Crypto news: Bitcoin is looking on indices sentiment

Bitcoin soared near $19,700 after markets reacted positively to The Wall Street Journal's reports of a lower rate hike at the Fed's December meeting. Moments later, Mary Daly of the San Francisco Federal Reserve stressed that bankers would consider lower i.e. 25 and 50 bp hikes at future meetings (after the November one). The initial pivot helped the indices, and helped cryptocurrencies as well. These, however, retreated from local highs:

• Bitcoin costs $19,350, Ethereum holds at $1,340. In the wake of the largest cryptocurrencies, smaller altcoins like Chainlink, Polkadot and the recently heavily oversold Cardano also gained. However, a further rally is still not a foregone conclusion, and the upcoming Fed decision on November 2 could increase volatility;
• The big topic of the crypto world has become the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), a US bill that defines how the CFTC (Commodities Futures Trading Commission) will regulate the entire cryptocurrency sector. The bill was confirmed by Senators Debbie Stanebow (Democrats) and John Boozman (Republicans) back in August. It has gained support from, among others, Coinbase and cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which is backed by Sam Bankman-Fried. Some in the market criticized the bill for supporting the centralization of the cryptocurrency world. However, Bankman-Fried stressed that the bill will ensure the protection of centralized exchange customers without 'threatening the existence of software, blockchain, validators, DeFi.'
• One of the biggest opponents of 'DeFi freedom,' SEC chief Gary Gensler drew criticism from Republicans after it emerged that only 7% of Securities and Exchange Commission employees show up for work, in a building funded by hundreds of millions of dollars from the state budget;
• The Fidelity fund, which manages nearly $4 trillion in assets, indicated in an interview with Bloomberg that it will increase the number of full-time positions in its Digital Assets division by 25%, adding 100 new prcciaries. The fund's 'cryptocurrency' division will have a target of 500 employees by Q1 2023, with offices in the US, UK and Ireland. At the same time, crypto companies like Coinbase, Geminic, Crypto.com and BlockFi have been laying off employees, reducing positions by 20 to 10%. This makes it likely that laid-off 'talent' will migrate to traditional funds like Fidelity;
• The fund intends to offer end-to-end digital asset services due to growing investor interest. A Fidelity spokesperson indicated, among other things, that the fund's target offering will include Ethereum in addition to Bitcoin. Investment and custody services for institutions will open on October 28 this year, and the company also has nearly 34 million retail customers to whom it can offer exposure to cryptocurrencies. To date, the fund has already launched 401(k) retirement savings account holders to invest in Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrencies are still struggling with internal problems. A Freeway platform that enables staking (earning revenue from providing liquidity to the blockchain by purchasing cryptocurrencies) to more than 4,300 customers, Freeway has announced the suspension of withdrawals citing high volatility. The platform promised customers 43% returns, Freeway's cryptocurrency price plunged 80%.

Distribution of cryptocurrency ATM machines by continents and countries. The U.S. still leads with nearly 87.4% market share. Source: Cointelegraph, CoinATMRadar

The growth of installed ATMs in Spain accelerated in 2020. The country has overtaken El Salvador in this regard and has become the third largest ATM hub in the world (215 bit ATMs installed). This gives it nearly 14.65% of the European market. Poland also ranks high with 142 bitomats. The target number of ATMs in Spain is expected to reach 300 by the end of this year. Source: Cointelegraph, CoinATMRadarBitcoin, D1 interval. The major cryptocurrency is trying to come out on top of a descending triangle formation, which may herald a rebound.The main support is still the SMA50 average, which marks resistance at $19500. Important for the 'king of cryptocurrencies' may be the opening of indices on Wall Street. A potentially better opening could herald an attack in the vicinity of $20,000, while a return of weakness on the indices could weigh on Bitcoin and lead the bulls to capitulate. RSI is at neutral levels. Source: xStation5