Good morning. Here is what happens:
Prices: Inflation data barely stirred crypto markets, but a partial victory for Ripple on Thursday sent bitcoin and other major digital assets higher.
Knowledge: As the number of large bitcoin holders increases, the bitcoin sent to exchanges continues to decline.
Prices
CoinDesk Market Index (CMI)
1,309
+72.0 5.8%
Bitcoin (BTC)
$31,328
+974.6 3.2%
Ethereum (ETH)
$1,993
+122.1 6.5%
S&P500
4,510.04
+37.9 0.8%
Gold
$1,965
+8.4 0.4%
Nikki 225
32,419.33
+475.4 1.5%
BTC/ETH price by CoinDesk indices, as of 7 a.m. ET (11 a.m. UTC)
Crypto Prices Sail Higher
A partial victory for Ripple in its fight against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a court ruling on Thursday did what encouraging inflation data failed to do the day before.
Push bitcoin and other major digital assets much higher.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at $31,328, up 3.2% in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin surged as high as $31,700 near the close of traditional markets, an over-year high. With some jolts, BTC languished between $30,000 and $31,000 for the past three weeks as some investors worried about potential banking missteps to fight inflation and waited for a significant price catalyst.
The Ripple ruling offered that boost at least temporarily after a US judge ruled that selling its XRP tokens on exchanges and through algorithms did not constitute investment contracts. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York also ruled that the institutional token sale violated federal securities laws.
XRP rose 96% at one point to change hands at 93.6 cents, its highest level since March 2022. It was recently trading at 74 cents, still up over 73%. XRP is the native cryptocurrency of XRP Ledger, an open-source public blockchain designed to facilitate faster and cheaper payments.
Learn more: Ripple and Crypto Industry Win Partial Victory in SEC Legal Battle Against XRP
In an email to CoinDesk, Dave Weisberger, co-founder and CEO of algorithmic crypto trading platform CoinRoutes, saw a significant upside in Thursday’s event. “The ruling in the Ripple case is significant because it specifically makes secondary market trading of utility tokens outside the jurisdiction of the SEC, while preserving their jurisdiction over institutional fundraising,” Weisberger wrote. “This is very good news for crypto exchanges and investors regarding a wide range of tokens identified by the SEC in lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance.”
The agency accused the two exchange giants of violating securities law and mentioned more than a dozen of the most valuable tokens, including those from smart contract platforms Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL). These native cryptos fell sharply immediately after, but on Thursday they were surging with ADA and SOL recently up over 20% and 17%, respectively. And MATIC, the Polygon layer 2 blockchain token, which the SEC also reported, rose more than 16%.
Weisberger wrote that Thursday’s decision “relieves the pressure” on these tokens, “and it wouldn’t be surprising to see a rally that recoups initial losses and more.”
Ether, the second-largest crypto by market value, topped $2,000 for the first time in three months before falling slightly below that threshold, but was still up more than 6.5% from Wednesday. , at the same time. The CoinDesk Market Index, a measure of the performance of crypto markets, rose 6.1%.
Stock indices rose more modestly, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 climbing 1.5% and 0.8% respectively. Cryptos and stocks have been traveling in increasingly different directions over the past seven months, although investors have been enjoying another small jolt of encouraging inflation news as the producer price index ( PPI), which measures wholesale price activity, rose by its smallest year-over-year increase. in almost a year.
Learn more: Bitcoin and Ether maintain their 2023 decoupling from traditional finance
CoinRoutes Weisberger believes that the SEC and Coinbase are now more likely to resolve their disputes positively, which should provide additional tailwinds to the market. “Is this a speculative bull market for now?” he wrote. “Probably not. But the foundations for one have certainly been laid.”
Joe DiPasquale, the CEO of the cryptocurrency fund manager, was also upbeat about the prospects for multiple spot bitcoin ETF applications filed last month by some of the biggest brands in the financial services industry. “At this point, Bitcoin ETF applications also appear to have promising prospects, and we would be surprised if BTC or other major cryptocurrencies revisit recent near-term lows,” DiPasquale wrote.
He added, “I spoke with several crypto hedge fund investors today who were excited about the favorable legal clarity brought by the decision.”
The biggest winners
The biggest losers
There are no losers in CoinDesk 20 today.
Knowledge
A Calm Among Short-Term BTC Holders
Bitcoin’s relatively calm trading behavior over the past few weeks has likely removed short-term holders’ motivation to sell their asset, contributing to its recent support around $30,000. (BTC surged above $31,000 on Thursday after Ripple won a partial victory in a federal court ruling, but the strength of the rally remains uncertain.)
According to Glassnode, the percentage of short-term bitcoin holders in profits exceeds 83%, down from 99% in profits for early July, but well above its percentage in January.
Short-term bitcoin supply is BTC purchased in the last 155 days. The direction of bitcoin supply in the short term and the extent to which its holders are making profits are important to watch as a signal about investor sentiment and motivations.
While long-term BTC holders are likely to maintain their positions in the asset, shorter-term traders tend to have less patience for price swings, liquidating their positions in response.
This article was written and edited by CoinDesk journalists for the sole purpose of informing the reader with accurate information. If you click on a Glassnode link, CoinDesk may earn a commission. To find out more, see our Ethics Policy.
Important events.
15:00 HKT/SGT (7:00 UTC) EcoFin meeting
5:00 p.m. HKT/SGT (9:00 a.m. UTC) The European Commission publishes its economic growth forecasts
20:30 HKT/SGT (12:30 UTC) Michigan Consumer Confidence Index (July)
CoinDesk TV
In case you missed it, here’s the most recent episode of “First Mover” on CoinDesk TV:
Coinbase goes to court against SEC; Threads hits 100 million users in less than a week
Coinbase and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission were scheduled to meet in court on Thursday for a pre-motion hearing. Former SEC law enforcement chief and Bragança Law attorney Lisa Bragança shared her expectations. Threads was gaining ground against rival Twitter, after hitting 100 million users in less than a week. Bitcoin (BTC) failed twice this week to break above $31,000. Forex.com Global Head of Research Matt Weller has shared his analysis of the crypto markets.
Securities
Ripple and Crypto Industry Win Partial Victory in SEC Legal Battle Against XRP: Institutional sales of the tokens violated federal securities laws, but not programmatic sales, a court has ruled.
Argentina’s first Bitcoin futures contract officially goes live: The product was approved by the South American country’s National Securities Commission in April.
Zero-Knowledge Rollup ZKM Sets To Make Ethereum A “Universal Settlement Layer”: With funding from the foundation overseeing the development of the Metis Layer-2 Ethereum protocol, ZKM is developing a hybrid stack that combines an Optmistic stack and a Zero-Knowledge stack into one.
Celsius Network’s Alex Mashinsky Arrested as SEC, CFTC, FTC Sue Bankrupt Crypto Lender: The US Department of Justice accused the former CEO of Celsius of orchestrating a “year-long scheme to deceive customers”.
Ethereum Tops New Crypto ESG Ranking, Bitcoin Criticized For High Energy Consumption: Crypto data firm CCData has released the first institutional-level rating system that rates digital assets with a focus on environmental, social and governance aspects.