First Mover Asia: Crypto Prices Plunge Late After Weak Meta Earnings

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:

Market moves: Bitcoin ended its two-day winning streak with heavier selling pressure during late U.S. trading hours.

Technician’s take: BTC’s pullback could continue into the Asia trading day; initial support at $35K.

Catch the latest episodes of CoinDesk TV for insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis.

Prices

Bitcoin (BTC): $37,031 -4.5%

Ether (ETH): $2,690 -3.8%

Top Gainers

Asset
Ticker
Returns
Sector

Internet Computer
ICP
+8.4%
Computing

Ethereum Classic
ETC
+2.1%
Smart Contract Platform

Algorand
ALGO
+0.2%
Smart Contract Platform

Top Losers

Asset
Ticker
Returns
Sector

Solana
SOL
−6.2%
Smart Contract Platform

Cosmos
ATOM
−6.0%
Smart Contract Platform

Stellar
XLM
−4.3%
Smart Contract Platform

Markets

S&P 500: 4,589 +0.9%

DJIA: 35,629 +0.6%

Nasdaq: 14,417 +0.5%

Gold: $1,807 +0.3%

Market moves

Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market faced heavier selling pressure in late U.S. trading hours on Wednesday, ending the oldest cryptocurrency’s two-day winning streak.

The late afternoon price drop in crypto came after Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) delivered disappointing Q4 earnings with weak guidance for the current quarter. Meta shares dropped by more than 18% in extended trading on Wednesday.

At the time of publication, the largest cryptocurrency by market value is changing hands at $37,031, down 4.5% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. Ether, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was trading at $2,690, off 3.8% for the same period.

According to data compiled by CoinDesk, bitcoin’s trading volume across major centralized exchanges on Wednesday continued to drop.

In broader cryptocurrency markets, most alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoin) were also in the red on Wednesday. At the time of publication, some of the day’s biggest losers were tokens associated with the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, including loopring (LRC), curve (CRV) and solana (SOL), based on data from Messari.

Ether suffered more losses than bitcoin during the late trading after a “potential exploit” of more than 120,000 ether (worth more than $326 million in total) was discovered on cross-chain bridge Wormhole. The popular bridge for connecting Solana and a few other major networks is attempting to negotiate on-chain with the hacker, as CoinDesk reported.

The event is ongoing, with Wormhole tweeting its network is “down for maintenance” as the team looks into the issue.

Technician’s take

Bitcoin Slides Below $38K; Support Above $35K

Bitcoin (BTC) failed to sustain a bounce above $38,000, although short-term buyers could remain active above the $35,000 support level. Momentum was starting to fade on intraday charts, which means the pullback could continue into the Asia trading day. At the time of publication, bitcoin was trading at about $37,000.

The relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart approached overbought territory on Tuesday, which preceded the current pullback in price. Additionally, the 100-period moving average on the four-hour chart, currently at $38,220, continues to cap brief price gains.

Bitcoin remains in an intermediate-term downtrend since November and has consolidated between $35,000 and $38,000 over the past week. Buyers will need to make a decisive move above $40,000 in order to reverse the downtrend.

Important events

8:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (12:30 a.m. UTC): Australia imports/exports (Dec.)

8:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (12:30 a.m. UTC): Jibun (Japan) bank services purchasing managers index (Jan.)

8:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (12:30 a.m. UTC): National Bank ANZ (New Zealand) commodity prices (Jan.)

8:30 a.m. HKT/SGT (12:30 a.m. UTC): National Australia Bank’s Business Confidence (Q4/QoQ)

5 p.m. HKT/SGT (9 a.m. UTC): Markit Economics services purchasing managers index (Jan.)

CoinDesk TV

In case you missed it, here is the most recent episode of “First Mover” on CoinDesk TV:

Grayscale Launches First Future of Finance ETF (GFOF), Impact of India’s Crypto Tax Proposal, Sheila Warren Joins Crypto Council for Innovation as CEO

“First Mover” hosts spoke with CoinDesk sister company Grayscale’s Global Head of ETF Dave LaValle as the company launches its first exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index. CoinDesk “Money ReImagined” co-host Sheila Warren shared her plan for the Crypto Council for Innovation as she starts her first day as its CEO. Plus, “First Mover” offered insights into India’s crypto policy change from Tanvi Ratna, founder of Policy 4.0.

Headlines

Blockchain Bridge Wormhole Suffers Possible Exploit Worth Over $250M: The popular bridge is now attempting to negotiate on-chain with the hacker.

Don’t Listen to Celebrities Shilling Crypto, Says Binance Celebrity Ad: The campaign featuring NBA star Jimmy Butler launches ahead of the Super Bowl, during which Binance rivals FTX and Crypto.com will be running ads.

NFT Platform Pixel Vault Closes $100M Investment: The funding by Velvet Sea Ventures and 01A, the venture capital firm founded by former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, will help the startup support a range of projects.

Coinbase, Genesis Highlight Massive Institutional Growth at MicroStrategy Conference: More retailers are interested in NFTs, and that can lead them to hold more crypto in their treasuries, says Coinbase Institutional’s chief.

Neopets Pitched a Metaverse Pivot. Fans Balked: For many Neopets fans, an effort to bring the early-aughts classic into Web 3 is throwing up red flags.

PayPal Shares Slump as Revenue Growth Slows: The payment giant’s quarterly revenue increased 13% in the fourth quarter, down from a 25% increase a year ago.

Longer reads

What ‘Line Goes Up’ Gets Wrong (and Right) About NFTs: A new documentary makes the case that NFTs are the top of the funnel for this whole crypto-pyramid-scheme-thing.

Today’s crypto explainer: Crypto Arbitrage Trading: How to Make Low-Risk Gains

Other voices: ‘I Forgot My PIN’: An Epic Tale of Losing $30,000 in Bitcoin

Said and heard

“The focus has clearly turned to earnings. We’ve seen strong results from big tech companies. But at some point we might have sentiment turning back to macro data and the [U.S. Federal Reserve] – we think we will oscillate between these two points. For financial markets, this means more volatility.” (Luc Filip, head of investments at SYZ Private Banking to The Wall Street Journal) … “The carnage marks one of the worst starts to a year for fundamental stock pickers in recent memory. It adds to rare losses many growth and technology hedge funds suffered last year, as expectations of higher interest rates hit many of the stocks they favor.” (The Wall Street Journal) … “There is a fairly large supply and demand gap in the Indian [non-fungible token] market. NFT creators here are proliferating while collectors remain nonexistent. Both sides paint a different picture of how they see the NFT opportunity in India.” (Tanvi Ratna for CoinDesk) … “But if you’ve ever had to transact with a Swiss crypto exchange, you probably breathed a sigh of relief upon reading the news, because getting your crypto off a Swiss exchange is a pain in the bum.” (CoinDesk columnist Leah Callon-Butler)

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