Bitcoin Falls to $32K: Does the Fed Matter to Crypto Right Now?
  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 July 14, 2021 Sponsored by  (Price data as of July 14 @10:45 UTC) If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.
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Biggest Movers These are the biggest movers in the CoinDesk 20 over the past 24 hours:
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Losers: 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.
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Market Moves by Omkar Godbole Bitcoin Dips Below $32K as Fed Rate-Hike Bets Rise; Gold Remains Resilient Bitcoin extended Tuesday's decline even as gold, a traditional inflation hedge, remained resilient to increased bets on faster monetary-policy tightening by the Federal Reserve (Fed).
The leading cryptocurrency was trading near $32,300 at press time, a 1.4% drop on the day. Prices hit a 2 1/2-week low of $31,669 early today, having run into offers above $33,000 on Tuesday, CoinDesk 20 data show.
The drop to the lowest since June 26 comes a day after futures tied to the federal funds rate and eurodollars, which track short-term interest-rate expectations, raised bets on Tuesday that the Fed would increase interest rates between December 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. According to Reuters, the repricing happened after the U.S. Labor Department said the consumer price index increased 5.4% year-on-year in June, the fastest pace since 2008.
Rate hikes, or possible tapering as signaled by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, boost the attractiveness of holding fiat currencies, in this case the dollar, and dilute the appeal of perceived store-of-value assets such as bitcoin (BTC) and gold.
However, while bitcoin is nursing losses, gold is currently trading 0.35% higher on the day at $1,814 an ounce. The discrepancy spurred Amber Group, a crypto services provider, into calling for caution in reading too much into the rate-hike narrative for the time being.
"Bitcoin's weakness this morning could be associated with the Fed rate-hike fears," Amber Group said. "However, it's hard to force this rate-hike narrative as a headwind if other risk assets (stocks) are hitting new highs and gold remains bid."  Gold versus bitcoin, 2 months (Source: CoinDesk, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, Yahoo Finance) Trader and analyst Alex Kruger said the cryptocurrency has been looking heavy for a long time, courtesy of weak flows, and "the CPI may have helped."
That said, some analysts say concerns over tightening or gradual unwinding of stimulus may not be a threat to traditional markets, but present immediate downside risk to bitcoin.
"Is tapering a real concern? Not for broad markets, but arguably it is a risk for bitcoin, considered by fiat-based institutional investors at the extreme end of the risk spectrum," Messari's Mira Christanto said in a blog post dated May 27. "Capital to this new asset class is still mercenary and tends to over-react on the bull and bear side."
The mid-May sell-off from $58,000 to $30,000 occurred after a reported surge in U.S. inflation for April increased concerns that the Fed may consider an early rate increase or reduction of liquidity-boosting asset purchases, known as quantitative easing.
Stack Funds' COO Matthew Dibb said, "the recent increase in fed rate-hike bets may not bode well for BTC in the short term, as the recent correlation is more tied to equities, liquidity and retail sentiment, rather than BTC being a 'hedge' to inflation."
Dibb said the cryptocurrency has been looking weak on technical charts for the past few weeks, and the latest U.S. CPI release may add to the selling pressure.
However, while bitcoin has come under pressure this week, it is still locked in the broad two-month range of $30,000 to $40,000. "It's hard to read too much into the price action currently while we're still stuck in this range," Amber Group said. Read the original story here: Bitcoin Dips Below $32K as Fed Rate-Hike Bets Rise; Gold Remains Resilient
 The CoinDesk Quarterly Review 2021 Q2
Most CoinDesk 20 assets, which constitute 99% of the crypto market by verifiable volume, ended the quarter with negative returns. Meanwhile, protocol development for the world's largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Bitcoin and Ethereum, reached new milestones. CoinDesk Research's latest Quarterly Review dives into the trends, developments and technological progress that shaped the crypto markets from April to June 2021. The full report is now available from the CoinDesk Research Hub.
Technician's Take by Omkar Godbole  Ether Erases Early Losses, Faces Resistance Above $2K Ether (ETH) buyers stepped in below $1,900 on Wednesday, helping the second-largest cryptocurrency erase early losses. At press time, the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum's blockchain was trading unchanged on the day near $1,941.  Ether hourly and daily charts (Source: TradingView)
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BOLO Be on the look out for some of these upcoming events:
 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:
Binance.US CEO Brian Brooks joins "First Mover" since the firm hired former California regulator Manuel Alvarez as its new Chief Administrative Officer. This comes as global regulators are zooming into Binance. Senator Pat Toomey has more on congressional regulatory outlook on crypto in the U.S., and Haohan Xu of Apifiny on crypto markets outlook.
 The Investor's Perspective on the Bitcoin Taproot Upgrade
Taproot is a bundle of three upgrades to Bitcoin aimed at improving network security, privacy and scalability. At the same time, it poses some potential drawbacks to Bitcoin including risks of low adoption, unintended privacy shortcomings and Bitcoin community disappointment and fracturing. CoinDesk Research's newest report dives into the economic impact and investment implications of the Taproot upgrade.
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