Weekly Crypto Market Update – May 15, 2023

Last Week’s Recap:

• U.S. CPI came in at 4.9% annualized base in April, less than the expected 5%.
• MakerDAO released Spark Protocol, a lending platform with a focus on DAI.
• Bittrex filed for bankruptcy, less than 1 month after the SEC charges.
• Lido released V2, unlocking direct in-protocol stETH: ETH withdrawals.
• Binance NFT marketplace will support Bitcoin Ordinals in late May.
• Jane Street and Jump Retreating from U.S. crypto trading over regulation concerns.

Legacy Markets – DXY

As mentioned last couple of weeks 100 zone on DXY could lead to fake breakdowns. With the price breaking back above this is pretty clear now. Crypto saw a bit of weakness in its initial strength. But especially BTC and ETH seem to be holding on quite well.

Legacy Markets – VIX

VIX is still weak and grinding on the lower levels so correlation across assets is relatively low at the moment.

BTC Weekly View

BTC initially rejected 30k. After some consolidation, it seems like the market could be picking back up. Last week we had some uncertainty around the DCG loan but nothing seems to have hit the open market. On the positive side, Tether shared its balance sheet and seems to have been a large buyer of BTC in the first half of the year.

ETH Weekly View

After some consolidation, ETH seems to finally be confirming the 2021 range. If the market gets going at these levels ETH looks like a prime candidate to take the lead with it clearing the 2021 support/resistance flip.

ETH/BTC

ETH/BTC is still in the range. If ETH gets above .08 it’ll get some real gas behind it.

TOTAL2 – USD Market Strength

TOTAL2 is also still working on flipping the 2021 resistance, while ETH is already trading above it. This is yet another indicator of our idea that ETH might take the lead on the entire market soon.

TOTAL2BTC – BTC Market Strength

TOTAL2/BTC is showing some relative strength. After alts bleeding out for weeks on end, we’ve finally seen some relative strength over the weekend. There’ll likely be some relative strength on alts for a bit if BTC holds current levels and/or start going up at a moderate pace.

Summary

• Crypto still showing good strength. Alts had large drawdowns but ETH and BTC barely dipped 20% from recent highs.
• Crypto Market seems ready for some altcoin upside after the large drawdown past couple of weeks
• Ordinals NFTs seem to be slowing down, with trading volume dropping by 50% on May 11, we are yet to see how this will perform this week.
• BTC Transaction Fees Drop 90% After Spike Attributed To Ordinals
• Ripple price started a fresh decline from the $0.470 zone against the US dollar.

DISCLAIMER:

The information in this report is for information purposes only and is not to be construed as investment or financial advice. All information contained herein is not a solicitation or recommendation to buy or sell any digital assets or other financial products

This post is prepared by Kairon Labs Traders: Joshua van de Kerckhove, Carla Ramos, and Patrick Li