the merge

Independent Reserve16 August 2022Market update

BTC A$34K. Weekend rally for Ethereum as Merge edges closer

Ethereum reclaimed the US$2,000 (A$2,850) mark briefly on the weekend for the first time since May following news the Merge is just one month away. It’s currently trading around US$1,900 (A$2,720) marking a 7.7% gain for the week. Bitcoin is also up 1.1% on seven days ago to trade around US$24K (A$34.3K). Cardano increased 3.1%, with co-founder Charles Hoskinson insisting that testing on the delayed Vasil hard fork is going well. XRP lost 1.1%, Solana increased 3.8% and Dogecoin was up 10.4%. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index hit Neutral this week for the first time since April but is currently at 45 (Fear). Interestingly, the Bank of America's Bull and Bear Indicator for traditional markets has been stuck at 0 or 'extreme bearish' for nine weeks in a row. Analyst Jack Dorman argued this week that while Bitcoin is still correlated with the Nasdaq, other digital assets including blue chip DeFi coins and Ethereum decoupled months ago.

Independent Reserve12 July 2022Market update

BTC A$29K. Over 13 million ETH staked in the 2.0 contract

Although crypto has been dealing with its own issues, macro factors appear to be having the biggest impact. The White House expects this week’s June CPI figures to be "highly elevated" and analysts are tipping 8.8%. The Euro has also fallen to parity with the US dollar for the first time in 20 years. Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at Genesis Global Trading said: "This could negatively impact the price of Bitcoin in dollar terms, which for the past couple of years has been negatively correlated with the dollar index." Bitcoin traded as high as A$32.5K (US$22.1K) this week but is currently around A$29,485 (US$19.8K) which is pretty much where it was seven days ago. Ethereum fell 8.6% to A$1,620 (US$1.1K), XRP lost 6.2%, Cardano (-8.9%) and Polkadot (-10.8%). The Crypto Fear & Greed Index is at 16, or Extreme Fear.

Independent Reserve31 May 2022Market update

BTC A$44K. Bitcoin in "value accumulation" trend - Glassnode

The good news is that the bad news has stopped, but is it a dead cat bounce or a trend reversal? Bitcoin is up 8% from a week ago to trade around AU$44,000 (US$31.7K) at the time of writing. Glassnode’s latest report says Bitcoin true believers have been snapping up BTC at discount prices and swallowed up all of the 80K Bitcoin liquidated by the LUNA Foundation Guard. The Bitcoin Accumulation Trend score is at 0.9% which Glassnode says indicates “investor psychology shifts from uncertainty to value accumulation.” Ethereum finished the week up 1% at AU$2,775 (US$1,990), XRP gained 2%, Cardano was up 11% and Solana lost 6%. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index is at 16 or Extreme Fear.