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Price Point

Bitcoin (BTC) was up in early trading to $10,500, rebounding after Thursdays 11% tumble, the biggest single-day declinesince March.

The sell-off,which took prices as low asabout $10,000, coincided with a rout in U.S. stocks, rekindlinglong-simmering discussionsover whether the largest cryptocurrency was a safe haven like gold or merely another risky asset. Prices for ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, slid 13%, potentially a sign of anunwind of the recent fervor in decentralized finance, or DeFi. U.S. 10-year Treasury yields fell and the dollar gained in foreign-exchange markets, indicating a flight to safety by traditional investors.

Joe DiPasquale, CEO of the cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund BitBull Capital,told First Mover in an email that $10,000 still stands as a strong support and has absorbed selling pressure fairly well in the last two instances.John Kramer, a trader at crypto over-the-counter firm GSR, told CoinDesks Daniel Cawrey that many investors will see this as an opportunity tobuy the dip.

Market Moves

Afteryears of debatingwhether tether (USDT) is fully backed 1-for-1 with U.S. dollars, thestablecoins critics and defenders alike can now put their money where their mouths are.

Opium, a derivatives exchange, has introduced credit default swaps (CDS) for USDT. The product, launched Thursday, insures the buyer in the event of default by Tether, the issuer of the worlds largest stablecoin andfifth-largest cryptocurrency overall.

As Opiums blog points out, USDT is the lifeblood of theborderless cryptocurrency marketplace. The oldest stablecoin, USDT remains the largest such cryptocurrency by market cap and a top-five coin overall with$13.8 billionin issuance.Traders often use it to move money in and out of exchanges quickly to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities.

You can use it to protect yourself against (or speculate on) a systemic failure of the most widely used stablecoin in crypto, Opium said of the new CDS contract, in a blog post to be published Thursday.

There are nagging questions about the issuers creditworthiness. The firm behind USDT isunder investigationby the New York Attorney Generals office for alleged misappropriation of funds, andTetherrevealedin April 2019 that only 74% of USDT was backed by cash and cash equivalents.

Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at Tether, said through a spokesman: Tether is solvent. Therefore, this solution is not really interesting to us or our community.

The solution might be interesting to traders who just want a little extra assurance.

Bitcoin Watch

Bitcoins options market has flipped bearish with the cryptocurrency registering its first double-digit decline in six months on Wednesday. Prices fell to a low of $10,006 before recovering to $10,500.

Token Watch

Ether (ETH):Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, released an improvement proposal to address soaring transaction fee ratesas network congestion rises.

Bitcoin (BTC):Supercycle thesis from Stack Funds predictsbreach of $14K in next 100 days.

Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC):Stablecoins are theclosest thing to digital cash that exists today, Castle Islands Nik Carter writes for CoinDesk.

Chainlink (LINK), Tezos (XTZ):BitMEX plans futures on LINK and XTZ, thefirst new coins to appear on the exchange in over two years.

Gnosis (GNO):Investment firm Arca calls for tender offer of prediction markets tokens asmarket value trades at 0.3% of projects treasury balance, the Block reported.

CoinDesk Researchs latest Monthly Review features 15 charts that highlight bitcoins performance relative to macro assets, its relationship to the dollar and other fiat currencies, and Ethereums growing congestion problem. Download the report.

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First Mover: Buying Bitcoin's Dip, Betting Against Tether and Weighing the Jobs Report - CoinDesk - CoinDesk