Market Wrap: Bitcoin Retraces Gains as Investors Await Inflation Announcement

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

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to retrace last week’s gains, declining for the fourth straight day toward the psychologically critical price of $20,000.

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was down 1.8% over the past 24 hours, around $20,500.

Although bitcoin surged above $22,000 last week, the cryptocurrency has consistently failed to break out. Still, some analysts are getting more optimistic about a market recovery.

“BTC has never previously fallen below such marks, so it is now getting support from buyers confident in the first cryptocurrency’s long-term growth,” FxPro senior market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said. “Another supportive factor was the rebound in financial markets, where the new half-year was met with increased buying.”

Wednesday’s expected release of June’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), the most widely regarded measure of U.S. inflation, may show whether the Federal Reserve’s hawkish monetary policy has succeeded in slowing the pace of rising prices. If the increase exceeds investor expectations, traditional and crypto markets may both see another wave of selling that could push bitcoin lower.

EToro market analyst Simon Peters said that eyes are also “firmly on ether” as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization moves towards its Merge and transitions from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

“While it’s impossible to know what effect the move to a proof-of-stake network will have on the crypto-asset price, theoretically it is deflationary as it encourages holders to stake rather than sell their tokens,” Peters said.

Ether (ETH) was down 2.7% over the past 24 hours. Most altcoins were trading in the red today with UNI as the biggest loser, down 8.4%.

Latest prices

Ether, Short-Bitcoin Inflows Continue: CoinShares Report

Crypto fund inflows totaled $15 million in the seven days through July 8, according to a CoinShares report.

Over half of that, some $7.6 million, was attributed to ether-focused funds, for the third consecutive week of inflows. A cold streak for ether funds earlier this year had pushed cumulative outflows to $460 million.

“The inflows suggest a modest turn-around in sentiment, having endured 11 consecutive weeks of outflows,” according to the report.

CoinShares suggested in the report that an improvement in Ethereum network sentiment may be due to the approaching Merge, where the blockchain network moves from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

Last week, Ethereum successfully transitioned its Sepolia test environment network (test-net) to proof-of-stake, moving the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization one step closer to its own Merge.

Short-bitcoin investment products – those betting on a price decline in the largest cryptocurrency – saw inflows totaling $6.3 million, a sweeping decline from the $51 million of inflows seen last week. Short-bitcoin outperformed traditional bitcoin investment products, which saw outflows totaling $1.7 million.

Altcoin funds were stagnant, with minor outflows totaling $300,000.

Regionally, North America accounted for the majority of inflows, with U.S. inflows totaling $8.2 million and Canadian inflows totaling $7.1 million.

Altcoin roundup

• Terra projects being moving to Polygon: Almost two months after the Terra network collapsed following the implosion of terraUSD (UST), more than 48 projects previously on the Terra network have begun migrating to Polygon. Over $20 million had been earmarked to help projects that are migrating. Read more here.
• Celsius Reclaims $172M Collateral: The liquidity-strapped crypto lender paid down $95 million of its debt to the Aave and Compound decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, freeing up $172 million of collateral that had been locked in the platforms. Last week, Celsius Network paid its remaining $41 million debt to Maker, freeing up $440 million of collateral. Read more here.
• Saudi Arabia-Themed NFT Collection is the Latest Free-to-Mint Hit: The collection, called The Saudis, consists of 5,555 non-fungible tokens (NFT) and topped the charts for volume in its debut weekend with $7.7 million in sales. The project continued the trend of popular free mint, theatrically driven projects. Read more here.

Relevant insight

• Listen ????: Today’s “CoinDesk Markets Daily” podcast discusses the latest market movements and why Web3 needs in-person gatherings.
• CoinFlex Begins Arbitration to Recover $84M in Delinquent Debt: The trading platform also said it was speaking with depositors looking to help the business by “rolling some of their deposits into equity.”
• Bitcoin in ‘Accumulation’ Phase, On-chain Indicators Suggest: Bitcoin’s Puell Multiple and MVRV Z-Score indicate the cryptocurrency is undervalued. Similar readings have marked bear market bottoms in the past.
• Twitter Shares Down 7% Following Elon Musk’s Scrapped Takeover: The social-media company plans to take legal action against the crypto enthusiast.
• Binance Failed to Deliver on Money-Laundering Prevention Promises: Report: A Reuters report says the cryptocurrency exchange has been lax in cracking down on the financial crime.
• Gryphon Mining ‘Able to Take Advantage of Opportunities’ in Sector: The miner produced 71 bitcoin in June, up from 62 in May.
• Cross-Chain Infrastructure Protocol LI.FI Raises $5.5M: The funding will help the firm expand to more blockchains.
• KuCoin Denies Layoff Rumors, Says It’s Hiring 300: The crypto exchange plans to add employees in tech, compliance and marketing.
• International Securities Regulator IOSCO to Focus on Global DeFi, Crypto Rules: In its first two years, the global standard-setter’s new fintech task force will concentrate on setting up policy recommendations for digital assets.
• BIS Calls for Global Collaboration With CBDC Designs: The Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements on Monday released a report produced in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
• Global Financial Watchdog FSB to Propose Crypto Regulations in October: The Financial Stability Board will recommend ways to oversee stablecoins and other digital assets to the G-20.

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.