Bitcoin gained 6% on Wednesday, breaking its five-day losing streak, as the cryptocurrency reached $29,000 for the first time in a week. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, rose 4.5%. The moves up come as concerns over U.S. banking stability ramp up again, with shares of First Republic Bank dropping 50% on Tuesday after the San Francisco-based lender revealed that customers pulled more than $100 billion from their accounts last month. The slide stressed U.S. markets, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1% and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell almost 2% on Tuesday.
Bitcoin’s weekly chart
Joseph Seibert, who was head of digital assets at Signature Bank, and four members of his Signet team have joined Fortress Trust, a Nevada-based chartered trust company that specializes in cryptocurrency and Web3. Signature Bank, which was a crypto-friendly institution, was shut down in March after depositors withdrew large sums of money following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, another bank with crypto ties. Signet was a payments platform that was popular with Signature’s institutional crypto customers.
Talos, a crypto trading platform for institutional investors, is working with Coinbase Prime to expand access to digital assets for customers of both firms. With rising demand from institutional investors for more secure and efficient trading platforms, the agreement offers Talos customers access to Coinbase Prime for spot liquidity and custody services, according to a press release. The pact will also give Coinbase Prime customers access to Talos’ trading and connectivity products.
Market Insight: Bear Warning for Ether
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Two weeks after Etheruem’s Shapella upgrade, the crypto options market is signaling a higher perceived risk of downside volatility in the smart-contract blockchain’s native token, ether, than in market leader bitcoin.
On Tuesday, options tied to ether and bitcoin signaled a bias for puts, which are bearish bets that offer the purchaser protection against price slides. However, the demand for puts in the ether market was stronger than in the bitcoin market.
While ether’s one-month bearish out-of-the-money puts traded at a five volatility points premium to bullish out-of-the-money calls, bitcoin’s out-of-the-money puts traded at a three-point premium to calls, according to options 25-delta risk reversal data tracked by crypto derivatives analytics firm Block Scholes.
The chart shows changes in the market value of the top 10 stablecoins since February.
Tether (USDT) has strengthened its dominance for the third straight month in April, with its market cap rising 2.03% to $81.5 billion, while BUSD and USDC continued to lose ground.
TUSD’s market cap has increased by 4.19% to $2.13 billion.
Despite TUSD’s growing popularity, the tether-denominated bitcoin trading pairs remain the most liquid.
– Omkar Godbole
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Disclaimer: The information presented in this message is intended as a news item that provides a brief summary of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of one or more of the cryptocurrencies described above. The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments.
