Daily News | Markets Slowed As Investors Await FOMC Statement

Bitcoin (BTC) 24-Hour Change: 20,477 (+0.12%)

• The correlation of BTC-S&P 500 (SPX) has seen a deceleration and remained flat at 0.79 since Monday, its highest since September: Current: 0.79; 24HR: 0.79; 1W: 0.40

Ether (ETH) 24-Hour Change: 1,580 (+0.67%)

• On the other hand, the correlation of ETH-SPX continued to rise: Current 0.83; 24HR: 0.81; 1W: 0.53

S&P 500 (SPX): 3,856 (+0.41%）

S&P 500 E-mini Futures (ES1!): 3,870 (+0.17%)

September JOLTs Job Openings:

• US job openings unexpectedly rebounded in September amid low unemployment. The number of available positions increased to 10.7 million in September from a revised 10.3 million a month earlier, beating the consensus of 10 million.
• Although data showed a solid US labor market, the S&P fell lower amid speculation that the Fed’s policy could remain aggressively tight as low unemployment combined with high demand could drive wage growth, further adding fuel to inflationary pressures.
• On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates by 75 basis points for the fourth time in a row, bringing the upper limit of its target range to 4%.

China

• The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.3124 per dollar

Investors showed mixed signals from China about the prospect of an end to the Covid-zero policy. The speculation sent Hong Kong shares surging Tuesday before staging a rapid reversal after comments that downplayed the prospect.

Catalysts this week:

• Wednesday: Federal Reserve rate decision (FOMC Statement), EIA crude oil inventory
• Thursday: Bank of England rate decision, US Trade & Jobs Data
• Friday: US nonfarm payrolls (NFP) & unemployment, ECB President Statement

🟠 BTC

BTC Weekly timeframe:

• Major Level: 20,516 (61.8% Monthly Fibonacci Retracement Level)
• Closest support zone: 20,516 - 20,885
• Key resistance level: 21,002 - 21,690

As of Nov. 02 Asian session,

• Bitcoin (BTC) was hovering around the 61.8% (20,516) monthly Fibonacci Retracement level
  • and within a support zone (19,792 - 20,885) derived from Sep. 12 - 19
  • an anchor point has been established at 20,331

After reaching the 12-Day EMA (20,600) resistance level that drove Tuesday’s decline to the 50% (20,331) Fibonacci level, BTC has now found an anchor point.

BTC Weekly Resistance zones

1. 20,516 - 20,885
2. 21,002 - 21,690
3. 21,737 - 22,577

BTC Weekly Support zones

1. 20,516 - 20,331
2. 19,858 - 19,145
3. 19,960 - 18,472

BTC Daily Timeframe:

• Closest support zone: 20,448 - 20,316
• Closest resistance zone: 20,627 - 20,735
• Key Level: 61.8% (20,516) monthly Fibonacci Retracement level

Nov. 02 00:08 UTC Update:

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $20,414, or down 0.18% in a 24hr period.

BTC Daily Resistance zones

1. 20,516 - 20,583
2. 20,627 - 20,735

BTC Daily Support zones

1. 20,448 - 20,316
2. 20.125 - 19,977

🔵 ETH

Weekly Timeframe

• Major Level - Weekly resistance level of 1,760 (Weekly High of Feb. 01, 2021)
• Closest support zone: 1,595 - 1,552
• Key resistance zone: 1,651 - 1,694

As of Nov. 02,

Ether (ETH) was trading below the 61.8% (1,554) Weekly Fibonacci retracement level

• and within a support zone (1,552 - 1,639) derived from Aug. 29 - Sep. 05
• but below the 78.6% (1,651) level measured from Sep. 12 - 26

To confirm a trend reversal to the upside, Ether will have to close above the previous “lower-high” price action formation on Sep. 12, therefore the weekly resistance level of 1,760 is a key level going into the next two weeks when the bulls make an attempt to push the price of ETH even higher.

On the other hand, ETH bears will likely use the 23.6% (1,694) monthly Fibonacci Retracement level as an anchor point to drive down Ether. This is to invalidate a bullish signal by preventing the price of ETH to make a “higher-high” price action formation.

ETH Weekly Resistance zones

1. 1,595 - 1,639
2. 1,651 - 1,694
3. 1,735 - 1,760

ETH Weekly Support zones

1. 1,595 - 1,552
2. 1,552 - 1,494
3. 1,456 - 1,402

ETH Daily Timeframe

• Closest support zone: 1,575 - 1,569
• Closest resistance zone: 1,591 - 1,603
• Key Level: 1,611 (Weekly Close of Feb 01. 2021)

Nov. 01 00:13 UTC Update:

ETH was trading at $1,579, or up 0.57% in a 24hr period.

ETH Daily Resistance zones

1. 1,591 - 1,603
2. 1,611 - 1,618

ETH Daily Support zones

1. 1,575 - 1,569
2. 1,556 - 1,547

📌 The topic of the Day: Musk the Chief Twit’s Twitter Blue Sub_script_ion Service

Self-proclaimed “Chief Twit” Elon Musk announced a plan to open the floodgates to user-verification on the social media platform.

“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit,” Musk tweeted, adding that he would “give power to the people” at a price of $8 a month and that the price would be “adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity.”

Aside from the verified account badge, users willing to pay for verification will get priority in replies, mentions and search, see half as many ads, and have the ability to post longer video and audio files, according to Musk's thread.

"This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators," Musk said.

Although the change may be welcomed by some, other users have voiced concern over fears that paid-for verification will give would-be scammers a veneer of legitimacy.

But the elephants in the room are bots and freedom of speech. Will be interesting to see how the bot issue will progress. Twitter can become a great place with less noise in the back. As for the latter, it will be messy to satisfy both right and left-leaning users.

🗒 Happenings of The Week (Oct. 28 - Nov. 01):

Notables:

• 📣 European Commission proposes real-time euro payments in draft law. The proposal aims to increase public trust in real-time payments and make sanctions screening more efficient. A digital euro prototype expected to pilot in Mar. 2023 is in the works under the supervision of the European Central Bank.

• 📣 Hong Kong plans to green-light crypto ETFs and review rules barring retail investors from trading digital assets. The Securities and Futures Commission plans to allow crypto ETFs linked to Bitcoin and ether futures traded on the CME. The regulator will launch a public consultation on giving retail investors access to virtual assets.

• 📣 Singapore pilots tokenized fiat with smart contract capabilities. Singapore-based financial services group DBS will issue digital Singapore dollars, while Open Government Products, a tech team within the Singapore government, will enable smart contract capabilities.

• 📣 The Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank, to test if digital rupee can cut fees when trading government securities. The pilot will focus on the settlement of secondary market transactions in the trading of government securities. RBI says “going forward, other wholesale transactions, and cross-border payments will be the focus of future pilots, based on the learnings from this pilot.”

Nov. 01

• 📣 Open Metaverse Alliance (OMA3) opens up membership to web3 builders. OMA3 includes Animoca Brands, The Sandbox (which is one of its subsidiaries) and several brands the company has invested in — Alien Worlds, Dapper Labs, Splinterlands, Star Atlas and Upland.

• 📣 DeFi yield platform PieDAO proposes token buyback after ending liquidity mining program. For the PieDAO team, the buyback is necessary to prevent any adverse impact on the DOUGH price from any forced selling by liquidity providers — although the token is already down 98%.

• 📣 NFL Rivals releases footage of “arcade-style” gameplay ahead of upcoming NFT drop. The game is one of many sports-themed blockchain projects in the works, including partnerships with NBA, MLB and UK’s Premier League.

Oct. 31

• 📣 Aptos-based DeFi project Arco Protocol is facing criticism after a error-struck token sale and a sudden loss of key partnerships. The project has asked its community whether it still backs it, or if the project should just completely shut down.

• 📣 HUSD stablecoin sharply loses peg even further, drops to just $0.30. This comes after the stablecoin was delisted on Huobi.

• 📣 GameStop's NFT marketplace is live on Immutable X, a Layer 2 Ethereum scaling protocol, rivalling crypto-native gaming NFT platforms like Fractal, founded by Twitch’s Justin Kan. The marketplace will offer assets for Immutable X games, such as Gods Unchained, Guild of Guardians and Illuvium, in addition to other web3 games.

• 📣 Art Gobblers, an NFT project co-created by Rick and Morty’s Justin Roiland, nabbed more than $13 million just two hours after launch. Art Gobblers brought in an ETH volume of 7,480 ETH, with 925 unique owners and a floor price of 11.25 ETH.

Oct. 29 - 30

• Dogecoin rallies after Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. Dogecoin was up 116.7% over the last week, after billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter. Musk has floated allowing users to pay for Twitter’s premium features using dogecoin (DOGE). In a separate report by Bloomberg, Musk might bring more crypto into Twitter, including using blockchain to reduce the presence of bots, a subject that had ignited a legal battle between Musk and the company that threatened the acquisition.

Oct. 28

• 📣 Magic Eden, Rarible join Twitter pilot to embed NFTs in tweets. “Tweet Tiles” are a way to attach customizable formats to a Tweet. They're still in the testing phase.

• 📣 Metaverse platforms to fall under scope of controversial UK Online Safety Bill. The bill is currently making its way through the House of Commons. Platforms which fail to follow the rules will face fines up to 10% of their revenue and could be blocked.

• 📣 WisdomTree meets estimates, reveals declining crypto holdings in Q3 earnings. The asset manager’s crypto holdings fell to $178 million from $406 million at the beginning of the year. CEO Jono Steinberg said “blockchain-enabled funds and tokenized exposures are tomorrow’s best structure,” to access various asset classes.

• 📣 Matter Labs has released the baby alpha release of zkSync 2.0, the first Ethereum compatible ZK-Rollup to hit production. This compatibility is what will make it easy and quick for developers to port applications from the Ethereum mainnet to zkSync. In technical terms, it's called a "zk-EVM.”

• 📣 This week’s fundraising activities include but are not limited to:

  • 🔹 CoinFund, a New York-based web3 investment firm, is looking to raise $250 million to invest in seed-stage startups. Previously, CoinFund has backed the Layer 1 blockchain Solana, web3 indexing protocol The Graph and blockchain infrastructure company Blockdaemon, among other startups.
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  • 🔹 Lingfeng Innovation Fund (LIF), a new venture capital fund led by former Binance Labs executive Nicole Zhang, raised $20 million to invest in web3 startups. The web3-dedicated LIF is a sister fund to Beijing-based Lingfeng Capital, the fintech investment firm with more than $400 million in assets under management.
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  • 🔹 Orderly Network, a DeFi infrastructure protocol built on the Near blockchain, raised $20 million with a $200 million valuation in a seed round with participation from Laser Digital and Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, Dragonfly and Jump Crypto via a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT).
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  • 🔹 RakkaR Digital has raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by SCB 10X, a unit within Thailand's oldest bank, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB). RakkaR says its platform is powered by Fireblocks and aims to serve institutions in Southeast Asia.
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  • 🔹 Braavos has raised $10 million led by Pantera Capital to launch a self-custodial wallet on Ethereum scaling solution Starknet. The team will roll out features such as a “forgot my password” mechanism and multi-factor authentication, to make the experience more familiar to a web2 audience.
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  • 🔹 State-chartered digital asset bank Custodia, formerly known as Avanti, has raised $7 million. Custodia is designed to provide real-time settlement finality for U.S.-dollar payments in digital asset transactions.
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• 📣 This week’s onchain criminal activities include but are not limited to:

  • 🔹 A series of protocol exploits and hacks across October saw malicious actors make off with at least $652.2 million in illicit gains. October proved to be nothing if not spooky for an ecosystem that saw as many as 44 exploits affect at least 53 protocols accounting for $657.2 million in total losses.
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  • 🔹 FriesDAO hacked for $2.3 million in latest Profanity exploit. The DAO’s deployer wallet was generated with an insecure tool called Profanity, a wallet-generator tool that’s known to contain a critical vulnerability.