Category: Crypto market

DOGE Burns Faster Than Petrol, Down 14%

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Dogecoin dropped more than 14% over the last day as the latest economic outlook from the Federal Reserve has sparked a wider market decline.  DOGE’s drop parallels Bitcoin’s drop below $100,000 this week, although meme coins have typically seen more severe declines than other cryptocurrency assets.

The meme coin fell to $0.30, but trading volume increased by 67% to $10 billion as holders moved their bags,. It is down 37% from its peak of $0.47 in 2024. Dogecoin’s market capitalization is $46 billion, which makes it the seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market valuation.

Powell’s pessimistic remarks regarding higher-than-expected inflation and unemployment forecasts for 2025 rocked risk assets on Wednesday, with cryptocurrency suffering the most from the market’s initial response.

Market participants were alarmed by the Fed’s prediction, which implied higher interest rates for longer periods.

This affected speculative assets, such as meme coins, which exhibit increased sensitivity to macroeconomic signals. Significant outflows caused Dogecoin to decline, especially on Binance, where over $83 million left the market while trading volume increased 74% to $1.85 billion, according to data compiled by CoinGlass across major exchanges.

The liquidation data points to a general market exodus rather than activity specific to any one exchange with concentrated selling pressure and negative net flow on most major exchanges (except Bybit and Bitstamp).

The DOGE/USDT pair on Binance and OKX also felt the heat as prices dropped over 20% over the last week, according to exchange-wide trading patterns that show consistent selling from late November through December.

Nasdaq Falls below 20K Points, Bitcoin Price Below $100K After US GDP for Q3

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Stock markets and cryptocurrencies have reversed lower after the FOMC meeting, with Nasdaq below 20k and Bitcoin slipping below $20K, as markets digest Powell’s comments and the higher Dot Plot.

Bitcoin trading around $100K

Continue reading “Nasdaq Falls below 20K Points, Bitcoin Price Below $100K After US GDP for Q3” →

Forex Signals Brief December 19: BOJ and BOE Follow the Hawkish FED Cut

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Yesterday the FED delivered a 25 bps rate cut, today we have the BOJ and the BOE which are expected to keep interest rates on hold.

We have two more central bank meetings today
The Federal Reserve’s announcement of reduced monetary easing in 2025 sent shockwaves through U.S. stock markets, triggering a steep sell-off. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite plunged by over 3%, reflecting growing investor unease about the Fed’s increasingly cautious approach to monetary policy. This reaction highlights the fragility of market sentiment in the face of tighter financial conditions.

Global financial markets experienced heightened volatility after the FED rate cut. The Federal Reserve’s hawkishness has rattled equities and cryptocurrencies alike, sending BTC close to $100K while commodities such as gold remain under pressure as well. The damage was done by the Dot Plot, which showed fewer rate cuts in 2025

Today’s Market Expectations

Today, the Bank of England is expected to maintain its Bank Rate at 4.75%. The lone dissenter is likely to be Swati Dhingra, known for her dovish stance. Governor Andrew Bailey has pointed to persistently elevated inflation, supported by recent hotter-than-anticipated data. BoE officials appear to favor a gradual path to easing, potentially reducing rates at intervals of three months.

In the U.S., labor market data remains a focal point for investors. Initial Jobless Claims are projected to decline to 229,000 from 240,000 in the prior report, staying within the consistent 200,000–260,000 range observed since 2022. Continuing Claims rose in the last release to 1,886,000 from 1,871,000, but no consensus exists for this week’s update. This trend signals lingering challenges in the labor market, even as conditions remain relatively stable.

Forex Signals Update

Yesterday we had another good day trading forex and other financial markets. We remained long on the USD, expecting a hawkish FED rate cut, which is what the FED presented, sending the USD higher. We opened 7  forex signals in total, ending the day with 6 winning trading signals and 1 losing signal.

Gold Breaks Below the 100 Daily SMA

Gold markets have also been impacted by shifting monetary expectations. Prices dropped $100 last week after failing to breach the $2,725 resistance level, driven by strong U.S. services PMI data and anticipated Federal Reserve rate cuts. After finding support at $2,633, near the 200-day Simple Moving Average, gold prices recovered slightly by $12, though the overall trend remains under pressure.Chart XAUUSD, D1, 2024.12.18 22:41 UTC, MetaQuotes Ltd., MetaTrader 5, Demo

XAU/USD – Daily Chart

NZD/USD Crashes Down to 0.56

The NZD/USD pair faced a sharp decline, losing over one cent in value yesterday. This drop was driven by a hawkish Federal Reserve rate cut alongside New Zealand’s Q3 GDP contraction of -0.1%, which confirmed the country’s entry into a recession. The exchange rate fell to 0.5620 as selling intensified during the U.S. session, following earlier losses in Asian and European trading.Chart NZDUSD, W1, 2024.12.18 22:28 UTC, MetaQuotes Ltd., MetaTrader 5, Demo

NZD/USD – Daily Chart

Cryptocurrency Update

Bitcoin Retreats After Climbing Above $108,000

In the cryptocurrency space, Bitcoin saw dramatic volatility, falling 5% today after reaching $108,300 yesterday. The price dropped by $4,800 and is now retreating toward $100,000, marking a notable weekly decline.

BTC/USD – Daily chart

Ethereum Retreats Below the $4,000 Level Again

Ethereum also experienced fluctuations, recovering from a dip below $3,000 to trade near $4,000. However, after Monday’s rally, it failed to maintain gains above the $4,000 level, reflecting persistent market instability. Despite this, Ethereum’s position above $3,500 and its 50-day Simple Moving Average suggests underlying investor confidence remains intact.

ETH/USD – Daily chart

Coinbase Permitted To Delist Wrapped Bitcoin

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

A federal judge rejected BiT Global’s request for a temporary restraining order, concluding that the Hong Kong-based company had not demonstrated that Coinbase’s plans to delist Wrapped Bitcoin, or WBTC, would cause immediate and irreversible harm.

“After all, I don’t have any proof from you regarding what’s going to happen,” U. S. Araceli Martínez-Olguín, the district judge, informed the lawyer for BiT Global. “I won’t stop Coinbase from taking WBTC off of its list.

BiT Global filed a lawsuit against Coinbase last week, claiming that the exchange’s intentions to delist WBTC on Thursday while pushing wrapped Bitcoin amounted to unfair business practices.

BiT Global, which works with BitGo as a custodian for WBTC reserves, requested a ruling that would prevent Coinbase from removing the $14 billion product from its exchange.

Coinbase responded to the lawsuit filed by BiT Global earlier this week by stating that it was driven to delist WBTC due to the “unacceptable risk that control of WBTC would fall into the hands of Justin Sun,” who is a co-founder of the layer-1 blockchain Tron.

, Sun was charged with fraud and market manipulation in an SEC lawsuit filed last year, although he vehemently disputes the accusations. Sun disparaged Coinbase’s wrapped Bitcoin product, cbBTC, when it was introduced in September, referring to it as “central bank Bitcoin” and a “dark day for BTC.

Sonal Mehta, Coinbase’s lawyer, retorted that the volume of WBTC trading on Coinbase is less than 1% of WBTC’s total trading, so there could not be “lost sales.”.

“This case concerns Coinbase’s right to take the necessary actions to safeguard its platform,” she stated. It has nothing to do with monopolies. It’s not about allegations of antitrust. Wrapped Bitcoin utilized in decentralized finance.

The products, which are 1:1 backed by Bitcoin reserves, let users use Bitcoin for trading, lending, and borrowing through decentralized applications.

 

Markets Bet Litecoin and Hedera ETF Before XRP ETF

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Market analysts believe that certain assets have a better chance of being approved sooner than others as the cryptocurrency community prepares for the 2025 approval or rejection of altcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted that before enabling issuers to introduce comparable products for Ripple (XRP) and Solana (SOL), US regulatory bodies might authorize Litecoin (LTC) and Hedera (HBAR) ETFs.

According to Balchunas, Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) combo ETFs will probably be introduced to the market first. The spot ETF markets for these cryptocurrencies have seen cumulative inflows in billions.

Balchunas thinks they have a better chance of reaching listing platforms first because of their existing markets, Since LTC was developed as a Bitcoin network fork, it is the second cryptocurrency with a greater likelihood of receiving ETFs. Over the years, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has classified many altcoins as securities and determined that the relevant laws govern them. LTC, however, is not included in this category.

HBAR has avoided being classified as a security in the many cases the SEC has filed against cryptocurrency companies over the years. Since LTC and HBAR are not securities, they are not involved in any ongoing legal disputes between the SEC and cryptocurrency companies; as a result, the SEC is likely to view them as commodities.

Why Not XRP ETFs?

XRP ETFs seem unrealistic due to a pending lawsuit between the SEC and the company that created the XRP Ledger, Ripple Labs. Since 2020, XRP’s status as a security has been at the center of a legal battle between Ripple and the SEC.

XRP ETFs will be considered once the intricate legal issues surrounding the coin are settled, according to James Seyffart, another Bloomberg analyst, despite a judge’s decision last year that XRP can only be categorized as a security when sold to institutional investors.

This is expected to occur in 2025 when the new SEC administration assumes power. The recent rejection of a few Solana ETF applications was related to the coin’s designation as a security.

 

Ripple’s RLUSD Deployed On Ethereum

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Ripple, the US-based enterprise company that created the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, made headlines when it revealed that its eagerly awaited stablecoin was finally prepared for deployment, which is scheduled for later today. Only $13.3 million of the RLUSD coins have been created on Ripple’s network, XRPL, whereas a large size of $53 million, is on the Ethereum network.

RLUSD shares the same goal as its rivals: to provide an enterprise-grade solution that blends the efficiency of blockchain technology with the stability of fiat money.

Users can use RLUSD to participate in the quickly expanding tokenized real-world assets market, make international payments, and ramp up or down their cryptocurrency usage. Senior vice president of stablecoins at Ripple, Jack McDonald, referred to RLUSD as “mile 1 of the marathon.”. The stablecoin will facilitate decentralized finance integrations and collateralization.

RLUSD is the “future of finance,” according to Ripple. This stablecoin has monthly third-party audits, backed by US dollar deposits, government bonds, and “other cash equivalents.”.

The minting process on Ethereum and XRPL already demonstrates that it will support multiple chains, with additional networks to follow. For “cross-border payments, DeFi integration, and bridging between fiat and crypto,” RLUSD was developed.

“Ripple wants to get into the stablecoin market, which is very competitive and expanding. The combined value of all these tokens has soared to over $200 billion, with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC holding the majority of the market.

PENGU Melts Like Ice Under Sun

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Pudgy Penguins’ native token, PENGU, lost more than its value in the first few hours of trading following the highly anticipated December 17 launch of the non-fungible token (NFT) project, .

 

Pudgy Penguins’ website, highlighted that the project gave out about half of PENGU’s nearly 89 billion token supply to community members, with about 26% set aside for NFT holders.  The PENGU token traded on the Solana blockchain, market valuation has since fallen to less than $1.94 billion.

Pudgy Penguins was introduced in 2021, each depicts a distinct image of the company’s recognizable penguins. Lil’ Pudgys, a collection of 22,000 baby penguins, and Pudgy Rods, which feature fishing rods with a penguin theme, are two more NFTs that the project has since introduced. By providing proof of ownership on the Ethereum network, holders of any of these NFTs can claim PENGU, according to the Pudgy Penguins team.

Additionally, the project intends to introduce its layer-2 Abstract Chain network. Seven million addresses are eligible for the airdrop of Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU token, which has a total supply of 88.88 billion tokens.

Almost five thousand distinct wallets hold the NFTs. Just before PENGU’s launch, they were trading at a floor price of  36 ETH, according to OpenSea.

According to OpenSea, Lil’ Pudgys and Pudgy Rods are on the market right now, with floor prices of about 1.7 ETH and 0.7 ETH, respectively. The website of Pudgy Penguins states that the company has sold 1.5 million Pudgy-branded toys in retail establishments like Walmart. The most expensive NFTs are Pudgy Penguins, followed by CryptoPunks.

Bitcoin ETFs Heavier Than Gold Funds For 1st Time

Posted on by Olumide Adesina

Net assets in US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) overtook those in gold funds for the first time as institutional asset managers demand the cryptocurrency, per K33 Research data.

 

Bitcoin ETF

U.S. BTC ETFs held assets under management (AUM) of $129 billion, just less than the amount held by US gold ETFs on December 16. The head of research at K33 Research, Vetle Lund, posted it on the X platform.

Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, claims that the AUM figure comprises both spot BTC ETFs and ETFs that use financial derivatives, like futures, to track Bitcoin’s performance  “If you include all Bitcoin ETFs (spot, futures, and levered), they have $130 billion, while gold ETFs have $128 billion.”.

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were introduced after a protracted review process with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January. Bitcoin has since taken center stage in the ETF market.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs broke $100 billion in net assets for the first time In November as shown on Bloomberg Intelligence data.  BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), with almost $60 billion in AUM, is the top spot BTC ETF.  IBIT overtook Blackrock’s gold ETF in terms of net assets (iShares Gold Trust (IAU)) last month.

A JPMorgan report from October claims that investors are reverting to gold and Bitcoin in a so-called “debasement trade” as they prepare for a “catastrophic scenario” due to escalating geopolitical tensions.

The “debasement trade” is a surge in demand for gold brought on by several factors, including “structurally higher geopolitical uncertainty since 2022, persistent high uncertainty about the longer-term inflation backdrop, to concerns about persistently high government deficits across major economies.

Forex Signals Brief December 17: US Retail Sales and Canada Inflation

Posted on by Skerdian Meta

Today we have three main events, the UK employment report for October, the Canadian CPI inflation and US retail sales for November which will be the last major data release ahead of tomorrow’s FOMC meeting.

Canada CPI Inflation Report for November

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