Daily News | Crypto Market Holds Ground Amid Wall Street Weakness, Peter Thiel Nets $1.8 Billion From BTC

2023-01-20, 02:26

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## TL; DR

🥂 Good morning, today is **Friday, Jan. 20, 2023.** Hope you guys had a good weekend! ****It’s going to be yet another great day. Let’s get after it relentlessly.

**Macro:** Wall Street sell-off appeared to be slowing down amid rising interest rates, economic growth and earnings concerns. Traders seems to be betting on China's economic recovery and are not affected much by negative US news. Meanwhile, Japan's inflation hits 4% for first time in over four decades. In the US, the Treasury Department announced it was using special measures to prevent payment default after debt limit reached.

**Crypto:** Total crypto market cap per Tradingview data is $935.11B, rising 2.09% in 24 hours. As the S&P and Nasdaq traded down for a second day, crypto market held its ground despite Wall Street's weakness. All of the top 20 coins have recouped some losses. Since TradFi has at least 100x trading volume compared to crypto and it is seeing a correction this week, traders will watch out for any momentum changes before next week to determine if the previous bull wave was a bull trap.

****Topic of the Day:**** Lightning Network left in the dust as Avalanche's BTC.b takes the lead

**Notable Headlines:** Peter Thiel's fund cashed in on its [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) position, netting $1.8 billion; John Ray III has set up a task force to explore restarting FTX; The $1B Venom Venture Fund was launched with the mandate to boost Abu Dhabi's blockchain sector…

## Macro at a Glance: Interest Rates, Economic Growth, and Earnings; Navigating the Tumultuous Waters

It was a mixed bag for Asian stocks on Friday as US benchmarks dipped for the third day in a row due to worries about rising interest rates, economic growth, and earnings. While Australian and South Korean equities saw an upward trend, along with US futures, Japanese shares had a volatile performance and contracts for Hong Kong were on the rise.

However, it seems the sell-off on Wall Street is showing signs of slowing down, with the S&P 500 ending down 0.8% on Thursday, which is a smaller decline compared to the 1.6% drop from the day before. Traders are keeping their hopes high on China's economic revival, which is why commodities and stocks in Asia have not been affected much by the negative news from the US this week. On another note, Japan's inflation hit 4% for the first time in more than four decades.

In the US, the Federal Reserve's Vice Chair Lael Brainard stated that interest rates will need to remain elevated for a period to keep inflation under control. Meanwhile, the US Treasury Department is using special measures to avoid defaulting on payments after the federal debt limit was reached on Thursday.

The Treasury is adjusting investments in two government-run funds for retirees, which will allow the Treasury to continue making federal payments while the overall level of debt cannot be increased. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen informed congressional leaders of both parties of the step in a letter on Thursday and urged Congress to act promptly to increase the debt limit. Once the debt limit is increased, the funds will be "made whole" and participants will be unaffected.

**Today's Markets at Jan. 20 00:38 UTC** 💡

**BTC** +1.82% at $21,266; **Ether** +2.19% at $1,548

**Asia: Australia** +0.22%**; Japan** -0.08%; **Hong Kong** -0.12%; **China** +0.49%; **India** -0.32%.

**Europe:** **London** -0.13%; **Paris** -1.86%; **Frankfurt** -1.72%.

**US Spot Indices:** **Dow** -0.76%; **S&P** -0.76%; **Nasdaq** -0.96%.

**US Index Futures: Dow** +0.14%; **S&P** +0.21%; **Nasdaq** +0.39%.

**US Two-year Treasury** up 6bps at 4.138%.

**US Ten-year Treasury** up 3bps at 3.402%.

**UK Ten-year Gilt Bond** down 9bp at 3.222%.

**[US Dollar](https://www.gate.io/trade/USD_USDT) Index** -0.30% at 101.65.

**FX in 24hrs:** GBP: -0.01%; EUR: +0.00%; JPY: -0.13%; CNY: 0.00%.

**Gold** -0.04% at 1,930; **Light** **Crude** +0.24% at 81.00.

**Market** **Catalysts next week** 🧠

**Thursday:** US Building Permits, Japan Inflation Rate

**Friday:** UK Gfk Consumer Confidence, UK Retail Sales

**Catalysts** **next week** 🗓

**Tuesday**: Japan Consumer Confidence

**Monday** - **Friday**: Q4 US Earnings Season

## Crypto Daily Digest: Nasdaq Down, Crypto Up: A Market Divergence

[Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) and Ether held steady while Wall Street plunged for a 2nd day coming back from holiday. BTC is holding steady, for now, at 21,508 or up 1.82% in 24hrs. ETH, on the other hand, holds steady at 1,548 or up 2.19% in 24hrs. The total crypto market cap, per Tradingview data, is $935.11B, rising 2.09% in 24hrs after falling 2.70% the day before, implying the entire crypto market remains stagnant as the bullish wave we saw last week comes to a halt.

In related news, [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) saw a 3x increase in monthly active developers, from 372 in 2018 to 946 in 2022. There are 23,343 monthly blockchain developers as of December 2022. The number of full-time developers grew by 8% YoY. They make 76% of all code commits.

Meanwhile, per Glassnode data, the total number of ethereum (ETH) accumulated in the deposit contract has reached 16,087,719 ETH, worth around $25.5 billion at the time of writing.

The total value of the deposit contract reached the $10 billion mark in April 2021, when ETH was trading at around $2,500. On the other hand, the number of ethereum wallets in loss has reached a one-month low of 37,769,550.

Among the top 20 coins, all have recouped some losses we saw up until Thursday. Notably, Shiba Inu had the highest gains of all at 5.66%. This follows an announcement they made earlier about launching a layer-2 solution called the Shibarium.

As the Nasdaq traded down for a second day, most crypto and mining-related stocks have also seen a retreat in price movements. Interestingly, crypto market held its ground despite Wall Street’s weakness. On a technical outlook, traditional stocks which have at least 100x trading volume compared to crypto, are seeing a correction this week, and it’ll be crucial for to watch out for a momentum change before next week to determine whether or not the previous bull wave was a bull trap.

**Top 20 Coins Performance** 🌐

**BTC** +1.82% at 21,058; **ETH** +2.19% at 1,548.

**BNB** +2.00% at 294; **XRP** +3.28% at 0.390; **DOGE** +1.58% at 0.0814.

**ADA** +2.08% at 0.337; **MATIC** +1.41% at 0.951; **DOT** +2.28% at 5.8.

**TRX** +1.61% at 0.0600; **SHIB** +5.66% at 0.0000116 **LTC** +1.2% at 83.9.

**SOL** +1.08% at 21.08; **UNI** +1.17% at 6.12; **AVAX** +2.27% at 16.11.

**ATOM** +3.78% at 11.9; **GT** -0.72% at 3.749.

## Topic of the Day: Lightning Network left in the dust as Avalanche's BTC.b takes the lead

The total number of [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) (BTC) transferred from the [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) blockchain to the Avalanche smart contract blockchain has surpassed the number of coins held in the Lightning Network, a second-layer solution for [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT)'s scalability issues.

This is a significant milestone for the Avalanche community and developers behind the project.

The Avalanche platform added support for BTC in its cross-chain bridge in June 2022, allowing [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) holders to transfer coins to Avalanche and access the Avalanche-based decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Unlike wrapped [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT), BTC.b allows users to seamlessly bridge between [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) and Avalanche at a relatively low cost.

In its recent outlook, Avalanche (AVAX) has gained attention by announcing its blockchain support for Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. However, analysis suggests that Avalanche's price increase is likely due to a broader cryptocurrency market pump that will likely end with the rest of the market.

The integration with AWS is a positive step for Avalanche, but the hype around its implications may be exaggerated. This is because Avalanche's team established a similar deal with Alibaba's Cloud in December 2022, but the blockchain's validator count remained consistent, indicating that not many users of Alibaba Cloud were willing to run an Avalanche node.

Furthermore, Avalanche's recent price rally is primarily driven by a liquidation hunt of short orders in the futures market. As a result, buyers should exercise caution.

### Avalanche (AVAX) $16.235 (+0.29%) - Neutral Outlook

**Overview:**

- ***Closest daily support zone: 15.47 - 15.26***
- ***Closest daily resistance zone: 16.50 - 17.87***
- ***Key Level: 15.258 (Monthly High of Jan. 2021)***

![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1674181540Untitled0120.png)

AVAX saw two successful breakouts during the last bull wave. Depending on macro factors which will affect the entire crypto sector, AVAX bulls should watch out for any momentum changes by looking at consecutive “lower-high” price action formations. For those who have entered sooner, now is the time to set up tighter losses, particularly around the monthly level of 15.258.: [Chart Link](https://www.tradingview.com/chart/AVAXUSDT/3MFAp4Df-AVAX-Daily-Outlook/)

**Daily Resistance zones**

1. 16.50 - 17.87
2. 18.81 - 19.52
3. 21.26 - 21.97

**Daily Support zones**

1. 15.47 - 15.26
2. 14.61 - 14.26
3. 13.50 - 13.32

## Further Reading

****[Leveraging technology for social good](https://www.gate.io/blog_detail/2061/leveraging-technology-for-social-good) | T**he CEO and founder of Gate.io speaks out about driving positive changes through Gate Charity

****[Watch Out for NFT Scams - How to Distinguish True and False NFT?](https://www.gate.io/blog_detail/2066/distinguish-nft-scams) |** There are 7 ways to tell the truth about NFTs to keep you away from the NFT scam
********

****[ChatGPT AI impacts healthcare, Rising prices hit Americans, China's redistributive policies affect property developers](https://www.gate.io/blog_detail/2064/chatgpt-ai-impacts-healthcare-rising-prices-hit-americans-chinas-redistributive-policies-affect-property-developers) |** As we have seen in the past, global events and the crypto world are often intertwined.

## Notable headlines

**🔹 Multiple creditors of Genesis have claimed that they were told a promissory note was listed as a current asset in documents provided to them by Genesis**. The CEO of Genesis, Barry Silbert, responded to the claim with a letter but did not directly confirm or deny the claim.

**🔹 The SEC has charged Nexo** for failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset lending product and has settled for $45 million with the agency and state regulatory authorities.

**🔹 John Ray III has set up a task force to explore restarting the crypto exchange FTX.com,** following FTX identifying $5.5 billion in liquid assets to untangle the firm's finances.

**🔹 CleanSpark is adding 50 megawatts of capacity to a Georgia site** it bought in August and has begun construction.

**🔹 A hacker routed $2.7 million in stolen ETH through Tornado Cash**, which were stolen during an exploit of decentralized exchange Raydium in December 2022.

**🔹 Peter Thiel's fund cashed in on its [Bitcoin](https://www.gate.io/trade/BTC_USDT) position, netting $1.8 billion**, as the market declined.

**🔹 The Venom Venture Fund, worth $1 billion, was launched last week with the mandate to boost Abu Dhabi's blockchain sector** by investing in projects building on a variety of blockchains, from seed-stage to IPO.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:** Peter L.**, Gate.io Researcher
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.

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