Crypto Market Rallies, Led by NEAR, as Interest Slides in Bitcoin-Margined Futures
  The latest moves in crypto markets, in context Edited by Omkar Godbole December 21, 2021 Sponsored by  If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.
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Market Moves by Omkar Godbole Bitcoin (BTC) See the latest price here Ether (ETH) See the latest price here Crypto markets were bid at press time with coins associated with programmable, interoperability projects and Web 3 tokens leading the way higher.
NEAR, the native coin of Near protocol running decentralized applications, rose above $10, registering a 22% gain on a 24-hour basis.
On Monday, the protocol announced a partnership with Terra to integrate the latter's UST stablecoin on the NEAR and Aurora ecosystems. UST is the fourth-largest stablecoin globally, with a market value of over $9 billion. Terra recently surpassed Binance Smart Chart to become the second-largest blockchain as per total value locked in the DeFi protocols.
Terra's LUNA token registered fresh record highs above $95, taking the month-to-date gain to 60%. Such stellar rallies often translate into euphoria – a situation characterized by risky directional bets and excess bullish leverage and usually observed at market tops. However, LUNA's market showed no such signs, with derivatives data signaling investor caution.
"People appear to be shorting LUNA perpetual futures, as evidenced from rising open interest and persistent negative funding," Swiss-based crypto derivatives tracking platform Laevitas told CoinDesk in a Twitter chat.
Render Network's RNDR cryptocurrency surged 35% as the token began trading on cryptocurrency exchange Gemini. On Monday, the peer-to-peer service for providing 3D rendering power raised $30 million in funding.
"Render is a true sleeping giant of Web3 that is now being recognized by top investors like Multicoin, Vinny Lingham and, early on, Kenetic," Jehan Chu, co-founder and managing partner at Kenetic Capital, told CoinDesk in a WhatsApp chat. "As a metaverse infrastructure layer, it augments the Web3 stack and has top 10 coin potential."
Bitcoin continued to probe the six-week-long descending trendline hurdle above $49,000, while ether traded flat near $4,000 amid continued bullish flows in the options market.
"We maintain our view that there will be a squeeze (likely to the topside) as liquidity thins out into the holidays and into 2022. If this happens, owning wings would be very profitable," QCP Capital said in its research broadcast over Telegram. Wings here mean out-of-the-money or higher strike call options.  The percentage of futures contracts open interest margined in bitcoin instead of stablecoins or cash continues to slide, hinting at less price volatility during price sell-offs, if any.
"The largest implication of that is likely to be less volatility around sell-offs," Web Begole, chief technology officer at Exante Data, told CoinDesk in October. "That's because in coin-margined futures, losses are compounded during market downturns, which leads to exaggerated price declines."
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Technician's Take by Omkar Godbole  DOT Shows Signs of Bottoming Out  DOT's daily chart (Source: TradingView)
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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. The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments.
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