The crypto market continues its move up

Market picture

Bitcoin returned to growth on Tuesday and was approaching $17.5K in early trading on Wednesday, developing its smooth ascent to levels last seen in mid-December.

Total crypto market capitalisation has risen 1% in the last 24 hours to $857bn, while top altcoins are adding between 0.1% (Cardano) and 3.9% (XRP).

Bitcoin will confirm its bullish trend if it consolidates above 17800 at the end - the highest close of the day in December. In this case, the sequence of higher highs will be started, whereas, since November, we only have a sequence of higher local lows..

News background

Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss in another open letter, called on Digital Currency Group (DCG) head Barry Silbert to step down due to $900 million in outstanding debt.

Despite DCG's accumulated problems, the price of bitcoin trust Grayscale (GBTC) rose 12% overnight thanks to news of Morgan Stanley's $3.6 purchase of Grayscale Investments' bitcoin shares. The discount in the value of GBTC relative to NAV (bitcoin market price) fell to 38% from a record 49% recorded on 13 December.

The former CTO of the bankrupt FTX exchange has begun cooperating with the investigation, which could shed light on the details of multi-million-dollar donations to US politicians by FTX and its former head Sam Bankman-Fried.

Meanwhile, DeFi project Ondo Finance has launched tokenised US Treasury bonds.

About the author

Alex Kuptsikevich is a financial market professional with 16-years’ experience and a senior financial analyst at FxPro. He is the author of daily reviews on the impact of economic events with comments featured in top international and Russian media. Alex covers fundamental analysis, global markets, the foreign exchange market, gold, oil, and cryptocurrencies in his analytical pieces. As the senior financial analyst at FxPro, Alex is a guest expert in 1-tier global media such as Forbes, Coindesk, Euromoney and Morning Star.