Market Update
- Equity indices are slumping following a negative reaction to technology earnings and lower than expected jobless claims. The technology-oriented QQQ 0.97% is leading the decline, having fallen 1.52% at the time of writing, while the SPY 0.54% has fallen 0.36%. The DXY (+0.65%) and U.S. Treasury yields are rising today as the market is repricing the odds of an additional rate hike as the labor market continues to show its resilience. Crypto markets are mixed, with BTC (-0.60%) and ETH (-0.17%) declining while select altcoins are rallying. Chainlink (LINK -2.93% ) is the top performer out of the top 100 coins, rising 16.80% following the release of their cross-chain interoperability protocol (CCIP). Chainlink’s CCIP provides protocols with a simple interface to build their cross-chain needs, including token transfers and arbitrary messaging.
- Radiant Capital, the omnichain lending and borrowing protocol, received $10 million in investment from Binance’s venture capital arm. The new funds are earmarked for further product development, which will enable more collateral options and an expansion to Ethereum Mainnet. Radiant is built on LayerZero technology, allowing DeFi users to easily lend and borrow across different blockchain networks, alleviating the liquidity fragmentation problem across crypto. Radiant currently supports borrowing and lending for over 20 collateral options across Arbitrum and BNB Chain. With the additional investment, Radiant should be able to quickly expand to other chains and continue attracting deposits. Following the investment announcement, Radiant’s token RDNT 2.31% surged over 10% today.
- The American stock exchange, Nasdaq, has announced its plan to halt the pursuit of its crypto custody service due to the U.S. regulatory environment. The initial plan was to have the new service go live in the second quarter of this year, as Nasdaq had previously applied with the NYDFS for a limited-purpose trust company to oversee the custody business, but “considering the shifting business and regulatory environment,” they have opted to abandon trying to gain the required licenses. Although the decision is disappointing for the crypto industry, Nasdaq stated they would continue supporting the digital asset industry in several ways, including partnering with any of the potential ETF issuers and providing the technology for other crypto custodians. Nasdaq is listed as the would-be exchange partner for the Blackrock spot Bitcoin ETF which was formally acknowledged by the SEC last week, starting the clock for a formal approval decision.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
Chainlink's release of their CCIP has resulted in a spike back to near the highs of its 13-month range, and despite a 17% gain, has not officially broken out thus far as of mid-day Thursday afternoon. Daily closes back above $9.00 would help to confirm a larger breakout which should help to jumpstart a larger technical rally. This weekly LINK -2.93% chart helps to put Thursday's rally into perspective, showing that getting above $9.00 would be an initial step towards recouping the decline of the last two years. Intermediate-term resistance targets lie near $16.25, and then $23 which might be in play in the latter part of 2023 upon $9 being exceeded. Daily momentum indicators like RSI have pushed back rapidly to overbought levels. However, weekly RSI is still largely neutral and will require a much larger move to reach overbought levels. Pullbacks should find strong support near $7-$7.15 to buy dips.
Daily Important Metrics
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All metrics as of July 20, 2023 1:09 PM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $578B | $29,755 | ↓ -0.73% | ↑ 80% | |
 ETH | $227B | $1,890 | ↓ -0.95% | ↑ 58% | ↓ -22% |
 ADA | $11B | $0.3165 | ↓ -0.10% | ↑ 28% | ↓ -51% |
 SOL | $10B | $25.58 | ↓ -4.24% | ↑ 158% | ↑ 79% |
 MATIC | $7.1B | $0.7646 | ↑ 1.93% | ↑ 0.33% | ↓ -79% |
 DOT | $6.6B | $5.31 | ↑ 2.07% | ↑ 22% | ↓ -57% |
 LINK | $4.4B | $8.13 | ↑ 16% | ↑ 46% | ↓ -33% |
 NEAR | $1.4B | $1.51 | ↑ 1.63% | ↑ 19% | ↓ -61% |
 DOGE | $0.0000 | $0.0003 | ↑ 50% | ↓ -100% | ↓ -179% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| GBTC | ↓ -26% | $19.70 | ↓ -1.89% | ↑ 138% | ↑ 58% |
| BITW | ↓ -48% | $13.22 | ↑ 0.13% | ↑ 146% | ↑ 67% |
| ETHE | ↓ -35% | $11.54 | ↓ -2.13% | ↑ 142% | ↑ 63% |
| BTCC | ↓ -0.02% | $5.46 | ↓ -0.91% | ↑ 80% | ↑ 0.58% |
News
MARKET DATA
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REGULATION
BTC Manager Kuwait places absolute ban on crypto payments and mining Kuwait has prohibited all crypto activities and use cases in the country, including payments, mining, and investment. The Central Markets Authority (CMA), Kuwai... |
CryptoSlate Societe Generale subsidiary receives France’s first crypto services license Société Générale subsidiary Forge has become the first entity to obtain a crypto services license in France, according to a July 19 announcement. The company is... |
FUNDRAISING AND M&A
The Block Polygon and Solana Foundation lead $30 million seed round in crypto startup Cosmic Wire considers its proprietary technology to be "the backbone operating system for the web3 ecosystem." The post Polygon and ... |
NewsBTC Back In The Game: Ripple Joins $54 Million Funding Round For Metaverse Startup Ripple has been mostly preoccupied with its lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, with a partially favorable ruling ... |
The Block Binance Labs invests $10 million in cross-chain DeFi lender Radiant Capital Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of Binance, has invested $10 million in cross-chain lending and borrowing protocol Radiant Capital. ... |
