Decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens yearn.finance and eos climbed by over a third in spot price Tuesday. Ether and bitcoin were in slightly higher.
- Yearn.finance (YFI) trading around $78,849 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 48% over the previous 24 hours.
- Eos (EOS) trading around $12.82 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 36.6% over the previous 24 hours.
- Ether (ETH) trading around $4,068 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 0.66% over the previous 24 hours.
- Ether’s 24-hour range: $3,810-$4,074 (CoinDesk 20)
- Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $56,724 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 1.3% over the previous 24 hours.
- Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $54,657-$56,855 (CoinDesk 20)
Yearn.finance, eos jump big
The biggest CoinDesk 20 gainers Tuesday were yearn.finance (YFI), up 48%, and eos (EOS), jumping 36.6% as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of crypto market maker GSR, told CoinDesk the jump in YFI, which is a lending and yield service where users can park crypto to make gains, comes from its ease of use.
“It’s been the Tesla of self-driving investment management,” Rosenblum said. He also compared yearn.finance’s founder, Andre Cronje, to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. However, Rosenblum had a caveat: "Crypto moves a lot faster than autos, and others are hot on the trail.”
As for eos, Rosenblum pointed to eos creator Block.One’s $10 billion funding to build a new exchange infrastructure subsidiary, called Bullish Global. Eos is a developer platform for DeFi, a rival to Ethereum.
Peter Chan, lead trader at OneBit Quant, told CoinDesk he’s concerned about DeFi's continued success on Ethereum, which may be why alternative platforms like Eos are doing so well in digital-asset markets. Growth of the sector seems to still be adding to congestion on the Ethereum network, particularly when exchanging tokens on the decentralized exchange Uniswap.
“It’s been quite tough lately dealing with the insane gas prices,” Chan said. “Trading on Uniswap costs more than $200 per transaction now. Crazy.”
According to ETH Gas Station, Uniswap is one of the top generators of fees on Ethereum: Users have spent $2 million in the past 30 days paying for transactions to be processed on the exchange.
Ether volumes a bit higher than BTC, again
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was trading around $4,068 as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET), up 0.66% over the prior 24 hours. The asset is above the 10-hour moving average and the 50-day, a bullish signal for market technicians.
“Ether has become a household name after having more than doubled since its breakout to new all-time highs in early April,” noted Katie Stockton, a technical analyst for consulting firm Fairlead Strategies. “The rally remains supported by positive short-, intermediate- and long-term momentum.”
Ether’s exchange volume, as tracked by CoinDesk Research, was holding its ground. In fact, ether volume for Monday was at $80 billion, while bitcoin was a bit below that, at $78 billion.
The last time ether volume surpassed BTC was a week ago, on May 4. Stockton also noted how far ether has come since the start of April, and said its lofty price could be due for a downturn.
“We will be sensitive to any overbought downturns, noting that April’s breakout point is 50% below current levels,” she added. According to CoinDesk 20 data, ether’s price closed at $1,968 on April 1.
“For the next week it will be critical to see if ETH consolidates around the $4,000 mark,” said John Willock, CEO of crypto custody provider Tritum. “A maturation and solidification of ETH as a reliable underlying network for DeFi to build on top of builds a very strong picture for ETH to push past $5,000 before the end of the month, if not the end of the week.”
Bitcoin in a $6,000 range the past two weeks
The price of bitcoin was up Tuesday at 1.3% as of press time. The largest cryptocurrency was above the 10-hour moving average but below the 50-day, a sideways signal for market technicians. A bitcoin fall during a quick selling period late Monday after the U.S. markets closed seems to have reversed Tuesday.
“Short-term overbought conditions are now a hindrance,” noted Fairlead’s Stockton. “The period of backing and filling that ensued in February has created a trading range on bitcoin’s chart within the context of its long-term uptrend.”
Over the past two weeks, bitcoin has stayed within a $6,000 variance range quite consistently, between $53,000-$59,000, according to CoinDesk 20 historical data.
While some may argue these tight price ranges give bitcoin increased “store of value” properties, the reality is that since April 16 bitcoin’s 30-day volatility has been rising. As of Monday’s closing data, bitcoin is at over 72% in 30-day volatility, its highest level since March 27.
Analysts are also keeping an eye on bitcoin’s dominance for a possible move upward. Dominance is still trending down 2% Tuesday, as of press time, and is below 45%, according to chart software TradingView.
“In general, I think BTC dominance has room to go up a bit as a correction against the current [altcoin] boom,” said Andrew Tu, an executive from quant trading firm Efficient Frontier. “But that would be short term and medium term. Alts should outperform ETH and BTC due to higher beta.”
Other markets
Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are all higher on Tuesday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
- tezos (XTZ) + 11%
- bitcoin cash (BCH) + 9.7%
- algorand (ALGO) + 7%
Equities:
- In Japan the Nikkei 225 index ended the day down over 3% as tech stocks tumbled and some domestic cyclicals fell on increasing coronavirus concerns.
- Europe’s FTSE 100 closed down 2.5% as inflation worries and a dip in the travel sector led the index lower Tuesday.
- In the United States, the S&P 500 fell 0.90% as investors sold because of concerns of inflation and overvalued stocks.
Commodities:
- Oil was up 0.80%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $65.41.
- Gold was in the green 0.10% and at $1,837 as of press time.
- Silver is gaining, up 1.2% and changing hands at $27.64.
Treasurys:
- The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Tuesday to 1.618, in the green 1%.