Market Wrap: Bitcoin, Ether Steady Near Record Highs, as All Eyes on Coinbase Listing

• Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $63,034.72 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 4.84% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $59,758.21-$63,707.34 (CoinDesk 20)
• BTC trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Coinbase’s widely anticipated direct stock listing on Nasdaq continues to galvanize crypto-market interesty, as bitcoin’s price broke Tuesday to a new record high.

At press time, the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization was changing hands at $62,860.01, not far from the all-time high price of $63,707.34 reached earlier in the day, according to CoinDesk 20.

Spot trading volume on eight crypto exchanges tracked by CoinDesk also rose on Tuesday, to near $4 billion at press time, the highest since April 7.

The bullish sentiment is reflected on the bitcoin’s futures market, with the annualized premium between the BTC futures price and spot price now approaching 50% for three-month contracts. It’s seen as an indication that more futures traders are looking for upside.

“Markets are positioning themselves for a direct listing that potentially values Coinbase at more than $100 billion,” Jason Lau, chief operating officer at San Francisco-based crypto exchange OKCoin, said. “As a result, demand for bitcoin and crypto has never been higher.”

Ether and altcoins

• Ether (ETH) trading around $2,297.81 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 7.29% over the previous 24 hours.
• Ether’s 24-hour range: $2,135.73-$2,315.94 (CoinDesk 20)
• Ether trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Seemingly in lockstep with bitcoin, ether rallied Tuesday to new record high prices.

But the star lately among altcoins might be BNB token, from the crypto exchange giant Binance.

While exchange tokens in general have received a boost from comparisons with Coinbase, BNB’s rapid value increase may also have something to do with the success of Binance Smart Chain, an Ethereum alternatives launched by Binance. 

Total value locked on BSC now sits at around $30 billion, more than double over the last month, according to Arcane Research’s weekly newsletter Tuesday.

“If this growth rate continues, it will not take long until Binance-based projects hold more value than Ethereum-based projects,” Arcane wrote.

Other digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly in green Tuesday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): 

• xrp (XRP) + 32.04%
• stellar (XLM) + 16.7%
• eos (EOS) + 13.97%
• ethereum classic (ETC) + 10.93%
• cosmos (ATOM) + 10.56%

Notable losers:

• omg network (OMG) - 2.53%

Other markets

Equities:

• Asia’s Nikkei 225 closed in the green 0.72%.
• The FTSE 100 in Europe was up little by 0.020%.
• The S&P 500 in the United States closed in the green 0.33%.

Commodities:

• Crude oil (WTI): +1.24% to $60.44/barrel.
• Gold: +0.75% to $1745.35/ounce.

Treasurys:

• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Tuesday dipping to 1.622%.