The high volume of bitcoins not seen since June is helping the price, while Ethereum’s DeFi expansion continues to include expensive network fees.
- Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $ 10,829 as of 20:00 UTC (4 pm ET). Earn 9.7% in the previous 24 hours.
- Bitcoin 24-hour range: $ 9,849- $ 10,964
- BTC above the 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market techs.
Bitcoin hit $ 10,964 on the Coinbase spot exchange on Monday, a price level not seen since August 2019. “The bitcoin breakout seemed to have finally happened when we took off from $ 9,800,” said Jack Tan of the Taiwan-based quantitative trading firm Kronos Research. “The trend is clear and we are headed higher.”
Read more: The odds of Bitcoin hitting a record in 2020 are (slightly) up
Bitcoin trading volume on Coinbase on Monday was $ 292 million. This was the highest since June 11, when volumes reached $ 255 million.
Traders have long discussed the $ 10,500 price range as a level to stay above to fuel a long bull run, said Neil Van Huis, director of institutional trading at Chicago-based crypto liquidity provider Blockfills. “We need to stay above $ 10,500, so I’d probably like to see strong interest in demand above that and stay for more than 24 hours to see if optimism has legs,” said Van Huis.
Despite Monday’s excitement, bitcoin’s jump could force selling on the crypto alternative market, or altcoin, Kronos’ Tan said. “Unfortunately, this could absorb energy from alternative currencies and high-flying DeFi tokens.”
A dynamic to watch: Monday’s ETH / BTC pair was down 4% on Coinbase as traders are selling ether for bitcoin on the spot market.
Regardless of the rebalancing, Chris Thomas, head of digital assets for the Swissquote broker, says DeFi is the main reason for the overall movement in the cryptocurrency markets. “It is powered exclusively by DeFi,” said Chris Thomas. “We will probably see a lot more of this, which will result in the ether driving higher and dragging everything else with it.”
Ethereum rates rise 550% in 2020
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose on Monday, trading around $ 323 and rising 5.6% in 24 hours from 20:00 UTC (4:00 pm ET).
Read more: Ethereum miners’ revenue soars 60% in one month
In January the average rate on the Ethereum network was 0.000542 ETH. So far, in July, average fees on Ethereum are 0.003532 ETH, a 550% increase in the cost of transacting on the second-largest blockchain by market cap, according to data aggregator Blockchair.
“The recent rise in the price of ether could be explained by the fact that large users and investors in the DeFi ecosystem are buying ETH now to pay less gas fees for each transaction,” said partner Jean-Baptiste Pavageau of the quantitative firm. based in Paris. ExoAlpha.
Some merchants may be taking advantage of this rate hike, accumulating ether as the situation can only be exacerbated as 2020 continues. “Speculators are actively monitoring the DeFi ecosystem and anticipate the growth of the Ethereum network in the coming months, increasing demand in ether to pay the gas fee for each transaction,” added Pavageau.
Read more: MakerDAO Exceeds $ 1B Milestone at DeFi First
Other markets
Digital assets on CoinDesk 20 are mixed on Monday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 pm ET):
Read more: FTX to Launch ‘Scalable’ Decentralized Exchange in Weeks
Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 pm ET):
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Read more: Silvergate’s Bitcoin-backed loan product grew 80% in the last quarter
- Gold rose 2% to $ 1,938.40 at press time. The price of the yellow metal hit a record high of $ 1,945.72 on Monday. Its previous high of $ 1,921.18 occurred in 2011.
- Oil has risen 0.86%. West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Price: $ 41.60
Read more: 85% of Italian banks are exchanging interbank transfer data in Corda
- US Treasury bonds were combined on Monday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction of the price, increased more in the 10 years, in the green 3.2%.
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