Bitcoin is opening the Tuesday trading day in Asia at $30,366, maintaining a strong presence above $30K. While the trading volume and market movements have been fairly flat over the last few days, as the market continues its struggle with liquidity, Bitcoin has recently passed a symbolic milestone. According to data from Glassnode, the number of wallets holding at least one Bitcoin has reached an all-time high of 1,008,737 million, suggesting increased decentralization of the network.
Binance.US, the fiat pipeline for U.S. nationals wanting to use Binance, is having trouble fulfilling its role as its fiat pipelines are suspended. With no fiat liquidity, this has put the exchange in a weird place. Bitcoin is trading at a discount of 9%, as is Tether (USDT); the world’s biggest dollar-pegged stablecoin is trading at a nearly 9-cent discount from other exchanges.
Adrian Wang, founder and CEO at digital assets wealth management firm Metalpha, points to the looming withdrawal deadline of July 20 as a reason for the depegging. “As the days approach this deadline, lesser liquidity and lesser banks to exchange fiat means that we may see this de-peg continue,” he told journalists.
Nick Ruck, COO of DeFi protocol ContentFi Labs, said to CoinDesk in a note that “I think there might be some arbitrage opportunities for institutions or market makers, but retail traders wouldn’t likely have the risk tolerance or understanding.” Tony Ling, co-founder of data portal NFTGo, and a partner at Bizantine Capital, added that “Compared with the total circulation of USDT, the selling volume is not enough to affect the overall market price in the end.”
Bitcoin’s next big moves will likely come later this week as jobless claims and CPI data are released, both of which will indicate how successful the Fed’s moves at taming inflation are – data that traders zoom in on when making their next moves.