First Mover Americas: BTC Is Little Changed Following Muted Asia Trading

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Crypto markets were muted during the first half of the Asia trading day owing to public holidays in China, Hong Kong and South Korea. Bitcoin traded around $63,900, an increase of about 0.5% in the last 24 hours , while ether rose just over 1% to $2,635. The wider digital asset market gained 0.2%, according to the CoinDesk 20 Index. China and Hong Kong are both off for China's national holiday, which is a week-long affair known as Golden Week in mainland China and one day in Hong Kong. South Korea is closed for Armed Forces day, a holiday introduced this year.

Traders have locked in almost $1 billion in bullish bets of bitcoin reaching $100,000 on derivatives exchange Deribit. The dollar value of the number of active call options contracts at the $100,000 strike price was over $993 million, the highest among all other BTC options listed on the exchange, according to data source Deribit Metrics. The second most popular option was the $70,000 call, boasting an open interest of over $800 million. "The highest open interest across all expirations appears at $100K and $70K for bitcoin, which some market participants interpret as supporting the bullish sentiment that seems to be pervading the market," crypto trading firm Wintermute said in a note shared with CoinDesk.

The digital assets sector continues to outperform the stock market this year, with bitcoin leading the charge , broker Canaccord said. The broker noted that the world's largest cryptocurrency finished the last quarter up around 140% year-on-year, outperforming ether which gained about 60% and the S&P 500 stock index, which rose almost 30%, over the same period. If bitcoin follows historical patterns it tends to rally 6-12 months following the halving, and reach new highs 2-6 months later, meaning a potential rally could start between now and April, the broker said. Bitcoin is still performing like other risk assets for now, and is reacting positively to the "lower-rate environment," analysts led by Michael Graham wrote.

Chart of the Day

• The chart shows the dollar value of the total transfer volume over the Bitcoin blockchain since 2015.
• The level of economic activity remains depressed relative to previous bull market peaks.
• Source: Lance Roberts

- Omkar Godbole

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