1. Market Wrap: Bitcoin in Tight $35K-$36K Range; Ether Volumes Still Beating BTC
Ether’s dominance is at 19.78%, the highest it has been since May 16.
Investors are parking bitcoin in places like decentralized finance (DeFi) while excitement in trading ether continues to be elevated.
Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $35,679 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Losing 0.25% over the previous 24 hours.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $35,335-$36,742
Ether (ETH) trading around $2,736 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). In the green 2% over the previous 24 hours.
Ether’s 24-hour range: $2,677-$2,840Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down Monday by 0.25% as of press time. It was below the 10-hour moving average and the 50-hour, a bearish signal for market technicians.
BTC’s price jumped from $35,335 at 22:45 UTC (6:45 p.m. ET) Sunday to $36,742 by 02:45 UTC Monday (10:45 p.m. ET Sunday), a 4% climb based on CoinDesk 20 data. Bitcoin then fell below $36,000, at $35,679 as of press time.
“We are now seeing consolidation, with higher lows, and we want to see bitcoin gradually move back up to the higher trend,” said Nick Mancini, research analyst at crypto sentiment analytics platform Trade the Chain. “We expect to see a large price move in the next 48–72 hours.”
Lest traders and investors forget, less than a month ago bitcoin was priced over $55,000. Specifically, according to CoinDesk 20 data, spot BTC was at $59,506 on May 8.
2. Federal Officials Recover Bitcoin Ransom From Colonial Pipeline Attack
Colonial paid $4.4 million in bitcoin after its systems fell victim to a ransomware attack last month.
Federal officials have recovered $2.3 million in bitcoin (BTC, -6.75%) that Colonial Pipeline paid to a criminal outfit during a ransomware attack, the Department of Justice announced Monday.
Colonial Pipeline paid about $4.4 million in bitcoin to the attackers, linked to the Darkside ransomware group, after its payment systems were frozen last month. The company had to halt fuel transportation across the East Coast of the U.S., sparking fears of a gas shortage in a dozen states. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Monday that the company contacted law enforcement, allowing federal agents to track and seize a bitcoin wallet.
“The Department of Justice has found and recovered the majority of the ransom paid,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a press briefing.
An affidavit filed by an FBI agent provided further details. According to public court documents, the agent, whose name was redacted, tracked the bitcoin Colonial sent to Darkside across several transactions recorded on the bitcoin ledger, using a block explorer.
3. El Salvador Commerce Secretary: Bitcoin Won’t Replace Dollar
Miguel Kattán, a member of President Nayib Bukele’s cabinet, sought to reassure Salvadorans fearful of a full pivot to a bitcoin standard.
El Salvador’s proposed embrace of bitcoin would not end dollarization in the Central American economy, top government officials said, addressing concerns raised by citizens confused about the plan.
“The dollar will continue to be the legal tender in El Salvador. Operations can be done with bitcoin — obviously related to its value in dollars.” Miguel Kattán, El Salvador’s secretary of Commerce and Investment, said in remarks covered by local newspaper El Mundo on Monday.
Providing the most in-depth look yet at President Nayib Bukele’s plan to grant bitcoin legal tender status, Kattan said the still-under-wraps bill would create an opt-in bitcoin economy where the dollar, El Salvador’s official fiat since 2001, remains supreme.
4. Investors See Possible El Salvador Bitcoin Embrace as Too Little to Move Market
El Salvador’s announcement was largely ignored by markets, possibly due to the country’s small size, analysts say.
A push by El Salvador’s president to embrace bitcoin as the country’s legal tender is not seen as having much of an impact on the $663 billion bitcoin market, even if it does inspire other countries to do the same.
Investors, analysts and economists were assessing the potential price ramifications Monday after President Nayib Bukele said Saturday he will submit a bill this week to recognize bitcoin as the Central American nation’s legal tender.
So far, the market isn’t giving much weight to the announcement and bitcoin (BTC) has been trading in a tight range over the past few days around $36,000, still well off the all-time high near $65,000 reached in mid-April.
5. Deutsche Bank Issues Stark US Inflation Warning, Seeing Economic Parallels to 1940s, 1970s
Inflation could send the global economy into recession as central banks lose control, according to Deutsche Bank.
Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender, says the U.S. might be headed for one of its worst inflationary periods in history, arguing that elevated government spending and loose monetary policy could combine to create conditions similar to prior episodes in the 1940s and 1970s.
Adding to the pressures are some $2 trillion of “excess savings” that consumers have amassed over the past year, when many businesses were closed and travel mostly shut down, according to the report published Monday.
“Consumers will surely spend at least some of their savings as economies reopen,” wrote Deutsche Bank Chief Economist David Folkerts-Landau along with Peter Hooper, global head of economic research, and Jim Reid, head of thematic research.. “This raises the very real specter of consumer-driven inflation.”Inflation is closely watched by cryptocurrency investors who view bitcoin (BTC, -6.63%) as a hedge against dollar debasement.
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June 8, 2021
