Congratulations to Gibralter, who just won their first ever competitive football match. Congratulations are also in order to Messi, who is to become the star of Cirque du Soleil. Whilst it may seem a strange move, its not quite as strange as making gun noises when you run out of ammo. Or the look these statues make with their newly found eyes.
What a Monday! Bitcoin continued to move sideways this weekend, as one of the most popular exchanges has been perplexing traders with its unusual price differences and uncorrelated movements, as Quijote illustrates. For example, this morning, in just one hour, whales managed to pump bitcoin over 19% and ether more than 21% on Bitfinex, while other major exchanges are failing to keep up with the abnormal premium.
Before this, Hsaka argued this week’s key support level lied at £4.6k ($6.1k) and resistance at £5k ($6.5k), while DonAlt was a bit more conservative. But the wild move has left everyone scratching their heads! Because as the pump happened, the USD Tether to USD pairs lost their peg for the second time this month — dropping under $0.90 — making some wonder if traders are selling their USDT for BTC and ETH out of fear.
It’s too early to tell and Twitter is divided. While some are entertaining the Tether FUD scenario, as Paul Everton — a notorious critic — explains here, others point at the rising bets against bitcoin accumulated over the weekend that make this pump a plausible short squeeze. In any case, Alex Krüger notes this wasn’t a healthy pump, even though it would be ironic “if a Tether collapse would send bitcoin out of this bear market”.
Meanwhile, Alistair Milne jokes that Nouriel Roubini united the cryptosphere and ended the bear market. But remember that even the optimistic Crypto Dog is cautious, as all other fiat-only exchanges have to continue following suit and Thether’s peg must be reestablished before sentiment turns bullish outside Asian time-zones. So, put your skeptical glasses on, keep your eyes on the Twitter feed, and protect your profits.
▪ For the night owls, if you’re awake at midnight we recommend watching Nathaniel Whittemore’s third Long Reads Live, which will focus on Tether’s impact on the market.
▪ For the ones asleep, if you aren’t aware why ”crypto traders are so worried about Tether”, check out this handy quicktake Q&A recently shared by Bloomberg
▪ For the narrative-inclined ones, did you know China’s crackdown on tax havens has been increasing — potentially incentivising parking overseas profits in cryptoassets?
▪The Blockchain Kid writes about “the EOS elephant in the room”, arguing its current governance model is “detrimental to the health and future of the network”.
▪ Chris Burniske writes about ”the Nouriel in all of us”, proposing a more tolerant rhetoric that allows the cryptosphere to better debate ideas instead of people.
▪ JP Koning writes about “Bitcoin and the bubble theory of money”, explaining how it can and can’t explain Bitcoin’s emergence — and future — as a form of money.
Asia wakes up earlier than the rest of the world, and even though crypto markets trade 24/7 these timezones still influence the market. Remember when this newsletter is sent out, Tokyo’s work day is ending, London is waking up and San Francisco is going to sleep.
