Sunny trading conditions lie ahead for the global crypto market in the next 24 hours, signaling a bullish mood among investors. Binance Coin and Chainlink are exceptions, facing cloudy bearish trading conditions, ATTMO shows. 

The sun will continue to shine over the crypto universe over a one-week horizon, indicating additional upside potential. Clouds may undermine the performance of Ripple’s XRP, Polkadot and Dogecoin over this longer time horizon, signaling a downward trend.

Cryptos extend gains, with Bitcoin hitting another 18-month high

The cryptocurrency trend was clearly positive over the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin up another 4.1 percent at 36,679 US dollars over the past 24 hours. The world’s largest crypto currency has risen a whopping 122 percent since the beginning of the year, outperforming other asset classes such as stocks and commodities. 

The ongoing bull cycle was at first driven by expectations that the world’s central banks won’t continue to raise their rates now that inflation seems to be more or less under control. Then, expectations that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon approve the dozen spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) applications on its table took over as the main driver. 

“We still believe 90% chance by Jan 10 for spot #Bitcoin ETF approvals. But if it comes earlier, we are entering a window where a wave of approval orders for all the current applicants *COULD* occur,” said Bloomberg’s ETF analyst James Seyffart. 

Bitcoin’s rally toward the 37,000-dollar threshold has triggered more than 50 million dollars’ worth of short positions to be liquidated during Thursday’s first hours and the trading day is far from over, data from Coinglass shows. Furthermore, inflows into crypto exchanges soar, reaching the highest levels so far this year, as investors turn to crypto assets, CryptoSlate reports. 

FTX transfers 4.8 million Solana tokens to crypto exchanges

The bankrupt FTX exchange has transferred 4.8 million Solana tokens to various crypto exchanges over the past couple of days, CryptoSlate reports. This is equivalent to 212 million dollars at today’s price. 

FTX held more than 1.1 billion dollars’ worth of Solana tokens on its balance sheet when it collapsed. Solana put on 1.2 percent over the past 24 hours to 44.28 dollars.

SEC Chair believes FTX could resurface

FTX could be revived under a new management, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler told CNBC. ”Do it within the law. Build the trust of investors in what you’re doing and ensure that you’re doing the proper disclosures,” Gensler said when commenting on reports that three bidders are interested in taking over the remains of FTX.

Ripple’s payment protocol now available in 70 markets & teams up with African fintech

The payment protocol network of Ripple Labs is now available in 70 payout markets, the company announced during its ongoing Swell conference in Dubai.

“The Ripple Payments network now provides nearly 100% global payout coverage through single onboarding,” Ripple said. The payment solution is available in the US, with more jurisdictions to come in 2024. 

Separately, Ripple announced it has teamed up with the African fintech Onafriq to facilitate digital asset cross border payments between Africa and the Gulf region, the UK and Australia. This means users will avoid lengthy transfer time, unreliability as well as high costs. Onafriq connects more than 500 mobile wallets in 40 African countries. 

Ripple’s crypto token XRP added 3.3 percent over the past 24 hours to 0.7 dollars. 

Leading German & UK banks launch digital custody platforms

DZ Bank, Germany’s second-largest commercial bank, has launched its own digital custody platform for its institutional clients. For the moment it can only store crypto securities such as crypto bonds, given it lacks the coveted German cryptocurrency custody license. 

“We assume that within the next ten years, a significant proportion of capital market business will be processed via distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based infrastructures. In the medium term, we see DLT as a complementary technology to the established infrastructures in existing capital market processes," the bank’s Head of Securities Services & Digital Custody Holger Meffert said. 

The bank also works on a solution that will allow private clients to directly invest in cryptocurrencies. 

In the UK, HSBC, made a similar announcement. Its digital assets custody platform for institutional clients will be launched in 2024 and will complement its existing platform that issues digital assets, HSBC Orion, the bank said. 

“I’m excited by the forthcoming launch of our new custody service for digital assets, which will complement HSBC Orion, our platform for issuing digital assets, as well as our recent launch of tokenised physical gold. These services underscore HSBC’s commitment to the overall development of digital asset markets,” said HSBC’s Global Head of Digital Assets Strategy, Markets and Securities Services, John O’Neill.

Metaco, a Swiss fintech recently acquired by Ripple, will provide the technology behind HSBC’s crypto solutions. 

Tether’s market cap reaches an all-time high, Circle plans IPO next year

The market cap of the world’s largest stablecoin Tether on Wednesday reached an all-time high at 86.3 billion US dollars, far ahead of USDC with a market cap of 24.3 billion dollars. 

Circle, the issuer of the stablecoin USDC, plans an initial public offering next year, Bloomberg reports citing anonymous sources. Goldman Sachs, General Catalyst and BlackRock are among the backers of this IPO, the news agency writes.