Daily News | Main Street Closed With Gains But Crypto Remained Stagnant, Global Volumes Are Expected to Lower As The World Enters Holiday Season

TL; DR

🥂 Good morning, today is Monday, Dec. 26, 2022.

Macro: Wall Street ended Friday’s session with gains while Japan and mainland China will be the main focus for traders on Monday as most other Asia-Pacific markets are closed for holidays. Oil had a significant weekly gain as Russia said it may cut crude production in response to the price cap imposed by the Group of Seven.

Crypto: Bitcoin saw a nearly 1% increase in value over the past week, while Ether saw a nearly 4% increase. The popular memecoin Dogecoin, however, saw significant losses this week, with its value being 8.8% lower than it was at the same time last week. Other coins such as Solana, Cardano, Polkadot, Avalanche, Quant, Ethereum Classic, Uniswap, Litecoin, and Polygon all saw losses of around 9%.

Topic of the Day: Wash Trading Continues to Plague the NFT Market, with 58% of Ethereum Trade Volumes Affected in 2022

Notable Headlines: BoE’s deputy governor noted that crypto is becoming increasingly integrated with TradFi and should be regulated soon; Ellison said she and former FTX CEO SBF had agreed to hide the borrowing arrangement by creating false financial statements; The hashrate of the Bitcoin network dropped to 155 EH/s from 230 EH/s…

Macro at a Glance

Shares on Wall Street ended Friday’s session with gains as investors analyzed data showing that US inflation is continuing to ease and the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes are having the desired effect. This provides some support for Asian markets, although the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 still experienced their third week of losses. There will be no cash trading of Treasuries on Monday, which ended a shortened holiday session lower on Friday. The benchmark 10-year yield increased the most since early April, ending Friday around 3.75%. The dollar experienced a weekly drop.

Japan and mainland China will be the main focus for traders on Monday as most other Asia-Pacific markets are closed for holidays. The risk appetite may be dampened by concerns about a surge in Covid-19 cases in China, which has already had a slight impact on the Australian and New Zealand dollars. The yen remained stable on Monday as there is debate about the possibility of the Bank of Japan raising interest rates in the coming year following last week’s unexpected adjustment to its 10-year yield target.

In other markets, Bitcoin was slightly changed below $17,000 on Monday as the crypto industry continues to recover from the collapse of FTX. In commodities, everything from oil to gold and copper rose on Friday. Oil had a significant weekly gain as Russia said it may cut crude production in response to the price cap imposed by the Group of Seven on its exports, highlighting potential risks to global supplies in the new year.

💡 Today's Markets at Dec. 25 23:26 UTC

BTC -0.06% at $16,826; Ether -0.22% at $1,217.

Asia: Japan -1.03%; Hong Kong -0.44%; China -0.28%; India -1.77%.

Europe: London -0.01%; Paris -0.20%; Frankfurt +0.19%.

US Spot Indices: Dow +0.53%; S&P +0.59%; Nasdaq +0.21%.

US Index Futures: Dow +0.50%; S&P +0.53%; Nasdaq +0.19%.

US Two-year Treasury up 4bps at 4.327%.

US Ten-year Treasury up 7bps at 3.751%.

UK Ten-year Government up 5bps at 3.642%.

US Dollar Index -0.09% at 103.95.

FX in 24hrs: GBP: +0.33%; EUR: +0.21%; JPY: +0.31%; CNY: +0.09%.

Gold +0.28% at 1,797; Brent Crude +3.47% at 84.5.

🧠 There is no significant catalyst this week.

Crypto Daily Digest

The crypto market has been struggling heading into the new year, but the week leading up to Christmas saw modest gains for the top two coins. Bitcoin saw a nearly 1% increase in value over the past week, while Ether saw a nearly 4% increase. The popular memecoin Dogecoin, however, saw significant losses this week, with its value being 8.8% lower than it was at the same time last week.

In addition to Dogecoin, other coins such as Solana, Cardano, Polkadot, Avalanche, Quant, Ethereum Classic, Uniswap, Litecoin, and Polygon all saw losses of around 9%. There were also rumors in Washington that the ongoing investigation into FTX by the SEC could signal the end of centralized crypto exchanges.

The crypto market has had a tumultuous year, with Bitcoin and Ether both seeing significant losses. While Bitcoin's value more than halved over the course of the year, Ether depreciated by a factor of three. The collapses of the Terra ecosystem and the FTX exchange also had negative impacts on the industry. However, retail investors' interest in Bitcoin grew significantly over the course of the year, with the proportion of the total supply in the hands of regular individuals reaching an all-time high of over 17%.

All major US equity indices rose moderately on Friday, with the S&P 500 rising 0.59% and the Nasdaq 100 gaining 0.21%. Coinbase (+2.6%) shares traded higher, and shares of Block (+0.50%), MicroStrategy (-2.14%), and Silvergate (-1.14) ended the week in the mix. The correlation between the Nasdaq and Ether was at 0.61, up from 0.27 a week ago, per IntoTheBlock data. Meanwhile, the US Dollar Index (DXY) and BTC stood inversely correlated at -0.32, rising from -0.8 a week ago. The correlation between US Oil Fund and BTC stood at -0.15, up from -0.31 a week ago.

As the year comes to a close, it's worth considering the lessons the industry has learned in the face of challenges and failures. The collapses of the Terra ecosystem and FTX, as well as the ongoing investigation into FTX by the SEC, have provided case studies in what not to do and have bankrupted many firms in the industry. Despite these challenges, the industry has continued to grow and evolve, with retail investors showing increasing interest in Bitcoin.

🌐 Top 20 Coins Performance

BTC -0.05% at 16,823; ETH -0.12% at 1,217.

BNB -0.26% at 242; XRP +0.05% at 0.346; DOGE -0.43% at 0.0756.

ADA -0.26% at 0.258; MATIC -0.03% at 0.794; DOT -0.25% at 4.48.

TRX +0.04% at 0.0548; SHIB -0.03% at 0.00000828; LTC -0.33% at 68.92.

SOL -0.63% at 11.31; UNI -0.37% at 5.14; AVAX -0.46% at 11.63.

TONCOIN -0.02% at 2.41; GT -0.18% at 3.40.

Topic of the Day: Wash Trading Continues to Plague the NFT Market, with 58% of Ethereum Trade Volumes Affected in 2022

Wash trading, a form of market manipulation where the buyer and seller in a transaction are the same or collude together, continues to be a major problem in the non-fungible token (NFT) market. According to a report by Dune Analytics, wash trading accounted for 58% of total NFT trade volumes on Ethereum in 2022.

The issue peaked in January, with wash trading making up over 80% of total NFT trading volume that month. The report found that when filters were applied to identify wash trading, $30 billion of NFT trading volume from all time could be linked to the practice, representing about 1.5% of all trades that have taken place on Ethereum. NFT marketplaces LooksRare and X2Y2 had the highest percentages of wash trading, with 98% and 87% of their total volume, respectively, being wash trades.

Wash trading is illegal in the US and remains difficult to track in the crypto space. In February, blockchain research firm Chainalysis reported that while most NFT wash traders were previously not profitable due to high gas fees, a group of 110 profitable wash traders were still able to make $8.4 million in profit. The rise in wash trading activity has been attributed to increased competition among NFT marketplaces to capture trade volume market share. This has led to the creation of well-intentioned schemes to incentivize usage as a way to attract trade volume and become the most successful marketplace.

🔽 Ether (ETH): $1,218 (-0.02%)

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. Meanwhile, for a full analysis of Bitcoin (BTC), click here.

ETH Overview:

• Closest weekly support zone: 1,155 - 1,110
• Closest weekly resistance zone: 1,240 - 1,265
• Weekly Key Level: 757.5 (Monthly High of Dec. 2020)

ETH Weekly Timeframe: Chart Link

ETH Weekly Resistance zones

1. 1,240 - 1,265
2. 1,310 - 1,345
3. 1,375 - 1,455

ETH Weekly Support zones

1. 1,155 - 1,110
2. 1,100 - 1,060
3. 1,010 - 965

Further Reading

**Market Trend**｜SBF’s Bail Revealed To Total $250 Million; The SEC Is Cracking Down On Crypto Auditors; Former Ripple Executive Defends XRP’s Utility

Gate.io's Campus Ambassador Programs Offers Onramp to the Blockchain and Crypto Industry | To help accelerate blockchain education, the crypto exchange Gate.io recently started accepting student applications for its Campus Ambassador Program.

Gate Group Strengthens Its Presence in Industry Conferences Globally | In December 2022, the Gate.io team headed to London for the Blockchain Expo Global, where they had the chance to exhibit their platform and interact with attendees from all over the world.

Notable headlines

🔹 The hashrate of the Bitcoin network dropped to 155 EH/s from 230 EH/s. The ongoing blizzard in the US has created a unique set of challenges for Bitcoin miners.

🔹 A crypto wallet linked to North Korean APT Group stole 1,055 NFTs from victims this year. This wallet reportedly made a $365,000 by selling the stolen NFTs.

🔹 Caroline Ellison told a federal court in New York that she knowingly misled lenders about how much the firm had been borrowing. Ellison said she and former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had agreed to hide the arrangement by creating false financial statements.

🔹 Trump’s NFT collection spawned speculation of copyright infringement and market manipulation, and yet the drop could still be deemed a success. Drop illustrates how offering a chance to win prizes provides significant incentive for consumers.

🔹 Paxos has reclaimed 11,184 Paxos Gold (PAXG) tokens worth $20 million taken during the FTX hack.

🔹 Ren DAO votes to fund its new version and mint tokens. An estimated 180 million Ren tokens will be created with a value of about $10.8 million. The tokens are to be used as fresh capital to fund Ren’s transition to a second version.

🔹 Sir Jon Cunliffe shared the Bank of England’s stance that individuals should be able to safely speculate on crypto as they do in traditional markets. The BoE’s deputy governor noted that crypto is becoming increasingly integrated with the traditional financial system and should be regulated sooner rather than later.