A message from Agoric

Bitcoin struggled to stay above $65,000, after falling below $64,000 during Wednesday's American trading hours. After briefly retaking $65,000, BTC drifted toward the $64,500 mark, down around 1% on 24 hours ago. The CoinDesk 20 Index is about 2.4% lower. The halt in Wednesday's rally followed an equity market sell-off, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq index dropping 2.7% and the S&P 500 falling 1.3%. Joel Kruger, a market strategist at LMAX Group, said that the crypto rally might stall if the stock market sell-off turns into a correction, but over a longer time frame may provide a haven for investors fleeing stocks.

The chances of President Joe Biden dropping out of November's election hit 68% on crypto-based prediction market platform Polymarket. Biden announced he had been diagnosed with Covid-19 on Wednesday, having previously said he would re-evaluate whether to run "if [he] had some medical condition." The president has thus far given a poor showing during the campaign, most notably during a debate with Donald Trump, who is considered the significantly more pro-crypto candidate. Trump's perceived chances of victory have become a metric for the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin's rally to over $65,000 this week followed the assassination attempt on Trump, which was seen as a boost to his prospects of retaking the White House.

Several cryptocurrencies experienced significant losses after a malicious attack on Indian crypto exchange WazirX. The platform's native token WRX traded 15% lower at just over 14 cents while meme coin shiba inu (SHIB) slumped nearly 10%. The WazirX attacker walked away with more than $230 million in customer funds, including $100 million in SHIB and $52 million of ETH. Other tokens have been relatively stable in dollar terms while suffering significant losses in Indian rupee-denominated pairs. The bitcoin-rupee pair declined by 11% to 5.1 million rupees ($60,945), a massive discount to rival exchange CoinDCX. Meanwhile, the USDT-INR pair on WazirX has slipped by 8%.

Traders who are skeptical about bitcoin's recent price rebound may find comfort in the fact that a crypto address recognized for substantial trading profits has made a fresh BTC investment this week.

The address amassed 245 BTC worth nearly $16 million on Tuesday, taking the tally to 248 BTC, according to data source Arkham Intelligence and blockchain sleuth Lookonchain.

The transaction is noteworthy given the address' history of making profitable bets. In the past 12 months, it has made $30 million by bargain-hunting BTC at low prices and selling closer to trend tops.

During the five months to mid-December 2023, the address bought 718 BTC at an average price of $29,385 and liquidated at $41,953, pocketing a profit of $9 million, Lookonchain detailed on X. The address rode the uptrend from February to June, pocketing $21.2 million in profit.

Its latest investment suggests confidence in bitcoin's price prospects.

- Omkar Godbole