Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Holds Above $23,000, White House Urges Congress to ‘Step Up’ Crypto Regulation

Latest prices

CoinDesk Market Index (CMI)

1,092.39

+6.2 ▲ 0.6%

Bitcoin (BTC)

$23,144

+66.7 ▲ 0.3%

Ethereum (ETH)

$1,603

−0.8 ▼ 0.0%

S&P 500 daily close

4,070.56

+10.1 ▲ 0.2%

Gold

$1,928

−0.7 ▼ 0.0%

10-year Treasury yield

3.52%

▲ 0.0

BTC/ETH price per CoinDesk Indices; gold is the COMEX spot price. Prices from around 4 p.m. ET

bitcoin (BTC): The largest cryptocurrency by market value was recently trading at $23,100, up 0.4% in the past 24 hours, as traders expected next week’s Federal Open Market Committee decision on interest rates. BTC is up nearly 40% since Jan 1, on track for its best one-year opening since 2013 when it jumped 51%.

Shares closed as traders processed the latest Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) report, which showed a slowdown in inflation at the end of last year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.95%, while the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 0.25% and 0.08%, respectively.

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Four senior Biden administration officials released a statement on Friday urging Congress to “step up its efforts” in respect to regulate the cryptocurrency market.

• Officials – Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council; Arati Prabhakar, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Cecilia Rouse, President of the Council of Economic Advisers; and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan – wrote that Congress “should expand the powers of regulators to prevent abuse of client assets…and to mitigate conflicts of interest.”

• Other suggestions for Congress in the statement included strengthening transparency and disclosure requirements for crypto companies.strengthening penalties for violations of illicit finance rules and working more closely with international law enforcement partners.

• Officials also made suggestions about what Congress should not do in terms of crafting new crypto regulations, including “green light[ing] traditional institutions, like pension funds, to dive headlong into the cryptocurrency markets.

• To do so, officials warned, “would be a grave mistake” that “deepens the connections between cryptocurrencies and the wider financial system.”

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Overview of tokens

Ether (ETH): ETH rose 0.2% to recently trade at $1,600.

Polygon (MATIC): The MATIC token recently rose 8% to hit $1.1 on Friday. Its price has increased by 55% since December 31 in the middle a spike in daily transactions.

Earnings Network (GNS): The decentralized exchange’s native token gained more than 7% to trade at $6.20 on Friday, according to data from CoinGecko. Earnings Network has recorded over $1.5 billion in transaction volume on the Arbitrum blockchain almost a month after its deployment.

Vela Exchange (DXP): The utility token of the Arbitrum-based decentralized trading platform recently gained around 50% on Friday as the project is preparing to release its highly anticipated beta next week. DXP had returned to a 26% lead, trading around $2.20 at press time, according to data from CoinGecko.

Analysis of the crypto market: Bitcoin and Ether Trading Activity Declines as Investors Wait for Next FOMC Interest Rate Hike

By Glenn Williams Jr.

Next week, markets will be watching the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) interest rate decision, which is largely expected to be a 25 basis point (bps) hike.

BTC’s correlation with the S&P 500 has declined slightly over the past week, dropping from 0.89 to 0.69 on January 11. Its correlation with the Nasdaq Composite remains high at 0.89, highlighting that “bitcoin trades like a high-beta tech stock.” narrative.

Meanwhile, bullish investors should be wary of the stablecoin supply ratio (SSR).

SSR measures the ratio of bitcoin and stablecoin supply. As stablecoins represent purchasing power, a reduction in SSR implies that investors send stablecoins to exchanges, presumably with the intention of buying bitcoins. Since January 11, the SSR has increased by 32%. So while the price of BTC has risen, investors don’t seem to be sending stablecoins to exchanges en masse to add to long positions.

Read the full technical take here.

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