Market Wrap: Bitcoin Heads for Record Half-Year Loss of 59%

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

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price fell for a fifth straight day, heading toward the worst half-year loss on record. An adverse regulatory decision late Wednesday from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission squelched what little hope traders might have had of a quick rebound.

As of press time the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was changing hands just below $19,000, down 5.6% over the past 24 hours.

On the last day of the month, the one superlative in the market wasn’t much to brag about: The January-June stretch marked bitcoin’s worst six-month stretch on record, down 59%, based on data going back to the early 2010s.

Thursday’s leg down came after the SEC rejected the application by CoinDesk sister company Grayscale to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a bitcoin-holding exchange-traded fund. Other dismal industry news continues to pile up: CoinFLEX withdrawals remain halted as the company continue talks over a “recovery token.”

And while $20,000 had been seen as a key pivot point for bitcoin’s price, analysts are now daring to discuss an even more pessimistic milestone.

“Bitcoin could be vulnerable to one more ugly plunge that could have many traders fearing a fall towards the $10,000 area,” Oanda senior market analyst Edward Moya wrote in an email.

Polygon’s MATIC token slid 10% and ether (ETH) lost 8.6%.

In traditional markets, a slowdown in consumer spending rattled investors and raised fears anew about a coming recession while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was headed for its worst first-half performance since the 1970s.

Latest prices

Altcoin roundup

• STEPN’s DEX surpasses Orca: The decentralized exchange (DEX) of move-to-earn game STEPN is now the largest DEX on Solana, according to a tweet from the anonymous founder of Solana-based lending platform Solend. The founder of the Solend protocol has also expressed interest in integrating STEPN’s tokens into its lending platform. Read more here.
• Nansen to track Solana NFT data: The on-chain analytics platform is adding to its toolkit of non-fungible token (NFT) analytics, announcing that its long-awaited Solana integration is live. The platform’s data, which includes trade volumes, wallet analysis and minting dashboards, comes from the ecosystem’s two most popular marketplaces, Magic Eden and OpenSea. Read more here.
• Harmony Horizon exploit linked to North Korea: The blockchain’s developers now have a “global manhunt” to track down the attackers behind last week’s $100 million exploit of its Horizon bridge, offering a $10 million bounty. Read more here.

Relevant insight

• Listen ????: Today’s CoinDesk Markets Daily podcast discusses the latest market movements and dives into a nuanced look of how the SEC views crypto.
• Crypto Miners Face Margin Calls, Defaults as Debt Comes Due in Bear Market: Private and publicly listed crypto miners owe up to $4 billion in debt used to finance the construction of gargantuan facilities across North America, according to industry participants and data compiled by CoinDesk.
• Bitcoin Drops to Nearly $19K as Fed Renews Inflation Warnings: Central bank leaders warned Wednesday that inflation is going to last longer than some estimated.
• EU Watchdog Wants to Address Threat Crypto Assets Could Pose to Financial System: The European Systemic Risk Board is looking into measures and policies to address the potential threat that crypto assets could present to the global financial system.
• FTX Passed on Deal to Purchase Celsius Due to Deficient Balance Sheet: Report: Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange also reportedly found Celsius hard to deal with.
• CFTC Charges South African Bitcoin Club Mirror Trading International With $1.7B Fraud: MTI’s self-described CEO was recently detained in Brazil on an Interpol warrant, the regulator said.
• FBI Adds OneCoin Founder Ruja Ignatova to Its Most Wanted List: Ignatova is accused of defrauding investors out of more than $4 billion via a crypto Ponzi scheme.
• JPMorgan Says Crypto Market Deleveraging Cycle Won’t Be Lengthy: Stronger crypto companies are stepping in to help contain contagion, and venture capital funding is still healthy, the bank said.
• Societe Generale Selects Swiss Crypto Custody Specialist Metaco for Security Token Push: Big banks and custodians have entered the “FOMO” stage when it comes to crypto, said Metaco CEO Adrien Treccani.
• Singapore Central Bank Censures Three Arrows Capital for Alleged Misleading and False Disclosures: The crypto hedge fund also exceeded the threshold of assets it could manage in Singapore, according to the central bank.
• OpenSea Reports Email Data Breach: An employee at an outside contractor tasked with managing OpenSea email newsletters copied the list of customer emails and shared it with an outside party, OpenSea says.

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.