Weekly Digest – December 12, 2022

The crypto market was in a moderately positive state last week. The prices of major crypto assets were relatively stable, as well as the crypto market cap. But the crypto winter continued to take its toll on major players, including Maple and Digital Currency Group, a parent company of Genesis, among others.

Market indices and prices:

• Fear and greed index is currently 27. The index has not changed significantly from the previous week. It is still in the “Fear” territory but better than the November average of 21, indicating “Extreme Fear”.
• Crypto Volatility Index (CVI) is 76.0 at press time on December 12. The CVI is up from 72.8 a week ago, but still below the average for the past 11 months of 79.9.
• Total market capitalization is currently $845 billion. In the past 7 days, the market cap was the highest on December 5, when it climbed up to $870 billion, fuelled by the weakening of the US dollar and the strength of the US stock market.

BTC price as of today (9:00am UTC) was $16,930, which is slightly below the 7-day VWMA (volume weighted moving average) of $17,070. During the past week, the BTC was trending close to the 20-day EMA (exponential moving average), surpassing it in the past three days, starting Friday, December 9. Various indicators point out the bear market bottom.

ETH price as of today (9:00am UTC) was $1,245, which is slightly below the 7-day VWMA ($1,260.54). It is currently below the 20-day EMA and has been following the BTC price pattern since December 1, 2022.

The best performing altcoins in the past 7 days were:

• TON (Ton Coin) has been a top performer in the past 7 days with a price surge of 12.8%. TON is a native coin of Ton layer 1 blockchain developed by Telegram in 2018. Telegram abandoned TON in May 2020 and since then it has been maintained by the TON foundation. The TON is buoyed by the recent announcements of Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, who promised to “build a set of decentralized tools, including non-custodial wallets and decentralized exchanges”.
• TWT (Trust Wallet Token) remains a top performer. The increase in the past 7 days was 10.0% compared to 15.4% during the week ended December 5, when it was the second best performing altcoin as well. TWT is a token of Trust Wallet. Wallet tokens saw a price surge as users moved to self-custody after the FTX collapse.
• BSV (Bitcoin SV) price increased by 4.83%. The BSV price followed the general market trend in the past week but increased at a faster pace.

The top 3 losers were CHZ, FLOW and IMX.

What else happened:

• FTX Founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, agreed to testify at the US House Committee on Financial Services hearing tomorrow, December 13, along with the current FTX CEO, John J. Ray III, who was appointed by the bankruptcy court. The US Senate Banking Committee has its own hearing on Wednesday, December 14, called “Crypto Crash: Why the FTX Bubble Burst and the Harm to Consumers”. While the US House labeled its hearing “Investigation”, the US Senate is not as bold and still asks “Why” questions. Attendees of the Senate hearing include celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary and actor Ben McKenzie Schenkkan.
• In the meantime, CFTC and SEC, two US regulatory bodies focused on commodities and securities, respectively, proposed an idea of self-regulatory organization funded by market participants. The proposal is the response to a recent criticism of the prospective Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, which would have granted CFTC more regulatory authority at the expense of SEC.
• Maple, the largest unsecured crypto lending platform, is the new victim of the prolonged bear market. The soured debt represents 66% of the total outstanding in Maple’s four active lending pools.
• Another large crypto lending platform, Nexo, announced last week that it will phase out services in the US after it failing to satisfy regulatory requirements.
• Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Fund (GBTC), the largest publicly traded fund investment fund, is currently trading with a 50% discount to the relative price of bitcoin. The discount indicates that investors fear the financial problems of its parent company, Digital Currency Group.

Coming soon to HitBTC:

• DeRace (DERC) is a native token of the DeRace “complete NFT horse racing ecosystem” that wants to set a new standard for the GameFi industry. DeRace provides an opportunity to buy and breed NFT horses with unique characteristics, equip NFT horses, and build your own NFT hippodrome to host races.

If you have not already done so yet, please do not forget to download our trading app on Android and iOS. And remember: bear market is the best time to start building your portfolio!

Cheers,

HitBTC team