Market Wrap: Bitcoin Erases Weekly Losses, but Risks Remain

Hi, I’m Jimmy He, here to take you through the day’s crypto market highlights and news.

Bitcoin (BTC) climbed for a third consecutive day, erasing this week’s early losses.

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose 1.5% over the past 24 hours and was recently trading at about $21,000.

Some analysts are still wary of bitcoin’s surge amid a market that’s averse to risk, with inflation hitting a 40-year high on Wednesday and the troubled crypto lender Celsius Network filing for bankruptcy on Wednesday.

Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at Oanda, wrote that bitcoin’s recent resilience doesn’t necessarily mean a further recovery.

“The near-term outlook is still a concern given the broader risk environment and reports of bankruptcies in the industry,” Erlam wrote. “If anything, the latter could be a bigger concern if [bitcoin] does eventually break lower.”

The U.S. dollar index (DXY), a measure of the greenback relative to a basket of foreign currencies, is approaching highs unseen since 2002, Glassnode wrote in a newsletter.

The rise is driven by either a strengthening demand for USD-denominated fixed-income securities as the U.S. Federal Reserve raises interest rates or the depreciation of foreign currencies such as the euro, which recently dropped to a 20-year low of $1.0002 against the dollar.

The DXY has a predominantly negative correlation with bitcoin prices, and so further index increases could spell price declines for the cryptocurrency.

Most altcoins were in the green, with QNT leading the charts, up 13% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH) was up 4.6%.

Today’s edition of Market Wrap was produced by Sage D. Young.

Latest prices

Slumping Mining-Rig Prices Offer Bitcoin Miners the Opportunity to Buy for Cheap

Bitcoin mining-rig prices slumped to nearly two-year lows as Celsius Mining filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday alongside its parent company, Celsius Network.

The mining unit had filed a confidential S-1 draft registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March to take the company public and said last year that it had invested $500 million in its North America bitcoin mining operations.

Now, Celsius Mining is selling its rigs at a heavily discounted rate per terahash (TH).

“A person familiar with the situation told CoinDesk that Celsius Mining auctioned off thousands of its newly purchased mining rigs in June, with the first batch of 6,000 selling for $28/TH and a second group of 5,000 changing hands at $22/TH,” Aoyon Ashraf reported.

According to Luxor Mining’s hashrate index data, mining rigs were trading at around $50-$60/TH in June, double Celsius’ auction price.

A Glassnode report last month showed bitcoin miners’ total revenue had fallen 57% since the cryptocurrency’s all-time high while network difficulty had risen by 132%.

“This substantial jump in difficulty suggests that existing miners have expanded their operations, and new miners have joined the network despite a massive income reduction. As such it is likely that recent capital expenses on mining hardware and facilities could add continued pressure to miners’ balance sheets,” Glassnode wrote.

Altcoin roundup

• Ethereum’s Merge Projected for September: Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation projected that the Merge – Ethereum’s long-anticipated transition from the energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a more efficient proof-of-stake system – might take place the week of Sept. 19. Read more here.
• DeFi Coins Outperform Bitcoin: Major decentralized finance (DeFi) coins led the markets, boasting double-digit percentage growth in 24 hours and outperforming market leaders bitcoin and ether. Read more here.
• OpenSea Lays Off Roughly 20% of Its Staff: The non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace’s CEO, Devin Finzer, announced the layoffs in a tweet on Thursday, citing an “unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability.” Read more here.

Relevant insight

• The Fall of Celsius Network: A Timeline of the Crypto Lender’s Descent Into Insolvency: A timeline of Celsius’ battle with insolvency during the crypto crash, from the firm’s decision to limit some user activity before the “pause,” to its decision to file for bankruptcy on the advice of restructuring experts.
• Vladimir Putin Bans Digital Payments in Russia: He has signed a bill that adds to a previous prohibition against cryptocurrency payments in the country.
• US Congressional Group ‘Disturbed’ by Crypto Mining Energy Usage: The six Democratic lawmakers found that seven large crypto miners consume enough energy to power all the households in Houston.
• Decentralized Oracle Empiric Network Launches With $7M Funding Round: Variant led the round for the StarkNet-based oracle, which was created in partnership with StarkWare.
• Crypto VC Investments Drop 26% in First Half of 2022: Investments totaled $9.3 billion versus the $12.5 billion in last year’s period, but the number of deals increased.
• Celsius Owed $439M by Lending Firm EquitiesFirst: Report: Celsius Network first borrowed from EquitiesFirst in 2019 before an overcollateralized crypto loan went sour in 2021.
• DeFiance Capital Has Been ‘Materially Affected’ by Three Arrows Liquidation: The firm’s CEO has said he is committed to recovering all assets that may have been affected.
• 5ire Raises $100M to Fund Expansion of Sustainable Blockchain: The company will use what it calls a “proof-of-benefit” mechanism, saying it is the only sustainability-focused blockchain unicorn in the world.

Other markets

Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk 20 is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges.