Hong Kong FinTech Chair Praises Crypto-Friendly Policy Statement; Dogecoin outperforms Bitcoin, Ether
Good morning. Here’s what happens:
Prices: Dogecoin continued to climb even as bitcoin and ether spent the day in the red.
Insight: The chairman of Hong Kong’s FinTech Association praises the government’s new crypto policy statement.
CoinDesk Market Index (CMI)
1,026.52 −4.2 0.4
Bitcoin (BTC)
$20,478 −169.3 0.8
Ethereum (ETH)
$1573 −21.3 1.3
S&P 500 daily close
3,871.98 -29.1 0.7
Gold
$1635 −4.4 0.3
Treasury Yield 10 years
4.08 0.1
BTC/ETH prices per CoinDesk indices; gold is the COMEX spot price. Prices from approximately 4:00 PM ET
Prices
DOGE continues its wave at the end of October
By James Rubin
October’s DOGE days continued as the popular meme coin outshone bitcoin, ether and a host of other major cryptocurrencies in Monday trading.
Dogecoin was recently up more than 1% in the past 24 hours to continue its month-end rally, and was recently trading at around 12 cents. DOGE, which was created to mock the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies, surged late last week as billionaire entrepreneur and DOGE advocate Elon Musk neared completion of his $44 billion purchase of Twitter. Over the past four days, Musk has asserted his control over the social media platform. On Monday, he ousted Twitter’s nine-person board.
As CoinDesk analyst Glenn Williams wrote, DOGE’s price swings appear to stem more from the power of Musk’s personality and a passionate dogecoin community than the macroeconomic indicators that have affected bitcoin, ether and other cryptos over the past 12 months. DOGE’s rally could correlate with excessive liquidations and a likely short squeeze, and the token could offer a shorting opportunity, Williams wrote.
Bitcoin (BTC) spent Monday in the red and was recently down about 0.8% from Sunday, the same time, though the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization remained comfortably above the $20,000 perch it assumed last week. Ether similarly fell in the same period, changing hands above the $1,500 level that the second largest crypto assumed a week ago.
“Some traders are becoming confident that a bottom is in place, activity in the options market is showing that the need for downside protection is waning,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst for forex market maker Oanda. “This will be a pivotal last two months of the year which should trigger a move outside the $17,500 and $25,000 trading range.”
CoinDesk Market Index (CMI)a broad-based market index that measures the performance of a basket of cryptocurrencies recently rose 0.4% in the past 24 hours.
In traditional markets, the tech-heavy Nasdaq, the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) all closed lower, although the indexes had a strong month amid faint hopes that the US Federal Reserve will scale back its hawkish monetary policy early next year. Investors will look to the latest rate hike by the Federal Open Market Committee, which is widely expected to be a robust 75 basis points.
Biggest winners
Biggest losers
Insight
By James Rubin
The chairman of Hong Kong’s Fintech Association gave an encouraging endorsement to a policy statement that suggested retail investors would have more access to digital assets and appeared to point the city in a more crypto-friendly direction.
“Now Hong Kong is back in the game,” Neil Tan, who is also CEO of blockchain startup Neptune Digital, told The Daily Forkast in an interview. “And that retail plays a big role. If you look at the stock exchanges and the market capitalization, a lot of it is driven by the retail side.”
In the policy statement released on Monday during Hong Kong FinTech Week, the government’s main finance agency, the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau (FSTB), indicated that it would conduct a public consultation on how retail investors can achieve an “appropriate level of access to virtual assets” to licensed exchanges. The FSTB said it was reassessing its stance on virtual asset exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and tokenized securities, and that it was “ready to engage” with global virtual asset service providers and invite them to town.
Earlier this year, as part of a move to tighten anti-money laundering regulations, the Hong Kong government moved to license virtual asset service providers (VASPs) via a bill that passed the consultation period. The City’s main securities regulatory body, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), will be equipped with “necessary intervention powers” to impose restrictions or even bans on companies providing crypto services.
Institutional interest
Tan also noted the desire for more institutions “to have more coverage in digital assets,” and he praised the timing of the release of the policy statement.
“You’re introducing it inside in the winter, so there’s little risk in terms of downside,” he said. “There’s a lot more upside. Everyone else has shown their cards like Dubai and also Singapore in terms of what the regulations will look like in those jurisdictions.”
He added: “Hong Kong is in a strong position. We want to build a championship team. We want to go to the NBA Finals and win a championship.”
Important events
11:30 HKT/SGT (3:30 UTC) Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate decision
22:00 HKT/SGT (14:00 UTC) Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (Oct)
05:45 HKT/SGT (21:45 UTC) New Zealand Employment Changes (Q3)
CoinDesk TV
In case you missed it, here’s the latest episode of “First Mover” on CoinDesk TV:
Bitcoin Remains Stable, Dogecoin Futures Racks Up Nearly $90M In Liquidations
Bitcoin held above $20,500 as the crypto community observes the fourteenth anniversary of the cryptocurrency’s white paper. But it is dogecoin that is jumping with excitement as it reached a market cap of over $10 billion in the past week. John Peurifoy of Floating Point Group joined “First Mover” to discuss the crypto markets. In addition, “First Mover” entered the debate between Sam Bankman-Fried and Erik Voorhees about crypto regulation.
Headings
Crypto-linked terrorist attacks likely quadrupled, UN official says, according to a UN official interviewed by Bloomberg: As many as 20% of terrorist attacks may be financed by crypto, up from 5% a few years ago, Svetlana Martynova said.
Bitcoin White Paper Celebrates 14th Anniversary: A technical manifesto, the Bitcoin White Paper was released 14 years ago today under an MIT Public License for all to learn from, share and enjoy.
Bitcoin Miner Argo’s $27M Fundraising Falls Through; Shares plunge: The Bitcoin mining industry is battling skyrocketing energy prices coupled with the stagnant value of cryptocurrencies.
Ether Sees Biggest Weekly Gain In 3 Months, ETH-BTC Rally To Continue: Ether rose 16% last week, recording its biggest weekly gain since July. The recent positive change in ether’s tokenomics is helping the cryptocurrency surpass industry leader bitcoin.
After Huobi delisting Stablecoin, HUSD falls 72% from dollar peg: Huobi has said it will help customers exchange HUSD for USDT.
India’s central bank to start wholesale CBDC pilot on November 1: A pilot for a retail version will start within a month.
