Market Wrap: Bitcoin Gains for Third Consecutive Day as Binance Launches Zero Trading Fees
By Jimmy He
The crypto exchange giant’s trading volume skyrocketed after its global new policy went live.
Bitcoin was on the rise in Friday trading, even cracking $22,000 at one point early in the day before dipping to its previous day’s perch closer to $21,500.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was trading at about $21,800, roughly flat although more on the green side over the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin has enjoyed a rare up week so far, jumping over 14% since Monday, swept up in the same optimism that has carried equities higher this week amid encouraging signs the U.S. Federal Reserve will be undeterred in its battle with inflation. Bitcoin has risen for three consecutive days.
Still, the rally has done little to impress a number of analysts, who have yet to see evidence of a longer-term price surge that would carry bitcoin further beyond the current upper threshold in the low $20,000 range of the past month.
“Since the beginning of the month, BTC/USD has gained more than 17%, which looks like an impressive result but only at first glance,” FxPro senior market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich wrote in an email about the bitcoin/U.S. dollar pair. “The thing is, bitcoin was driven as low as possible by the end of June, and the current remarkable rise is just a recovery to the levels of three weeks ago.”
Kutpsikevich said that BTC is still below its 200-week average and its Friday morning sell-off indicates there is still “a significant supply overhang from sellers.”
Bitcoin is over 50% down from early 2022 levels and over 68% from its all-time high in November 2021.
Analysts at crypto exchange Bitfinex said on Friday that the S&P 500’s rally this week and rebounding tech stocks increased risk appetite, supporting BTC’s price despite a wave of recent liquidations and solvency issues in the crypto space.
“It will be interesting to see if a buoyant cryptocurrency market over the past 24 hours carries forward into more buying this month,” Bitfinex wrote to CoinDesk.
Most altcoins were recently higher on Friday, with Internet Computer’s ICP leading the charts, up 7% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down 0.4% over the same period.
Latest prices
●Bitcoin (BTC): $21,800 +0.9%
●Ether (ETH): $1,238 +0.2%
●S&P 500 daily close: 3,899.38 −0.1%
●Gold: $1,741 per troy ounce +0.2%
●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 3.10% +0.09
Binance Volume Surges After Zero Trading Fee Policy Goes Live
Chart from Binance website shows skyrocketing bitcoin trading volume on the crypto exchange immediately after 0% commission trading went live earlier Friday. (Binance)
Trading volume spiked higher at Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, after its worldwide, zero trading fee policy went live on Friday morning. The zero trading fees for 13 crypto pairs began Friday at 14:00 UTC (10 a.m. ET). The move caused an explosion in trading at the exchange, with bitcoin/tether (USDT) spot volume surging to 320,000 coins within hours. The exchange hasn’t seen volume that high for even a full day since March 2020.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao attributed the surge to people trying to gain VIP tiers via high trading volumes. “We will exclude BTC trading from VIP calculations,” he tweeted. “Remove all incentives to wash trade. Announcement with details coming shortly.” A wash trade occurs when an investor buys and sells an asset for the purpose of artificially inflating the price.
Altcoin roundup
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AAVE proposes decentralized stablecoin: The U.S. dollar-pegged algorithmic stablecoin GHO will be minted by users and generate interest yields. It will be native to the Aave ecosystem and available on the Ethereum network initially but is expected to be offered on other Aave-supported blockchains based on future community votes.
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Ethereum name service spikes: Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain registrations spiked this week as a prominent address sold for hundreds of ether (ETH), sparking retail interest. ENS is a decentralized domain name protocol that runs atop the Ethereum network, providing users with easily readable names for their crypto wallets.
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XRP leads crypto recovery: XRP rose by more than 5% as major cryptocurrencies recovered over the past 24 hours and broader equity markets strengthened, even with two U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers calling for higher rate increases in the coming months.
Other markets
Biggest Gainers
| Asset | Ticker | Returns | DACS Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polygon | MATIC | +5.5% | Smart Contract Platform |
| Shiba Inu | SHIB | +3.9% | Currency |
| Solana | SOL | +1.0% | Smart Contract Platform |
Biggest Losers
| Asset | Ticker | Returns | DACS Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gala | GALA | −3.2% | Entertainment |
| Loopring | LRC | −3.2% | Smart Contract Platform |
| Cosmos | ATOM | −3.1% | Smart Contract Platform |
