Standard Chartered Plc will establish a trading desk for Bitcoin and Ether, becoming one of the first international banks to provide spot cryptocurrency trading. According to Bloomberg, the new cryptocurrency desk is about to launch and will be a part of the bank’s FX trading arm. A source said it would be run out of London.
Although tight rules have prevented banks like Goldman Sachs from dealing directly with the underlying digital assets, they have been trading bitcoin derivatives for years. Banks would find it challenging to turn a profit if they were to apply a 1,250% risk weighting to any unhedged cryptocurrency exposure, as suggested by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
Will BTC And ETH Price Take This Cue To Turn Bullish?
Crypto markets are been under pressure recently. With a hawkish Fed signaling only one rate cut this year and a lack of better clues for a bull run, most cryptocurrencies have seen the past one week of trading in the red. The only good that the market saw a clean shit in the case of Ethereum ETF.
Bitcoin, the OG-crypto currency, is down 1.8% this week while Ethereum has been upbeat by 3.8%, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
However, today’s news again signifies a mainstream acceptance of digital assets, just like the previous case of Bitcoin ETFs. The news will have a positive impact on investor sentiments, which could in turn see better trading prospects in the coming days.
Bitcoin saw a resistance level of $67,147, which, however, was broken this Monday. The biggest cryptocurrency is presently trading inside a declining channel. The 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level, which was drawn from a swing low of $56,523 on May 1 to a swing high of $71,994 on May 21, could provide support for Bitcoin if it keeps falling.
If the $62,451 support level is maintained and Bitcoin breaks above the declining channel, it may rise 7.5% to $67,147, the previous resistance level.
With sellers adamant about bringing the price down, the price of Ethereum is trading around $3,539.93 with a bearish bias. Even when the daily trading volume increases by 12%, a bearish technical chart pattern suggests further downside, intensifying the sell-side pressure.
The price of ETH increased after hitting a low of $3,380 on June 11 as investors purchased the drop and the whole cryptocurrency market rebounded. On the daily chart, a bear flag is visible despite the recovery, suggesting that the downturn may continue.
