Morning‌‌ ‌‌Update‌‌ ‌‌-‌‌ ‌‌December‌‌ ‌‌23rd — Macro and Crypto Markets

Yesterday, we saw the return of the dollar and treasuries against equities and gold. While markets welcomed the resolution on the US stimulus bill, the new strain of coronavirus reported in the UK (and the ensuing lockdowns) dampened some of the enthusiasm.

Equities in Asia are set for a muted start. In the US, the S&P fluctuated then closed lower. Gold fell almost one percent. Investors preferred to look at Treasuries, pushing the 10-year yield down but still above 0.9%. The dollar also bounced with a strong green candle.

Almost as if BTC was seen as a safe-haven asset, crypto also rose. BTC is closing 4.3% up, at 23,670, just inches away from the all-time high and still trending in a long upward channel.

Chartists will look at the RSI bearish divergence and the overbought stochastics as hints of an upcoming reversal but, in reality, when prices reach those elevated levels, and especially in volatile assets, trends can ignore much of it and continue on.

It was also interesting to see this CryptoQuant chart, following whale inflows to exchanges, currently rising and historically indicating some selling pressure (although, as one can see, that hasn’t materialised during the last spike).

For now, alts are up. ETH is up, of course, currently with 4% gains, at $632. LINK followed on. DOT, gained 5.4%. LTC outperformed with an almost 8% rise. XMR rose about 6% while it’s privacy counterpart (ZEC) closed in the red.

I don’t usually talk about XRP but, today, I have to. The SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple and two executives, alleging the firm brought in over $1.3 billion in ongoing, unregistered securities sales.

On a more positive note, it was great to see that the ABI (Italian Banking Association) has started experimentation with a digital euro. While I personally don’t think those news are supportive of higher BTC prices, they’re definitely solidifying the importance of blockchain in the financial space.