Tokyo will probably ban fans from attending the Olympics, due to fears of the covid delta variant and growth in cases. It seems that it’s not just Japan that’s feeling bad, equity markets all retraced yesterday, in the US and in Europe and we’re seeing Asia trade down this morning as well. Conversely, bonds are bought pushing the 10-year yield further down. Gold remains steady.
I wish I could say that crypto also stayed put but it definitely didn’t. Whether it’s because of the above economic concerns and an all around risk-off sentiment, or, due to further pain from China regulators, investors sold BTC yesterday. Prices fell a good 3%, from $33,800 to now $32,800.
As one would expect, the BTC Dominance index jumped back up, erasing two down days, now back at 45.50.
With the exception of STX which is on an incessant ramp up this week, most other coins are down and down more than King Coin. DOT is down 9%, MATIC and ETH are down 8%, LINK and AAVE fell about 6-7%.
To expand on the news hinted at before, the down move was prompted -I believe- by the Chinese state media repeating its concerns about cryptocurrencies being used for tax evasion and money laundering and, especially, stablecoins. I suspect this is yet another attempt to clear the scene for their own CBDC, their central bank issued renminbi stablecoin.
Another downer for most people in crypto -but also probably not unexpected- is the SEC delaying a decision on SkyBridge Capital’s proposed Bitcoin ETF to August.
On more bullish news, Bank of America created a new team dedicated to researching cryptocurrencies. This adds to banks revving up to a more active role in the crypto space.
To finish, a CryptoQuant chart suggests there is at least enough buying power to keep us at current levels if not take us higher. Looking at the SSR, the stablecoin supply ratio, and overlaying it with bollinger band, we can see that when it touches the lower band there is an impetus to go back up, prices are low enough and supply of cash is high enough.
Let’s see how this plays out. For now we’re still in the 32K - 42K range.
