EQUOS — Morning Update — December 9th
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As they often do, markets switch from pessimism to optimism and vice-versa.
In the case of traditional markets, yesterday was a bit more risk-on. The S&P closed at new highs, by barely an inch, but currently above $3,700. The Nasdaq also hit fresh record levels. Treasuries and the dollar traded muted. Then we saw gold, up again, now decidedly above $1,860.
Almost as if investors had rotated out of crypto and into traditional assets, crypto is down. BTC dropped about 4.5%, stepping out of the upward channel we saw from early October until yesterday. At the time of writing, the price is at $18,350. While 4% isn’t much and the mid 18K’s isn’t a low level by any means, the fall amid positive news and so close to the 20K mark it is worth noting and begets the question: “will traders exit now?”
Alts are naturally not doing too well and the BTC Dominance index is up… but not by that much. In previous briefings, I alluded to the fact that a BTC stagnation could be an opportunity for smaller cap coins to play catch up. Let’s see if that happens.
For now, though, ETH is down 6% on the session, at $555. LINK, DOT, XTZ, and BCH followed down 6%. LTC fell 7%, and ADA is down about 9%.
It’s worth noting that the number of unique DeFi addresses rose above 1 million for the first time ever, suggesting that the interest in those types of token is definitely not dying out.
In regards to the broader crypto space, there is positive news: Standard Chartered is set to launch crypto trading capabilities for institutional investors, adding to the list of banks already doing so (DBS, German institutions, etc.).
It’s also worth noting that USDC is gaining traction over USDT. While that might sound trivial, a truly USD-backed stablecoin shows interest from what are probably more credible players, and an overall shift toward more reliable means of trading. This is very positive.
Lastly, did you see that Square invested $10 million in a Bitcoin Clean Energy Investment Initiative? https://decrypt.co/50746/square-puts-10-million-toward-a-cleaner-bitcoin-ecosystem
