and trustee, the filing states. The fund would track the performance of Fidelity’s bitcoin index.
Peter Jubber, the managing director of Fidelity Digital Funds, serves as president of the trust.
5. Microsoft President Says Fintech Firms Should Leave Digital Currencies to Governments
“We’re not a bank and we don’t want to become a bank and we don’t want to compete with our customers who are banks,” said Brad Smith.
Tech giant Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith criticized financial technology firms attempting to issue currencies, saying governments are best suited to play this role, according to a Bloomberg report.
Speaking at a Bank for International Settlements conference on Wednesday, Smith said he is not a big fan of encouraging Microsoft to participate in the issuance of a digital currency, the report said.
“The money supply almost uniquely needs to be managed by an entity that is responsible to the public and thinks really only about the public interest, and that means governments,” said Smith.
One such private firm trying to issue its own digital currency is social media giant Facebook, which is seeking to launch the stablecoin diem (originally called libra).
The prospect caused policymakers and regulators from around the globe to express their concerns over potential privacy and money-laundering risks, as well as the possible loss of control over the monetary system.
“I think the world has been better served by what has been a movement over centuries to put that [digital currency] in the hands of governments. We’re not a bank and we don’t want to become a bank and we don’t want to compete with our customers who are banks,” said Smith.
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March 25, 2021
