Cardano's private moment

On a day when total crypto assets sit largely unmoved, Ethereum rival Cardano saw its native ADA jump 4% over the past 24 hours, as of 9:40 a.m. (EST), according to CoinGecko. This relatively decent uptick occurred overnight amidst some pre-launch buzz surrounding Midnight, a privacy-related project that runs on Cardano. 

Binance yesterday announced support for Midnight, a "zero-knowledge proof" network. A zero knowledge proof, or "ZK proof," or "ZKP," is a cryptographic method of proving knowledge about a piece of data but without revealing it.

Rivaling privacy chains like Zcash and Monero, Midnight is said to cater to decentralized applications. 

Midnight’s native NIGHT debuted by way of an overnight airdrop. Already, NIGHT’s market capitalization sits in the vicinity of $700M. That makes it CoinGecko’s 122nd-largest token. It’s been as high as 12 cents over the past several hours. When last we glanced at the chart, NIGHT was 4 cents.

Bitcoin on Monday fell to as low as about $89,700 in relatively illiquid conditions marked by wait-and-see posturing ahead of tomorrow's Fed rate decision. As of 9:50 a.m. (EST), BTC had crept back, albeit just barely, above $90,000. The largest crypto has shed 1.5% over the past 24 hours. 

Bitcoin ETFs experienced $60M worth of net outflows yesterday. Most investors seem to be sitting on their hands. A softening employment situation alongside deteriorating consumer sentiment has led to heightened expectations for a rate cut. A Nansen analyst, Aurelie Barthere, told The Block markets are “expecting a rate cut that is already priced in,” while also underscoring how, as usual, Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s forward-looking guidance will be paramount to whether anything resembling a rally unfurls any time soon.

Meanwhile, a non-fungible winter drags on. NFT sales, per Cointelegraph, sank to $320M in November, making last month the worst so far of the year. Among the best-known collections, the current month is said to be off to a “weak start.”

Early to pound the table about the possibility that Bitcoin could ever cross $100,000, Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick recently recalibrated his expectations for the rest of this year. And while it may not be crypto winter, he says, there’s definitely a “cool breeze” with which investors now must contend.

Kendrick, citing a downturn in digital asset treasury (DAT) company shares and a slowing of ETF flows, slashed his year-end outlook for BTC from $200,000 to $100,000. And get this — he doesn't expect $500K to be reached until 2030. Previously, he’d said that half-million mark would be hit in 2028.