December 9, 2021

​​$BTC 24 Hour High $51,320
$BTC 24 Hour Low $48,934
$BTC -0.4% past 24 hours; -11.5% past 7 days

Altcoins bounce as bullish confidence grows

Good morning. The much-anticipated bullish momentum has started to build in the crypto markets, including $BTC and $ETH. For $BTC, higher highs and higher lows are starting to form an upward-trending trading corridor on the lower timeframe. This means $BTC is regaining its strength, at least, in the short term.

A retest of 49.5K held while $BTC traded in a narrow range of $50-51K over the last 24 hours. Given the current market set-up and flat funding rates, expect $BTC to push higher to $53K over the few days, the local top from September 7. Despite the bullish sentiment, don’t lose sight of the fact that we are still trading in a downward-trending market based on the price action since November 11. Stay cautious and look out for the first real sign of trend reversal — a daily close above $54.5K. If the price breaks to the downside, $BTC may retest the $47K area and the 200D MA.

While $BTC is still licking its wounds over the weekend plunge, $ETH might have already come out of the woods. ETH’s downward-trending resistance-flipped-support line successfully held on the retest. This allows $ETH to push higher again and almost reverse the entire downward trend from the weekend plunge. To verify the trend, $ETH needs to move towards $4,540, the local top from November 26, followed by a retest of the current level at $4,400. These constant tests are the building blocks required for developing a sustainable run. $ETH’s funding rates remain as flat as $BTC’s, suggesting the dip is being bought on the spot market not with leverage. 

Stablecoins were in the limelight today during the hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services where a group of CEOs of leading crypto firms was asked to testify. A unified message from the CEOs was that stablecoins do not harm the US dollar but, instead, strengthen it. Citing an example of the Chinese digital yuan which has only done $10B worth of transactions so far, USD-pegged stablecoins have carried out trillions of dollars worth of transactions and counting. Supporting USD-pegged stablecoins should be a national security priority and help the unbanked.

Learn more from today’s Trader View video.

Digital assets market:

• Total crypto market capitalization stands at $2.51T, -0.3% from yesterday
• $BTC is +0.04% at time of writing; 24H liquidations and funding rates: $60.26M, +0.00635%average
• $ETH is -0.12% at time of writing; 24H liquidations and funding rates: $42.11M, +0.03095% average
• Stablecoins Market Dominance: USDT 48.57%; USDC 25.77%; BUSD 8.57%; DAI 5.63%

Alts and DeFi watch:

• DeFi TVL: $105.26B
• $SOL +2.2% in the last 24 hours, -6.9% in the past week 
• $SHIB +1.8% in the last 24 hours, -21.9% in the past week
• $SAND +0.7% in the last 24 hours, -21.1% in the past week
• $ENJ +3.9% in the last 24 hours, -18.0% in the past week

More news that caught our eye:

• Vitalik Buterin shares his “endgame” for Ethereum 2.0
• Silvergate Bank eyes $461M in public offering after filing to sell 3.3M shares
• $1.1B in $BTC options expire on Friday, but data points to a sub-$55K $BTC 
• $SOL attempts bullish reversal at $170
• Whales are accumulating $ETH competitor amid crypto market drawdown

OSL Trader View is contributed by Stefan von Haenisch & Ethan Fu.