Market put on mute
What's being bought and sold*
TOP TRENDING ASSETS
*Trading activity in the past 24 hours on the Uphold platform, as of 8 a.m. EST 21st September 2023.
The combined total of buy and sell percentages can exceed 100% due to customers who engage in both buying and selling the same asset within the 24-hour time frame.
All investments and trading are risky and may result in the loss of capital. Cryptoassets are largely unregulated and are therefore not subject to protection.
What’s up
Native Token Of NFT Platform Surges On An Otherwise Somber Thursday
All's quiet on the crypto front. That is, except for ImmutableX. The NFT platform's native IMX token surged by nearly 40% earlier this morning amidst spiking volume at a few South Korean exchanges (Decrypt).
The rest of the market is super sullen. Anticipated Fed-induced volatility never materialized. As hawkish as ever, the U.S. central bank signaled rates will remain higher for longer.
Although let it be noted that the Bank of England ended a streak of rate hikes after some data suggested cooling inflation.
The Fed’s articulated scenario (stubborn inflation, probably not a soft landing) sent the 10-year Treasury yield to 4.43%, its highest level since 2008.
What's down
Crypto Bulls Vanish
Total global crypto market capitalization hovers around $1.09 trillion, having decreased 1.6% in the past 24 hours as of 9:20 a.m. (EST). Optimism is hard to find.
Bulls are missing in action. Bitcoin did manage to hold a key level of $26,700 as it slid 1.5% since this time yesterday.
Indeed, all of the big-caps are down, as are most small-cap coins. One of the highest flyers of late, Toncoin, has come in for a landing, down 6.7%. Uphold's top trending assets, including XDC, XRP and XLM, all are in the red. Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Staked Ether, down, down, down.
Rollbit rolled over (-7%) and Kaspa passed out (-7%).
Wait, we did find Optimism. OP lost 5.6%.
What's next
Catalysts Coming Around The Mountain
Maybe the macro picture isn't so macabre. Sure, at least one more rate increase is on the table and markets weren't thrilled about it. But inflation continues to come down, having peaked last summer.
AltTab Capital, a digital asset investment fund, told CoinDesk the Fed merely recognizing that inflation is finally moving in the right direction in itself is a win, and could lead some investors to revisit risk assets.
Meanwhile, Mt. Gox, a once dominant but now defunct Japanese crypto exchange, pushed off a plan to sell a mountain of Bitcoin.
The pending bankruptcy repayments (of BTC that was recovered after an infamous 2014 hacking incident) were originally set to come later this fall but have now been rescheduled for October of 2024, delaying a deluge of extra supply flowing into the market (CoinDesk).
Rumors of the sell pressure reprieve may have helped buttress BTC price levels over the past week.
In terms of future bullish catalysts, market participants can still keep their eyes peeled for the approval of a U.S.-based spot BTC ETF, possibly happening by the end of the year.
