First Mover: Ether Drops Below $2K, Bitcoin Wilts

PLUS: Bitcoin Fund Holdings Hit Four-Month Low

Everything you need to make sense of the crypto markets and beyond By the CoinDesk Markets Team Edited by Lawrence Lewitinn, Managing Editor, Global Capital Markets June 21, 2021 Sponsored by     Bitcoin (BTC) -4.7%  $32,459 Ether (ETH)  -6.9%   $1,949 (Price data as of June 21 @11:00 UTC) If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.  Good morning. Here's what we're writing about: Market Moves: Ether Drops Below $2K, Bitcoin Wilts as Agricultural Bank of China Reiterates Crypto Ban Technician's Take: Bitcoin Fund Holdings Hit Four-Month Low Check out the CoinDesk TV show "First Mover," hosted by Christine Lee, Lawrence Lewitinn and Emily Parker Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern time. Today the show will feature guests: Steve Ehrlich, Voyager Digital Co-Founder & CEO Edward Woodford, Seed CX and Zero Hash Co-Founder Michael Wu, Amber Group Founder & CEO Christine Kim, CoinDesk Research Analyst Biggest Movers These are the biggest movers in the CoinDesk 20 over the past 24 hours:   Gainers: None of the CoinDesk 20 digital assets is up today.  Losers: Filecoin (FIL): -14.7% Polkadot (DOT): -11.7% Uniswap (UNI): -10.8%   The CoinDesk 20 are 20 digital assets filtered from the larger universe of thousands of cryptocurrencies and constitute roughly 99% of the market by volume at eight of the largest and most trustworthy exchanges. Market Moves by Omkar Godbole Ether Drops Below $2K, Bitcoin Wilts as Agricultural Bank of China Reiterates Crypto Ban Bitcoin, ether (ETH), and other cryptocurrencies are trading in the red after the Agricultural Bank of China reiterated its ban on crypto in a now-deleted statement. Bitcoin prices, June 21, 2021 (via CoinDesk) Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, fell to $1,977 during Monday's early European hours, hitting the lowest level since May 23. The token powering Ethereum's blockchain is changing hands near $2,000 at press time, about a 10% drop on the day, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Bitcoin is trading 7% down near $33,000, having reached lows close to $32,322. Other top cryptocurrencies including XRP, cardano (ADA), and polkadot (DOT) are nursing 5% to 10% losses. In an announcement early Monday, the bank, one of China's "big four," cited People's Bank of China guidance for a continuation of its crackdown on crypto transactions. Accounts of customers dealing with crypto will be closed and transactions reported to relevant authorities, the bank said in a statement published in Chinese on its website and translated to English and shared across social media by many, including journalist Colin Wu. The statement, which is no longer available on the website, bolstered concern of a regulatory crackdown, sending cryptocurrencies lower. Crypto markets tanked last month on the back of environmental concerns related to crypto mining, China's regulatory crackdown, and fears of an early scaling back of stimulus by the U.S. Federal Reserve. China reiterated its long-held crypto ban last month, citing dangers associated with speculative trading. On Friday, the government intensified its crackdown on cryptocurrency mining by ordering the closure of 26 suspected cryptocurrency mining projects in Sichuan. The Fed unexpectedly brought forward by the timing of the first interest-rate hike to 2023.   Read the original story here: Ether Drops Below $2K, Bitcoin Wilts as Agricultural Bank of China Reiterates Crypto Ban A message from Nexo Your digital assets deserve a savings account in their BEST INTEREST. Leading crypto lender Nexo treats you, your crypto and your fiat to industry-best Crypto & Fiat services, featuring:    * Up to 12% interest on digital assets, paid out daily! * Yields available on BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, XRP, XLM, EOS, TRX, LINK, BNB, PAXG, USDT, USDC, TUSD, PAX, DAI, HUSD, GBP and EUR. * No minimum or maximum limits on funds deposited, offering infinite opportunities to earn. * #ZeroFees on all transactions. * Military-grade wallet security and top-tier insurance on all custodial assets with SOC 2 Type 2 certified crypto custodian BitGo. Get started at nexo.io Technician's Take by Omkar Godbole Bitcoin Fund Holdings Hit Four-Month Low Bitcoin funds have been bleeding coins in the wake of the Federal Reserve's unexpected hawkish tilt. Number of bitcoin held by various close-ended funds and ETFs (Source: ByteTree Asset Management) Data tracked by ByteTree Asset Management shows the number of coins held by the U.S. and Canadian closed-ended funds and Canadian and European exchange-traded funds (ETFs) fell to 782,558 BTC (worth $28.72 billion) on Friday, the lowest since Feb. 25. Holdings have declined by over 15,000 in the past three days alone. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve surprised markets with a hawkish turn, bringing forward the timing of its next interest rate hike to 2023. Since then, most assets, including bitcoin, have faced selling pressure, although the leading cryptocurrency has remained relatively resilient compared to most fiat currencies and gold. Fund holdings peaked above 815,000 BTC in mid-May, having risen by over 300,000 BTC since October. The May peak coincided with the bitcoin's drop from $58,000 to nearly $30,000. "BTC held by ETFs and funds are a significant and measurable sample of network demand," ByteTree CIO Charlie Morris told CoinDesk. "Heavy institutional buying last October led to a price surge which cooled in the second quarter this year." Read the original story here: Bitcoin Bounce Falls Short at Resistance; Support at $30K-$34K A message from Kaiko   Kaiko is the premier cryptocurrency market data provider for professional traders and enterprises.  Highly-granular historical and live data: Tick-level trades, order book snapshots, aggregates, reference rates and more.  Extensive coverage: 100+ spot and derivatives exchanges Flexible data delivery: Downloadable CSV files and robust REST and WebSocket APIs designed for enterprise-use. On-call support: Private slack channels, SLA's and integration assistance.  Request a trial, browse our data dictionary, and subscribe to our weekly research newsletter today!    Learn More BOLO Be on the look out for some of these upcoming events:   No major data scheduled for today. The cryptocurrency movement has never been so sprawling, reaching every corner of the planet. Crypto State by CoinDesk aims to connect with local communities to explore this movement of financial disruption and how it trickles down to every corner of the globe, from DeFi investment opportunities to alternative ways to transact and store wealth. We're making virtual stops with audiences in Nigeria, the Middle East and Southeast Asia this year. Register for the Crypto State virtual tour. ICYMI In case you missed it, here are the most recent episodes of "First Mover" on CoinDesk TV:   Demystifying DeFi: What Caused the Titan Token Crash? Bitcoin Holding Its Own Despite Dollar Strength DeFi is under scrutiny as the crypto community studies the Titan Token panic sell that sent the price plunging to near zero. CoinDesk's senior reporter Brady Dale joins "First Mover" to discuss the case and lessons learned. Richard Byworth of Diginex shares his crypto markets analysis. Is he holding to his previous bitcoin price prediction? Also, Asad J. Malik presents Jadu, which is a mobile augmented reality platform for holograms. If you're on TikTok, you may recognize some of the dances being immortalized as hologram NFTs being released in honor of the Juneteenth holiday. EIP 1559: Ethereum's Fee Market Upgrade Explained CoinDesk Research's newest report dives into the economic impacts and investment implications of Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559. At its core, the code change is designed to make transaction fees on Ethereum less volatile and more predictable.  At the same time, EIP 1559 also poses several risks to Ethereum including risks of miner capitulation or revolt, technological risk in the form of unexpected bugs, and risk of user disappointment. In this report, CoinDesk Research gives an overview of how EIP 1559 works and its intended impact for investors, miners and users. Download the full report today. Latest Headlines   European Central Bank Can Better Protect Digital Payment Privacy, Exec Board Member Says Privacy in the digital euro is a focal point for Europeans as are concerns of security and interoperability. Real Estate Mogul to Spend $100M on Decentralized Social Networking Protocol Project Liberty will utilize blockchain technology to build a new type of internet infrastructure aiming to democratize social media data.   Finnish Digital-Asset Lender Tesseract Raises $25M in Series A Funding The round was led by Augmentum Fintech. Prices of GPUs Fall, Supply Increases as China Cracks Down on Crypto Mining Computer hardware sites are beginning to see GPU stocks resume back to pre-pandemic levels while prices have dropped between 5-10%. Agricultural Bank of China Reiterates Ban on Crypto: Report A statement posted on its website citing guidance from the People's Bank of China was subsequently deleted.   PBOC Says Banks Must Block Crypto Transactions China's central bank says institutions must not provide trading, clearing, and settlement for crypto transactions.   Banque de France Extends Wholesale CBDC Experiment The French central bank used a CBDC to simulate the settlement of securities trading. We've launched on Snapchat. On our debut show, "CoinDesk Breaks It Down," we distill the noise around dogecoin, the energy debate and more. Follow for original content, twice weekly. Disclaimer: The information presented in this message is intended as a news item that provides a brief summary of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of one or more of the cryptocurrencies described above. 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