ALSO: Bitcoin and ether traded up. Equities also rose after a strong U.S. jobs report.
January 6, 2023
What happened today in crypto markets
By Jocelyn Yang, CoinDesk Markets Reporter
Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.
Happy Friday. Here’s what moved in crypto markets today:
Tron’s price sinks 8%, USDD depegs amid drama at Justin Sun-related Huobi crypto exchange.
Bitcoin briefly topped $17,000 before it settled back at the $16,900 level Friday afternoon, up 0.2% over the past 24 hours. Ether rose 0.9% to about $1,265.
Equities also closed up after a strong U.S. jobs report.
Tron founder Justin Sun sits on Huobi’s advisory board. The exchange said Friday it will cut its headcount by 20% and require employees to take their salaries in stablecoins. It also closed internal staff communication channels to quell a rebellion, according to reports on Twitter.
TRX fell nearly 8% early Friday before it settled back to a 1.6% loss in the past 24 hours, data showed. The price is above a support level of 5 cents, and if it drops below that, the tokens could slip to as low as 3 cents, price charts show. Huobi’s native HT exchange tokens have lost as much as 11% in the past 24 hours.
The Tron-based stablecoin USDD fell 3 cents, effectively losing its intended peg to the U.S. dollar. Such price action caused the value locked on Tron-based decentralized applications to fall by 2%, DefiLlama data shows.
Futures tracking TRX saw less than $1 million in liquidations on exchanges, suggesting the selling was mostly spot driven. Spot refers to actual tokens, while futures are derivative financial instruments that allow traders to bet on the prices of the underlying tokens.
Meanwhile, security firm PeckShield noted on Twitter that crypto wallet addresses linked to Sun moved over $50 million to crypto exchange Binance.
Token Roundup
Bitcoin (BTC): The largest cryptocurrency by market value was recently trading at the $16,900 level, up 0.2% in the past 24 hours. BTC briefly topped $17,000 in afternoon trading hours (EST). Equities wrapped up Friday’s trading with gains following a strong U.S. jobs report. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed up 2.5%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 2.2% and 2.1%, respectively.
Ether (ETH): The second-largest cryptocurrency followed BTC’s trajectory, trading up 0.9% over the past 24 hours to change hands at around $1,265.
Bonk Inu (BONK):Developers behind Solana-based memecoin project Bonk Inu (BONK) burned over 5 trillion tokens, or 5% of the total supply, earlier on Friday, blockchain data showed. The move claimed to have effectively burned all tokens earmarked for developers of the project. The BONK price dropped 36% in the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.
Market Analysis: Bitcoin Trades Flat for the Week; Ether Breaches Top Range of Technical Indicator
Data from Messari
Bitcoin and Ether maintained their penchant for flat trading this week, with prices moving just 1.3% and 4.6%, respectively, over the most recent seven days.
On a relative basis, BTC’s seven-day performance was 18th among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Ether was 12th in the group.
Over the most recent 30 days, BTC and ETH have moved just 0.7% and 0.8% respectively, reflecting the recent, stagnant price action. The laggard for the week was LEO, which declined 1.6%, while Solana (SOL) led the way with a 34.5% price increase.
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.
