Daily News | US Equities and Crypto Plummet As Concerns For China’s Reopening Dampen Sentiment, Solana Tumbled, And MicroStrategy Sold BTC

2022-12-29, 02:38

[//]:content-type-MARKDOWN-DONOT-DELETE
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1672281367output.jpeg)

## TL; DR

🥂 Good morning, today is **Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022.**

**Macro:** US equities fell amid concerns about the end of China's zero-Covid policy and its potential impact on global cases. The S&P 500 hit its lowest level since November and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 3.88%. Negative sentiment is dampening hopes for a rally at the end of the year after a challenging year for financial markets. Some experts believe a slowdown or shallow, brief recession in 2023 could allow stocks to rally in Q2, but the Fed's tightening policy is also impacting the housing market.

**Crypto:** Cryptocurrencies saw significant losses on Wednesday, with [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) dropping 0.92% to 16,544, Ether plummeting 1.65% to 1,189, and Solana plunging a whopping 11.5%. The top two L1’s correlations with US equity indices continue to rise at a steady rate. Meanwhile, MicroStrategy shares experienced a major dip of 6.5% to $138 after making headlines with its first-ever sale of [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT).

****Topic of the Day:**** Solana Continues Its Tumble as Popular NFT Projects Plan to Jump Ship

**Notable Headlines:** MicroStrategy sold 704 [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) worth $11.8 million; Argo Blockchain agreed to sell its Helios mining facility to Galaxy Digital for $65 million; An NFT collection from Manchester United has been accused of too closely resembling the work of popular NFT artist DesLucrece…

## Macro at a Glance

As the end of China's zero-Covid policy looms, US equities have fallen for a second day as concerns about a potential rise in global cases increase. The S&P 500 hit its lowest level since early November, despite thin holiday trading and low volume, and tech shares remained under pressure. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 3.88% and the dollar climbed to its highest level of the day. These negative sentiment changes come as Italian authorities announced plans to test all arrivals from China for Covid and the US announced that airline passengers from China must show negative Covid-19 test results.

This cautious outlook is dampening hopes for a rally at the end of the year, after a challenging year for financial markets. Global equities have lost a fifth of their value, the largest decline since 2008, and global bonds have fallen by 16%. The dollar has increased by 7% and the US 10-year yield has risen above 3.80% from just 1.5% at the end of 2021, as the Federal Reserve aggressively pursued rate hikes to combat inflation.

Despite these challenges, some experts believe that the economic slowdown or shallow, brief recession expected in 2023 could allow stocks to rally in the second half of the year. However, the Fed's tightening policy is also taking a toll on the US housing market, with data showing a decline in US pending home sales for a sixth month in November to the second-lowest on record. As borrowing costs remain high, home sales and prices have been declining for months.

Markets are expected to fall in Asia following the slump in US equities due to concerns about the end of China's Covid restrictions, though US equity futures point to a mixed opening. Meanwhile, the turmoil in the crypto market has also continued, with [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) on pace for one of its worst years on record and enterprise-software firm MicroStrategy announcing its first-ever sale of the token. Solana's SOL token, once promoted by fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, also tumbled, resulting in year-to-date losses of 94%. In addition, global monthly NFT sales declined 89% in November.

💡 **Today's Markets at Dec. 28 23:53 UTC**

**BTC** -0.98% at $16,543; **Ether** -1.83% at $1,189.

**Asia: Japan** -0.41%; **Hong Kong** +1.56%; **China** -0.26%; **India** -0.05%.

**Europe:** **London** +0.26%; **Paris** +0.61%; **Frankfurt** +0.50%.

**US Spot Indices:** **Dow** -1.10%; **S&P** -1.20%; **Nasdaq** -1.35%.

**US Index Futures: Dow** +0.07%; **S&P** +0.12%; **Nasdaq** +0.18%.

**US Two-year Treasury** down 3bps at 4.357%.

**US Ten-year Treasury** up 3bps at 3.886%.

**UK Ten-year Gilt Bond** unchanged at 3.647%.

**[US Dollar](https://www.gate.io/trade/USD_USDT) Index** +0.31% at 104.15.

**FX in 24hrs:** GBP: +0.15%; EUR: -0.12%; JPY: -0.36%; CNY: -0.24%.

**Gold** -0.25% at 1,806; **Light** **Crude -**1.59% at 78.62.

🧠 **There is no significant catalyst this week.**

## Crypto Daily Digest

Wednesday was a massacre for the entire crypto sector, with BTC dropping 0.92% to 16,544 and Ether plummeting 1.65% to 1,189. Ripple (XRP) fell 3.13% to 0.356. DOGE took a major hit, dropping 4.14% to 0.0704.

Cardano (ADA) also fell 2.46% and Polygon (MATIC) slumped 2.96%. Polkadot (DOT) saw a larger drop of 4.39% to 4.27. Solana’s SOL experienced the largest drop of the day at 11.51% to 9.76, while UNI fell 4.14% and AVAX dropped 3.98%.

The US equity market kicked off the day with a positive start, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both rising by 0.4% and 0.6% initially but falling by 1.2% and 1.35% by the end of the day, respectively.

BTC’s correlations with SPX and IXIC stood at 0.4 and 0.45, rising from 0 and 0.08 a week ago, respectively. With the [US Dollar](https://www.gate.io/trade/USD_USDT) Index (DXY), BTC’s correlation rose from -0.77 to -0.35 during the same period.

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) saw a small decrease of 0.37%, struggling above $32.50 after falling 8% to an all-time low of $32.65 the previous day. Silvergate (NYSE:SI) shares recovered slightly, rising almost 1.4% to trade around $16. Block (NASDAQ:SQ) shares were trading at around $60, experiencing a decline of 1.3%.

MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) saw a major dip of 6.5% to $138. The company made headlines this week with its first-ever sale of [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT), selling 704 [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) worth $11.8 million on December 22, according to a Form 8-K filing.

🌐 **Top 20 Coins Performance**

**BTC** -0.92% at 16,544; **ETH** -1.65% at 1,189.

**BNB** -0.68% at 244; **XRP** -3.13% at 0.356; **DOGE** -4.14% at 0.0704.

**ADA** -2.46% at 0.533; **MATIC** -2.96% at 0.781; **DOT** -4.39% at 4.27.

**TRX** +0.23% at 0.0542; **SHIB** -3.23% at 0.00000791; **LTC** -2.97% at 66.42.

**SOL** -11.51% at 9.76; **UNI** -4.14% at 4.97; **AVAX** -3.98% at 11.16.

**TONCOIN** -5.71% at 2.01; **GT** -3.75% at 3.25.

## Topic of the Day: Solana Continues Its Tumble as Popular NFT Projects Plan to Jump Ship

Solana's (SOL) value continues to plummet, reaching a recent low of $9.72 on Thursday morning, the lowest it has been in almost two years.

Solana saw a meteoric rise in value that peaked at nearly $260 per coin in November 2021, but since then has lost nearly 96% of its value, compared to a 76% drop for [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) and Ethereum from their respective all-time highs in the same month.

The cryptocurrency's accelerated decline was largely triggered by the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research, both founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, a vocal supporter of Solana and a significant investor in SOL and the Solana ecosystem.

SOL has also been impacted by news that two of the blockchain platform's popular NFT projects, DeGods and y00ts, will be bridged to other platforms in early 2023.

### Solana **(SOL) $9.80 (-10.62%): 🔽 Bearish Outlook**

**SOL Overview:**

- ***Closest weekly support zone: 9.90 - 8.80***
- ***Closest weekly resistance zone: 10.95 - 11.85***
- ***Weekly* *Key Level: 8.80 (Monthly High of Aug. 2020)***

![The SOL Token has plummeted by over 75% from its November high.]

The SOL Token has plummeted by over 75% from its November high.

**SOL Weekly Resistance zones**

1. 10.95 - 11.85
2. 13.00 - 13.65
3. 14.45 - 15.50

**SOL Weekly Support zones**

1. 9.90 - 8.80
2. 8.45 - 7.15
3. 6.65 - 5.65

If you’d like us to cover any specific token or macro data, feel free to reach out to us by dropping a message in [our Reddit community](https://www.reddit.com/r/GateioExchange/). Meanwhile, for a full technical analysis of [Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE), click here.](https://www.gate.io/blog_detail/1956/)

## Further Reading

[Gate.io WCTC S3 rounded off! A record-high number of participants competed in the game!](https://www.gate.io/blog_detail/1955/) | The trading contest attracted the participation of a total of 15,755 players from dozens of countries and regions such as Korea, Japan, Brazil, Vietnam, Turkey, and Russia.

[Gate.io Pushes the Cause of Blockchain in Asia Forward](https://www.gate.io/blog_detail/1963/) | A look into how Gate.io is taking action today for the future of the industry

[Gate Charity Celebrates Christmas With Kids In New Delhi India](https://www.gate.io/blog_detail/1962/) | For hundreds of deprived children, education is the only weapon that will open doors to provide them with equal opportunity.

## Notable headlines

🔹 **MicroStrategy sold 704 [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) worth $11.8 million on December 22, according to a Form 8-K filing. The company then purchased 810 [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) two days later, adding to its [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) holdings.** MicroStrategy now owns around 132,500 [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) acquired at an average price of $30,397 and has sold about $46.4 million of shares as part of a plan to sell up to $500 million in Class A common stock to increase its [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) holdings.

🔹 **Alameda Research's Ethereum wallet addresses traded various crypto tokens for ether and USDT before swapping them for [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT), according to on-chain data.** Four [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) wallets holding 47.6 BTC worth around $800,000 have been identified as the destination for the funds. These movements have raised suspicion in the crypto community due to the use of mixers like ChangeNow and FixedFloat. This is not the first time mysterious fund transfers have occurred from FTX and Alameda, with $352 million worth of tokens removed from FTX in November, currently being investigated by the US Department of Justice.

🔹 **Binance CEO CZ said he’s “reasonably sure” there were “wide spread API key leaks” from trading-bot platform 3Commas after fresh speculation emerged on social media Wednesday.** A 3Commas spokesperson said the company had seen a message from the hacker and confirmed the data in the posted files was real.

🔹 **Argo Blockchain agreed to sell its Helios mining facility to Galaxy Digital for $65 million.** It will also get a $35 million loan from the company. The troubled miner has been looking for extra capital to avoid filing for bankruptcy.

🔹 **An NFT collection from Manchester United has been accused of too closely resembling the work of popular NFT artist DesLucrece.** Manchester United dropped 7,777 NFTs for its “The Devils” collection starting on Dec. 21. DesLucrece said that he, Tezos and Manchester United are in talks about resolving the issue.

<br/>
Author: Gate.io Researcher **Peter L.**
This article represents only the researcher's views and does not constitute any investment advice.
Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced.
In all other cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.

Credit Ranking

Complete Gate Post tasks to upgrade your rank

Market News

From Bitcoin to Ethereum: Why Ethereum is Blockchain 2.0

2021-06-20, 09:30

Market News

The Biggest Airdrop in History May Come: Metamask Will Launch A Token Soon

2022-03-18, 04:53

Market News

Science: From Market Maker to Liquidity Mining, How Important is Liquidity?

2021-07-19, 07:36