Venture firms from across the blockchain industry have thrown their weight behind decentralized exchange developer dYdX, offering further evidence that investors are eyeing a further expansion of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The Series C round generated $65 million in direct funding for dYdX, with venture fund Paradigm leading the raise. HaskKey, Electric Capital, Delphi Digital and others also participated in the raise. The exchange also received direct support from eight liquidity providers, including Kronos Research, MGNR, Menai Financial Group, QCP Capital, CMS Holdings, CMT Digital, Sixtant and Finlink Capital. Past investors include Polychain Capital, Three Arrows Capital and Wintermute, …

Bitcoin started the week with a strong breakout to $40,900, but today bulls are trying to hold Bitcoin price above the $40,000 level. As the price broke from the $31,000 to $39,000 range on June 14, traders speculated that setting a daily higher high and a close above $41,000 would set BTC up for a move to $47,000, but a lack of sustained buy volume and the much-discussed possibility of a death cross between the 50- and 200-day moving average are factors that could be keeping traders cautious. According to Simon Peters, an analyst at eToro: “Bitcoin is at its …

Sometimes, all Bitcoin (BTC) needs to pump 10% is a positive remark from someone like Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO has been pointed to as the culprit for the recent downturn after the company’s May 12 announcement explaining that it would no longer accept Bitcoin payments due to environmental concerns. Musk followed up by saying that he was looking into other cryptocurrencies that required 99% less energy consumption. However, on Sunday, the situation reversed as Musk reassured the public that Tesla did not sell any additional Bitcoin. The post also said that the electric car producer would resume taking BTC …

A run-up toward $40,000 in the Bitcoin (BTC) market risked exhaustion as Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s futures opened on Monday with a gap of $1,575, the first since May 17. In retrospect, the downside risks heightened due to Bitcoin’s recent bearish pullbacks near the $40,000 level. Atop that, the said CME gap formed between Friday’s close of $37,325 and Monday’s open of $38,900, raising possibilities that the next correction would prompt Bitcoin bids to fall to at least $37,325. That is due to a general psychological notion among traders that BTC/USD reverses its trends to fill Bitcoin futures gaps more than …

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) has warned investors about the risks of Bitcoin futures trading — citing market volatility, a lack of regulation and fraud to name a few issues. In a June 10 Investor Alerts bulletin, the SEC outlines key points that investors should “carefully consider” before investing in a fund that buys or sells Bitcoin futures. “Investors should understand that Bitcoin, including gaining exposure through the Bitcoin futures market, is a highly speculative investment,” the bulletin read. This latest Bitcoin-related risk warning from the SEC follows up on a note it sent out last month, warning …

JPMorgan’s cryptocurrency market analysts have pointed to the difference between Bitcoin’s (BTC) spot prices and BTC futures prices as a potential bearish sign for the market. In a Thursday note to clients, JPMorgan analysts led by global market strategist Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote that the Bitcoin market has returned to backwardation — a situation when the spot price is above futures prices. The analysts said that the past month’s correction in crypto markets saw Bitcoin futures reversing into backwardation for the first time since 2018. According to the strategists, Bitcoin futures backwardation should be viewed as a negative sign for BTC …

On June 7, the United States government task force seized more than $2 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to pay a ransom following an attack on the Colonial Pipeline system. A warrant filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California shows that authorities recovered 63.7 BTC. As news of the recovery spread through mainstream media, some outlets suggested that the U.S. government somehow hacked the Bitcoin address in order to extract the funds. For example, University of Michigan professor and New York Times contributor Justin Wolfers tweeted: News that the government has figured out how to snatch …

Margin trading allows investors to borrow stablecoins or cryptocurrency to leverage their position and improve the expected return. For example, borrowing Tether (USDT) will allow one to buy Bitcoin (BTC), thus increasing their Bitcoin long position. Investors can also borrow BTC to margin trade a short position, thus betting on price downside. This is why some analysts monitor the total lending amounts of Bitcoin and Tether to gain insight into whether investors are leaning bullish or bearish. Are analysts flipping bearish based only on Bitfinex’s margin data? This week, some prominent analysts cited a surge in Bitcoin short positions on …

Ether (ETH) has outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) by 32% since May, and even though there has been a steady flow of bullish reports from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, derivatives metrics show elements of bearishness in both assets. Bitcoin is trading 41% below its $64,900 all-time high, and that move has driven the "Crypto Fear and Greed Index" to its lowest level since March 2020. While retail traders fear the dip, global investment firm Guggenheim Investments has filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for a new fund that may seek exposure to Bitcoin. Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller reiterated …

Price action for Bitcoin (BTC) and the wider cryptocurrency market was relatively subdued on May 27 as nervous traders remain unsure of what comes next following last week’s market plunge that saw leveraged traders wiped out as BTC dipped as low as $30,000 before its price rebounded. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that while Bitcoin's price has managed to put in higher highs and higher lows over the past week, bulls continue to face stiff resistance at any meaningful attempt to break above $40,000 as bears defend the psychologically important level. For many traders, the recent correction …

As the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is attempting to establish support at $37,000 on Tuesday, the recent $30,000 lows may have been the bottom, suggests one derivatives market indicator that has a history of accurately predicting BTC/USD cyclical lows following its bear cycles. The last time it predicted a bottom was on Nov. 1, following which the cost to purchase one Bitcoin surged from $13,771 to as high as $64,899 on Coinbase. Anatomy of a bullish indicator Dubbed as “rolling basis,” the indicator mathematically represents the relative difference between the price of the futures contract and the spot rate on …

May 19's price crash in the Bitcoin (BTC) spot market wiped about $7.56 billion worth of long-leveraged positions from cryptocurrency derivatives markets. The event marked the biggest bullish leverage wipeout since March 2020. Retail and institutional investors borrowed from leading exchanges to amplify their potential returns. But a sudden reversal in Bitcoin spot rates, reportedly led by Elon Musk's anti-Bitcoin tweets over the weekend and fueled by China's reiteration of a ban on crypto transactions, blew up bulls' leverage ratios. That led to a so-called liquidity cascade in the derivatives market. In traditional markets, investors use cash as collateral to …