First Mover Americas: It’s Payrolls Day Again, and Bitcoin Holds Tight Near $20K

Lyllah Ledesma, Omkar Godbole
Updated ·2 min read

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

Price Point

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below the $20,000 mark Friday, down almost 1% on the day, as traders in both crypto and stock markets awaited September’s jobs report in the U.S.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value has spent the last four months hovering around the $20,000 mark with little movement either side.

“This could be really important for bitcoin that it has found a base around $20,000 that traders are seemingly comfortable with in these turbulent times,” wrote Craig Erlam, an analyst at Oanda, in a morning note. “It now looks like a very strong region of support that's been reinforced with every test below.”

Erlam said there could well be a case for this level forming a bottom for the cryptocurrency but, of course, another risk-off panic could put this theory to test.

Ether (ETH) was also trading down on the day slightly, but has been slowly making its way back up after the post-Merge drop.

A blockchain linked to the big crypto exchange Binance ordered a suspension on Thursday, after an estimated $100 million to $110 million in assets were moved off chain.

BNB Chain, composed of BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain, tweeted the suspension on BSC from its official account, later confirming that the activity stemmed from a “potential exploit.”

Some $7 million of the total crypto has already been frozen.

BNB token is down 3.35%.

In the news, Citigroup’s director of blockchain and digital assets is leaving the U.S. bank to take a role at Six Digital Exchange, according to his LinkedIn page.

A report from Morgan Stanley said the market for cryptocurrency exchange products continues to grow, a sign that institutional interest in the digital assets sector remains strong despite concerns of a crypto winter.

Crypto lender Celsius Network’s top executives withdrew a little over $17 million in cryptocurrency between May and June 2022, right before the company suspended withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy, new court records show.

CoinDesk Market Index

Biggest Gainers

Asset

Ticker

Returns

DACS Sector

Enzyme

MLN

+5.38%

DeFi

STEPN

GMT

+4.37%

Culture & Entertainment

Terra Luna Classic

LUNC

+3.72%

Smart Contract Platform

Biggest Losers

Asset

Ticker

Returns

DACS Sector

Alien Worlds

TLM

-2.28%

Culture & Entertainment

COTI

COTI

-2.25%

Currency

Project Galaxy

GAL

-1.65%

Digitization

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 Market Index (CMI) is a broad-based index designed to measure the market capitalization weighted performance of the digital asset market subject to minimum trading and exchange eligibility requirements.

Chart of the Day

US Wage Growth May Be the Most Important Figure for Risk Assets

By Omkar Godbole

The chart shows the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, the core personal consumption expenditure or core PCE, is closely tied to wage growth. (Nordea)
The chart shows the Fed's preferred measure of inflation, the core personal consumption expenditure or core PCE, is closely tied to wage growth. (Nordea)

  • An expected slowdown in the headline nonfarm payrolls (NFP) report may do little to bring relief to risk unless accompanied by a meaningful deceleration in the average hourly earnings.

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