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BTC price clings to $20K as US stocks lose the equivalent of 4 Bitcoin market caps

$1.6 trillion U.S. stock market losses pressure crypto markets, with BTC price action coming full circle to linger near $20,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly lost $20,000 support overnight into Sep. 14 after hot United States inflation sent risk assets crashing lower.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Markets lose big in bid to "fight the Fed"

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it hit lows of $19,870 on Bitstamp — its worst since Sep. 9.

The move came amid a stocks rout triggered by Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data for August coming in above expectations.

Despite still being lower than July, the market had hoped for a quicker cooling of inflation more broadly and hence the chance of a quicker loosening of policy by the Federal Reserve.

With that prospect now appearing slim, equities indexes hemorrhaged value, with Apple losing $154 billion — the sixth-biggest daily loss in U.S. stock market history.

“Markets had tried desperately to spin a bull case and fight the Fed, basically, and that’s a dangerous place to be,” Carol Schleif, deputy chief investment officer at BMO Family Office, told Bloomberg.

In total, U.S. stocks fell by approximately $1.6 trillion on the day — more than four times the Bitcoin market cap.

The U.S. dollar consequently increased in strength, with the U.S. dollar index (DXY) surging back towards twenty-year highs.

At the time of writing, the index circled just under 110, less than 0.9% below that macro peak seen earlier in the month.

U.S. dollar index (DXY) 1-hour candle chart. Source: TradingView

"Septembear" comes back to haunt BTC bull

At the time of writing, cross-market crypto liquidations totaled $355 million, with Sep. 13 forming one of the largest long liquidation events in recent weeks.

Related: Bitcoin margin long-to-short ratio at Bitfinex reach the highest level ever

Data from on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass also captured $88 million of short liquidations on that day.

Crypto liquidations chart. Source: Coinglass

The sell-off thus left BTC/USD up just 1% for the month of September, which was nonetheless still the first “green” September since 2016, Coinglass showed.

BTC/USD monthly returns chart (screenshot). Source: Coinglass

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Hot CPI report puts a dent in Bitcoin and Ethereum rally, stocks also lose ground

BTC, ETH, altcoins and stock prices crumbled in the face of a hotter than expected CPI report. Is there room for a short-term recovery?

Crypto and stock markets are feeling the pain after the Sept. 13 inflation report printed an unexpectedly hot figure that showed headline inflation rising by 0.1% month-over-month.

Even with gas prices falling to multi-month lows and a cooling housing market, core inflation saw a 0.6% month-over-month bump and year-to-year inflation sits at 8.3%.

While market participants and investors had estimated the next Federal Reserve interest hike to be a hefty 0.75 basis points, many also subscribed to a loosely held assumption that Sept. 13’s CPI report would come in softer than projected.

Given that the market had supposedly “priced in” a 0.75 bps hike, crypto traders expected Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and select altcoins to break out to the upside.

Well, obviously the complete opposite occurred.

The Dow slid about 2.6%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell 2.9% and 3.6%, respectively. Naturally, risky assets also fell and Bitcoin price gave up more than 50% of its recent weekend gains with a 9% pullback to $20,350. With just 1 day left before the Merge, Ether price also pulled back 7.29% to $1,590, and the majority of cryptocurrencies in the top 100 are nursing single to double-digit losses at the moment.

While Bitcoin’s weekend rally from Sept. 9 extended into the start of this week and the price pushed as high as $22,800, the earlier analysis cautioned that BTC was also trading near a key overhead resistance.

As seen below, the multi-month resistance from BTC’s all-time high held as price crumbled at $22,400 when the market opened and the monthly CPI data hit media outlets. The analysis also highlighted the “successive bear flag continuation” trend that has been in play since Bitcoin price topped out at $69,000 on Nov. 10, 2021.

BTC/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Barring an extremely bullish Merge event, the most likely direction for Bitcoin remains to the downside.

A positive point to note is, that despite Sept. 13’s correction, Bitcoin price continues to chop about in its 90-day range (pink box) between $25,400 and $17,600. From my vantage point, there’s “nothing to see here” until the price breaks below $18,500 or the yearly low at $17,600.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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US Inflation Rate in August Runs Hot at 8.3%, Peter Schiff Says America’s ‘Days of Sub-2% Inflation Are Gone’

US Inflation Rate in August Runs Hot at 8.3%, Peter Schiff Says America’s ‘Days of Sub-2% Inflation Are Gone’On September 13, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the country’s consumer price index (CPI) inflation jumped by 8.3% annually in August. The reduction was less than expected and market analysts believe the U.S. Federal Reserve will continue its aggressive rate hikes going forward. US Consumer Prices Increased at an 8% Annual Pace of […]

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Bitcoin and altcoins pop to the upside, but upcoming macro events could cap the rally

The FOMC's decision on Sept. 21 could cause traders to reduce their risk exposure, limiting the recent gains seen across the crypto market.

The 13% gains in the six days leading to Sept. 12 brought the total crypto market capitalization closer to $1.1 trillion, but this was not enough to break the descending trend. As a result, the overall trend for the past 55 days has been bearish, with the latest support test on Sept. 7 at a $950 billion total market cap.

Total crypto market cap, USD. Source: TradingView

An improvement in traditional markets has accompanied the recent 13% crypto market rally. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 6.2% since Sept. 6 and WTI oil prices rallied 7.8% since Sept. 7. This data reinforces the high correlation versus traditional assets and places the spotlight on the importance of closely monitoring macroeconomic conditions.

The correlation metric ranges from a negative 1, meaning select markets move in opposite directions, to a positive 1, which reflects a perfectly symmetrical movement. A disparity or a lack of relationship between the two assets would be represented by 0.

Nasdaq futures and Bitcoin/USD 50-day correlation. Source: TradingView

As displayed above, the Nasdaq composite index and Bitcoin 50-day correlation currently stand at 0.74, which has been the norm throughout 2022.

The FED’s Sept. 21 decision will set the mood

Stock market investors are anxiously awaiting the Sept. 21 U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, where the central bank is expected to raise interest rates again. While the market consensus is a third consecutive 0.75 percentage point rate hike, investors are looking for signs that the economic tightening is fading away.

A report on the U.S. Consumer Price Index, a relevant inflation metric, is expected on Sept. 13 and on Sept. 15, investor attention will be glued to the U.S. retail sales and industrial production data.

Currently, the regulatory sentiment remains largely unfavorable, especially after the enforcement director for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gurbir Grewal, said the financial regulator would continue to investigate and bring enforcement actions against crypto firms.

Altcoins rallied, but pro traders were resilient to leverage longs

Below are the winners and losers of last week’s total crypto market capitalization 8.3% gain to $1.08 trillion. Bitcoin (BTC) stood out with a 12.5% gain, which led its dominance rate to hit 41.3%, the highest since Aug. 9.

Weekly winners and losers among the top-80 coins. Source: Nomics

Terra (LUNA) jumped 107.7% after Terra approved a proposal on Sept. 9 for an additional airdrop of over 19 million LUNA tokens until Oct. 4.

RavenCoin (RVN) gained 65.8% after the network hash rate reached 5.7 TH per second, the highest level since January 2022.

Cosmos (ATOM) gained 24.6% after Crypto research firm Delphi Digital shifted the focus of its research and development arm to the Cosmos ecosystem on Sept. 8.

Even with these gains, a single week of positive performance is not enough to interpret how professional traders are positioned. Those interested in tracking whales and market markers should analyze derivatives markets. Perpetual contracts, also known as inverse swaps, have an embedded rate usually charged every eight hours. Exchanges use this fee to avoid exchange risk imbalances.

A positive funding rate indicates that longs (buyers) are demanding more leverage. However, the opposite situation occurs when shorts (sellers) require additional leverage, causing the funding rate to turn negative.

Accumulated 7-day perpetual futures funding rate on Sept. 12. Source: Coinglass

Perpetual contracts reflected a neutral sentiment as the accumulated funding rate was relatively flat in most cases. The only exceptions have been Ether (ETH) and Ether Classic (ETC), even though a 0.30% weekly cost to maintain a short (bear) position should not be deemed relevant. Moreover, those cases are likely related to the Ethereum Merge, the transition to a proof-of-stake network expected for Sept. 15.

Related: Glimpses of positive momentum in an overall bearish market? Report

The odds of a downtrend are still high

The positive 8.3% weekly performance can't be deemed a trend change considering the move was likely tied to the recovery in traditional markets. Furthermore, one could assume that investors are likely to price in the risk of additional regulatory impact after Gary Gensler’s remarks.

There is still uncertainty on potential macroeconomic triggers and traders are not likely to add risk ahead of important events like the FOMC interest rate decision. For this reason, bears have reason to believe that the prevailing longer-term descending formation will resume in the upcoming weeks.

Professional traders' lack of interest in leverage longs is evident in the neutral futures funding rate and this is another sign of negative sentiment from investors. If the crypto total market capitalization tests the bearish pattern support level at $940 million, traders should expect a 12.5% price drop from the current $1.08 billion level.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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MicroStrategy to reinvest $500M stock sales into Bitcoin: SEC filing

Buying the dip is essential for MicroStrategy as the company’s reserve of nearly 129,699 BTC currently suffers an aggregated value loss of over $1 billion.

MicroStrategy, the largest institutional Bitcoin (BTC) buyer, entered an agreement with two agents — Cowen and Company and BTIG — to sell its aggregated class A common stock worth $500,000,000, reveals Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

MicroStrategy, co-founded by Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor, amassed approximately 129,699 BTC over several years at an aggregate purchase price of $3.977 billion. Despite market uncertainties, the business analytics software firm continues to pursue its goal of acquiring more BTC by selling company stocks. The filing confirmed:

“We intend to use the net proceeds from the sale of any class A common stock offered under this prospectus for general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of bitcoin, unless otherwise indicated in the applicable prospectus supplement.”

Buying the dip is essential for MicroStrategy as the company’s BTC reserve has dipped to an aggregated value of nearly $2.8 billion — resulting in a loss of over $1 billion, as shown by Bitcoin Treasuries data.

Snippet from MicroStrategy's SEC filing. Source: SEC.gov

Coincidently, on the day of the filing, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD price shooting up 11% to nearly $21,500.

Related: Bitcoin could become a zero-emission network: Report

The FBI, along with two other federal agencies, CISA and MS-ISAC, asked U.S. citizens to report information that helps track the whereabouts of the hackers.

The citizens have been asked by the FBI to report on various information that would help them track down ransomware attackers, which include Bitcoin wallet information, ransom notes and IP addresses.

Bad actors prefer fiat currency to conduct illicit activities over Bitcoin because the blockchain’s immutable nature allows authorities to track down crimes easily.

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3 reasons why Bitcoin traders should be bullish on BTC

Timing the market bottom is impossible, but several technical and on-chain indicators suggest that it’s time to start accumulating Bitcoin.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been in a rut, and BTC’s price is likely to stay in its current downtrend. But like I mentioned last week, when nobody is talking about Bitcoin, that’s usually the best time to be buying Bitcoin. 

In the last week, the price took another tumble, dropping below $19,000 on Sept. 6 and currently, BTC bulls are struggling to flip $19,000–$20,000 back to support. Just this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated the Fed’s dedication to doing literally whatever it takes to combat inflation “until the job is done,” and market analysts have increased their interest rate hike predictions from 0.50 basis points to 0.75.

Basically, interest rate hikes and quantitative tightening are meant to crush consumer demand, which in turn, eventually leads to a decrease in the cost of goods and services, but we’re not there yet. Additional rate hikes plus QT are likely to push equities markets lower and given their high correlation to Bitcoin price, a further downside for BTC is the most likely outcome.

So, yeah, there’s not a strong investment thesis for Bitcoin right now from the perspective of price action and short-term gains. But what about those who have a longer investment horizon?

Let’s quickly review 3 charts that suggest investors should be buying Bitcoin.

Bitcoin investor tool: 2-year MA multiplier

Bitcoin’s price is currently 72% down from its all-time high at $69,000. In the previous bear markets, BTC’s price saw a 55% correction (July 21), a 71% drop by March 2020 and an 84% correction in December 2018. While brutal to endure, the current 72% correction is not outside of the norm when compared to previous drawdowns from all-time highs.

Bitcoin 2-year moving average multiplier. Source: LookIntoBitcoin

Comparing this drawdown data against the 2-year MA multiplier, one will notice that the price dropped below the 2-year moving average, carved out a trough and then consolidated for multiple months before resuming the 12-year-long uptrend.

These areas are the “shaded” zones below the green 2-year moving average. Zooming in on the right side of the chart, we can see that price is again below the 2-year moving average, and while there is no sign of a “trough” being dug, if historicals are to be relied upon, the price is currently in what could be described as a consolidation zone.

The golden ratio multiplier

Another interesting moving average and Fibonacci sequence-based indicator that suggests Bitcoin’s price is undervalued is the golden ratio multiplier.

According to LookIntoBitcoin creator Philip Swift:

“The chart explores Bitcoin’s adoption curve and market cycles to understand how price may behave on medium to long term time frames. To do this, it uses multiples of the 350 day moving average (350DMA) of Bitcoin’s price to identify areas of potential resistance to price movements.”

Swift further explained that “specific multiplications of the 350DMA have been very effective over time at picking out intracycle highs for Bitcoin price and also the major market cycle highs.” Essentially, the indicator is:

“An effective tool because it is able to demonstrate when the market is likely overstretched within the context of Bitcoin’s adoption curve growth and market cycles.”
Bitcoin golden ratio multiplier. Source: LookIntoBitcoin

Currently, BTC’s price is below the 350DMA and similar to the 2-year MA multiplier. Dollar-cost-averaging into extreme lows has proven to be a wise method for building a Bitcoin position.

BTC/USDT 1 week chart. Source: TradingView

Taking a look at Bitcoin’s one-week relative strength index (RSI) also shows that the asset is nearly oversold. When comparing the weekly RSI to BTC’s candlestick chart, it’s clear that accumulation during oversold periods is also a profitable tactic.

Related: A bullish Bitcoin trend reversal is a far-fetched idea, but this metric is screaming ‘buy’

Bitcoin’s MVRV Z-score

An on-chain indicator called the MVRV recently hit its lowest score since 2015. The metric is essentially a ratio of BTC’s market capitalization against its realized capitalization, or in simpler terms, the amount people paid for BTC compared to the asset’s value now.

According to Jarvis Labs analyst “JJ,” Bitcoin’s MVRV (market capitalization versus realized capitalization) indicator is printing a reading that is extremely low. The analyst elaborated:

Bitcoin price versus MVRV difference. Source: Jarvis Labs

The MVRV Z-score provides insight into when Bitcoin is undervalued and overvalued relative to its fair price. According to analytics firm Glassnode, “when market value is significantly higher than realized value, it has historically indicated a market top (red zone), while the opposite has indicated market bottoms (green zone).”

Bitcoin MVRV Z-Score. Source: Glassnode

Looking at the chart, compared against BTC’s price, the current -0.16 MVRV score is in the same range as previous multi-year and cycle bottoms for Bitcoin’s price. A pure interpretation of the data would suggest that Bitcoin is in the midst of a bottoming process and possibly entering the early stages of accumulation.

Of course, its price could drop much further, and the bearish factors that are battering equities markets will likely also continue to impact crypto prices, so none of the indicators mentioned above should be relied on as the solitary rationale for investing.

The crypto market is in bad shape, and that seems unlikely to change in the short term, but timing market bottoms is also impossible for most traders. So, what investors should look for is confluence among a variety of metrics and indicators that align with one’s thesis.

At the moment, most of Bitcoin’s on-chain metrics and technical analysis indicators suggest sensible dollar-cost-averaging into a manageable position. The key is risk management. Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose, and you won’t have to worry about losing your shirt.

This newsletter was written by Big Smokey, the author of The Humble Pontificator Substack and resident newsletter author at Cointelegraph. Each Friday, Big Smokey will write market insights, trending how-tos, analyses and early-bird research on potential emerging trends within the crypto market.

Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content of product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as an investment advice.

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Bitcoin price cracks $21K as trader says BTC buy now ‘very compelling’

Optimism increases over a macro Bitcoin bottom as daily gains top 9% for BTC/USD on the Wall Street open.

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $21,000 at the Sep. 9 Wall Street open as newly-won gains endured. Meanwhile, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization has crossed back above the $1 billion mark. 

BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

BTC price gives "confirmation" of trend change

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as its “short squeeze” punished late bears.

After a brief consolidation, the pair set new multi-week highs of $21,254 on Bitstamp, and now faced resistance in the form of an old support level abandoned in late August.

For market commentators, however, the latest move had already proved decisive — and should favor bulls beyond short timeframes.

“This impulse up is THE confirmation,” popular Twitter trader and angel investor Revolt argued in a thread, reiterating suspicion that a market reversal was long overdue.

“Many metrics have been screaming bottom is in for weeks now. Since mid-June, I've been saying the bottom is most likely in and I'm going from 80% to 95% probability on that.”

Revolt highlighted various on-chain and price chart-based bull signals, among them the end of capitulation for Bitcoin miners witnessed last month.

While acknowledging that he could “definitely be wrong” on the outcome, he nonetheless put faith in a longer-term trend change now entering.

“In this case a HTF bottom that presents a (very) compelling risk/reward,” the thread concluded.

“I kept holding on to my longs from 20K, it hurt a little when underwater but now getting more comfy these will generate a serious return the coming months.”

Trader and analyst Rekt Capital, meanwhile, called for caution when assuming that Bitcoin had definitively changed tact.

Pointing to the weekly chart, he argued that traders should avoid the urge to compare the current reversal to a similar event in 2018, as at this point, no macro bottom was guaranteed.

Analyst: Time to be risk-on "for a while at least"

In the face of a consolidating U.S. dollar, meanwhile, Wall Street opened with fresh gains in a further boost for risk assets.

Related: Bitcoin squeezes past $20K on US dollar dip as BTC price gains 8.7%

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.9% and 1.3%, respectively, within the first hour’s trading.

U.S. dollar index (DXY) 1-hour candle chart. Source: TradingView

At the same time, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) enjoyed a modest bounce from local lows, targeting 109 at the time of writing.

For Bitcoin analysts, however, there was reason to believe that the greenback’s halcyon days would soon be over.

“Looks like a USD weekly cycle top (finally) and cycle lows for stocks, gold, bitcoin. Risk on for a little while, at least,” trader, entrepreneur and investor Bob Loukas added.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Analyst Warns US Debt Crisis Is Possible —  Rising Treasury Yields, Inflation, Stock Market Rout Could Cause ‘Multiple Black Swans’Wall Street’s major indexes closed the day in red on Tuesday, alongside cryptocurrencies, and precious metals like gold and silver taking some percentage losses. The leading crypto asset bitcoin dropped 5.87% under the $19K region, while the second largest crypto asset ethereum shed 8.7%. Gold’s nominal U.S. dollar value per troy ounce slipped by 0.50%, […]

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What does the Fed’s fight against inflation mean for crypto? Macro analyst explains

Macro analyst Lyn Alden explains why the Fed's efforts to curb inflation may take longer than expected and how they will impact the crypto markets.

The Federal Reserve's efforts to battle inflation by rising interest rates and killing demand may have limited results as long as the supply side of the inflation problem won’t be fixed, according to macro analyst Lyn Alden. 

“Until they actually fix the supply side of certain things, like energy especially, but commodities broadly and logistics infrastructure, until that is improved, it's hard to have a more persistent fix to the inflationary problem,” Alden told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview. 

Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole sent a clear signal that the Federal Reserve is determined to continue its efforts to tame inflation, bringing it down to a target of 2%. That will be achieved at the cost of more pain inflicted on the economy, higher unemployment and the risk of a recession.

"They're going to tighten until they break something or until they cause recessionary enough conditions. And at that point, they might pivot," Alden explained.

Until the Fed won't pivot its interest rates policy, the crypto markets are unlikely to recover, pointed out Alden. In the long run, the central banks will be unable to preserve positive interest rates, mainly because of the high level of public debt that is burdening the most developed economies. 

"A lot of the major developed countries have an inability to get to positive real rates and hold it there," said Alden. 

That, according to Alden, will favor scarce assets such as Bitcoin in the long run. 

Check out the full interview on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

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‘No Middle Class Left,’ ‘Millions Will Be Wiped Out’ — Two Market Crash Predictions, Gas Cartels, and Whales Moving Mt Gox Coins: Bitcoin.com News Week in Review

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G7 antitrust watchdogs signal possible action on AI sector competition