Bitcoin was trading at over $57,000, although investors are nervous about the spread of the COVID-19 omicron variant.
Technician’s take (Editor’s Note): Due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, today’s First Mover Asia will include a column in place of the usual Technician’s take.
Prices
Bitcoin: (BTC): $57,254 +4.5%
Ether (ETH): $4,290 +4.5
Equity markets
S&P 500: $4,594 -2.4%
Dow Jones Industrial Average: $34,899 -2.5%
Nasdaq: $15,491 -2.3%
Bitcoin recovered some of its losses from the “Black Friday” shopping day when it declined by more than 8% following news of a new COVID-19 strain called omicron. At the time of publication, bitcoin was trading over $57,000, up over 4.5%
The World Health Organization labeled Omicron “a variant of concern,” meaning that it could be more transmissible and virulent. The U.S., among other countries, imposed travel restrictions on South African, where the variant seemed to appear first, and seven other countries in southern Africa.
Prices for most alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) also plummeted on Friday. Ether, the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, fell briefly below $4,000 on Friday and then again on Sunday, despite Ethereum, its underlying blockchain, reaching a new milestone. Data from Dune Analytics showed that unique addresses on Ethereum – the total decentralized finance users on the blockchain – broke four million this past week (Note that one user may have multiple addresses). At the time of publication ether had risen to almost $4,300.
Similar to the traditional asset market, the fate of the crypto market could face weeks of uncertainty as investors await omicron’s potential impact. The bitcoin Fear and Greed Index, which measures market emotions, entered “extreme fear” territory on Saturday, the lowest level since the end of September.