As gold struggles and US senators fight for fair crypto-tax regulation, Bitcoin has been attempting to break through a heavy amount of resistance today around US $46K.
At the time of writing this sentence, Bitcoin (BTC) is having another crack at the level, moving up about $700 to US $46,128. It’s currently up 4.29% since yesterday. Hang on… we’re getting fresh information… it just fell back to $45.7K to screw with this paragraph and possibly the narrative of the whole piece. Must. Type. Faster.
No stick needed to poke Bitcoin into action today, then – it’s doing plenty. Whether it can crack $46K again and stay up there is another matter.
Some popular technical analysts, such as Americans Crypto Jebb and sidekicks, are hoping to see some sideways, “bull pennant” action before further upward movements. Dutch trader and analyst Michaël van de Poppe is looking for Bitcoin to maintain a US $44.8K to $45K level of support.
Ethereum (ETC), meanwhile is fluctuating less dramatically than the OG orange coin, up 2.83% in the past 24 hours, having pulled back up above US$3K again and changing hands for US $3,130.
As the Wellington-based influencer Lark Davis has been pointing out, it’s perhaps a little surprising to see how bullish the overall market is at present, considering the rumblings happening in the US Senate this week.
This is a factor (see below) that still has the potential to cause plenty more FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) if crypto doesn’t get the outcome it’s hoping for.
US infrastructure bill: a crucial snorefest for crypto
With its images of stoned cartoon cats, pixelated punks and nondescript grey rocks fetching thousands, even millions, of dollars, it’s hard to beat crypto for sheer levels of batsh*t craziness. But American politics kinda comes close. Well, sorta.
The US $1 trillion, 2,702-page, bipartisan infrastructure bill that the US Senate was trying to pass all weekend has been in stall mode for most of Monday, held up by the amendments to do with cryptocurrency-tax reporting. This is an issue that has potential to stifle the American crypto industry, or it could end up being a nuthin’burger. You can read all about it here… and here.
Here’s where things stand in the Senate now, according to the Twitter posts from various senators involved and notable crypto lawyers at the Washington DC frontline, such as Jake Chervinsky…
• The US Senate voted to advance the infrastructure bill without amending a provision that properly clarifies the crypto-tax reporting stipulations. This is bad.
• But… there is still a slim chance of the amendment being added before the bill is pushed to the House of Representatives. Unanimous Senate consent is needed for this.
• If just one senator decides against the amendment and doesn’t change his or her mind before it’s all wrapped up tomorrow, then the amendment won’t be added.
• The amendment negotiations had made good progress, according to Senators Cynthia Lummis and Pat Toomey. So at least more of the Senate is now on the same page.
• There is still a chance that a well-reasoned amendment could be added at the next hurdle, which is the House of Representatives, before the bill can be given the Biden green light.
• Even if that fails, the law apparently wouldn’t likely come into effect until 2023. So… short-term headwinds, with a longer-term sunnier outlook? It’s still possible.
Breaking Senate news
Since this article first went to press, the 87-year-old Republican Senator Richard Shelby has now thrown a giant spanner in the works and hasn’t given the pro-crypto amendment the unanimous support it needed.
The senator reportedly had his own amendment to the infrastructure bill rejected, which was based around adding US $50 billion worth of extra military funding. He, in turn, has rejected all other amendments to the bill. The words dog and manger spring to mind.
There’s time for him to change his mind but it doesn’t seem likely. Maybe American politics is crazier than crypto after all.
Mooners and shakers
Sitting a bit closer to double the cost of the US infrastructure bill, but about $24 trillion below the level of the US national debt, the entire crypto market is worth US $1.91 trillion at press time, up 4.13% since this time yesterday.
There’s plenty of green to be seen up and down the charts, but some notable double-digit heroes today include: Orion Protocol (ORN), an aggregated gateway for both DeFi and centralised exchanges, which is up 25.4%.
Orion Protocol has formed a new liquidity-boosting partnership with Coti (COTI), a decentralised payments rail that is also partnered with Cardano.
Lesser-known smart-contract solution Cartesi (CTSI) is up 46.6% – perhaps on the back of YouTuber influencer BitBoy’s latest video about the project.
The influencer effect tends to become more significant on individual crypto projects when the overall market sentiment is turning this direction…